Jeremy Brown

The Elder Days
Jeremy Brown was born the 15th day of March, 1986 A.D. He was raised in Sudbury, Massachusetts. There he lived and played until his matriculation to Hampshire College in 2004. The Elder Days were spent catching frogs outside Peter Noyes Elementary and terrorizing the residents of Stockfarm Rd. every year on Halloween. In High School, Jeremy spent most of his time in the computer lab wasting time between classes. Some of his favorite activities included making bad Flash games for submission to New Grounds and playing Planetarion. Some speculate that had he spent less time on the computer and more time doing his school work, his college application process would have been much easier.

It was in the fourth and final year that Jeremy picked up the book _Ishmael_, by Daniel Quinn. After reading this book, Jeremy became infused with a desire to understand and love the world around him. It was during this time that Jeremy became a vegetarian, refusing to submit to the consumer culture that forces meat down the throats of the American people. However, during lunch one fateful June day, he succumbed to the desire to eat a cheeseburger, thus ending his venture into the world of political eating.

In high school Jeremy was also involved in several student groups, including but not limited to the Gay/Straight Alliance, the Lincoln-Sudbury Web Team and Taco Wagon, the L-S Ultimate Frisbee Team.

The New Age
In 2004, Jeremy packed up his belongings and made the epic journey across the Commonwealth to the Pioneer Valley. He settled in Dakin House at Hampshire College. Originally planning to pursue past interests in philosophy and history, he was once again captivated by the world computers. After taking Computer Animation I in the fall of his first semester, he became a student of Computer Graphics.

Upon returning for a second year at Hampshire, Jeremy became involved in the production of "The Incident at Tower 37". More commonly called "Uprising", Tower 37 is an undergraduate collaborative computer animated short film. Originally part of the class Computer Animation III, it quickly grew to a multi-semester production involving upwards of 30 talented individuals. Currently, the film is in its final stages of production.

In his final year of College, Jeremy is co-producing an animated mural for his Division III thesis project. Tentatively titled "Chimera", the mural is a multi-media hybrid of short film and video installation art. The mural will follow a slow paced central narrative with various secondary narratives taking place on screen at the same time.

Student Groups

 * Red Scare Ultimate, 2004-2008
 * Player and Webmaster
 * Student CS Member, 2006-2008
 * CCFRAP Student Member: January, 2008
 * GE House Staff Intern, 2006-2008
 * Budget Manager
 * Yurt Radio 2007-2008
 * Internet Stream Maintenance

Academic Projects

 * The Incident at Tower 37, 2005-2008
 * Technical Director/Generalist
 * HELGA, 2007-2008
 * Minor Contributor
 * Chimera, 2007-2008
 * Divison III Thesis

Overview
Uprising (a.k.a. The Incident at Tower 37) is a project that I got involved with in the fall of 2005. It's a computer animated film, originally intended to be around five and a half minutes long. The film was conceived as a project for Computer Animation III. Production was scheduled to be complete in a single semester, however we quickly realized that the scope of the film required much more time to complete. Currently, the film is over ten minutes long. For the most part, it is still an undergraduate production. There are, however, several critically important contributions from Hampshire alumnae.

Jeremy's Involvement
During the first semester, I started out modeling props. I created a big backpack of dynamite, and a detonator to go along with it. Next, I got into rigging the two of the characters. More specifically, it was my job to bind an already modeled character onto an existing animation rig, already in use. Mixed into all that, I did some character animation and compositing for the trailer we finished for the end of semester screening that fall.

In the following January Term, I started revising the rigging work I had done to improve the model's deformation. This revision process continued into the spring. I also layed out UVs for three of the characters in the film, and started learning how to develop shaders.

Over that summer, I stayed at Hampshire to work on the film. My tasks were mostly technical in nature. Primarily, I acquainted myself with our renderer, RenderMan. I also tried to think of and develop ways for people to work on the film more efficiently and to streamline our production pipeline. I also continued to work on shader development for a contaminated lake and a glass pitcher.