Lead – Ryan Lintott https://ryanlintott.com Mon, 07 Feb 2022 18:01:03 +0000 en-CA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7 https://i0.wp.com/ryanlintott.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-Folder_logo_512x512.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Lead – Ryan Lintott https://ryanlintott.com 32 32 113022379 Taikoo Place https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/taikoo-place/ Tue, 07 May 2019 19:12:21 +0000 https://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=698
  • Project Type: Interactive Show Suite
  • Role: Pitch Development / Technical Director
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Client: Swire Properties
  • Completed: 2016

Taikoo Place is hub of 9 interconnected office towers in Hong Kong. In 2014, Swire Properties hired MET Studio to design The Taikoo Brand Experience Centre, a high-end interactive show suite to present their new development. Squint/Opera was brought on board to create films, animations, and interactive content for the space including:

  • Swire Brand Film – A 4k CGI animation played on an 8-screen video wall.
  • Taikoo Place Interactive – A Unity 3d interactive presentation on the same 8-screen video wall
  • Taikoo Place Film – An 8k film on a curved 220-degree 48-screen video wall.
  • Immersive Office Scene – A CGI view from inside an empty floorplate presented on the same 48-screen video wall.
  • Virtual Window – A simulated augmented reality window.
  • Swire Portfolio Interactive – A portfolio presentation app running on an iPad controlling a presentation screen.
  • Mobile Presentation App – An app to control all of the content as well as the lighting, audio and doors in the show suite.

The result was a series of unique narrative or interactive experiences, telling a story of Taikoo Place and Swire Properties that’s being curated by a presenter on the fly.

As one of the company directors and CTO at Squint/Opera, I worked on the pitch and then as the technical director for this project. For the interactive elements I led the UX design and creative direction. I also helped manage the on-site installation.

External Links:

]]> 698 Messy Goes To Okido: Music Maker https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/messy-goes-to-okido-music-maker/ Wed, 21 Dec 2016 20:37:42 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=431
  • Project Type: Mobile Game
  • Role: Game Designer / Unity Developer
  • Company: Doodle Productions
  • Completed: 2016
“Zim, Zam, and Zoom have built a new machine to allow Messy and the gang to make their very own music. As a strange side effect, every time they change their tune, the world around them changes along with it. Somehow Messy’s Music Maker has the ability to remix OKIDO itself!” My goal when designing this game was to make an interactive experience that rewarded creative exploration. With 7 characters, 16 instruments and 3 different play styles for each that can be remixed in sequence there are over 11 billion combinations to discover! The backgrounds also change along with the music so many hidden objects and characters can be revealed with special combinations. The target audience is kids aged 3-8 but it really can be enjoyed by all ages. Instead of collecting stars or going for a high score, kids are motivated by curiosity. How does the music maker work? How can they find all the instruments and hidden combos? There are no tutorials or guides as there is no right or wrong way to play with the music maker. Each player will find their own interesting path. With only a small team, my role as game designer stretched to include several responsibilities. At times I would be managing production as well as working in Unity alongside the developers and 3D artists to build prototypes, layout the scenes, test and tweak animations, assemble and update assets and test gameplay. I also worked with the music and sound designers to select the sound effects, the 4 main songs and match the various loops to the instruments and visuals. The game is free on iTunes so if you have an iPad or iPhone please go check it out and let me know what you think!  

Related Projects:

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]]> 431 Squint Standards https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/squint-standards/ Wed, 10 Aug 2016 20:51:55 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=111
Squint Standards on Google Drive
  • Project Type: Productivity Systems
  • Role: Founder / Director / Pipeline Developer
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Year: 2007-2016

Squint Standards are an evolving ecosystem of tools and scripts that automated repetitive production processes and provided documentation for standard workflows. What began as a set of standards for the 3D team quickly grew into a structure everyone at the company used to manage tools and workflows. These standards were used to direct the collective knowledge of the company into a structure that allowed for quick access in the future. Squint Standards were never set in stone. Teams would meet regularly to discuss current workflows and update the standards whenever a better way was discovered. From 2007-2014 I was the only pipeline developer but by 2015 a team of 2 developers was formed to take on pipeline management.

