Jeroen first saw Star Wars: Episode IV at the impressionable age of 12. It was his first step into a larger Universe. A subsequent visit to the science fiction section in the local book library set the young futurist on a life-long journey.
Through the SF masters, such as Arthur C. Clarke, Jeroen formed the belief that science-based drama would make compelling media. i.e. To transport the audience to fantastic worlds and situations; expanding the mind to what is possible, while not violating any natural laws.
In 1996 Jeroen relocated to San Francisco, with his wife Donna, to
pursue a career in visual effects at ILM. Over an 11 year span Jeroen
worked worked as technical director on feature films including Iron Man, Pirates of the Caribbean: At
World's End, Pirates
of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest*, Harry Potter (4) Goblet of
Fire, War of the Worlds, Hulk, E.T. re-release, Artificial
Intelligence, Perfect
Storm, and Starship
Troopers.
While at ILM, Jeroen realized a childhood dream by working on Star Wars: Episodes I, II, & III.
In 2003, Jeroen acquired the short film rights to Maelstrom II, a
science fiction short story by the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke.
Production was started on Maelstrom II, as an ILM independent film
project. Jeroen plans to complete Maelstrom II as an open source film
project, and is seeking digital artists to participate.
A passion for science, space exploration, and technology grew in
parallel with Jeroen's visual effects career. In 2004, he wrote a real-time 3D
visualization of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, which became a popular exhibit at the NASA Ames Visitor
Center.
In 2008, the California
Academy of Sciences building reconstruction was approaching completion in the Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Which
included a state-of-the art all-digital Morrison Planetarium.
In addition to reconstruction, production on the premier planetarium show, Fragile Planet, was underway. Jeroen joined a small but talented team, as technical director to assist in the completion of this ambitious project. Fragile Planet takes you for a 600 million light year tour of the universe, postulates other star systems that may support life, while reminding us to protect our own "island of life". Everything you see in the show is based on science data.
Jeroen is now Senior Technical Director of the Visualization Studio at the Academy, where he has the unique opportunity to combine his love of science and pixels. Some of the many tasks in the studio include refining the CG pipeline for future planetarium productions, and delivering supporting graphics for an in-house show called Science in Action.
One of the many exciting challenges for the studio is how to collect science knowledge, and make it accessible to visitors to the academy, in real time, non-real time, and stereo 3D forms. All the while supporting the academy's mission statement; to explore, explain, and protect the natural world.
Jeroen's personal interests include the semantic web, and how it can be applied to knowledge capture, and user interface design.
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