Character Animator

KAAN KAYIMOGLU

Senior Animator

www.kaankayimoglu.com

912-***-**** - *************@*****.***

Senior Character Animator with solid academic credentials and hands-on experience focused on video gaming industry.

A team leader, who demonstrated ability to integrate creative, artistic and technical skills in planning and executing projects. He is a hardworking, highly motivated, and charismatic artist combining skills and a passion for Character Animation.

QUALIFICATIONS

He has over ten years of character animation, seven years of production and four years of university-level teaching experience. His skills include:

- Using industry standard 3D software packages for high-quality deliverables

- Leading teams of animators to deliver world-known projects and meet demanding "Product

Release" deadlines.

- Mentoring junior animators to improve their knowledge and skills.

- Estimate cinematics to realistically scope the project resource requirements.

- Rigging, skinning, and animating.

- Mocap Experience.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Planet Moon Studios, San Francisco, CA 2007 – Present

SENIOR/LEAD ANIMATOR

Led team of animators and character modeler in production of video games. Mentored new hires and junior animators

Interviewed and recommended new animation team members. Worked directly with Art Director, Programmers and Designers. Played a role on problem solving and implementation the animations. Experienced with Unreal Engine, Havok and Morpheme.

Vicarious Visions/Activision, Albany, NY / Mountain View, CA 2002 – 2007

SENIOR ANIMATOR

Led team of animators in production of video games

Mentored new hires and junior animators

Interviewed and recommended new animation team members

Developed animation for 15 released video games in a five-year period, consistently meeting personal schedule and content delivery commitments.

Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA 2000 – 2001

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Managing equipment such as Bolex cameras, lighting kits, sound recorders, green screens, glide cams

Assisted system administrators with installation of new applications in computer labs

Trained lab assistants to familiarize them with computer applications and scheduled their duties

Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey 1995 – 1998

FACULTY, College of Fine Arts

Taught classes in Traditional Animation, Character Design and Cinematography, Animation

History, and Screenplay writing.

Coursework included principles of animation, Concept development, storyboarding and

Postproduction of animated shorts.

Erim Gozen Animation Studio, Istanbul, Turkey 1994 – 1996

ANIMATOR

Started as clean up artist and continued as in-between animator

Key animator in the "Snow White, Seven Dwarfs and A Computer", done for the government.

Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey 1994 – 1998

ILLUSTRATOR

Illustrated children’s school books with a team of illustrators.

SOFTWARE SKILLS

3D Max, Maya, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop CS, ArtRage, Avid.

EDUCATION

MFA in Computer Art (3D Animation), Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA MFA in 2D Animation and Cinematography, Anadolu University, Social Sciences Institute, Eskisehir, Turkey

BFA in Traditional Animation and Cinematography, Anadolu University, Fine Arts Faculty, Eskisehir, Turkey

HONORS

Presidential Scholarship for outstanding portfolio.

Dean's List, Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah,GA. Dean's List, Anadolu University Fine Arts Faculty Eskisehir, Turkey.

PORTFOLIO

Tangled ( 2009-2010 :Nintendo Wii/Nintendo DS )

- Tasked Senior and Junior animators.

- Scheduled Animation reviews.

- Rigged and skinned all the characters in game with facial set ups and prepeared phonemes.

- Prepeared the layout-camera set up for each cinematics and make animatics for directors approval.

- Animated cutscenes.

Drawn to Life (2009 Nintendo Wii)

- Animated all the characters (playable, non playable and AI)

- Worked closely with designers and engineers.

- Attended weekly lead / management meetings.

- Created tasks for the animators and character modelers

- Attended dailies.

Unannounced cancelled project (2008-2009: X-Box 360)

Achieved high-quality animations for X-Box 360 platform. Worked as Senior/Lead Animator

- Rigged, skinned animated and implemented the animations.

- Attended weekly animation reviews.

- Worked closely with programmers/designers/writer and art director and sound designer.

- Research and development for new programs and tools for the company.

- Instructed new hires.

Battle Of The Bands (Nintendo Wii: 2008)

Worked as a contractor then hired for full-time as a Senior Animator. Worked on in-game and fast-paced cutscene animations for stylized characters.

- Animator (cut-scenes and in game character animations).

- Rigged and skinned animated and exported the characters.

Spiderman 3 (PS2/Wii: 2007)

Delivered over 40 rendered cut-scenes and in-game character animations. Instructed new hires to ramp up their orientation under aggressive deadlines.

- Animator (cut-scenes and in game character animations)

- Estimated cinematics

- Character prep, rig, skin & facial set up

Tony Hawk Down Hill Jam (Nintendo DS, March - May 2006)

Performed animating cut-scenes with the collaboration of team members.

- Cut-scene animator using in-house tools.

- Problem solving on skeleton set up.

- Exported cut-scenes.

Over The Hedge (Nintendo DS, September 2005 – March 2006)

Led the animation team under the tight deadlines, created in-game and cut-scene animations with fully lip-synched characters for an animated movie. Worked closely with the Art Director and scheduled review sessions.

- Lead Animator (rigging, skinning and animating)

- Supervised and trained new hires.

- Scheduled animation pipeline.

Tony Hawk Skateland (DS, May -September 2005)

Technical problem solving, updating character set up. Worked closely with programmers.

- Lead Animator (rigging, skinning and animating)

- Supervised other animators, creating tasks.

- Technical problem solving.

Ultimate Spiderman (DS, December 2004 - May 2005)

Part of animation team for comic book title, worked with assets from Treyarch/ Activision.

- Animator of Boss fights (rigging, skinning, animating)

- Scheduled review sessions.

Spiderman-2 (PSP, October - November 2004)

Cut scene creation of Spiderman movie game.

- Animator of cutscenes.

Spiderman-2 (DS, June - October 2004)

Part of animation team and animated all the Boss characters; reported to lead artist and lead animator.

- Animating, rigging and skinning.

Shark Tale (DS, March - June 2004)

Animated all the existing characters for DreamWorks movie game in a very short amount of time, for Game Boy Advance.

Doom-3 (PC X-BOX, February - March 2004)

Reported to Technical Director and animated cut scenes by using Motion capture data. Project had a highly aggressive schedule and the team worked for id Software remotely for their x-box and PC skews.

Spyro Orange, Crash Purple (GBA, September 2003- February 2004)

- Animated all existing characters

- Rigging and skinning

Need for Speed Underground (PS-2, July - August 2003)

- Modeled automobile parts

- Exported files and reviewed them in PS2 Dev Kit

Lion King (GBA, January - March 2003)

- Animating, rigging skinning 4 legged characters

- Mentored new hires

Brother Bear (GBA, January - July 2003)

- Modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, animating and palletizing

Finding Nemo (GBA, July 2002 - January 2003)

- Modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, animating and palletizing

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