
David C. Kern
creative / technical art director - entrepreneur - founder - manager ceo cto cco

About Me... I have been very fortunate throughout my career to be able to work in industries where my job has always been a lot of fun. I credit my father for encouraging me to find a profession that I could enjoy and dedicate 100% of my energy. In college I started out thinking I would become an engineer and spent my first two years taking math, physics, chemistry and computer science. In my junior year I had an internship with a small engineering firm and spent the entire summer debugging Fortran code that someone else wrote. Although the projects were interesting (simulating surface flow for spacecraft and submarines) I went back to college with a new found enthusiasm for computer graphics and switched my focus towards Fine Arts which is an area I excelled in at high school and at the same time kept taking computer courses.
After graduating I soon found a job at KIRO-TV Seattle working in the news and design departments. This job used all my artistic abilities in a rapid turnaround environment and was an opportunity to work with digital paint and 3D systems. My job varied from on air graphics, animation, graphic design and print advertising. My enthusiasm for real time 3D led me to a job at Loral Advanced Distributed Simulation working on 3D environments and pipeline processes for the US Army on the SIMNET system. From there I was invited to work for a startup called Zipper Interactive. 3D games were taking off and I was lucky enough to be part of this incredible team of professionals. I started out as a 3D artist and eventually over 17 years worked my way up to Principle Technical Artist. Working at Zipper was a rewarding time that allowed me to be inventive and creative everyday. In 2012 SONY who had purchased Zipper a few years before, closed the studio.
Without skipping a beat I started a company called nobodinos,llc to make a mobile game. I partnered with Russ Phillips whom I had worked with at Zipper for years. Long story short there is now a game on iTunes called Bottom Feeders.
Producing this mobile game was a huge experience that used all my skills: coding, art and management. After 2 years of going it on my own I eventually started looking at opportunities to get back into a studio making AAA games. Currently I hold a position with Technicolor Animation & Games as the Technical Director, living and working in Bangalore, India... what a fun adventure.
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Well I wrote the above about 6 years ago now. In Jan 2018 I had returned to the US and now reside in Los Angeles, having spent 3 years in India. Living in India was truly a life enriching experience that to this day has left me with lifelong friends 8000 miles away and a new perspective on life.
Once in Los Angeles I continued my role as Technical Director for the India studio but reported to the Hollywood Technicolor offices on Sunset Blvd. Sometimes I can't believe the places I have had the privilege to work but I really enjoyed working with the team there.
My time was split, half my time was also spent working at the Technicolor Experience Center in Culver City. At "TEC" we worked on various VR and AR projects exploring the medium. These VR experiences were shown at various conferences around the world. I was still leading a special VR team in India remotely from LA. This team worked with us both on art work, animation and coding the experiences. I also continued to mentor my replacement who was on the ground in Bangalore. In Dec 2019 Technicolor closed the Experience Center, so half my job dried up, so by June of 2019 I had left my post, a little uncertain of my next steps.
Since then I was the GC for remodeling my home, hands on architectural design, through framing and finish work. After many years in the digital realm is was great to swing a hammer and make things happen for real and immediately at that. By the time Covid hit the world the home remodel was finished. Then somewhere in that foggy year I made a twelve string guitar from some leftover hardwood I had in my garage. It was fun, turned out looking spectacular but made so much dust that I doubt I will do it again even though while building it I had delusions of grandeur about starting some kid of custom guitar shop. Well that didn't happen!
Since Jan of 2021 I have been nose deep in an Unreal project. Immersed in a virtual world of my design. I have been making many Blueprint type tools to build with and spending way to much time in the "figure it out section"! I have also been forced to get back to some fundamental modeling and generally have been having a blast putting together a beautiful virtual world that will see the light of day soon.