Accessibility and deployment of standards was just as important as the standards themselves. Sharing the workflows in editable google docs ensured the latest version was always visible while scripts and plugins were updated automatically in the background to keep all systems in sync.

Related Projects:

]]> 111 Squint Teams https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/squint-teams/ Tue, 05 Jan 2016 15:07:49 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=144
  • Project Type: HR System
  • Role: Founder / Director
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Year: 2014-2016

I created Squint Teams as a structured way to improve “how we do what we do”.  It was also a way of facilitating communication by grouping around common interests and giving everyone a voice as the company grew from 50 to 120+ people. Any staff member could join any team (3D artists would sometimes join the comp and edit teams as well as the 3d team, producers joined the UX team and so on). Team leaders would run monthly meetings and everyone on the team would participate in adding and working on R&D tasks to improve how things were done. I designed the guidelines, documents and sheets that gave structure to the program and personally mentored the various team leads as they took on their new roles.

]]> 144 Messy Goes To Okido – Series 1 https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/messy-goes-to-okido/ Sun, 03 Jan 2016 14:52:21 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=55
Play Video
  • Project Type: Kids’ TV Animation
  • Role: Technical Supervisor / Pipeline Development / IT Support
  • Company: Doodle Productions
  • Completed: 2016

In 2010-11 I was the technical director and one of the 3D artists for the Okido trailer that brought Messy Monster to life in 3D. The BBC loved the pitch and a few years later Messy Goes to Okido, the first TV series taken on by the studio, went into full production. I played a key role in designing the production process and planning for the expansion that would more than double the size of the studio. Throughout the production I supported the technical director and managed the IT and pipeline teams that were shared between Squint/Opera and Doodle Productions. I also contributed to pipeline development and built IT systems to ensure various processes and shared resources ran efficiently for both teams.

Related Projects:

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]]> 55 Squint/Opera 3D Pipeline https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/squintopera-3d-pipeline/ Tue, 25 Aug 2015 21:36:13 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=262
  • Project Type: 3D Pipeline
  • Role: 3D Pipeline Developer
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Year: 2007-2015

Squint/Opera started in 2002 as an architectural film company focusing primarily on film with some 2D graphic animation. It wasn’t until 2005 that Squint began producing 3D animations in-house.

When I joined in 2007 the 3D team was still quite small (only 2-3 people) and everyone worked in their own way. I worked with the team to develop an efficient 3D pipeline, optimized for the production of architectural visualization animations. I started by defining Squint Standards for 3D files, render settings, modelling processes and folder structures. I then began to customize the 3DS Max interface adding many scripts from ScriptSpot and then starting to build my own. Within a year we had a basic but efficient 3D pipeline and were able to produce larger, more complex 3D animations in far less time.

The new standards also allowed 3D staff to switch jobs and exchange files without having to re-learn a new structure each time. Over the following years the pipeline continued to improve incrementally by adding more scripts, tweaking render settings. The 3D Team would meet on a monthly basis to discuss ways to improve the pipeline. This would later be the inspiration to launch Squint Teams to allow many teams across the company to work in a similar way to improve their processes.

The change I developed that had the most impact on pipeline speed was the new render submission process. By splitting animated and non-animated objects into their own render pass we were able to reduce our render settings and massively decrease render times. This was only possible after finding an efficient way to light and then re-combine the two passes to make them look seamless. Once established, automating this process with maxscript became the first feature I built for the new Render Bomb.

