Allons-y!

Thomas Vause

I've spent my life learning everything I could about art, design, music, electronics, coding, and interactive media. I've put these passions into action by building apps and games, designing complex software and UX, recording music albums, and building interactive art installations.

In doing so, I have incorporated all of my skills and synthesized them into a hybrid model for creativity.

Self Portrait - Illustration 8.5 x 11 in - BW Scratchboard

My Career so far

I have always been drawn to the synthesis of art and music, the audial and the visual. My life's journey is much like an abstract expressionist painting-a bit all over the place! I have experience in art, design, music, video production, sound engineering, coding, and electronics. I have taken my time to grow and maintain a high-quality standard and synthesis of these mediums into my work.

For the past few years I have worked as a Digital Designer and Developer at SciVista, helping them develop a collaborative Virtual Reality data visualization software platform, SummitVR.

Working with a team to build an advanced software platform and also bring that product to market has utilized a lot of my talents and skills simultaneously. I'm always ready to learn something new so that I can prove a valuable asset in many areas of design and development.

My background is as a humanities major (B.A. Florida State University) which is why I'm interested in so many things; and I see the interconnectedness between technology, visualizations, animations, and the intended audience's interactions.
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I like expressing myself through my skillset and applying my passion and talent into everything I do!

3D Modeling
UX Design
App Design
Web Design
Sound Design
Interactive Design
Animation
Coding
Branding
Unity Development
Video Production
Graphic Design

Motion & Graphics

3D Design, Animation, Video, Interactive Media, Illustrations & Paintings

My Thoughts

3D, Animation, and Video
I have always been pulled toward animation and filming as an art since I was 12; making my own music videos and experimenting with abstraction. I started first with painting in Highschool, but by my senior year I was making short videos for my Senior IB Art Thesis. In school I would always try to convert a class project into something I that I could film and design into my own story. I knew that I could always express more of life's intangible things through the visual medium of motion graphics.

Building games and working with 3D assets taught me how to work with motion and time to better understand the planning of time and the 3D objects movement over space, crafting better and better animations.

Most weekdays I'm making animations of fusion reactors with glowing plasma and videos of those reactors in Virtual Reality; which is a blast at my current job, SciVista. I've also expanded my animation skills to direct vector coding to move 3D objects in virtual spaces with user interaction.

Experimenting and creating content for professional and passion projects is who I am...I live and breathe an animated life!

Interactive Media
My current profession as a Digital Designer with SciVista allows me to directly work on software development that is all about interaction and collaboration between users. I always have a focus on the end user experience and how to innovate new ways of interacting in Virtual Reality.

Building apps with my other company Digital Ant Media allows for a different type of user interaction and technology to tell stories. I have incorporated Augmented Reality into the Talking Tintypes app to bring the stories of Native Americans to the general public in a way that is new and engaging. My other app, Fort Worth Lynching Tour, focuses on the racial injustices enacted on Mr. Fred Rouse in 1921 in Fort Worth Texas. It incorporates video of performance art in dance and painting as well as spoken word to bring about healing through the retelling of stories with interpretive Arts.

My partner, Alison Johnson, and I have also worked together to make an interactive art installation that incorporates hardware and software design and creation to take user input and have direct animated visual feedback through a projector.

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Experience

3D Modeling, Animation, and CAD
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SciVista
SciVista / Woodruff Scientific 2019 - Present: Building and sourcing 3D model assets that are static and animated, for use in Virtual Reality. Designing custom 3D environments for use in filming and gaming engines (Unity). Creating CAD diagrams from customer requests and inserting them into standard modeling programs for dramatic renders and animations that provide marketing and prototyping materials for the customer.

SFCC
Santa Fe Community College 2018 - 2021: Game Design and 3D Created Covid-19 character, animated 3D character for a PSA for Covid-19 Safety on film sets.

TCC
Tallahassee Community College 2016: Courses in 3D Character Design, Illustration, and Figure Drawing.
Video
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Video Production
SciVista 2019 - Present: Videos demonstrating the use SummitVR software platform as well as software training videos. Advertising videos for ad campaigns and other online outlets. Company videos and interviews.
Links:
Website: www.scivista.com
Product: www.summitvr.app (videos on home page and help)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC81HlLjozdpFax7BfgRmJ1A

Documentary
"40 Years Searching for Truth", Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, Florida State University 2018: Provided audio engineering and editing as well as general crew support (camera setup and scene setup).
More information see Audial page.

