Character Rig Setup on Feature Films, Shorts. and Disney+ Series

I've contributed to various feature films and shorts as a rigger. I created the rig, muscle/skin system, and the simulation setup for many of the main dinosaurs in 'Land of the Lost'. At Disney Animation Studios, I've worked on the Muscle rig setup on Zootopia. Also contributed to creating a universal character rig for artists. Prototyped the Mickey Mouse rig in preproduction of 'Get a Horse' which resulted in a successful green lit and go on to be nominated for the Academy Awards. Most recently, I was rigging for 'Baymax!' on Disney+ working closely with the Animation Supervisors making improvements to the rigs.

I've also been involved in creating rigs compatible for real-time motion capture data to be viewed directly as the actors act and perform in stage.

Procedural Hair Rig Setup on Feature Films, Shorts, and Disney+

From feature animated films ('Frozen II', 'Encanto', etc) to shorts and Disney+ series (Baymax+), I've been contributing in creating procedural Hair rigs on variety of shows ranging from main characters to crowds to secondary characters. Being proficient in both setup side and the simulation side, I always aim to bring the highest standards to the rigs that I create.

Hair rig setup has a unique challenge in that it is not deforming/simulating geometry but curves and groom primitives are what's being rendered instead of meshes. It is always a fun challenge to create hair rigs that look and move great as well as making it easy and intuitive for artists to use.

Crowd Hair Rig Setup and Groom Propagation (Film & VR Short)

Through 'Frozen II', 'Raya and the Last Dragon', 'Encanto', I've been heavily involved in crowd hair rig creation and propagation. By creating hair rigs on the archetype characters and then propagating the hair and the groom to the rest of the crowd characters procedurally, we were able to create a variety and diverse cast of crowds through reuse. With diverse grooms and hair rigs built through past several films, we are also able to reuse the hair on future films as well.

Crowd hair rigs and propagated grooms from Frozen II were also used in Unreal Engine for the 'Myth: A Frozen Tale' VR short with real time asset implementation and optimization techniques.

Tools and Pipeline development

Along creating rigs, tools and pipeline development is also an important part of the role of a Technical Artist and streamlining the rig development process. Among various developments, one of my contribution was in the wedge tool and pipeline process. Using the wedge tool, the artists are able to quickly launch different simulation parameter settings on the queue from a DCC. Artists are able to easily explore different settings and cut down the time through the use of the tool as well.