Blake Senftner

Equally comfortable writing code for software projects, managing development teams, and producing for media teams, as well as operations management & financial analysis unrelated to software development. I have substantial cross-disciplinary skills, capable of bridging the gap between non-technical and technical individuals. I design and implement efficient, enterprise class systems, as well as clearly and succinctly communicate these systems for operations and non-technical use. I have superior optimization capabilities, both in software as well as with operations and personnel. I am known to bring calm to high-pressure environments.

• Systems design, development, deployment, and optimization
  • Founder, 2005-2011: Flixor Inc, a 3D visual effects technology company; formed corporation; recruited partners; secured partnerships; managed all staff, accounting and finances, wrote the approved and issued patent, authored majority of the company's automated 3D rendering pipeline. (show/hide details)
    • Recruited a founding team with Academy Award winning visual effects backgrounds, the #1 patent litigation firm in the world, and a diverse set of highly skilled business partners.
    • Designed and implemented completely automated visual effects pipeline capable of taking a single photo of a person and realistically replacing an actor in filmed media with the photo’s likeness; system spanned multiple operating systems, technologies, and disciplines including artificial intelligence, realistic 3D animation, and large scale web applications.
    • Designed and implemented a scaling Web Services infrastructure that drives the above automated visual effects pipeline, with a device and operating system independant reach, capable of delivering on-demand Personalized Media to a global consumer audience.
    • In addition to personally developing a significant portion of the software, also wrote the business plan, the financial projections, and economic forecasting models the business models are based. Also wrote the patent, as well as many initial drafts of our contracts and legal documents.
    • Awarded US Patent 7460731 “Personalizing A Video": processes and apparatus for creating libraries of digital actors, libraries of personalization-ready media, and the automated creation of advertising and popular media with consumers and product placements realistically inserted.
       
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  • Web Development, 2008-Present
    • I have advanced web development skills with the Drupal content management system, creating graphically pleasing and media rich web sites with custom modules, blogs, forums, galleries, videos, eCommerce, easy page editing, “Web 2.0” user interfaces, RSS, secure remote access web APIs and more... Leveraging my substantial non-web development skills, current projects are the design and implementation of enterprise class automated businesses, featuring integrated production and publishing of rich media web services in an SaaS model. (See Flixor, above.)
      

      http://www.cg-general-store.com	My own (beta) online store, aimed at 3D animation professionals and students, featuring an Auto 3D Head "instant" digital actor creation system, with both browser and REST API interfaces, a huge HDR Panorama library, and soon a marketplace where digital artists can sell their own creations.
      http://www.CyberExtruder.com	August of '11, I completed the 'next gen' Digital Forensics WebApp and WebAPI platform for CyberExtruder Inc, a leader in the Security / Biometrics industry; the project has a Drupal 6 front end, 7 custom Drupal modules, custom C++ data servers I wrote beneath and controlled by Drupal, embedded, mobile, browser/cloud-scaling and API deliverables. This is a security product, and as such has restricted access. I hope to post some interface shots soon to show some of my not-normally-seen-on-the-web Raphael.js based user interface for facial reconstruction editing.
      http://www.DigitalDollHouse.com	a rich media young girl's site (1 of 3 person team porting to Drupal 6)
      http://www.EcoProWater.com	a water purifier eCommerce site
      http://www.JewelOfTheAdriatic.com	a self-hosted-video documentary web site
      http://www.usmnebc.org	the U.S. - Montenegro Business Council
      http://montenegrin.usmnebc.org	Montenegrin language version of above site
      http://www.HomeMastersRE.com	a real estate agent
      http://www.lpcpaint.com/drupal_6_14	a paint & construction contracting company
      http://theBasics.popdigitaltech.com	a financial education company

  • Freelance MBA & Technology Consultant, 2005-Present: creating business plans, financial forecasts, and general consulting for businesses and start ups. (show/hide clients)
    • Fox Pictures Post Production: technology integration and development for media fingerprinting & metadata management for online monitoring of Fox features & TV show media
    • http://www.fox.com
      
    • Tait & Associates: successful project as Federal EPA lobbyist for environmental architecture firm; project included advanced statistical research and presentation of results to EPA authors of Federal regulations bill
      • http://www.tait.com
    • Gloria Martinez Law Immigration Group: compensation system analysis, made their web site
      • http://www.askourlawfirm.com
    • Breast Health & Wellness Center: technology analysis, automated breast health analysis software system design, financial and operations forecasts, general strategy analysis
      • http://www.breasthealthandwellness.com
    • Mist Net Inc: complete business plan, financial forecasts, web site, 3D product visualizations
      • http://www.mistnetinc.com
    • Innovmed Inc / Laprostop LLC: private placement offering prospectus, 3D product visualizations
      • http://innovamed-us.com/
    • Federal Tag Inc: RFID tracking system’s monitoring application software design specification
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  • Financial and Operations Analyst, 2002-2005, for Rhythm & Hues Studios
    Analysis of digital artist productivity and studio bidding process, created a statistical forecasting system in Excel allowing highly accurate forecasts of production activities, including identification of a production team’s learning curve; performed analysis for 6 major release feature films. Re-wrote the graphical interface to the studio's in-house matchmove software, significantly increasing matchmover productivity. Additional duties included production trouble shooting and issue resolution.
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  • Lead Software Engineer, 1994-1998, for Rhythm & Hues Studios
    Founding their Games Division, designed and co-authored entire production pipeline for advanced film-quality 3D graphics in early PlayStation environment, co-authored 3D game engine, scripting language, multiple character AIs and multiple game levels, and trained 17 person game scripting team. (show/hide details)
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  • Software Engineering and Developer Management
    • Behavior Animation A.I. Engineer, 2001-2002 at Pandemic Studios
      Authored player artificial intelligences and animation blending subsystem for a 3D volleyball game in C++ for the PlayStation2, plus additional related game features.
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    • Director of Research, 2000-2001, at Rotor Communications
      A pre-YouTube streaming video web site focused on interactive web video with integrated audience and host chat, whiteboard, and video capabiliteis; managed projects for the NHL, RealNetworks, and Apple QuickTime, authored key watermarking technology that added $25M to company valuation, as well as was writer and producer of 45 minute variety talk show.
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    • Technical Director, 1998-2000, at Adrenalin / Sennari Games
      Managed 20 person engineering and artist staff in PlayStation video game production of Tiger Woods Golf, NCAA Football, Brunswick Bowling 1 & 2, and Flintstones Bowling; evaluated new platforms, generally managed all staff, as well as wrote code for productions as active team member.
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    • Lead Software Engineer, 1994, at Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo
      Worked with the original PlayStation Operating System team creating and fine tuning the original PSX development environment; returned to US and trained US Sony teams in PSX development
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Contact Information

I can be contacted via email at bsenftner at earthlink dot net or bsenftner at flixor dot com.
You can also download a PDF of my resume here, containing complete contact information.


My about.me profile