"At Your Doorstep", Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, Florida State University 2015: Provided video and sound editing support. The documentary has been used as a tool, before the United States Congress, to demonstrate the dangers of sex trafficking that occurs in the State of Florida and worldwide.
Interactive Media
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Software Design
Digital Ant Media 2018 - Present: Built Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality mobile applications for artists and performers. With the Talking Tintypes app we worked with Dine Photographer Will Wilson to transform and animate still photographs with Augmented Reality Image Tracked videos, to have the pictures come alive and tell their story. The app has been used in museums while Will Wilson has had shows as well as it is available through his website Talking Tintypes image gallery. With the Fort Worth Lynching Tour app we incorporated Mixed Reality to have users interact with location specific areas around Fort Worth Texas to learn and honor the memory of Mr. Fred Rouse. It was nominated for a Drama League Award. www.digitalantmedia.com

SciVista 2019 - Present: Designed audio managers for interactive components to provide audio feedback as well as visual feedback using 3D and 2D elements. Designed menu interfaces that work inside of virtual 3D environments. Expanded functionality of tools (widgets) to be more user friendly as well as creating and designing new tools for the SummitVR platform. www.scivista.com
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Currents New Media and Paseo Project
Built and designed interactive custom hardware interface that interacted with custom code and visual software to produce animations that were output over a projector. The project was called Visual Audio. Learn more by visiting the Projects page.

3D Renders and Animations

Below are some current renders I have been working on with SciVista and Woodruff Scientific (WSI) (all images copywrite and used by permission - Woodruff Scientific)
CLICK TO VIEW GALLERY

RENDERS

Software Used:
Blender, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop

PPAT Fusion Reactor: Set up scene, lighting, and materials as well as camera animation. Property of WSI
SummitVR™ Logo:  Designed and created full 3D model and animation and post editing in Premiere Pro.
PB11 Fusion Reaction:  Designed and created 3D  models and animation. Property of WSI
Spaceship Fusion Reactor: Set up entire environment and lighting. Painted the spaceship and created all animations. Property of WSI
Virtual Conference Mock-Up: Set up scene, lighting, materials, and modeled all assets except characters. Animated characters. Camera animations. Property of SciVista
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ANIMATIONS

Software Used:
Blender, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop

Video Production

Below are some vidoes I have been working on with SciVista and other past projects.
SciVista Presents: SummitVR™: Produced entire promotional video. Recorded animations in VR using SummitVR™. Edited the video, and recorded the voice-over track. Property of Scivista.
SciVista Services: Produced entire promotional video. Used motion tracking in laptop scene. Incorporated LIV software for unique camera/VR/3D Environment overlay, and camera operator for live action shots. Property of SciVista.
Florida's Constitution Revision Commission: Composed lyrics and music, performed, recorded, and produced music. Recorded all voice-overs. Made animation backdrops and converted characters from drawn to vector graphics that could be animated.

VIDEOS

Software Used:
Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, LIV, SummitVR™

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Interactive Media and Software

I have been working for the past several years on mobile apps, Virtual Reality software, games, and interactive art. Below are a few projects related to these topics:
Talking Tintypes Mobile Augmented Reality App (iOS & Android Stores - Free): Designed UI, graphic design, full app design, integrated AR functionality, created custom code, managed app store delivery. App built for  Photographer, Will Wilson. The app explores recording of Native American stories and exchanging the story for the tintype Wilson produces.
FWLT (Fort Worth Lynching Tour) Mobile Mixed Reality App (iOS & Android Stores - Free): Designed UI, created custom code for cinematic animations and transitions within the app. Designed, coded and implemented the MxR elements. Created audio controllers as well as other user interactive features. Managed app store delivery. App built for DNAWORKS. The app explores healing through the arts as it tells the story of Mr. Fred Rouse, and the lynching in Fort Worth Texas in 1921.

Mobile Apps

Software Used:
Unity, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Cubase

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SciVista's SummitVR™ platform, is a collaborative Virtual Reality data visualization platform. It allows users from across the world to join together in VR and look at complex data. I have been the lead modeler and graphic designer for this multi-year project. I have also been a lead marketer for the product creating numerous videos for promotional material, live demo recordings, use cases, as well as help and training videos. The platform can be obtained at SummitVR.app
More information at: SciVista.com

Software Design

Software & Languages Used:
Unity, Blender, Fusion360, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Cubase, Git, Jira, VS, VS Code, Angular, NodeJS, Electron, C#, HTML, CSS, SCSS, JavaScript, Python

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My partner, Alison Johnson, and I presented Visual Audio first at Currents New Media, an international new media festival presenting art that uses cutting edge and experimental technologies. To learn more about this project visit the Projects page.

