Kevin Mack came down and gave us a talk

Kevin Mack is a pioneering Digital Artist and Academy Award winning
Visual Effects Supervisor. He received the Oscar for his work on the
film "What Dreams May Come". His other film credits include "Percy
Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief", "Speed Racer", "Ghost
Rider", "Big Fish", "Fight Club", "A Beautiful Mind", "Vanilla Sky",
"How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Apollo 13" and many more.

The son of Disney artists, Kevin was tutored in art by his parents and
their artist friends. At 16, he received a scholarship for drawing
classes at Art Center College of Design. At 18, he was the youngest
student to be accepted into the college program, where he studied Fine
Art, Illustration and Film.

After college, Mack worked in the film industry doing traditional glass
matte painting, scenic painting, sculpting, model making, animation,
storyboards and set design.

In the mid-eighties, Kevin began experimenting with computers to make
his art and music. Recognizing it's potential for film work, he helped
pioneer the use of computer graphics for visual effects. In 2007 he
received an honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Art Center for his
contributions to the field of motion picture visual effects.

Mack's work is the result of ongoing research in a wide range of fields
from the mathematics of complexity to neuroscience and human perception.
His work in Artificial Life and Rule Based Systems, used on "What
Dreams May Come" and "Fight Club", inspired the development of tissue
simulation software that is now being used for virtual stem cell
research. In 2006, Mack received the title of Honorary Neuroscientist,
from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, for his lectures there on
perception, visualization and creativity.

Mack's fine art, animation and music document his exploration of
infinity, complexity and the nature of reality and consciousness. His
work has been exhibited at the Laguna Beach Art Museum, Carnegie Melon
University, Siggraph, the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Visual
Amalgam, the Hive and various LA art shows.