Kevin Bjorke
Encyclopedia
Kevin Allen Bjorke is an artist
, photographer, writer
, and media evangelist
for NVIDIA Corporation
, based in the Silicon Valley
. His work has ranged from print advertising to video games, major motion pictures to computer books and fiction. He has been a regular art lecturer at events such as Siggraph
since the mid-1980s.
, the University of Minnesota
, and AFI.
and The Last Flight of the Osiris. He was a technical director and lead layout artist for the films A Bug's Life
and Toy Story
, and built the 3D graphics studio and software for the film adaptation of Super Mario Brothers. He has worked extensively in television, is a member of ATAS and IATSE and has won a number of awards for his TV commercials and rock videos for artists such as Mick Jagger
. Awards have included film festivals "Best Animation" awards, Billboard
Awards, and multiple consecutive Clio Awards
. In the 1990s he worked at length in Paris
with Philippe Druillet
on a feature-animated film based on Lone Sloane
, which was shelved after budget difficulties for the sponsoring studio Acteurs Auteurs Associés/Soprofilms.
for Universal Studios Orlando
, test rides for Disneyland, and two stereo rides for Sanrio
in Chiba City
and Ōita
Japan
.
, Atari
, Square
, and Pixar
in a variety of lead roles. In the mid-1980s he also developed, with Timothy Leary
and several other artists including Keith Haring
, William S. Burroughs
, Mark Mothersbaugh
, and Helmut Newton
, a prototype "Mind Movie" based on the William Gibson
novel Neuromancer
, a project which was eventually scrapped and redirected by Atari
who felt that it was much too ambitious and the hardware requirements would make the available market of game-players purchasers far too small.
Bjorke created an early adjunct to the Palace
virtual worlds
system, and one of the earliest web cgi apps. The "BotBot" enabled Palace users to customize the automated backends of their avatars and at the height of Palace popularity often served thousands of users daily.
in Minneapolis. He has been a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, serving for a time on the SFWA's publisher-grievances committee. He was a contributor to The RenderMan Companion
and more recently served as a section editor and author for the GPU Gems series of graphics programming books. He has written for 3D Artist magazine, for Develop magazine in the UK, and CGWorld Japan.
His photography has recently illustrated magazine pages for Springer Verlag, advertising related to his own projects, and was included in a feature of the February 2006 B&W Magazine.
Bjorke writes, principally about photography, at PhotoRant.com, and maintains a web community focused on Photographic First Amendment
issues, PhotoPermit.Org. He continues to lecture on game design, art, and technology at events such as GDC
and worldwide for NVIDIA Corporation.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, photographer, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and media evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
for NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
, based in the Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. His work has ranged from print advertising to video games, major motion pictures to computer books and fiction. He has been a regular art lecturer at events such as Siggraph
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
since the mid-1980s.
Education
Bjorke graduated from California Institute of the Arts, splitting his program between the School of Film/Video (with emphasis on cinematography) and the School of Theatre (acting). He also spent time at UCLA, USCUniversity of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, and AFI.
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Film work
Bjorke supervised imaging and lighting for the films Final Fantasy: The Spirits WithinFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 Japanese-American computer animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing video games. It was the first photorealistic computer animated feature film and also holds the record for the most...
and The Last Flight of the Osiris. He was a technical director and lead layout artist for the films A Bug's Life
A Bug's Life
A Bug's Life is a 1998 American computer animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on November 25, 1998. A Bug's Life was the second Disney·Pixar feature film after Toy Story, and the third American computer-animated film after Toy...
and Toy Story
Toy Story
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...
, and built the 3D graphics studio and software for the film adaptation of Super Mario Brothers. He has worked extensively in television, is a member of ATAS and IATSE and has won a number of awards for his TV commercials and rock videos for artists such as Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
. Awards have included film festivals "Best Animation" awards, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Awards, and multiple consecutive Clio Awards
Clio Awards
The Clio Awards are annual awards bestowed to reward innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design and communication. The categories include work in nearly all types of media, and the judges are advertising professionals from around the world....
