About the Authors

Rick Lapidus, Author

Rick started his art career with a BFA in Sculpture from Washington University. Having spent the last 25 years immersed in the 3d world using animation programs, his recent artwork is a synthesis between the sculpture and 3d visualization. Currently he is pursuing an MFA in Electronic Media at Governor State University.

Rick started his career in 3d animation back in the early 90’s with the first 3d studio program.

Currently working as an Associate Professor teaching 3d animation at Moraine Valley Community College. In addition to credit courses, Rick has been providing training to professionals in a wide variety of fields including Instructional Design, Broadcast, Interactive Media, Forensic Animation, Architectural Visualization, and Product Design.

His basic philosophy of teaching is to approach each lesson from a problem solving standpoint rather than merely clicking through a tutorial.

Chris Tedin, Co-contributor

Born in Sitka, Alaska, Chris Tedin started his career as a painter and sculptor. He has been working as an illustrator, graphic designer, and most recently as an art director in Chicago, Illinois. He has been teaching game design and animation for over 15 years. His students now work as animators and professional game designers at Blue Sky Studios, Digital Domain, Aardman/Sony, Microsoft, and as freelance independent artists. Many of his students are now college teachers themselves. He started in the early days with Strata StudioPro, then 3ds MAX version 1.0, Maya 2.0, Softimage 3.8, Houdini, before finally settling on Softimage XSI, beginning with version 4.0 Foundation. Chris still sculpts and paints and teaches part-time at Tribeca/Flashpoint Academy in Chicago.