Jac Oconnor

Background

About Jac Oconnor

An innovative and curious vertebrate palaeontologist and 3D animator with a mission to infuse science communication into every aspect of their life. Achieved the rank of first-class Honours in the Bachelor of Science Advanced Global Challenges (Honours) at Monash University in partnership with the Evans EvoMorph Laboratory and TMAG (the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery). This year-long honours project saw me reconstruct the skeletal anatomy, body mass, appearance, and locomotion of the giant marsupial Zygomaturus trilobus. I elevated new 3D methodologies for CGI character creation to extinct megafauna through sculpting, texturing, and fur emission by informing metrics from extant marsupial species, before rigging and animating a walking sequence based on a fossil Diprotodontid trackway. I was the Head of Let's Torque for 2021, a science communication organisation under the Royal Society of Victoria, through which I ran workshops and a state-wide STEM public speaking competition. I've consulted on the Marine Mammal Foundation's citizen science programs, developed an education trail for the Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre in New Zealand, and last year, I illustrated and co-published my first book;"The Secret Life of Conservationists". I have established original and award-winning techniques for presentations and art creation in Microsoft PowerPoint; and have made pieces for high-profile research organisations (Melbourne Museum, the Schmidt Ocean Institute etc.). I also successfully built a novel live Augmented Reality (AR) system into my final honours presentation to showcase full scale fossils, which achieved 'Best Honours Talk' at the 2022 GEMMZ grad conference at Monash University. As a nerd of all things (and proud of it), you can follow my adventures on Instagram at @jackocdesign. Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about megafauna reconstruction and locomotion, or if you would like to collaborate on a palaeo or wildlife project.