Interactive Art Installation

Software & Languages Used:
Processing, Blender Java, C

Hardware:
Arduino, Custom Electronic Circuits w/ Buttons/Potentiometers/LEDs, Projectors, Laptops, Microphone, and Long Distance Serial Communication
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This is one of the earliest games I made where I created the music, sound effects, art, and coded it all by myself. It's rough around the edges but I'll always have an affinity for it. To play the game online visit the Save Tom page.

Digital Game

Software & Languages Used:
Unity, Photoshop, Illustrator, Cubase, Abelton Live, C#

Built for: WebGL, Android, iOS, PC, MAC
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Illustrations and Paintings

These are various works I have made over the years. I enjoy drawing and my favorite medium is scratchboard. For painting I prefer acrylic for its fast drying abilities. Both mediums have led me to new forms of expression that I am able to exhibit in my other creative endeavors. It all starts with the basics.
CLICK TO VIEW GALLERY

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mediums Used:
charcoal pencil
charcoal
ink
scratchboard

CLICK TO VIEW GALLERY

PAINTINGS

Mediums used:
Acrylic
Oil

Audial

Sound Design, Engineering, and Composition for Music and Documentaries
Sound Design and Engineering
I have worked on several documentaries from being the sound engineer recording live interviews to editing in post-production. My experience has covered professional commissions from state governments, universities, and businesses.
Music Creation and Composition
I have been playing music since the age of 10. I always dreamed to be able to record my inspiration and creation, and when I was younger music was the best avenue for marking that stream of creation. I have played in bands, toured, recorded albums for myself and others, created sound for games, and I have made music for commercials and PSA's.
Linger On
Personal Music Project
2012 - Present
Linger On is my own personal music project. Whether I'm just jamming with myself or creating backing music for a game I'm working on, this project is my getaway to fun!
Samples:
Linger On Music Samples
State of Florida - Constitution Revision Commission
Commissioned song for the State of Florida - PSA
2017
Original song commissioned by the State of Florida's Constitution Revision Commission. I also completed some animations and illustrations in the below video link.

For this song I was responsible for the performance and writing of the music, arrangement, and lyrics. I performed all of the recordings of the voice over actors as well as their singing parts. I was the editor as well.

YouTube Link:
https://youtu.be/3FiECLXj2zY
Samples:
Constitution Revision Commission Music Samples
CAHR (Center for the Advancement of Human Rights) Florida State University
Documentaries
2016 - 2018
“40 Years Searching For Truth” recounts the decades-long odyssey of Joyce Horman to identify those responsible for the 1973 murder of her husband Charles in Pinochet’s Chile. The documentary examines how her search has become a testimony to her own resolve and to the persistence of the modern human rights movement.

I was responsible for recording several of the interviews as well as assisting in the final editing and mastering of the audio sound and interview tracks.
The Popheads
Professional Band
2007 - 2015
The Popheads originally formed as Orpheus, a group of kids in high school pursuing dreams of being rock stars. While the rock star thing may not have entirely happened, years later we reformed for a Flaming Lips Cove band that played at Halloween in 2007. From there we were a group of best friends experimenting with creativity and making no compromises to our artistic vision as we built our own recording studios. We lived the lifestyle, touring and recording 3 albums as we worked hard to accomplish so much during our 8 year history (while keeping our day jobs).
Samples:
The Popheads Music Samples

Digital Ant Media & SciVista

AR and MxR App Design, 3D modeling, Animation, Video Production, and Software Development
Digital Ant Media
Digital Ant Media is a company owned by my partner of 8 years, Alison Johnson, and myself. Together we have forged partnerships with artists and social justice coalitions to promote awareness of these artists message of overcoming oppressions and changing the narrative.

Over the past 3 years we have developed two apps:
Talking Tintypes (Will Wilson) and Fort Worth Lynching Tour (DNAWORKS and nominated for a 2021 Drama League Award). Both apps explore the unknown, overlooked, or sometimes ignored racial injustice stories as told with the new engagement of technologies such as Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality to present a re-telling of these unknown stories.

