In memoriam
David Biedny is a leading digital effects, graphics and multimedia expert. His writing, educational efforts, multimedia and special effects work have enjoyed global exposure. He’s a legend in the Macintosh industry, and was right there at the beginning—he got his first Mac on January 24th, 1984, and instantly became the go-to Mac troubleshooter for the first generation of Mac users in New York City. He was a founding member of the New York Mac Users Group (NYMUG), and headed up their highly popular Graphics SIG (Special Interest Group) and Advanced User SIGs for over five years.
In 1985, he was brought in as part of the founding editorial team of MacUser magazine, and quickly rose from Associate Editor to Technical Editor. Since then, he’s written for just about every major Macintosh magazine: Macazine, MacWorld, MacAddict, MacLife, as well as a variety of other tech industry publications. He was the primary author of the very first book ever written on Photoshop, The Official Adobe Photoshop Handbook (Bantam), and his Photoshop Channel Chops (New Riders) is a cult classic, the most collectible computer trade book of all time. He also co-authored Adobe Photoshop: A Visual Guide (Addison Wesley). He recently served as the technical and historical editor of the wonderful graphic novel Steve Jobs: Insanely Great by noted cartoonist Jessie Hartland.
David was formerly President and Technical Director of Incredible Interactivity Inc., a pioneering New York based firm which created multimedia projects and products for companies such as General Motors, Knoll International, Apple Computer, HBO, American Express, The American International Group and AT&T, among others. At the time, he was also a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts, teaching in the undergraduate and MFA programs, with a concentration on design principles for interactive media and imaging. In the mid-nineties, Biedny was involved in pioneering telepresence teaching efforts in conjunction with SVA and AT&T, conducting New York classes and portfolio review sessions from his California home. He has taught and lectured at NYU, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, the Seybold Seminars, and is a Lecturer in Design at the David Geffen School of Drama, where he teaches core digital media courses for graduate students. In the summer of 2018, he was invited to become a summer faculty member at the prestigious Choate Rosemary Hall, where he taught classes on digital videography and photography.
David has also been a key interface/feature consultant/beta tester for many of the major multimedia tools currently on the market. His involvement with computer graphics includes participating as a feature and interface consultant for key applications such as ImageStudio (the first mass market digital retouching software for the Macintosh platform), PixelPaint, ColorStudio (he conceived the Shapes vector graphics capabilities unique to that product), Altamira Composer (which was acquired by Microsoft) and Photoshop (one of the earliest users, acknowledged in the Photoshop 1.0 documentation). He was also a seed site for the original Power Macintosh computer, and has been credited with helping conceive of the “Power Macintosh” name. In 1998, he produced an award-winning video training series, Photoshop Inside and Out. Consulting clients have included Microsoft, HBO, LucasFilm, LucasArts Entertainment, Landor Associates, Readers Digest, Broderbund Software, Ziff Davis, Ressmeyer Starlight and the Federal Trade Commission.
Working at Industrial Light and Magic, he created digital effects for motion pictures including Hudson Hawk, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Rocketeer, Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country, Hook and Memoirs of an Invisible Man. His former company, IDIG (Interactive Digital Intelligence Group), created 35 visual effects shots in 35 days for the movie Spawn, and he also provided visual effects for David Arquette’s directorial debut, The Tripper.
In recent years, David has created animation and video projections for a number of theatrical productions, working with the award-winning projection designer Wendall K. Harrington, on shows including The Good Body, Drowning Crow, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Tommy Tune: White Tie and Tails, Nixon in China, the Simon & Garfunkel reunion tour, Arjunas Dilemma, the Chris Rock 2008 New Year’s Eve show, and the most recent production of Tony Kushners Angels In America. He was also commissioned to produce two high-definition music videos for Elton John’s 60th Birthday concert at Madison Square Garden.
In 2012, David created music videos for The Troy Westfield Experience (Petrified Flowers) and Wilson T. King (Bury Me With The Bible).