Vykintas Kazdailis

Profile:        

I am a diligent, fast and flexible animator with a track record of success, having worked on multiple BAFTA, TIGA, Develop and other award winning projects. I am seeking new challenging opportunities which would allow me to further develop my skills.

Skills and Software

• Keyframe Character Animation (Maya 12 years, Motion Builder 2 years, 3ds Max 2 years)
• MoCap– planning, capture, transfer, editing, implementation (Xsense, Maya,Motion Builder, Ipi Soft)
• Implementation: rigging (Maya, Motion Builder), modelling (Maya), engine integration: (UNREAL 6 years, UNITY 3years, UDK 3 years, in-house SONY tools 3 years), scripting (PyMel-1 year)
• Visual scripting– Animation logic, blending trees (Unreal, Unity, in house SCEE tools)
• Post: Lighting, Texturing, Rendering (Maya, Photoshop-10 years) Video editing, composing (Premiere-8 years, After Effects-3 years)

Industry Experience:

• July 2019 – Present. Animator. Embark Studios
  • UNANNOUNCED- Character in game animation, Cutscene animation, MoCap set up (planning, recording, re-targeting, cleaning up) Animation logic, blending and implementation in engine. Prototyping and designing character movement and abilities: skill based traversal, designing animations and their flow depending on timing, speed and obstacles.

• August 2014 – May 2019. Senior animator. Tarsier Studios
  • THE STRETCHERS (SWITCH) (MAYA, UNREAL) Defining animation style as main animator in the project. Full animation pipeline in a small team: skinning, rigging, character animation, cut-scene animation, cut-scene set up in engine, animation blueprints (blend trees), physics and animation blending, in engine animation re-targeting system setup, etc. Training, supervising and working with other animators.
  • LITTLE NIGHTMARES 1, 2 (PC, PS4, XBOXONE) (MAYA, UNREAL) Animating characters, prototyping and setting up their behaviors in engine.
  • STATIC INSTITUE OF RETENTION (PS4 VR) (MAYA, UNREAL) Setting animation style as a main animator on the project, animating characters, rigging, skinning, setting up animation blend-trees (blueprints) for character behavior.
  • TEARAWAY unfolded (PS4) (3DS MAX, PROPRIETARY MEDIA MOLECULE ENGINE) Cutscenes from storyboard to integration, gameplay, scripted sequence character animations, engine implementation.

• May 2012 – Jun 2014. Senior Animator. TRC Family Ent. (start-up)
  • (IPAD) (MAYA, UNITY ENGINE) Animation style, Creating biped and quadruped stylized In-game animations, cut scenes and video clips, assisting in creation of animation pipeline, engine integration

• July 2011 – May 2012. Animator. ‘Wonderbook’ PS3. SCEE London Studio
  • (MAYA, PROPRIETARY SCEE ENGINE & TOOLS) Preproduction and Production stages of the project. In-game and cut-scene character animation, animation tree setup, game implementation. Innovative solutions for augmented reality camera/PS3 move controller based animation. Mentoring new animators, collaborative animation pipeline optimization

• October 2010 – July 2011. Junior Animator. SCEE London Studio PS3
  • PROTOTYPING (PS3) (MAYA, PROPRIETARY SCEE ENGINE & TOOLS) Flexible pre production stage working with teams from 2 to 40 people. Looping in-game character animations with Lead Animator setting the style and motion plan for the game. Rendering and video editing, character modelling, rigging and texturing, pre-visualizations and video demos of gameplay.

• Sep 2009- Aug 2010. Animator, Tutor. Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education
  • Animated and created assets for 3 games in teams of up to 16 people. Created hand-keyed, as well as MoCap animation and used UDK engine & blending techniques as a master student
  • Taught Maya animation and modelling for undergraduate students as part of academic staff

• Jun 2009- Aug 2009. Team Leader, Animator. ‘Dare to Be Digital’ games dev. competition
  • Led a team of 5 to complete a 2.5D puzzle platformer prototype ‘Shrunk’ under 9 weeks deadline and won 2010 BAFTA ‘Ones To Watch’ award, 2010 Scottish BAFTA ‘New Talent’ games award and ‘Teams choice’ award. Developed in game animations, cut scenes, level design, environment models and textures

• Sept 2007 – May 2008. Animator. Ink Animations Ltd
  • Led by producer Gili Dolev in a team of 9 people to create 8 min. Short film- ‘The Happy Duckling’ now turned into TV series ‘Zack and Quack’ on Nickelodeon Junior. Produced character animations and provided innovative solutions to environment, character rigging and animation for flat, paper like, pop-up book style. The film was nominated for ‘Best short Film’ in 2010 BAFTA’s, won 2010 Scottish BAFTA for ‘Best animation’ and over 10 other awards worldwide

Related Experience:

• Oct 2013 – May 2014. Mocap set up and recording. Personal work
  • Created a markerless mocap setup using multiple depth-sensor cameras and a set of software solutions for fast and cost effective MoCap workflow to meet the needs of the projects
  • Acting, recording, cleaning, animating and exporting to game engines (IpiSoft, Motion Builder, Maya, Unreal)
  • Projects: animation revamp ‘Mortal Online’ (MMO, PC. Star Vault), unannounced titles IOS

• May 2013 – Present. Indie game development. Personal work
  • Working on a mobile version of the BAFTA awarded ‘Shrunk’ game prototype mentioned above using UNITY. Full art pipeline and integration into the engine

• Jan 2010- Aug 2010. BAFTA & DARE children game design events Speaker and Assistant
  • Part of the industry expert panel during ‘BAFTA Young game designers competition’ event
  • Assistant in ‘Dare to Be Digital’ Game Development competition for children. Helped children in creating winning game ideas for the competitions

• Sep 2008- Jun 2009. Animator. ‘Fishy Science’ animation project
  • In collaboration with 2 classmates developed a 3min. animated film as an honours year project. Short was awarded a ‘Best collaborative work’ award in the Abertay University Degree show

Qualifications:

• August 2010 M.Prof. In Computer Games Development, Univ. of Abertay, Dundee, UK.
• June 2009 First Class B.A. (Hons.) in Computer Arts, University of Abertay, Dundee, UK.
• June 2005 M.C. (Lithuanian Maturity Cert.) Fine Arts & Design, National M.K.Č. School of Art, Lithuania

Personal details:

• Hobbies & interests: Indie game development, rock climbing, kite surfing, scuba diving, snowboarding, French & Japanese animation, European & Asian cinema, foosball and volleyball
• Knowledge of Foreign Languages: Fluent English, mother-tongue Lithuanian, proficient Russian