Richard Roberts
Richard's career began in 1999 with a Pentium II powered Hewlett Packard computer. Using this computer, he learned basic web programming by reverse engineering web pages and creating virtual worlds with Valve's Hammer Editor. These early experiments instilled a DIY approach to computer programming in Richard, and a fascination with building story worlds.
When the Hewlett Packard spontaneously short-circuited—through no fault of his own—Richard decided to formalise his digital media education at Victoria University of Wellington.
At the School of Design, Richard studied design practices surrounding 3D animation and modeling software, data processing and visualisation, and web technologies. In 2010, Richard interned with Weta Digital as a Production Engineer, where he worked with a team to develop asset management software. Later, Richard returned to Victoria University of Wellington and completed his doctorate with the Computer Graphics group. His thesis presented a new algorithm for compressing and editing motion capture animation.
Having finished his doctorate study early 2018, Richard began his professional career as a Research Fellow under Dr James Noble. Together, they created a new self-optimising compiler for the Grace programming language. Recently, Richard has joined Victoria University’s Virtual World’s Lab as a Research Fellow on the virtual reality narrative short, Minimum Mass.
Qualifications:
- 2013–2018 PhD, Computer Graphics, Victoria University of Wellington
- 2008–2011 Bachelor of Design, Victoria University of Wellington
Research interests:
Richard's research interests combine computer graphics, programming, and multimedia design, with focus in:
- extending computer graphics software with new tooling,
- processing motion data for computer graphics applications,
- interaction techniques for interactive media,
- Interpretation and optimisation for programming languages, and
- topics in applied mathematics (linear algebra, graph theory and spline theory).
Selected research:
- “A Direct Manipulation Model for Viewing Virtual Dioramas” with Areito Echevarria and Raqi Syed (under review), 2018.
- “Optimal and Interactive Keyframe Selection for Motion Capture.” with J.P. Lewis, Ken Anjyo, Jaewoo Seo, and Yengho Seol (under review), 2018.
- “Shallow Types for Insightful Programs: Grace is Optional, Performance is Not.” with Stefan Marr, Michael Homer, and James Noble (unpublished), 2018.
- “Toward Virtual Machine Adaption Rather than Reimplementation.” with Stefan Marr, Michael Homer and James Noble, 2017.
- “A Pose Space for Squash and Stretch Deformation." with Byron Mallett, 2013.
- “Synthesis of Incidental Detail as Composable Components in a Functional Language." With Timothy Jones and J.P. Lewis, 2013.