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Ben Freedman

Character Animation / Tech Animation / Design
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Objective

Breathing life into virtual worlds by creating the finest Player, NPC and Boss experiences possible.  Champion my teammates through the ups and downs of production.  Share my passion and enthusiasm with any team of which I am a part.  Always push the bar of excellence, and seek to elevate the conversation.  Consider "why" as well as "how".  Do everything within my power to help create the best games imaginable.

Qualifications

Thorough usage of animation and design principles.   Passion for arriving at the most creative and successful visual solutions possible.  Strong aversion to settling on generic, uninspired results.  Emphasis on effective, respectful dialogue with colleagues, and desire to absorb and leverage the breadth of their knowledge as well as advocate for their points of view.  Eagerness to draw constructive meaning from error.  Thoughtful contribution to collaborative working environments.

Experience

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Education

 

 

 

 

Feb 19 - Present


Oct 18 - Feb 19










Feb 16 - Oct 18

 

 










Feb 13 - Feb 16

 




Oct 08 - Feb 13

 

 

 

2008

 






2004 - 2008

 

 

2003 - 2004

 

Probably Monsters - Lead Animator - Incubation

  • Manager:

  • Planning and Risk Assessment

  • Team Management / Briefs / Documentation / Outsourcing

  • Motion Aesthetics and Content Pipelines

  • Motion Capture Scoping and Planning

  • Hiring Manager

    Individual Contributor:

  • Gameplay / Cinematic / Conceptual Animation

  • State Machine Architecture & Blend Trees (Unreal Engine)

  • Montage Markup / Notify Workflow / Traversal Design

  • Blueprint Scripting / Prototyping (incubation)

  • Combat Design Pitches, Iteration and Tuning

  • Collaboration with Engineering, Systems Design and Technical Art

  • Coordinating with Gameplay/Tools Engineers on Character Performance/Content and workflow.

  • Character Setup (Using auto-rigger)


ArenaNet Inc. - Senior Technical Animator - Incubation

  • State Machine Architecture & Blend Trees

  • Collaboration with Gameplay Engineering, Engine Team and Systems Design

  • Working directly with engine team on editor feature requirements and authoring workflow

  • Markup/Notify Editing / Workflow

  • Traversal Aesthetics and Design

  • Experimentation with Motion Fields / Motion Matching

  • Motion Capture Scoping and Planning


ArenaNet Inc. -  Senior Character Animator - Incubation

  • Player / Creature Animation and Animation Aesthetics

  • Traversal Aesthetics & Design / Tuning

  • Coordination with Systems Design and Gameplay Engineering 

  • Animation Markup Workflow

  • State Machine Architecture / Blending

  • Engine Tech Request and Planning

  • Motion Capture Scoping and Planning

 
Motiga Inc.  -   Senior Character Animator  -  Gigantic

  • Player Character, NPC animation

  • Marketing Cinematics (Pre-Prod - Closed Beta)

  • Anim Trees and Markup Tuning (UE3)

 

ArenaNet Inc.  -   Character Animator  -  Guild Wars 2

  • Player Character, NPC and Boss Animation  (Early Production - Live Content)

  • Principal Artist - Live Content Teams

 

Airtight Games  -  Animation Intern  -  Dark Void 

  • In Game Cinematic Block-In

Nintendo  - QA / Tester - Various

  • Game Testing and Quality Assurance

 

Digipen Institute of Technology

  Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Animation

 

Grand Valley State University

Computer Science Major

Bellevue / Issaquah, WA


Bellevue, WA





Bellevue, WA

 

 



Bellevue, WA

 

 


Bellevue, WA

 

 

 


Redmond, WA


Redmond, WA

 


Redmond, WA

 

 

Allendale, MI

Robert B. Mcmillen Scholarship for the Arts - Full Tuition

Awards

  • Primary:  Character Animation / Mockup, State machine / Blueprint Scripting / Systems Prototype, Character Setup

  • General:  Hiring Manager / Planning and Ideation, Drawing/Painting, Character Setup, Workflow

Expertise

  • Autodesk MAYA, MAX             Animation, General Modeling

  • UNREAL ENGINE 4/5              Animation, State Machine, Blueprints Prototyping

  • Adobe Photoshop                   Painting / Drawing

  • After Effects / Premiere          General Editing / Ripomatic

  • General Productivity               Tracking, Source Control, Sheets

Matthew Wingler linkedin.com/in/matthewwingler/
Evan Lesh              
linkedin.com/in/evan-l-b9087a24
Omar Amador:       
linkedin.com/in/omaramador                                 
Thomas Vinas         linkedin.com/in/thomas-vinas                                 
Robert Djordjevich  linkedin.com/in/rdjordjevich
Nick Wiley:            
linkedin.com/pub/nick-wiley/25/85a/384            
Brian Lawver:        
linkedin.com/pub/brian-lawver/30/4b/34a
Jazno Francoeur:    linkedin.com/in/jazno


Prototyping personal games, Playing Games, Reading / Non-Fiction, Animated Film / TV, Drawing / Painting, Singing, Paintball, Running / Soccer, Gardening / Growing fig trees, Watching Movies, Watching BAD movies with friends.

Skills

 

 






References

 


Interests

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