An Illustrious & Luminous Life
 Image by Ash Beck ©2005AshBeck |
Artist, Poet, Musician and extraordinary designer of digital effects animation, Richard
"Doc" Baily was born on February 16, 1953, in Los Angeles.
He was the first son of parents Jack and Sheila Baily, who raised him along with his
brother Kevin in North Hollywood and Studio City, California. He attended Colfax Avenue
Elementary School, Walter Reed Junior High and North Hollywood High School, where he
graduated in 1972.
As a young boy, Richard fearlessly explored and stretched his imagination, pursuing his
love of music, electronics, chemistry, and geology. Richard was very creative, mischievous
compassionate, loving and loyal. He had a zest for life.
Richard's passion for music and abstract art led him to a career in animation. At age
nineteen, he gained admittance to the Experimental Animation program at the California
Institute of the Arts and was a member of the class of 1975. He studied animation
under mentor Jules Engel and Electronic Music Composition under Barry Schrader.
Richard's award-winning student film
Night Waves resulted in the special effects
studio of Robert Abel and Associates hiring him. There, Richard became known for his solos
all-night work habits, his eccentric personality and his incredibly striking
imagery. About 5pm every evening, fellow animators in the Technical Directing loft
would hear loud, strange music coming from the stereo. That's how they knew Richard had
hit town and was starting his long and creative night. In the morning, everyone
would see what he had done looping on the Evans and Sutherland computer. He worked on many
Clio award-winning commercials as well as the first feature film using extensive CGI,
Tron,
in which he animated the entrance into the computer's inner world.
Richard started his own visual effects animation company, Image Savant in 1992. He rapidly
became known worldwide for his innovative artistic vision. His credits include effects for
the feature films
Superman Returns (2006),
Stay (2005),
The Core
(2003),
Solaris (2002),
One Hour Photo (2002),
The Cell (2000),
Fight
Club (1999),
Blade (1998),
The Game (1997),
Disclosure (1994),
Bill
& Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) among other films.
His CGI and visual effects works can also be seen in numerous feature film title
sequences, commercials and music videos (notably Madonna's
Bedtimestories, directed
by Mark Romanek as well as Michael and Janet Jackson's
Scream). He also created
network design packages for several networks, including NBC.
He created one of the most extraordinary and visually compelling CGI programs ever
developed, SPORE, which he describe as a "software/aesthetic development project that
has grown out of a proprietary ultra high-speed particle renderer." His personal fine
art animation art using SPORE screened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles to
accompany the 2005
Visual Music exhibition. Numerous galleries and cultural
festivals worldwide have displayed his painting and graphic artwork. Various conferences,
universities and media centers invited Richard to lecture, including Sci-Arc (Los Angeles)
and Columbia University (New York). He served as a board member to Otis College for Art
and Design. He is also known for his musical composition and poetry.
Richard died at his home in the Hollywood Hills on April 20, 2006, but his creative genius
and innovative contributions to the Entertainment Industry and Art Community will continue
to live on for generations to come.
We will greatly miss him, not only for his artistic brilliance and panache but also for
his loving and caring nature. He was an exceptional human being.
The Art of Digital Show applauds this brilliant digital artist, Richard "Doc" Baily. The CG image within our logo was created by him. More of Doc's gorgeous images can be viewed
here. Additional
information about Doc can be found here.
Many wonderful memories about Doc from his friends can be read
here.