Since January 2024, Brazen has acted as an outsourcing agency for Bungie to rig the armor assets for Destiny 2. I was trusted to lead this team, acting as both rigger and project manager.

Our responsibilities were to conduct model reviews to enforce game standards and edge flow, skin the individual components to be interchangeable across all armor assets in the game, create & customize vertex animation deformers, and integrate the assets into Bungie's custom game engine under the memory budget to ensure gameplay was not affected.

In addition to this, we also utilized Havok Cloth to simulate the physical attributes of capes, robes, and sashes for every set of guardians.

This project is ongoing and through it I have integrated over 150+ assets into Destiny 2!

As the sole rigger for this commercial cinematic at Brazen Animation, I was responsible for rigging two characters—Jinx and Vi—as well as a turret prop, all from scratch using client-provided models.

To rig Jinx and Vi, I utilized the in-house modular rigging system I helped create. Jinx, in particular, posed a unique challenge due to her distinctive pigtail braids. This project allowed me to refine the 'rope' module I had originally developed for the cords in the Valorant 6.05 homescreen, improving its flexibility and usability.

Beyond technical challenges, the project had an incredibly tight turnaround. However, I exceeded the rigging bid by 125%, enabling the animation team to begin work a week ahead of schedule.

For this project I was in charge of rigging the reindeer and pipeline support. This entailed developing a quadruped leg module, transferring sculpted blend shapes onto skinning, and working on cross department solutions for layout, animation, and simulation. In total we created over 20 shots of animation, with unique cases appearing in Time's Square and Big Ben!

Throughout the duration of this project, I spearheaded the innovation of a work-file validation system that enabled us to promote higher levels of uniformity across various artist workflows. Integrating the tool company-wide during active projects was a unique challenge, that was solved by separating DCC environments into production and alpha branches until we were ready for the final release.

For most of this project, I wasn’t directly involved, as it was out-of-pipeline and used client-provided rigs. However, when it came time to submit the final work, the client reported that the wrists were broken in every shot.

I immediately began investigating the issue and discovered that the FK wrists did not properly drive the forearm joints. Due to client constraints, we couldn’t modify the rig itself. To resolve this, I took the initiative to develop a batch FK-IK matching tool that baked the animations into the IK controls. With this fix in place, I was able to reanimate 10 minutes of dance sequences in under two hours, ensuring a smooth and timely delivery to the client.

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For this project, I served as the rigger for all props and characters. The rigs presented several challenges, including developing cloth rigs that were connected to the body while maintaining independent movement, as well as balancing the distinct rigging needs of organic and inorganic characters. Additionally, I worked iteratively with animators throughout production to refine and adapt the rigs based on evolving requirements.

On the pipeline side, we made significant strides in integrating USDs into our workflow, ensuring that Brazen remained at the forefront of advancements in the animation industry.

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For this project, I was responsible for rigging all the instruments in the music video. I developed workflows to automate iterative processes, such as creating a system that allowed the piano keys to be driven by either FK or IK. Additionally, I utilized Shape Deformers for the guitar strings to enhance their movement and implemented squash and stretch techniques to give the instruments a cartoonish, dynamic feel.

Beyond rigging, I also implemented an XGen hair pipeline, ensuring efficient data transfer and compatibility across multiple DCCs. This workflow allowed seamless integration between Katana, Maya, and Houdini, optimizing the pipeline for hair rendering and simulation across different environments.

For this project, I worked as a rigger. The character in the short was originally a sculpted model not designed for animation. To bring life to the immortal lord of the dead, we retopologized the mesh for animation-ready edge flow and built a fully functional facial rig.

I was a Junior Pipeline TD for this cinematic. In total there were 4 character rigs and 4 different props. The client had provided us models with their in-game rigs, however we decided to build use our in house rigging system so the animators could give a better performance.

I was a Junior Pipeline TD for this cinematic. At this point, we had already rigged one of the characters so rather than assign me to rig the other, Josh Carey assigned me to develop numerous prototype rigs for the wire the game controller plugs into.

After iterating through a few different setups and meeting with animators, I created a modularized rope rig, that automatically builds various joints driven by a layered scheme of dependencies. Animators then had the control to bend the cord with both large and small influence.

Wayfinder was my first industry project. I came onto the team in the middle of animation and the start of lighting. I was responsible for monitoring the server farm, and for spotting rig problems in the anim dailies. Towards the end of the project I was brought on to assist with pipeline development, working on numerous tools across the pipeline.