Chris Platz

[Artist bio pending — Chris is updating his statement.] Sculptor, mask maker, and creature designer working across ceramic, concrete, wax, silicone, foam, and pixels — and a professor who teaches every step of it. The studio runs on one rule: the whole process happens on camera.

Background

  • Creative director, humanities research lab, Stanford University — virtual museum exhibits
  • Artist-in-residence, Stanford Computer Science (with Pat Hanrahan, co-creator of Pixar's RenderMan)
  • Published research: VR musical instruments & mixed-reality interfaces (Springer); SIGGRAPH work on procedural 3D modeling
  • Professor of game design, digital sculpture & 3D fabrication, Bay Area colleges
  • Featured testimonial, Stan Winston School of Character Arts [video link pending]

The studio ethic

  • Materials named honestly — no quiet substitutions, ever
  • Heirloom construction: pieces built to be passed down, not replaced
  • First repair free on major pieces — the work stays maintained for life
  • Classes never sell to enrolled students; the paid and the taught stay separate