Biography

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My name is David Vicich and I was born and raised in Bellevue Nebraska. In my youth my parents encouraged me and my brothers and sisters to be creative in what ever form we decided to express ourselves. They introduced us to singing, dance, theater, movies, and the arts of the renaissance period. It was not uncommon in our house to have a conversation about Leonardo Davinci, Beethoven, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the infamous Mickey Mouse. All of the different forms of expressive art influenced me to learn about each one.

 I grew up learning about vocal performance, dance, cartoons, instrumental performance, and drawing. It wasn’t until 2001 which is when I discovered that animation in general, was a profession that one could aspire to be a part of. This discovery was prompted by the movie "Final Fantasy: The Spirits within!". Once I watched it I knew I had to find a way to do this instead of doing vocal education. But at the time programs that taught this were still in their infancy. I inevitably graduated with my bachelors of arts and studio arts, degree in 2006 from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

 At the University of Nebraska I studied traditional art and mixed media. The curriculum included all traditional forms watercolor, oil painting, printing, sculpture, video editing, audio editing, photoshop, maya, and 3DsMax. I was so excited to join the work force After getting to touch the applications that made the movie magic and earning my degree. Once out I explored the working force and discovered that my specific degree did not qualify me for the majority of the work I was interested in. I was also held back by the fact that there wasn’t a demand for my line of work in my state. To make ends meet I joined the working world of manufacturing and insurance processing until 2009.

 In 2009 I took a leap of faith and joined the US ARMY! I was looking for a way to forge a new path, to end up in the career field I so desperately wanted to be a part of. Once I was full time in the military a lot of doors opened to me presenting me opportunities to join a new career field in Information Technology. Due to this I was able to find a full time career that gave me the flexibility to once again pursue my passion in art, and 3D at the Academy of Arts University.

 Currently I specialize in 3D Modeling ( Hard and Organic) and Texture painting. I have had my hand in a few other fields with the animation and VFX pipeline. Those fields are animating hard surface models, lighting, and compositing.