Member Profile: Valentina Miller
1. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
I am the Production Lead at Night Kitchen Interactive, where I’ve worked since graduating in 2016. We’re a Philadelphia-based interactive design studio that produces digital projects for museums, science centers, and cultural institutions. I lead a small team of generalists skilled in 2D/3D animation, video production, game design, web development, XR, and interactive storytelling. No two projects are the same, and I love learning about the fascinating subjects we share with the public!
I’m also an adjunct professor at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, where I teach animation, 3D modeling, and immersive media courses to students ranging from freshmen to graduates. To sum it up: I make animations that teach people things, and teach people how to make animations.
2. What was your first job?
My first job was filing patient charts at my uncle’s medical office when I was thirteen or fourteen. Deciphering his incomprehensible doctor scribbles to sort into a giant wall of files felt like solving a puzzle or cracking a code. I’d try to come up with the most optimized sorting method to finish early and have time to doodle flipbooks in the branded post-it notepads that pharma reps dropped off. I made a bouncing ball test in a Zyrtec notepad, a karate fight in a Prilosec notepad, etc.
Eventually, I transitioned to the front desk, managing schedules and answering phone calls, and became the go-to troubleshooter for everything from the fax machine’s network config to the electronic health record system.
3. Where did you complete your formal education?
In 2015, I graduated from Drexel University with a Bachelor of Science in Animation and Visual Effects, and in 2016, I completed an accelerated Master of Science program in Digital Media. My undergraduate track focused on computer graphics generalist studies, while my graduate work centered on immersive media production. My graduate work culminated in an educational dinosaur documentary for fulldome and 360-degree video formats.
That project was especially meaningful. I volunteered in a paleontology lab for two summers to help 3D scan the newly-discovered skeleton of Dreadnoughtus, the largest dinosaur ever found, and later animated the bones coming to life in VR for my thesis film.
4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?
I first got involved as an undergrad by attending events hosted by Drexel’s ACM SIGGRAPH Student Chapter. The upperclassmen readily shared their knowledge, and it became a great space to learn and exchange techniques. I served as an officer during my junior year, then stepped back to balance freelance work, my senior film, and graduate classes.
Fast forward to 2023, and one of my closest friends from that same student chapter asked if I’d be interested in helping charter a professional SIGGRAPH chapter in Philadelphia. This organization has been a cornerstone of my creative community, so I gladly said yes and got to work!
5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?
In 2017, my then-boyfriend and I volunteered to help run the Drexel booth and exhibition in Los Angeles. We dated all throughout animation school, and this was our first big trip alone together. We even made a little vacation out of it, visiting Catalina Island for a long weekend before the conference started!
When we arrived at the Experience Hall, we found Drexel had a huge setup: a 30-foot Spitz portable full-dome projector and four 20-foot projection surfaces showing off student work. I was new to teaching and completely invested in hyping up our program, networking my little heart out with anyone who walked by.
Midway through a conversation with an animator from Ubisoft, the screens suddenly went dark.
My boyfriend looked nervous, and I was too—we couldn’t have technical issues at a technical conference! After a few seconds, the lights came back on, revealing an animated montage of our life together that he had secretly added to the show with help from our program director. He got down on one knee right in the middle of the conference and proposed with a 3D-printed ring he designed, surrounded by our closest friends from school. It was absolutely perfect, and in retrospect I can’t believe how blind I was to the obvious romantic foreshadowing! We’ve been married for about five years now.
(I later learned that the “power failure” was staged—preceded by a whispered, “Cut the power! She won’t stop handing out business cards!”)
6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.
Some of my favorite projects focus on raising environmental literacy through animation. If you’re ever in New England, check out the New Bedford Whaling Museum to see a few immersive experiences we’ve created. One is an augmented reality encounter with a North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species with about 300 surviving members. Using spatial tracking, we brought the whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling to life. We animated her swimming with a newborn calf, envisioning a brighter future and encouraging visitors to learn more about ocean conservation.
7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?
I’d have tea with Ada Lovelace in Victorian London. We’d meet in early December (our birthdays are three days apart) to geek out about logic systems, muse on the intersection of art and technology (she was an artist first before mastering mathematics), and gossip about the scandals of the day (which she’d definitely know all about—she was Lord Byron’s daughter, after all). I’m sure we’d touch on what it means to be a woman in science, but I doubt we’d dwell on it. She seemed to love the work for its own sake, so it would mostly be a passionate, nerdy geek-out conversation.
8. What is something most people don’t know about you?
I just adopted a dog from an international rescue! Most people don’t know yet because it happened two days ago (as of this writing). He was discovered by Ukrainian soldiers wandering near a checkpoint and brought to a shelter sponsored by an American adoption agency. They brought him back home, and now he’s enjoying life as a spoiled Philly boy.
9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?
My parents both taught me the value of hard work, resourceful problem solving, and creative storytelling. (I know that’s not a single individual, but I’m not about to pit them against each other in print!)
10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?
Natasha Warshawsky on the Chapters Committee was one of the first SIGGRAPH friends I made in college. We were officers together in school, she was there for my surprise SIGGRAPH proposal, and later encouraged me to help get the Philadelphia professional chapter off the ground. I wouldn’t be doing this without her!
11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?
I recently produced a game about building coral reef ecosystems for the National Aquarium. It involved animating over a dozen fish species and designing a giant 4K touchscreen installed beside the actual tanks. After the final installation, we watched a school field trip group run straight toward it. The kids instantly grasped the interface, giggled as animals populated the digital reef, and understood how the balance of predators and prey supports the ecosystem. Every time she got a “Good job!” message, one girl did a little dance before continuing on. That moment made all the late nights worth it.