We build mobile AR and MxR apps for Android and iOS and provide end to end support from design, development, graphic and 3D design, as well as Google Play and Apple Store management.

Digital Ant Media also has developed art installations for international festivals: Currents New Media and The Paseo Project where they have shown Visual Audio, an interactive visual experience that incorporates graphical feedback and visuals through a projector that is controlled with a microphone, Arduino, and laptop.

For contact, more information on Visual Audio, and to link to the Talking Tintypes and FWLT app downloads visit: www.digitalantmedia.com



NEXT SECTION
SciVista
I began working at SciVista in late 2019 where I started as a Digital Designer on the collaborative, data visualization Virtual Reality software platform, SummitVR. We do some pretty cool things over there, some I can't mention here, but it's worth checking out the website and if you have a VR rig, get the platform and try the free tier!

Every day I apply skills in art, design, coding, and producing printed and online marketing materials to assist in bringing the platform to market.

I design 3D assets and models and animate those models to demonstrate prototype scenes. I have designed 3D lobby environments, classroom environments, and tutorial environments. My talent lies in being able to adapt to whatever is needed.

Beyond typical 3D modeling I have also worked with CAD to build specific prototype models, which I then put into a workflow that brings them into a standard modeling program to animate and create beautiful productions for public consumption.

As the company is a startup I have to wear a lot of hats, one of which is creating storyboards and scripts for video production. I provide end to end production from filming to voice over recording to final video output for marketing and training videos for the platform.
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I have also been responsible for building the audio manager for the platform and responsible for a majority of that software coding. I also work to help debug and improve the tools and user experience  as we expect full release in 2022.

Visit SciVista's website to see where the future of data visualization is heading:
www.scivista.com
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Get the SummitVR application for free:
www.summitvr.app

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A few 3D renders and app screen shots

Currents New Media & The Paseo Project

Displaying the art installation: Visual Audio

Visual Audio: The Eyes are the Harmonies 2018

Visual Audio is an interactive audio-visual projection. Audience members create vector art using their voices. The visual output is manipulated through the amplitude and tone of the audio input in real time. Inspired by the Wassily Kandinsky quote, “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, and the soul is the piano with many strings.”

Visual Audio is intended to be therapeutic, shifting the traditional connection between the aural and the visual. Each interaction is unique. The visuals, controlled by their audio, take audience members on a unique and abstract visual journey of their voice.
Video capture of the Visual Audio project being triggered by music. Music written and recorded by Thomas Vause
Currents New Media
Alison Johnson and I first showed Visual Audio at Currents New Media in 2018. It stemmed from an underground DIY projection pop-up called, No Signal. In under a week I coded a basic version of what would later be Visual Audio, where users simply could speak, hum, clap, tap or do whatever they wanted into a microphone and see a visually animated output that was generative and randomized to provide an intimate and custom feel for the end user.

Two of Currents New Media founders were at the No Signal show and encouraged us to apply to the festival. Our concept was accepted and we expanded the visualization functionality to allow the user to not only change between 3 visual programs, but also affect visual amplitude and color on the screen based on sound level input and a physical control knob located on a custom built hardware interface I designed. Furthermore, I implemented a push button on the custom interface to allow for screen captures of the projected visual output, capturing individual moments in time when users were interacting with the piece and generating totally new visual animations. Currents was a total success and we were able to show our piece to thousands of visitors and the general public in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For more information on our involvement in Currents New Media, visit:
https://currentsnewmedia.org/artist/thomas-vause/
Projections at 'Currents New Media Festival' 2018. Video showing setup and user experience.
The Paseo Project
The Paseo Project works to transform art through community and community through art.

We expanded the code base of Visual Audio to have more user program selection, dialed in some more detail on the visualizations, and added some more complexity to the randomization so that you truly never saw the same visualization twice. But there was still a cohesion and thematic element to the piece as a whole.

This was the largest installation and visible to most of Taos' downtown! 

https://paseoproject.org/portfolio/alison-johnson-thomas-vause/

Paseo Project: Day 1 - Live Animation Screen Captures by Audience Participants (CLICK TO VIEW)

Paseo Project: Day 2 - Live Animation Screen Captures by Audience Participants (CLICK TO VIEW)

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All images and content © 2021 Thomas Vause