Matthew Wynne
Technical Art Direction
matt(at)mwynneconsulting.com



(Demo Reel & Current Projects)

 

Resume


(Click to download print version)


Update:
As of December 2008, I am working full time as Technical Art Director of Total Immersion Software, Inc. in Alameda, California. I am therefore not currently in the market for consulting work. Total Immersion has a small and slowly growing team of talented artists, and I am excited to be heading such a great team.

If you have comments or questions, I would appreciate any feedback you might have on my work. Please feel free to drop me a line at the email address above for any reason.


Skills:
Technical Direction, Technical Animation, Animation Pipeline Development, Character Rigging, Character Skin Weighting, Motion Capture, Technical Problem Solving, MEL Scripting, Max Scripting, Team Management.


Experience:
Technical Animation Consultant – Technical Art Direction (September 2004 – present).

  • Clients include THQ, 2KSports (a division of Take2 Interactive), hardware developers, software developers, and Computer Graphics Studios.
  • Acted as Technical Art Director on a wide range of character animation projects.
  • Designed and implemented efficient, end-to-end animation pipelines for games, commercials, and music videos using both motion capture and hand-generated animation.
  • Designed and implemented the facial animation pipeline, including a rig for seamless editing of facial mocap data, for THQ's WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw franchise (2009 and beyond).
  • Developed and built character rigs for animating by hand.
  • Developed and built character rigs for editing motion capture data.
  • Developed and built facial animation rigs for animating by hand.
  • Developed and built facial animation rigs for editing motion capture data.
  • Captured, cleaned, and solved thousands of motion capture animations for use in games, commercials, and music videos.
  • Converted and re-targeted thousands of animations for use on characters with differing proportions and varying bone layouts in MotionBuilder, Maya, and Max (Bones and Biped).
  • Solved ultra high-end facial mocap data from Mova to bone-driven face rigs.
  • Edited and finalized thousands of motion capture animations in MotionBuilder, Maya, and Max (Bones and Biped).
  • Looped hundreds of animations in Motion Builder.
  • Skin weighted geometry in Maya and Max.
  • Wrote several task-automating max and mel scripts.
  • Trained Hydrogen Whiskey animation staff to use Motion Builder for all motion capture and animation needs.

 

415 Games – Co-Founder; C.O.O. (August 2005 – July 2008).

  • Co-founded a startup company in San Francisco making original concept video games for mobile and handheld devices.
  • Shaped and secured deals for distribution of company-owned IP.
  • Co-designed “Puzzle Chess,” an original game combining classic and modern gaming elements.
  • Managed game development teams.
  • Designed and managed art pipeline and art asset database.

 

Electronic Arts – Lead Character TD; Motion Capture TD (June 1997 – February 2003).

  • Credited on more than 20 games in 5 years; games crossed several platforms (PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Playstation, N64).
  • Developed and managed entire motion capture and character animation pipeline for several game franchises including March Madness, Knockout Kings, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour.
  • Developed, built, and managed character animation rigs in Maya and Max.
  • Skin weighted all character meshes for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 and 2003 (PS2, GameCube, and X-Box versions).
  • Used Maya’s and Max’s scripting languages to develop several timesaving batch processes for manipulating animation and skinning data.
  • Re-targeted thousands of animations across skeletons of varying proportions.
  • Directed, captured, and solved thousands of motion capture animations.

 

BioVision – Motion Capture Manager (May 1993 – June 1997).

  • Managed several teams of motion capture technicians and animators.
  • Developed and streamlined the company’s motion capture pipeline.
  • Captured, cleaned, and processed thousands of motion capture animations.
  • Managed client relations throughout entire motion capture process.


Software Expertise:
Maya, Max, MotionBuilder, Vicon –BodyBuilder and Workstation, Motion Analysis –EvaRT.


Education:
Georgetown University - Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature (1991).

  • Graduated Magna Cum Laude.

 


Shipped Games:

WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2009 (Fall 2008)
Saints Row 2 (August 2008)
The Wheelman (Fall 2008)
NHL 2K7
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006
WWE WrestleMania 21
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
Knockout Kings 2003
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002
Knockout Kings 2002
007: NightFire (2002)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001
Knockout Kings 2001
March Madness 2001
Knockout Kings 2000
March Madness 2000
NASCAR 2000
Knockout Kings (1999)

March Madness 1999
NASCAR Revolution SE (1999)

NCAA Football 1999
March Madness 1998
Future Cop: LAPD (1998)

Recent Clients:

THQ
Total Immersion Software
Little Red Robot
Hyperia Games
Hydrogen Whiskey
2KSports
Syzygy Art
Runbot

References:
“I've had the pleasure of working with Matt for 10 years now on a wide variety of motion capture and animation projects. He has always been able to solve problems I've handed him, delivers on time (often early) and is an expert on motion capture, skeletons and IK rigs. I highly recommend Matt!”

-Jeff Smith, THQ
 
“Matt knows mocap. He is a problem solver. If there's a way to make it work he will figure it out faster than anyone. He's a mature professional and I would never hesitate to recommend him. He does what he says he will do. You can trust Matt.”

-David Washburn, Take 2 Interactive
 
"Matt, I just wanted to send you this test render and comment... Wow! Your rig is so awesome and robust. With no tweaking other than repositioning the leg/foot joints, I was able to make this minotaur a happening guy. So far I have rigged 25 widely diverse characters (13 more to go) and I just want to say thank you and 'Far OUT!'"
-Daniel Miller, Syzygy Art
 
"Thanks Matthew! These rigs are amazing! Thank you so much."
-Seth Shukovsky, Little Red Robot
 
"The Facial rig ROCKS!!! I’m all tingly! Great Job!"
-Stuart Elkington, Arcadia Entertainment

 

More references available upon request.

Also, please see my LinkedIn profile. .

There is also a partial list of my credited games at MobyGames.