Chronology
|
1962 |
|
Born February
16 in Taipei,Taiwan, the second of three children. |
1968 |
|
Emigrated
to the United States. Lived in Dearborn, Michigan. |
1972 |
|
Moved to
Westland, Michigan - a suburb of Detroit. |
1974 |
|
Made first
film in Junior High School using pixelation - animating people. |
1975
|
|
Started making
short films in a basement studio. Made over a dozen three minute animated
shorts between
1975-77. |
1976 |
|
Produced
a 4 minute short film called Gladiator. Won Grand Prize in
the Michigan Student Film Festival. Met John Prusak who became his
film mentor. |
1977 |
|
Saw Star Wars and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Realized
that he wanted to become a stop motion animator. |
1978 |
|
Made a ten
minute science fiction film modeled after Star Wars. The film
was awarded First Place in the Michigan Student Film Festival. |
1979 |
|
Hospitalized
for complications after a routine abdominal surgery. Spent the next
six months in intensive care and over the next year underwent a total
of eight more abdominal surgeries. |
1981 |
|
Graduated
from John Glenn High School with honors. |
1982 |
|
Studied
Industrial Design at Center for Creative Studies, College of Art and
Design in Detroit. |
1982 |
|
Worked as
a Teaching Assistant for a film production class at the William D.
Ford Vocational / Technical Center in Michigan. |
1982 |
|
Moved to
California and attended the University of California at Los Angeles
(UCLA). Majored in Film Production. |
1982 |
|
Worked for
the UCLA Daily Bruin newspaper as an illustrator. |
1984 |
|
Became Art
Director for the UCLA Daily Bruin. |
1985 |
|
Produced
Mental Block, a five minute animated film. The film was awarded
First Prize in the FOCUS film competition and won a Nissan Sentra
automobile. |
1985 |
|
Took first
professional freelance job doing storyboard work for industrial films.
|
1986 |
|
Was hired
as Director / Designer for Digital Productions, a Los Angeles based
computer graphics company. Directed and designed the opening logo
for the premiere of the Oprah Winfrey Show. |
1987 |
|
After digital
Productions closed down, he freelanced and worked as the stop motion
animator for the second season of Pee Wee's Playhouse. |
1987 |
|
Joined Rhythm
and Hues as Director / Designer. Directed several computer graphic
commercials. |
1989 |
|
Left Rhythm
and Hues to work as a concept designer for Universal Pictures on Back
to the Future 2. |
1989 |
|
Accepted
a position as Visual Effects Art Director at Industrial Light and
Magic (ILM) and moved to Northern California. |
1993 |
|
Won an Academy
Award and a British Academy Award for Death Becomes Her. |
1993 |
|
Started
conceptualizing Robota: Reign of Machines. |
1993 |
|
Became Creative
Director for ILM. |
1993 |
|
Commissioned
by Oceanic, a scuba equipment manufacturer, to paint his first Limited
Edition Print. |
1994 |
|
Won a Clio
Award for Best Set Design for a Malaysian Airlines commercial. |
1994 |
|
Got married.
|
1995 |
|
Joined Star
Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as Design Director.
|
1995 |
|
Won another
British Academy Award for Forrest Gump. |
1996 |
|
Birth of
first son, Jake. |
1999 |
|
Star
Wars Episode 1 is released. |
1999 |
|
Birth of
second son, Ryan. |
1999 |
|
Started
work on Star Wars Episode II. |
1999 |
|
Named "100
of the Most Influential Asian Americans of the Decade" by A.Magazine:
Inside Asian America |
2000 |
|
Visual Keynote
Speaker for the Games Developers Conference. |
2000 |
|
Doug Chiang
Studio is formed. |
2000 |
|
Sold book
rights for Robota: Reign of Machines to Callaway Editions. |
2000 |
|
www.dchiang.com
website is launched. |