. In the 1990s he worked at length in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with Philippe Druillet
Philippe Druillet
Philippe Druillet is a French comics artist and creator, and an innovator in visual design.-Biography:Druillet was born in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France but spent his youth in Spain, returning to France in 1952 after the death of his father...
on a feature-animated film based on Lone Sloane
Lone Sloane
Lone Sloane is a science fiction comics character created in 1966 by the French cartoonist Philippe Druillet.-Publication history:Lone Sloane's first episode was that of Druillet's very debut, Mystère des Abîmes, published in 1966. The following stories were published on the French magazine Pilote...
, which was shelved after budget difficulties for the sponsoring studio Acteurs Auteurs Associés/Soprofilms.
Theme parks
Bjorke has contributed to several theme park attractions, creating "ride films" such as The Funtastic World of Hanna-BarberaThe Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera
The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera was a syndicated block of animated television programming and new original shows produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions.-Format:...
for Universal Studios Orlando
Universal Orlando Resort
Universal Orlando Resort is a theme park resort in Orlando, Florida. It is wholly owned by NBCUniversal and its affiliates. The resort consists of two theme parks , Universal CityWalk , and three Loews Hotels...
, test rides for Disneyland, and two stereo rides for Sanrio
Sanrio
is a Japanese company that designs, licenses and produces products focusing on the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts and accessories that are sold worldwide and at specialty brand retail stores in Japan...
in Chiba City
Chiba, Chiba
is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is located approximately 40 km east of the center of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. Chiba City became a government designated city in 1992. Its population as of 2008 is approximately 960,000....
and Ōita
Oita, Oita
is the capital city of Ōita Prefecture located on the island of Kyushu, Japan.- Demographics and geography :Ōita is the most populous city in Ōita Prefecture...
Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Games
In gaming, Bjorke has worked with SinclairSinclair Research Ltd
Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. Originally incorporated in 1973 as Ablesdeal Ltd., it remained dormant until 1976, and did not adopt the name Sinclair Research until 1981....
, Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
, Square
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
, and Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
in a variety of lead roles. In the mid-1980s he also developed, with Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
and several other artists including Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
, William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games....
, and Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."-Early life:Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara...
, a prototype "Mind Movie" based on the William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
novel Neuromancer
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...
, a project which was eventually scrapped and redirected by Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
who felt that it was much too ambitious and the hardware requirements would make the available market of game-players purchasers far too small.
Bjorke created an early adjunct to the Palace
The Palace (computer program)
The Palace is a software program used to access graphical chat room servers, called palaces, in which users may interact with one another using graphical avatars overlaid on a graphical backdrop...
virtual worlds
Virtual world
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...
system, and one of the earliest web cgi apps. The "BotBot" enabled Palace users to customize the automated backends of their avatars and at the height of Palace popularity often served thousands of users daily.
Writing and public speaking
As a journalist, Bjorke has contributed to Little Bit Magazine and produced segments for ABC Television NewsABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
in Minneapolis. He has been a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, serving for a time on the SFWA's publisher-grievances committee. He was a contributor to The RenderMan Companion
RenderMan Interface Specification
The RenderMan Interface Specification, or RISpec in short, is an open API developed by Pixar Animation Studios to describe three-dimensional scenes and turn them into digital photorealistic images...
and more recently served as a section editor and author for the GPU Gems series of graphics programming books. He has written for 3D Artist magazine, for Develop magazine in the UK, and CGWorld Japan.
His photography has recently illustrated magazine pages for Springer Verlag, advertising related to his own projects, and was included in a feature of the February 2006 B&W Magazine.
Bjorke writes, principally about photography, at PhotoRant.com, and maintains a web community focused on Photographic First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
issues, PhotoPermit.Org. He continues to lecture on game design, art, and technology at events such as GDC
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
and worldwide for NVIDIA Corporation.
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...