PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Craig Reynolds

Craig Reynolds is a researcher known for Boids, a model of flocking behavior. He began professional work in 1975 and developed Boids in 1986 and 1987. At Sony Computer Entertainment, he worked on evolutionary texture synthesis, PSCrowd, and OpenSteer. His later work modeled coevolving camouflage with genetic programming and neural networks; he received the Academy’s Scientific and Engineering Award in 1998 for computer-animation work. As of October 2026, he is an unaffiliated researcher and retired software developer, and his EvoFlock paper describes a method for tuning multi-agent motion models.

Born
1953
Works
1

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 1953–1975

    Professional work begins

    He is born in 1953 and begins professional work in 1975.

  2. 1986–1987

    Boids models flocking

    He develops Boids in 1986 and 1987 as a model of flocking; a technical paper on the model appears at SIGGRAPH in 1987.

  3. 1998

    An Academy Award for animation

    He receives the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Engineering Award in 1998 for contributions to three-dimensional computer animation for motion-picture production.

  4. 2010

    Researcher at Sony

    He is a Senior Researcher in Sony Computer Entertainment’s US R&D group in Foster City, California. His work includes evolutionary texture synthesis, PSCrowd, and OpenSteer.

  5. 2019–2020

    Retiring from software

    He continues professional work through December 2019 and retires by January 2020 to focus his efforts on research.

  6. 2023

    Coevolution of camouflage

    In 2023, he simulates prey camouflage patterns evolving as color textures against predator vision. The system uses genetic programming for prey, while predator neural networks inherit weights and learn during their lifetimes.

  7. As of October 2026

    Unaffiliated researcher

    He is an unaffiliated researcher and retired software developer. His 2026 EvoFlock paper describes an automatic method for tuning models of multi-agent motion.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 47% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Craig Reynolds yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Retired – Craig Reynolds – Posts related to my software. cwreynolds.github.io. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Creative Machine 2024 - Creative Machine creativemachine.io. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Coevolution of Camouflage | MIT CSAIL csail.mit.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Abstract/Bio web.stanford.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. [2304.11793] Coevolution of Camouflage arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Volume 16, Issue 2 – SIGEVOlution evolution.sigevo.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. [2606.25280] EvoFlock: evolved inverse design of multi-agent motion arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.