Sumit Das

I am an experienced technical artist/direct, software engineer, designer and coder, most notably in c, c++, and python. I have also spent years working in production and interacting with artists, technical directors, software developers and producers. This diverse experience gives me a more global view, and the ability to understand and work well with people of varied backgrounds.

My graduate work was done in the early days of VR. I did my doctoral research at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, where I worked on data visualization and helped to develop the first version of the CAVE, a projection-based VR system. My primary contribution to the CAVE was to design the sound system, including hardware specification, core software, and API.

Since then, I have worked in the animation and fx industry in various capacities - from software engineering and R&D, to character setup, to pipeline design, to fx artist. While my primary passion is developing large and long-term software systems, my experience with different user populations guides my design and coding decisions to be more user-centered and thus more appropriate for what the users need.

I am able to communicate well with both pure artists and hardcore technical workers, and as a result I have often found myself acting as a liaison between departments. Over the past few years, I have been focusing on efficiency problems brought on by poor or incomplete communication between departments or individuals with differing technical backgrounds or worldviews. This has resulted in increased efficiency and less user frustration.

There is nothing I like better than designing a system that "disappears" and simply allows the user to seamlessly get their work done. I truly enjoy the process of learning the viewpoint of a user base, and providing a system and UI that matches their thinking.