summary: GMUNK (Bradley G Munkowitz)  is an American designer, director and photographer.
content: GMUNK whose original name is Bradley G Munkowitz is is an American designer, director and photographer. He is a visionary whose imagination and innovation span a wide variety of mediums, establishing himself as one of the world's best graphic design directors. Personal GMUNK was born on the 26th of November ,1975 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Canadian parents Alan Grosh and Rachel Owa having an elder brother. He spent a good part of his childhood in Minneapolis before moving to California when he was 18 years old.Though he was imaginative as a child, he first studied Oceanography at the University of Arizona. He received the latter part of his education at Humboldt State University in Arcata, where he studied Fine art and Filmmaking for six years while also developing extra dendrites in his brain. He moved to London after graduation to work in the interactive industry. He focused on interfaces, web design, and digital media for about three years after college, doing a lot of Flash work, and it was through his Blog gmunk.com that he gained a reputation for creating interactive environments. He eventually ended up in Los Angeles, where he worked his way into motion graphics and ad directing by working hard and knowing the right people. Relationship His fiancée is an Illustrator, a very creative illustrator with a strong work ethic. It's basically the only reason their friendship works and she's just as busy as he is and they collaborate. The duo turns on the music and disappears into their respective studios to dance together, and it's the most amazing thing ever. It's the most amazing thing ever. GMUNK has said that there is no way he will ever be with someone who does not appreciate the amount of effort that must be put in and the commitment to his art, and she understands that they're both chasing their dreams. Career In the early 2000s, he began his career in Flash Animation and Design, working with the freaks at Vir2L Studios in Rockville, Maryland and London, England. Before moving to San Francisco, California, he worked for the motion graphics companies BUCK, Prologue, and Digital Domain in Los Angeles, where he directed the User interface and holograms for films such as Tron:Legacy, Oblivion, and others. GMUNK began his career as a Design Director for Autofuss, a Bot & Dolly sister company specializing in robotics and projection mapping, where he directed the 'Box' short film demonstrating projection mapping's capabilities. GMUNK left Autofuss after it was purchased by Google and went into freelancing. He is currently represented by Tool of North America and has directed short films such as Chamber and automobile advertisements for clients such as Audi. Some of his favorite projects during his career were certainly the Design Direction for the Holograms and Opening Titles for the Feature Film Tron: Legacy, as well as working as the Design Director on the Projection Mapping film BOX, which blew up the Internets a few years back, as both projects taught him more than any of the others together. He is now a Director and Designer based in Hackney, London since moving from San Francisco.Over the past few years, GMUNK has mostly directed commercials and music videos; prior to that, he worked in the motion graphics business for the previous 10 years, freelancing and staffing as a Design Director for several of the world's leading motion studios whilst concurrently accumulating a wealth of expertise. One of the proudest thing I directed were many parts of animation, titles and UI in Tron Legacy. GMUNK is a visionary who has established himself as one of the world's best graphic design directors, with his talent and ingenuity across a wide variety of mediums. His signature look is enigmatic, atmospheric, and spiritual, much like the Munky himself, using a combination of psychedelic themes and richly textured palettes. His culture stems from his ability to understand while still being uncomfortable. He is still looking for innovative ways to adapt his architecture foundation to new mediums and collaborate with new people. He enjoys nothing more than collaborating with the people he cares about to see what their collective strengths can produce.Short films, installations, music videos, Television advertisement, fine art exhibits, title sequences, and other motion design technologies are also examples of the fruits of these labors. His dissertation also explores concepts of culture, the subconscious, and humanity's relationship with technology. GMUNK has agents in Europe and North America that demonstrate his work to agencies, brands, and other businesses, which has been very beneficial in getting commercial work started. Through this direction, the London-based designer hopes to establish a signature style and technique that distinguishes him from the competition, resulting in a distinct identity that elevates his work to the next level, making it something advertisers and agencies can search out as new and current. As a result of his tactics, he has been able to partner with impressive brands such as Audi and GoPro. When asked in an interview how he makes such incredible designs with computer graphics, GMUNK had this to say; There isn’t a path to follow other than just subscribing to an incredibly hard work ethic, and an unwavering thirst for learning, growing and experimenting within your own sensibilities. It’s easy to say don’t follow the money-earning potential and stay true to your own aesthetic, but we all have to pay the bills etc, it’s always a tough balance. Transition from interactive to motion graphics The artist claims that the transition was made due to the constraints of the immersive format, such as having to work with very limited file sizes in order for users to use it, and, of course, the slow playback problems that come with attempting to get so much data through. He decided to concentrate solely on the artistic side of things, knowing that he'd be making something that people might only watch and that would play flawlessly. He has, however, considered returning to immersive work now that it has evolved into topics like installation art and concert visuals. With holographic simulations, immersive sculpture, data visualization, and the maturation of mobile platforms, the stage is now set to combine motion graphics and a reliable experience of interactive aspects without having to think about the distribution channel. GMUNK's role in TRON:Legacy Bradley Munkowitz, best known as GMUNK, was the lead animated graphics designer on Disney's "TRON: Legacy." For director Joseph Kosinski and visual effects supervisor Eric Barba, he recruited and directed a team of GFX all-stars who conceived, planned, and animated nearly 10 minutes of UI sequences and Holograms at Digital Domain. Prominent graphics task encountered during Tron; Legacy Rectifier Extraction The Disc Rectifier extraction scene was one of the most visible graphics tasks. Clu gets his filthy hands on Flynn's disk and takes it into the rectifier to retrieve all of the data in one scene. The aim was to view the data as a messy assemblage at first, then organize it into concentric rings of decoded data later. Since Flynn, the developer of the TRON universe, wanted his disc defrag diagram to look like an otherworldly disc defrag data representation, GMUNK and his team mainly researched disc defragmentation diagrams and tried to modernize the aesthetic. They devised a visual language that was more realistic and incredibly informative. Even though the core framework is told by the disc defrag diagram, dlew flexed his moGraph muscles to the max, working with compositing supervisor Sonja Burchard to bloom the graphics with a beautiful shallow depth of field, making it sound even more extraordinary and realistic. Opening Title Sequence The opening title sequence, according to GMUNK, was the most difficult in terms of intensity. TRON's original title sequence is likely also one of his all-time favorite graphic title sequences. The series is an epitome of perfection, with a simplistic yet graphically dense style that is particularly appropriate for the time span. The team's first instinct was to cram as much detail as possible into their section of the OT series, resulting in the most epic city construct ever seen on television. Karsten Schmidt, a code artist, was brought in to assist with the previs on how the city will be built, with sliders to monitor their actions and how the lines will communicate with the houses. The level of complexity was driven even higher in the animation process, with the streets being filled with fascinating grid-based geometry patterns and the blocks eventually forming from these initial patterns. And for the homes, every single window was drawn as the structures took shape. The whole thing was animated by hand in Cinema 4D, with each keyframe carefully weighted to follow the VO and punctuate key phrases. The team was all set to put on a spectacular display of attention to detail. However, as the series progressed, it became increasingly simple, resulting in a rather tasteful, almost minimalist aesthetic. Joe is a minimalist at heart! Interview with GMUNK on TRON: Legacy Q: Can you talk a little about your background? I was born and raised in Minneapolis and moved out to California when I was 18. I attended Humboldt State University up in Arcata and I studied Fine Arts and Filmmaking there for 6 years while cultivating some extra dendrites in my brain. Upon graduation I moved to London to work in interactive. I worked on interfaces, web design and interactive media, doing a lot of Flash work for about 3 years after college, and that’s wh