In 2014-2015 I worked with the Technical Director to adapt and improve the multi-pass process for use on Messy Goes To Okido

Custom Scripts:

  • Render Bomb (render submission)
  • Mesh Fixer (fixing imported models)
  • Material Cleaner (cleaning non-standard materials)
  • Pointcache People (building animation libraries)
  • Update Squint Standards (auto-updating scripts, plugins and UI)

Related Projects:

]]> 262 Al Maryah Island App https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/mubadala-al-maryah-island-interactive-2/ Sat, 10 Aug 2013 18:04:28 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=130
  • Project Type: App / Interactive Installation
  • Role: Director / Producer / Technical Director / UX
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Client: Mubadala
  • Year Completed: 2013

The app describes every aspect of Al Maryah Island, a massive new district in Abu Dhabi. A 3D map with hotspots allows users to explore many aspects of the project from transportation and phasing to the specific functions of various buildings. The interface was designed to be flexible with a moving menu bar so that users could increase the size of the map window or image window as desired. Flexible navigation allows users to click on specific hotspots on the map or simply swipe through images with the map adjusting accordingly. The app runs on an iPad sitting in front of a large screen that mirrors the content allowing for presentations to larger groups.

My role involved developing and pitching a new app and installation concept for Al Maryah Island’s marketing campaign.  I designed the app and worked closely with the client to ensure it presented the marketing content (mostly images, films and 3d models also created by Squint/Opera) effectively.

]]> 130 Testbed1 Website https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/testbed1-website/ Sat, 10 Aug 2013 21:48:14 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=123
  • Project Type: Website
  • Role: Director / Technical Direction / UX
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Client: The Doodle Bar
  • Year Completed: 2013

Testbed1 was a creative, experimental arts “space with no agenda” formerly located in an ex-dairy in Battersea and operated by The Doodle Bar. I developed a concept for a website that would give the user an intriguing preview of the space while at the same time serving information on upcoming events. Three.js and WebGL (relatively new technologies at the time) were used to add a 3-dimensional depth to the background so that the user could shift slightly within the space by moving their mouse or tilting their mobile device.

]]> 123 The Crystal Exhibition https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/the-crystal-exhibition/ Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:34:06 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=11
  • Project Type: Interactive Exhibits, Installations and Films
  • Role: Director / Technical Director
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Client: Event
  • Completed: 2012

I worked with Squint/Opera and Event to complete an ambitious and broad ranging set of interactive exhibits for the Siemens Crystal building in east London. The Crystal, at Royal Victoria Docks, was founded as an independent global hub for debate on crucial issues of sustainable urbanism, and it is home to the world’s largest exhibition dedicated to the future of cities.

In collaboration with Hirsch & Mann, Squint delivered a complex set of interactives, films and installations to communicate challenging issues, ranging from services infrastructure and density to fire safety, in a visually engaging way. The creative solutions included simulation games targeting very specific engineering challenges, films, and generative art installations interpreting city data.

Squint/Opera created a representation of the new building on a whole new 3d navigational platform. This new type of touch screen experience helps visitors understand what makes the Crystal so ambitiously – and successfully – sustainable through feature-led hotspots.

My role involved designing and pitching initial concepts as well as directing and developing the technical solutions required for the 3 interactives, 2 installations and 3 films.  Further details on my role in each of the projects can be found on the individual project pages below.

Related Projects:

External Links:

]]> 11 Prevent Fires https://ryanlintott.com/portfolio-item/crystal-exhibition-prevent-fires/ Wed, 05 Dec 2012 22:04:21 +0000 http://ryanlintott.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=104
  • Project Type: Educational Game
  • Role: Director / Technical Director / Game Design
  • Company: Squint/Opera
  • Client: Event
  • Completed: 2012

Subproject of: The Crystal Exhibition

Prevent Fires is a game designed to teach fire safety with respect to building design. A player is given a floor plan and a set of fire safety devices (such as smoke detectors, pull alarms, exit signs, etc.) to install throughout. Once the player decides where to install the safety devices, they trigger a fire simulation. If all of the devices were placed correctly, the building inhabitants escape unharmed. There are 3 levels to the game, each one dealing with different, increasingly sophisticated devices.

My role was to design and then direct this project from start to finish. After winning the pitch I worked closely with the client, 3d artists and the developers from Hirsch & Mann to produce the game. I also developed a render pipeline to efficiently produce the 3D-rendered sprites for the game.

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