A little bit about me
G'day, friends! If you're here, you probably want to know a couple of interesting "tid-bits" about this so-called "Mike Jutan" character. Well I don't plan to disappoint a visitor as loyal as you, so here we go. Let's see, what can I talk about. Well, I've just finished school. Pretty sweet, eh? I graduated in April 2007 with a B. Math (Computer Science Honours) Degree from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. (Thus the use of "eh" in the previous sentence.)

I have been very fortunate to be a part of Waterloo's Co-op program where every 4 months, I alternated between a school term and a work term (internship). I have worked at Alias (formerly Alias|Wavefront, now Autodesk) in Toronto, Canada as a developer for Maya, one of the world's leading 3D modeling, animation, rendering & dynamics software packages. More recently, I have been working at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California as a Maya programmer. At Pixar I designed and developed software to meet the needs of Pixar artists in their everyday workflow as part of the Production Engineering team. Following this position, I worked at Pixar as a Sets TD for Pixar's 2008 Feature Film. In that position as a Technical Director, I did some modeling of 3D set props for use on-screen in the film, along with a ton of UV Mapping (2D-to-3D image layout projections) for graphics application into the shaders for many of the Set props. Working at these amazing places is most certainly my childhood dream come true. :)

When I was 10 years old, I saw the T-1000 melt out of the checkerboard floor in ILM's visual effects masterpiece, Terminator 2. I couldn't believe that this was possible, and even more exciting was that this effects work was done using computers (which I already loooooved by this point in my life.) Around age 15, my parents took me to an IMAX Film about the history of Industrial Light + Magic, the revolutionary visual effects studio. My passion and excitement for Computers and Mathematics continued, along with an absolute fascination with Special Effects in movies. This made my early career choice an easy task and my path began with some early graphics interests and programming in high school. Following this, I attended the University of Waterloo and studied Computer Science, working at both Alias in Toronto and Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California.

At the time of writing this, I have graduated from Waterloo and I have just been traveling in Europe - backpacking for 2.5 months through Frace, Italy, Spain, Greece and the Greek Islands. It was SO amazing. Click on the "Blog" link above to see my travel journal. Now that I have finished my travels in Europe, I've moved to San Francisco to work at Industrial Light + Magic!! This is perhaps the most exciting thing in the known Universe, and I am so excited to work at the company that essentially invented modern digital cinema. AWESOME!!

The world has been very kind to me! I have met many amazingly talented people along the way, and each of these brilliant mentors have been so patient and helpful in my path towards achieving my dreams. To these kind people, and to my support team (my parents, my sister and my friends)... I say this with complete honesty... there is absolutely no way I could have done any of this without your support. Thank you!!

Film Credits

  • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009): ILM Research and Development (DreamWorks SKG/Paramount)
  • Wall-E (2008): Sets Department (Disney●Pixar)
  • Ratatouille (2007): Software Development - Production Engineering (Disney●Pixar)

Filmography Online

Mike Jutan quote on the Pixar Website
I have been quoted on the Pixar hiring website, describing my experiences at Pixar. Also, check out Teddy Newton's crazy charicature of me. Enjoy!

A couple little pretty pictures of yours truly
Love the random pics? Need some more for some reason?

Or, perhaps you're more interested in blackmailing me by threatening to send out crazy/terrible photos of me all over the internet? But like all good blackmailers, you first wanted to make sure that I hadn't already done this myself?

Either way, check out the Photography section. And yes, that is in fact me wearing a onesie and talking to John Lasseter. :)

 
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