There isn’t enough space here to tell my life’s story in pictures. Not that I feel an overwhelming urge to write up my life’s story anyway, so you will have to do with the few images you’ll see here. I’m an entrepreneur, born in The Netherlands, and who has been in business since 1989. That is in essence my whole life’s story. The end.
No, really, what about me!
OK, I guess this page does really require more than the short summary above. But I’m not about to turn this into one of those typical ‘myspace’ pages where every like and dislike and every possible character defect that you never wanted to know about is listed in the most ego-maniacle and detailed way.
I like cats, heavy cameras and big lenses, fancy glass office buildings and interesting architecture, even fancier home offices that outperform mid-sized divisions at NASA, offices that have a real bar instead of a mini-bar, I most prefer having a Sazerac at a color bar, fast corvettes preferably blue or black. But I have an absolute dislike that borders on hatred towards yellow corvettes. I love traveling -less so since all the neurotic fear mongering at airports- and taking two to three month vacations in a year.
I have a preference for Italian food and like to try out new restaurants, at least a dozen a month if I can help it and probably a few more when I’m off vacationing. I guess that part covers the personal details that aren’t important anyway and all of this could be summed up by a few images, which I guess I also did.
The origins
Born and raised in The Netherlands I found my way into the world of computer generated imagery (CGI) and software development. While this was mostly a result of natural progression it felt like the right thing to do so I decided to stick around in the industry. An industry that didn’t quite exist yet at the time (early to mid 80’s) but was an enormous amount of fun to help build up by putting in my effort for the greater acceptation of computer generated art and 3D computer animation.
In 1989 I founded a company called Animagic, a company that shortly thereafter doubled up in two common yet different directions. Animagic Development and Animagic Digital Post-Production. Since the early days the lack of software required us to write and build our own tools of the trade and while being involved in both the development and production activities I had a hard time making up my mind about which of the two I enjoyed doing the most. It took me the better part of 10 years to discover that and render a final conclusion; development and consulting others on theirs.
Divide and conquer
This didn’t last long because my time still got spent between both divisions and eventually the fast paced business was no longer something I felt like keeping up with. In 2000, I departed from Animagic Digital Post-Production and decided to “retire”… and to travel between Holland and San Francisco where I had been spending some time. I did manage to take things easy and slow, for oh, about 3 months, until events took place that magically drew me back into the business and development vortex until I decided to set out on a new journey and a new venture after the better part of a year. A chance to do all the fun and crazy stuff all over again but applying everything that I have learned in the previous 15 years in business and in the industry.
The more things change the more they stay the same
The computer graphics and animation software industry was in need of serious rejuvenation and a healthy dose of forceful guidance while it went through the rough waves of reinventing and repositioning, and along the way also reinventing itself. A perfect opportunity to do some good and have some fun. The other great thing about this line of work was that while you are at the helm of a company you get to influence and control a lot of ideas for new technology. After rebranding my ideas based on a new view, new vision, and a new direction in a familiar industry, I founded a new adventure called mantiCORE Labs. The exact details on its activities of that, at the time, newly formed group of talented people is not something I can get into because the work was so secret that I’d have to shoot you after I told you. All I will tell you is that the project had set forth the concept of “building bridges between human creativity and technology” and that a bridge goes both ways.
Good things come in pairs
Outside of my business and consistent drive to expand into new areas I do try and make as much time as possible available for my private life that I share with the lady pictured on the left, Sallie, my partner for the past 15 years, who introduced me to the San Francisco Bay Area, an area I really like for just too many reasons.
Snip, Snap, Flash and before you know it, you’re a pixel
When I’m not working I like to keep myself busy with a hobby that does not involve computers; photography. Well, OK, that’s a lie because I’ve seriously picked up photography again after shifting from film to digital. I love to take snapshots on vacation but also try and expand the boundaries of my own abilities and skills. Something that is easier when there are great subjects to take pictures of, a process that outside of the actual pressing of the buttons is a great deal of fun. Photography inspires people to look at the world from different angles and from different views, even though I do not think my cat really cared much about that during that one time she actually felt like posing for a cute-shot.
If I’m not out photographing, on vacation, at work, or having fun you can frequently -probably still too frequently- find me at in my home office where I usually hide out in the dark while my body receives its mandatory prescribed dosage of monitor and electric radiation. In the midst of the flashing led’s and lights of a collection of workstations, network switches, disk arrays, and gadgets I feel right at home… as long as the home office remains lit only by these lights and the various monitors. I am, after all, a creature of the night who prefers night over day and darkness over light.
The Ignyter
It is coming up on 2011 and that means I’ve been in business for some 20+ years which means it is time for yet another paradigm shift to adjust, adapt, and progress into another stage of exciting new ideas and technology. In 20+ years I’ve been involved in too many things to mention which included production of TV commercials and film, development of 3D animation software, interactive TV architecture (the kind of interactive electronic program guides, or EPG’s for short, that have long since become an accepted standard in many homes) as well as virtual reality (and judging by the looks of Second Life nothing much has changed in the past 10 years), virtual set software (XR, Cross Reality), and the occasional oddball project doing what was otherwise considered technically impossible to do. I’m also involved in the development of civil engineering software for 3am Solutions, the creators of a product called Dynamite VSP. Check out some of the amazing samples of high quality visualization!
Because a lot of my work in the past years has revolved around helping other people take their ideas into the area of becoming functional products on the commercial market it has gotten to be time to rebrand myself and focus more on those areas of my expertise.
Every great project starts with a small spark followed by a big bang and since I specialize in providing the path to such a big bang it might come as no surprise that Ignyter and Ignytion are my two latest endeavors. Sallie, who often gets paid for coming up with new brand names, came up with the name Ignyter because it fits closely with what I do in terms of igniting ideas and launching things towards a form of useful, but above all, usable technology.
Oh, yeah, if you feel the overwhelming need to contact me, you can try doing so.