Hal Bertram is a computer technician and designer who helped pioneer the use of CGI characters and avanced computer controls at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. As stated in his former bio on the Creature Shop website, Bertram "was responsible for setting up The Shop's Digital Visual Effects department in the nascent days of Computer animation, with a particular emphasis on applying the company's performance skills to computer animation."[1]
In 1987, Bertram worked with Peter Miller to implement Dave Housman's early design for the Henson Performance Control System, and later developed the Henson Real Time Performance Edit Suite, first used in Babe, which allowed for greater control over speech synchronization. Through the next decade, Bertram was the company's primary "digital supervisor," overseeing the development of software as well as characters and sequences for individual film and TV projects.
Bertram left the Jim Henson Company in 2003, serving as an independent rendering production on such films as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has since co-founded the "transit intelligence" service Ito World, a company devoted to improving public transportation through the use of technology and data.
Credits
- Muppet Treasure Island: CGI Mosquitos
- The Animal Show: Computer generation development for Tizzy the Bee
- Loch Ness: CGI supervisor
- The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: Virtual set supervisor
- Lost in Space: Supervisor, Blawp animation unit
- The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas: CGI remote control bird
- Jason and the Argonauts: CGI supervisor (Harpies)
- Brotherhood of the Wolf: Digital effects supervisor
- It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie: Digital character and visual effects
- Five Children and It: Visual effects lighting consultant
- Mee-Shee: The Water Giant: Performance animation consultant