Charles Warren Wardlaw

Toronto, ON
cell: (416) 294-4170
email: charles@skeletalstudios.com
web: http://www.skeletalstudios.com/
github: http://github.com/kattkieru/

Selected Experience and Achievements

Freelancer. Projects are largely character rigging related or involve custom scripting / C++ solutions, including the Sven rig for Autodesk's Hyperspace Madness, demonstrated at Siggraph 2017.   2006 - Present
Senior Technical Director, Tangent Animation. Responsible for tool development both in Python and C++ in Blender for the animated feature film Next Gen. On the Python side I wrote a pure python API for introspecting Blender files from the command line, a Pose Library for animation, a scene checker tool for all departments that dynamically loads and runs desired checks, a tool to allow cache sculpting, among others. On the C++ side I fixed a bug in the hair evaluation, added a Vertex Snap deformer (similar to external blendshapes in Maya), and modified the Surface Deform and Array modifiers with extra functionality.   May 2017 - Present
CG Supervisor, Industrial Brothers. Top Wing, an ambitious show for Preschool on Nickolodeon. I built the character pipeline for Maya 2017 (all joint-based faces, no correctives, using an autorigger I wrote in Python and C++), trained modeling on MASH usage for procedural modeling and jungle scatter, directed FX workflows in Houdini and a VDB / Alembic to VRay pipeline (full water splashes as well as volumetric clouds and dust), as well as aided with script notes, minor assistant directoral duties, animation notes and drawovers, and asset oversight.   August 2016 - May 2017
Senior Technical Director (3D), Nelvana. Responsible for the creation of new rigging / animation tools and systems. Thus far this has resulted in the from-scratch creation of a new modular autorig system using Python / PyMEL (with its accompanying API and in-Maya PySide tools), and video tutorials for system training. I am also rigging characters and doing a bit of modeling.   February 2015 - August 2016
Senior Character TD, Mr. X Inc. Responsible for rigging for film and television. Created custom nodes and API plugins in Python and C++ to solve difficult rigging problems. Worked in Houdini for some character effects and finaling. Contributed to pitch projects. Created a modular rigging system using PyMEL for rapid prototyping of new setups, used in all shows in 2014 and many in 2015.

  • Unannounced Pitch Project: Skin simulation using nCloth.
  • Unannounced Pitch Project: Large Reptile rig design and coding (wings, body).
  • Pay the Ghost: Rigging Lead on the Turkey Vulture (hero photoreal digital animal) and Annie (the titular ghost).
  • Crimson Peak: Lead on two hero characters from body, to face, to muscles. Hair sim animation rig creation. Some use of Yeti.
  • Killjoys Season 1: Random spaceship generator; rig support.
  • Vikings Season 3: Pipeline for moving my Maya characters using my autorig into Massive. Spearheaded a move to a Maya Scene Assembly setup for the Emmy-nominated Paris sequence.
  • The Strain (Season 1) - Lead Rigger for The Master digital double and cloak animation rig. Assisted in creation of Qualoth setup for Master sims. Created a deformer-based worm slime effect, combining techniques from Maya and Houdini.
  • Robocop: Lead Rigger: Designed an entirely new autorig system, and used it to design the rigs for Robocop and another complex mechanical character. Interfaced with the VFX supervisor to come up with solutions to difficult articulation issues.
  • Pompeii: Rigged various quadrupeds. Created a rigged nCloth tool for modelers.
  • Carrie: (Uncredited) Designed a shader transfer system, XShad, for the conversion of Maya VRay shader networks into a generic JSON format. This is then read in on the Houdini side by scripts written by another developer, and turned into identical shading networks for Mantra.
  • The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones: Designed and executed the body rigs for the wolves.
  • Mama: Rigged the Maya side of Mama's tendril-like hair, which was animated and then used to drive dynamics simulations in Houdini. Rigged the transformation Mama goes through during the climax of the film, using a variety of techniques with Maya Muscle and the open source Stretchmesh plugin to achieve a rolling flesh sack effect.
  • Resident Evil: Retribution: Rigged digital doubles, vehicles, the Uber Licker's long tongue, and aided in the rigging of the Uber Licker itself. Wrote a custom skin weights importer / exporter, and custom nodes for the long tongue. Used nCloth to simulate bullet holes in shots in the end. Performed a lot of shot finaling both in Maya and Houdini. Assisted with the Maya Muscle setup on the Uber Licker.
   November 2011 - February 2015
Programmer, FUNhouse Interactive. Continuing on the relationship I built through doing freelance projects for FUNhouse, I am now an official tools programmer and part-owner. I also double as a graphic designer and Flash programmer. Our current product is TradigTOOLS, a traditional animation helper for Maya.   2008 - 2015
Intermediate Character TD, Bedlam Games. Responsibilities included migration of pre-existing rigs and animations from Motion Builder to Maya 2012, building a Maya pipeline for the export, retargeting, and processing of animations for the Unreal Engine, and building the autorig to be used on all new animated characters in Maya. I also built particle effects, a few shaders, and did preliminary level layouts for Gammaworld. Unfortunately, Bedlam declared bankruptcy.   April 2011 - July 2011
Supervising Technical Director / CG Animator, March Entertainment. Responsibilities included animating shots, rigging characters, managing the creation and quality of assets, modeling, pipeline tool programming in Python and MEL, and on-set VFX supervision for the live action shoot of Mia and Me in Florence, Italy. Projects included Mia and Me, the first and second volumes in the the Playmobil DVD series, and various development projects. I also consulted on game design for the Yamroll and Dex Hamilton Flash games for CBC.   April 2009 - April 2011
Character Setup Artist / Animator, Red Rover Studios. Rigged multiple secondary characters and supported the lead character set-up artist on the main characters. Scripted solutions in both Python and MEL for Maya 2008, including a custom API node. Other responsibilities included character modeling, scene finaling, file rebuilding, and fur wrangling. I wore a lot of hats. The project was a three-minute feature-quality teaser for Ollie the Otter.   August 2008 - March 2009

Organizations and Memberships

Kappa Gamma Psi, National Professional Performing Arts Fraternity

Skills

  • C++ Programming (Maya API / custom node creation; Blender modifications; Cinema 4D SDK; standalone apps).
  • Character Articulation (rigging; building of autorigs and scripted workflows; Maya Muscle setup).
  • Character animation.
  • 3D Modeling and UV Unwrapping.
  • Autodesk Maya, Cinema 4D / BodyPaint, Unity, Modo, Houdini, and Blender.
  • gcc, clang, cmake, scons, XCode, and Visual Studio.
  • Proficient in Mac OS / OS X, Windows family operating systems, and Linux / Unix (most recently CentOS).
  • Proficient in Adobe Photoshop. Familiar with Flash, Illustrator, AfterEffects, and Premiere.
  • Python, MEL, PyQt / PySide, C, C++, UnityScript, Haxe.

Languages

  

Education
Conversational Japanese and Japanese Reading / Writing.  

Alumni of Animation Mentor. (Graduated January 2010)

Bachelor of Drama, Ithaca College, Ithaca NY. Class of 2002, GPA 3.5. Costume Construction concentration.


References available upon request.