Spicy Cricket Animation

I love to animate and thoroughly enjoy the storytelling possibilities in animation and visual effects. I've been working in CG animation for over 14 years now for feature film, TV, games, and commercials. My specialty is character and creature animation and I like the challenge of moving back and forth amongst the "sweet and endearing" and the "evil and deadly." My strengths include pre-visualization, early development of motion and character personalities, leadership and mentoring of animation teams, pipeline consulting and organization of shows both film and commercial. Currently, I am available for off-site or on-site production. My goal is to seek out opportunities in supervising animation and consulting for long format projects and rising studios.

You may view recommendations from previous supervisors, co-workers and employers here.

I also develop original content...click on the stories button above to see some pitches. To find out more, email me at angie@spicycricket.com.

I am currently Animation Supervisor at Motion Theory Studios in Venice, CA leading the animation team, both 3D and 2D animation on all projects. My responsibilities include ensuring work stays on schedule, building and staffing for projects and raising the bar on animation for all jobs in the studio.

Previous to this position, I returned to Asylum FX Fall 2007, for a brief time to help with the second installment of National Treasure. (I worked on the first National Treasure film in 2004.) Before Asylum FX, I served as a character specialist consultant to Side Effects Software (SESI, Inc.) in Los Angeles and Toronto for Houdini version 9's new character tool set. I assisted in refining and presenting the new artist friendly tools at Siggraph 2007, including a 7 second promo for SESI’s 20th anniversary.

Previous to SESI, I wrapped production on 3 Popsicle spots at Sea Level Venicewhich included over twenty beavers doing a water ballet, three sand people rising from the beach and eight trolls who dance on the stage with the kids and the designated "Man of Popsicle." Before to Sea Level, I worked at Digital Domain as Animator and Animation Supervisor for about 2 1/2 years. In 2006, I wrapped production on the fifth of Disney's "50th Anniversary" commercials working with Visual Effects Supervisor Fred Raimondi and Directors Joe Pytka and Eric Goldberg. (Disney spots were called "Homecoming," "Wish Upon a Star," "Magic Box," "Toon Takeover," and "Characters in the Park").

These commercial spots were a challenge, working with a franchise of over a 80 year legacy and implementing the signature cartoony style of Disney to the classical characters on a computer. I also completed character and creature animation for the films "Zoom: Academy for Super Heroes," "Stealth," and "The Hitcher," while at DD.

My show choices have required me to bring to life both sweet talking animals and menacing beasts. During 2005, I worked on the three-time Oscar Winning "Pan's Labyrinth" with Director Guillermo Del Toro at Cafe FX animating creepy faeries and stick bugs. In 2004, I animated crowd scenes of Egyptians and Revolutionaries for the film "National Treasure" at Asylum FX. Also that year, I led a team of 5 talented, young animators on the movie "The Cave" at Luma Pictures giving life to 12 foot bats on the rampage.

The year 2003 brought more of the creepy and the saccharin. I animated the Night crawler for "Xmen 2" and the Freddy-pillar for "Freddy Vs. Jason" at Cinesite, Hollywood. After Cinesite closed its doors, I continued on "Garfield: The Movie" and "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed," while working at Rhythm and Hues.

I also helped R & H win "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" bid, through my work on the animated pitch of Mr. Beaver...competing with 3 other studios for that project. Film wasn't the only department I worked in at R & H. In 2003, I worked on the Gieco Gecko spots for the R & H commercials department with Animation Supervisor Craig Talmy.

In 2001, I joined Sony Pictures Imageworks to animate characters for "Stuart Little 2," winner of the VES Award (Visual Effects Society) in 2003 for Best Character Animation in an Animated Motion Picture. Following in 2002, I handled several smaller shows like leading a team on 8 minutes of cinematics for the Power Puff Girls at Super78; The Kids Cuisine spot with 4 characters at Duck Soup Studios; animating the talking baby for Smart and Final at Colorado FX; and finally...I did a little consulting on animation pipeline at Walt Disney Feature for one of their new features in development that due out 2008.

My first real job in character animation was at a San Diego studio with more than 150 traditional animators called Lightspan. Lightspan developed edutainment for kids, ages k-12. After 3 years there, I moved to Oddworld Inhabitants in San Luis, Obispo, California, where animated for the video game cinematics of Abe's Exoddus and Much's Oddysee. After Oddworld, Angel Studios (now Rockstar Games) back in San Diego in 2000, I was promoted to Lead Artist and served in that capacity working with CAPCOM/Japan and Rockstar Games on the award winning games "Dino Crisis 3," "Red Dead Revolver," "Midnight Club 2," "Smuggler's Run 2," "TRW Surf," and "Oni 2." At Angel Studios, I also served on a board to raise the bar for assets on all 6 games in production at the studio.

From 1993-1995, I worked for various studios in Atlanta including Coca-Cola USA, Alan Stecker Video, Crawford Communications, Vogelei and Associates and Mindlfex/TannerMarkand Wild Dog Studios/Big Mouth Post using everything from Rio, Tips, HiREZ QFX, Wavefront TDI, Paintshop Pro, 3D Studio Dos and Softimage. I created sales and stock presentations, corporate video presentations, logo animations, animated bumpers for Cartoon Network and 2D and 3D animation for a children's television show called Reality Check (hosted by Ryan Seacrest, yes he is from Atlanta!) with these studios.

Over the years, I have devoted many hours to lecturing, teaching and sharing knowledge with universities, colleges and professional institutions and organizations throughout the US. I lectured on facial animation systems at the Game Developers Conference in 1998. I have also served on many panels regarding Career Strategies including panel for the LA Siggraph Chapter, The Visual Effects Society and Gnomon School of Visual Effects. In addition, I also taught animation seminars and spoke on animation panels at DHIMA and Comicon on how to create believable characters for the big screen. Fall of 2006, I collected a group of experts (including myself and my co-author Jamie Oliff) with friends Jerry Beck, Richard Taylor and Floyd Norman for a Panel conducted at Walt Disney feature Animation. Another fun thing I do to give back to the CG community is with MY BLOG. I hope to keep the community "thinking about animation" with my posts there and keep animators pushing themselves with inspirational work I find online. Finally, I am now serving on the Accreditation Advisory Board for Los Angeles Film School's new CG and Animation departments.

In addition, I have written several books on animation and most recently finished the Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG book released in June 2006 and published by Thomson Course Technology. This text teaches you how to "think before you animate." Thinking Animation is a one-of-a-kind book that emphasizes how artists can use traditional animation techniques and principles with today's computer generated animation technology. It embraces the future of animating with the computer while still retaining the core values that traditional animators use as formulas and principles.

Atlanta College of Art (now SCAD) is where I had my first real introduction to the images computers could create. In 1994, I graduated a Presidential Scholar with a major in Electronic Arts and a minor in Drawing. I had my first introduction to high-end graphics while and intern at the few studios in Atlanta who actually owned PC and SGI workstations with 3D Studio, Wavefront TDI and Softimage. I have experienced and learned so much since those early days and thank everyone I have crossed paths with who contributed to my journey. Sincerely,