Professor S. S. Iyengar

LSU Department of Computer Science

Digital Artist Award, 78th Academy Awards   

Brian Obee's love of digital artistry emerged in 1990 with a visit to Louisiana State University's Robotics lab which was under the supervision of Dr. Iyengar, where he was first introduced to Adobe Photoshop version 1.5. "My first effect was to paint white pointy teeth onto a still video image capture of myself hissing like a vampire. I made a hundred xerox copies of it and ran around the campus handing them out to anyone i saw," recalls Brian, now fourteen years later, a successful visual effects artist in Hollywood, California. "I laid out on the grass on the parade grounds at LSU and read the Photoshop User's Guide cover to cover."

Brian began his career in television production in 1994 as a freelance production and sound assistant at Video Park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1995 he packed his bags and headed to Hollywood, California where he found work as a Production Assistant on the Soul Train Lady of Music Awards, the Miss America Pageant and the Clio Awards.