• Autodesk Maya
• 3ds Max
• MotionBuilder
• Photoshop

• Rigging & Skinning
• Character Setup
• Pipeline Maintenance
• Tool Development

• Houdini
• 3D Modeling
• Qt / PySide
• Machine Learning

• Python
• MEL
• MaxScript
• Documentation Writing

Aug 2024 – Nov 2024

As a Senior Technical Animator, I collaborated with multidisciplinary teams to develop technical animation and rigging solutions for a highly stylized new IP in its early stages of development. My work emphasized creating animator-friendly rigs and tools, optimizing workflows, and fostering collaboration between animation, art, and technical departments to achieve exceptional results.

• Created and maintained rigs for characters, creatures, and props with friendly controls.
• Developed Python tools to streamline the animation pipeline and automate repetitive tasks.
• Integrated assets seamlessly between Maya and Unreal Engine.
• Skinned characters and props with high deformation quality and adherence to artistic direction.
• Collaborated with animators, character artists, and technical teams to establish efficient workflows.
• Provided guidance on best practices, technical solutions, and knowledge sharing across teams.
• Refined workflows and practices to improve team efficiency and collaboration.

Aug 2022 – Feb 2024

In my role as a Senior Technical Artist at Studio Wildcard, I was responsible for rigging and skinning bipedal characters, quadruped dinosaurs, and various props in Autodesk Maya. I developed tools to streamline production processes and collaborated with cross-functional teams to implement features and solve technical challenges. My work focused on optimizing assets for performance and visual fidelity in Unreal Engine 5.

• Rigged and skinned a variety of characters, dinosaurs, and props using Maya.
• Exported assets to Unreal Engine 5, configuring physics simulations and control rigs.
• Reviewed and provided feedback on rigged assets from outsourcing teams.
• Built tools and scripts to optimize workflows and align with industry best practices.
• Improved animation workflows and pipelines in partnership with the Technical Director.
• Optimized assets for performance and visual fidelity.
• Created detailed documentation to support team workflows.
• Integrated Level of Detail (LOD) models and other gameplay assets using Simplygon.

Jul 2020 – Dec 2021

I worked as part of the character team responsible for bringing the Drivers, Crew, and Crowd to life on Forza Motorsport. Working closely with the Cinematics and Tech Art teams, I supported Animators and Cinematics artists with tools, rigging, and implementing content into the engine.

• Added to and maintained Python-based animation tools, rigging, and mocap pipelines.
• Worked with character artists to prepare, skin and export character assets for game engine.
• Identified opportunities to improve workflows and increase efficiency.
• Presented ideas, feedback, and created documentation relating to animation and rigging workflows.

Nov 2019 – Jul 2020

While at Nintendo I pioneered the role of Technical Artist, a position that had not existed before my appointment. This entailed working closely with various disciplines both locally and those in Japan.

• Responsible for creating and implementing character and object rigs to achieve innovative and high-quality gameplay experiences based on supporting art direction.
• Collaborated with other artists to create animation-ready 3D models with optimal deformation setup and motion controls.
• Worked actively with other disciplines such as design, engineering, and audio to attain a high level of quality for 3D animations and other art assets.
• Consistently maintained optimized assets to run within technical constraints such as memory and frame rate limitations and sustain clean and organized assets and file structures.
• Supported the growth of new and enhanced art development tools and techniques.

Nov 2017 – Nov 2018

I maintained and optimized existing art pipeline while diagnosing then resolving problems encountered by artist and producers on a daily basis.

• Reduced overhead 30% by restructuring ingestion pipeline and removing redundancy. This new workflow resulted in a more efficient process with net gains across multiple departments
• Worked with character artists to prepare, skin and export character assets for game engine.
• Developed artist friendly tool written in Python. Worked closely with artist to fully understand what their need was and how I could help them solve their problem. The resulting tool greatly reduced the artist workload and saved them time.

Jan 2009 – Oct 2012

Responsible for character setup which included rigging and skinning of player characters, enemies and non-player characters. My role also entailed cooperation with artist, designers and engineers to troubleshoot tools and various other workflow improvements.

• Integrated 60% of all art assets into the game engine while consistently adhering to strict guidelines, staying on schedule and below budget with respect to hardware limitations.
• Saved countless hours of artist time with improvements to the animation rigs and artist pipeline or workflows. Introducing features such as auto-rigging and test levels for rapid prototyping.

Bachelor of Arts in Visual-Effects and Animation

Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA

Coursework in 3D Modeling, Animation, Character Rigging and Skinning along with traditional fine-arts.