Stephen Baker is an Assistant Professor of Practice with the School of Applied and Creative Computing. He is a skilled educator, animation director, visual storyteller with thirty-six years of experience leading creative teams that bring narrative-rich, immersive content to life and sharing that knowledge with the next generation of animators and artists to create the compelling worlds, characters, stories, and animation that people love. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design from Purdue University, another in Animation from Ringling College of Art and Design, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
He has worked on thirty films, twelve games, and two television series, including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Tomb Raider, and Half Life 2. He has been nominated for seven Academy Awards in Visual Effects, and has won for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Hugo.
With twelve years of teaching experience including creating Gnomon School of Visual Effects’ first online character animation program, and growing the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Animation program 800% and taking it from unranked to 16th in the nation among public schools, he is excited to bring that same passion to Purdue University.
His research interests include exploring how extended reality can be utilized to further enhance immersive storytelling and user engagement.
