About Ben Houston

I started graphics coding in the late 1980s on my dad's Apple IIe. Since then I've been hooked.

I've done the entrepreneur thing a few times:

• Threekit in 2015, 3D for ecommerce
• Clara.io in 2013, an online web-based 3D collaborative editing platform, with over 1M registered users.
• Exocortex in 2005, a 3D software company that made visual effects plugins for 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, and Cinema4D.
• Frantic Films Software (I started the division in 2003, but I had no ownership stake.)

I run the Web3D Survey website as a community service. I also regularly contributed to the glTF standards at Khronos Group.

I've contributed a lot to open source projects, in particular:

• Behave-Graph, a TypeScript behavior graph library, inspired by Unreal Engine Blueprints.
• Threeify, a TypeScript 3D graphics library focused on efficiency.
• Three.js, contribution the animation system, HDR pipeline, much of the math library, and many other things.

I've worked in the games industry, the US defense industry, two different Canadian government research groups and the Hollywood visual effects industry.

A long time ago, I designed and wrote the first versions of a few visual effects software products that became quite popular:

• Deadline render manager, a popular render manager, acquired by Amazon.com. Co-written with Mark Wiebe.
• Krakatoa volumetric renderer, a highly scalable point cloud renderer.

I've got a few academic papers on fluid simulation published at various conferences and publications.

Worked on a number of films, including fluid simulation work on Harry Potter series.

I also have a few patents in the area.