Demo Reel Breakdown


Corruption Character Rig

Main antagonist of "Short Changed" (2014), an animated short film produced by the University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering's Animation Capstone course series

  • Performed skin weighting, topology optimizations, animation control creation using scripted meta-rigging library, and rig maintenance throughout the entire production
  • Created elastic component shown for rubber hose animation that works in parallel with FKIK arms/legs
  • Assisted with the R&D for the "Reverse FK" spine component shown (completed in a previous production)
  • Tested facial control range using a series of cardinal expressions.

Character development notes:

  • Helped guide Corruption's transition from concept art into Maya by contributions to the "block model", which is a bone structure with roughed-in geometry used to check how a character's proportions and silhouette translate into the 3D realm
  • Created a block modeling toolkit to expedite the process of iterating on skeletal/model proportions while maintaining the joint orientations required for easy animation testing
     

Roy Character Rig

Protagonist of "Fish Out of Water" (2015), an Animation Capstone short film

  • Performed skin weighting, topology optimizations, animation control creation using scripted meta-rigging system, and rig maintenance throughout the entire production
  • Filled in as character animator for several shots, including two at 0:46 and 0:53 in the demo reel

 

Scripted Rig Components

All scripted components added to the meta-rigging library are modular and can be integrated into rigs of future productions with ease;  only one or two lines of code are required to invoke their functionality

  • Non-Uniform Flexible Eyelid (0:55 - 1:08)
    For posing the eyelids of a non-uniformly scaled eye
    • Supports a variable number of joints
    • Easily controlled lid shape with independent blink attribute
    • Left/right poses can be matched or swapped
       
  • FKIK Blended Spline with Mesh Follow (1:08 - 1:22)
    A joint chain that follows the contours of a deforming skinned mesh while maintaining its length
    • IK handles enable the chain to be posed relative to the surface of the mesh
    • A variable number of rotation controls can be turned on for animating partial (or full) FK motion that works in conjunction with the IK handles and mesh follow capabilities
       
  • FKIK Quadruped Leg (1:22 - 1:40)
    Switch and match capable FKIK leg with an extra tarsal bone ideal for the hind legs of a quadruped
    • Tarsal base orientation can adaptively align itself with the rest of the leg, be locked to the foot, or blended between the two
    • Tarsal control handle respects leg length when rotated beyond the limit of the first two bones
    • Foot control contains custom attributes that drive an extra toe joint (similar to the ball joint on a biped rig) to better support more exaggerated foot designs


Effects Work

Examples of effects shots from various Animation Capstone films achieved through combinations of scripting, rigging, dynamic systems, and animation.

  • Card Battle (1:40 - 1:48)
    "Kings" (2008), completed as a student of the Animation Capstone
    • All card and camera motion (sans the card run cycle)
    • Script assisted layout
    • Script generated background fight animations
    • Final render and composite
       
  • Card Juggling (1:48 - 1:53)
    • All character and card motion
    • Script assisted rig creation
    • Final render and composite
       
  • Paper Stacks to Paper Fish Transformation (1:53 - 1:59)
    "Fish Out of Water" (2015)
    • Modified fish rig with individual paper placement, skinning, blend shapes, and shading
    • Script assisted dynamic system generation
    • All paper and fish motion
       
  • Dumpster Explosion and Trash Geyser (1:59 - 2:06)
    "At Ease" (2013)
    • Explosion/geyser design, layout, and animation
    • All dynamic elements and paper
    • Coordinated development of hand animated elements

 

Cinematic Sandbox

Stand-alone tool built in Unity for creating full length 3D animatics.  Users build sets with premade assets and custom block props, pose characters, frame shots, and edit them together.  

  • Fully programmed and designed all editors, asset management back-end, pipeline for dynamic pose library, project file structure, and user interface
  • Used to previsualize Animation Capstone films "Picture Perfect" (2012) and "At Ease" (2013)
  • Utilized in the annual "Storytelling for Digital Animation" course curriculum for storytelling practice

 

Music

"The Narshemellow" remix of Umaro's Theme from Final Fantasy VI by XPRTNovice (joezieja.com)