Technical Director Demo Reel

Breakdown:

0:05 - Phoebe Facial Rig; using python to help speed up repetitive aspects of rigging, I created Phoebe’s fully articulated facial rig from scratch, adding blendshapes on top to bring her expressions fully to life. Her facial rig features automation processes such as mouth corners and cheeks pinching in as the jaw opens, and each nostril curling as a side of the lip snarls.

0:12 - Phoebe Character Creation; I created a guide for myself for exactly how I wanted the painterly textures to look with Clip Studio Paint. I then worked in Substance Painter to translate those 2D concepts to 3D. Lastly, I worked with Arnold to customize shaders that would complement her painterly style. Her retopology was done by hand in Maya over a sculpt made in ZBrush.

0:23 - Phoebe Rig; once again using python to help speed up repetitive aspects of rigging, Phoebe’s body has IK/FK capability on her limbs and a spine that can squash and stretch. Her sweater uses blendshapes to create folds at the bend of her arms and her skirt is rigged using three ribbon rig setups that can work in tandem.

0:32 - Open Mind, Open Heart Thesis Film; a clip showing off Phoebe’s rig in use from my senior thesis film, Open Mind, Open Heart. In addition to all of the character textures, I worked on all of the environment textures as well. I also am responsible for all animation and compositing throughout the film.

0:36 - Joint Chain Switch Automator; created with Python, this code allows the user to create a switch on the controller of the user’s choice that smoothly switches the selected join chain’s “parent” between two other join chains of the user’s choice (Armadillo Model by Lesley Marroquin)

0:45 - Dynamic Hair Rig; utilizing Maya’s nHair physics, Liza’s ponytail and two side strands each have their own switches to smoothly turn on and off their own simulation, as well as switch between IK and FK controls. The hair dynamics can be further adjusted with controllers that can be animated. Each controller also has an attribute to easily adjust the start curve attraction for each hair strand and the ponytail.

0:56 - Liza Character Creation; I created a 2D turnaround using Clip Studio Paint, then using the turnaround as a guide, translated her design into 3D using ZBrush. I brought the ZBrush model into Maya and retopologized it by hand to make sure her model would deform correctly when rigged. I worked in Substance Painter to hand paint stylized textures, then finally worked with Arnold to customize shaders that would complement her painterly style.

1:05 - Seagull Rig; this seagull rig uses surfaces and UV pins to allow control over areas of feathers for the animator to be able to manipulate. The rig features controls that allow for an automatic wing fold. The seagull has IK/FK capabilities on its legs, and an FK chain down its tail. [Seagull Model by Cara Fulton)

Music - Symphony for a Spider Plant by Mort Garson