FACS Rig
Script
Creature Rig
Procedural Animation
Facial RigFor this project, I wanted to dive deep into facial deformation and build a rig that was immediately ready for motion capture. I put together a FACS-based blendshape setup for an orc character, which brought up some really interesting technical challenges.The fun part was translating standard human mocap data onto a totally non-human face. I spent a lot of time building out custom corrective shapes to handle his rugged features. A lot of the work went into making sure the heavy brow still felt expressive without breaking the mesh, and setting up the rig so his lips wouldn't constantly clip through his protruding tusks whenever he talked. It was a great exercise in balancing a technical mocap pipeline with the actual visual appeal of the character.
ScriptI wrote this Python auto-rigger mostly because I got tired of doing the exact same tedious setup for every single character. The tool handles the foundational grunt work—generating the base skeleton, making sure the joint orientations are perfectly aligned, and building out a clean control rig with automated IK/FK switches.It runs through a simple, custom UI that lets you adjust the proxy proportions before hitting "build." Figuring out the math to make sure the joint orients didn't break during the automated setup was a really fun puzzle to solve. In the end, it turns a process that used to take me a few hours into a couple of clicks, which is a massive time-saver for the whole pipeline.
Spider Queen rigRigging a creature with this many limbs is always a fun puzzle. For this Spider Queen, the biggest challenge was making sure her massive, multi-jointed legs could hit all those extreme, unnatural poses animators love without the geometry completely folding in on itself.I spent a lot of time dialing in the twist setups along her limbs to make sure she maintained volume as she moved. On top of that, I built out a system of custom corrective joints to smooth out the heavier deformations around her abdomen and the tricky connections at the base of her legs. It was a really good exercise in creature rigging and figuring out how to keep a highly complex, non-humanoid rig clean and animator-friendly.
Procedural AnimationHand-keying eight legs to look natural on uneven terrain is a nightmare, so I decided to tackle this Spider Queen procedurally in Unreal Engine. Using Control Rig, I built out a locomotion system where her legs dynamically step and adjust to the environment in real-time.Figuring out the timing and spacing for a creepy, multi-legged gait using pure logic and traces instead of a timeline was a huge, but really rewarding, puzzle. To top it off, I built a procedural look-at setup. Now, whenever the player gets close, her head and upper body actually track them seamlessly. It adds a ton of life to the character and was a great way to push my in-engine implementation skills.
Hi, I’m Nathaniel. I’m a Technical Animator currently in the Technical Art program at The Game Assembly, where I’m specializing in, you guessed it, Technical Animation.My path hasn’t been a straight line, but it’s been a useful one. I started with Game Art at Future Games and then moved into Game Animation at TGA. Jumping between those different worlds gave me a really solid grasp of the whole character pipeline. I like being the person who understands how a character is built, how it needs to move, and how to actually get it working in the engine without everything breaking.I’m happiest when I’m bridging the gap between art and code. Usually, that involves things like:Writing Tools: Messing around with Python to make DCC tools or scripts that save everyone time.Rigging & Skinning: Building setups that animators actually enjoy using (and that don't fall apart).Implementation: Getting things to look right in-engine, whether that’s through runtime IK or setting up animation logic.When I’m not staring at nodes or code, I’m usually deep into Warhammer. Painting minis, reading the lore, or playing the games(both tabletop and digital). Otherwise, I’m just spending time at home with my family and our dogs.