Objective
To animate incredibly fun and immersive games at a developer that respects their player community.
Experience
I am a completely self taught animator. Starting March 2009 I spent 8 months teaching myself to a level at which I was hired professionally. I believe this demonstrates an ability to self manage and motivate. Until recently I worked as a character animator at Lionhead Studios. On Fable 3 I was exclusively working on hand key character animation for the player and human NPCs. I was assigned tasks such as weapon attacks, facial animation, NPC interaction expressions etc.
I can provide an excellent reference from my animation lead and producer on the project.
On Milo, I was the only dedicated hand key animator on the team. When I joined I took over responsibility for all hand key work which had previously been spread around the motion editors and facial team. During my time on the project, I worked mostly with animals in both setpiece cut-scene style shots, as well as interactive gameplay sections. I created significant hand key animation for the following types of creature: crab, deer, fish, fox, squirrel. Once again, I can provide excellent reference from my leads and producers on this project.
The engines I have experience working with are Lionhead's in-house engine, Source and Unreal 3.
Working as part of a large top-tier developer, I've broadened my personal skills with my experience of hard meaningful deadlines, teamwork on a massive scale, the social dynamics of a company, and the process of a full professional art pipeline that demands AAA quality results.
Skills
I have professional skill animating in XSI and 3DS Max. I've brought characters and props to life for various engines on the PC and Xbox with a variety of rig set-ups, covering not just bipeds but all manner of creatures and animals. I can (and have) adapted my animation style to suit the theme/context of the project at hand and preserve the overall vision of the game. I've learned to put my animation skills to use in many forms applicable to games, ranging from the necessary basic movement cycles, to cutscenes, 1st person animations and player interaction with the game environment. I've gained an intimate knowledge of the challenges that come with balancing creativity with technical limitations. I'm very quick to learn new systems when one program or version of a program, is unable to interact with the engine/other systems correctly, or any of the host of problems encountered in development.
Program Knowledge and Project Information
XSI: 8 months experience
3DS Max: 18 months experience
Fable 3: Jan 2010 - July 2010
Milo and Kate (still in production): July 2010 - September 2010