Andrei Savu

Work History

• 

  Solution Owner

  PwC

  May 2021 - Present

• Senior PM

  Cantina Consulting

  November 2018 - September 2020

• Senior Program Manager

  Jibo

  January 2018 - June 2018
• 

  VFX Supervisor

  Splash VFX

  May 2011 - December 2017

  Splash is a full service visual effects boutique dedicated to the idea that no one should have to sacrifice quality in the pursuit of greatness.
  
  Regardless of the budget, your project matters to us because Splash is passionate about thoughtful creative and is fearless in the face of technical complication; our heart is in the art, but we have constructed a team made of the people you call when others have already failed.
  
  We don't use a 'B-team' and those that contribute to your next project have decades of experience to instantly start delivering beaut
• 

  Character Rigging

  Perspective Labs

  July 2017 - August 2017
• 

  Character TD/Rigger

  Mokko Studio

  June 2012 - December 2013

  Worked on creature rigging and digi double for Riddick. Led character finaling department and wrote some secondary facial animation tools for animators. This was for the new Riddick film released Fall of 2013.
  
  Was mostly a one-man Character TD team for Belle et la Bete the French Christopher Gans film released in France in February 2014. Responsible for hero deer character and vines towards end of film.

  

  

  
• 

  Character TD/Rigger

  Mammoth Sound and Vision

  November 2011 - May 2012

  Responsible for various biped characters in a 15 minute animated production.
• 

  Character TD/Rigger/FX Support

  Absolute Post

  March 2012 - April 2012

  Responsible for rigging the 3 digital doubles of Lady Antebellum band featured in Lipton Iced Tea 30 second ad.
  Also supported with Realflow elements for the air pockets inside if the filled digital doubles.
• 

  Character TD/Rigger/Animator

  Picture Mill

  July 2011 - September 2011

  Responsible for rigging and animated almost all featured creatures in the closing title sequence of Journey 2: The mysterious Island. Some of the characters include an elephant, bees, a lizard, fireflies and a centipede.

  
• 

  Dynamics TD

  Zero VFX

  March 2011 - April 2011

  Worked on a hot air baloon using nCloth and some shattering for the Red Sox opening day new HD scoreboard unveiling.
• 

  CG Supervisor/Lead Character TD

  Kompost

  November 2010 - February 2011

  Responsible for rigging, developing and implementing a pipeline and managing a team of 8-12 artists on two character driven :30 spots for McDonald's. The project's were titled "Apple Tree" and "Suzie Van Zoom".
• 

  Character Technical Director

  The Walt Disney Company

  January 2010 - August 2010

  Responsible for shot work of 5% of the film Tangled including Cloth and Hair simulation for Rapunzel, Flynn and secondary characters. Also adjusted rigging/deformation and animation in specific instances regarded as 'Character Finaling'.

  
• 

  Senior Technical Director

  Spark Unlimited

  June 2009 - December 2009

  Improved and managed various video game character for a large franchise video game. Using Agile SCRUM, designed and developed an intuitive and friendly facial interface and facial rigging pipeline that integrated Autodesk Maya software and into the Unreal game engine for the very first real time emotive and dialogue based facial animation system.

• Fluid Effects and Character Animator

  National TV

  March 2009 - April 2009

  Developed various Fluid Dynamics simulations for the 3D animated intro to the 2nd season of the ABC show "Wipeout!" Creates splashes, pools and other water elements.
• 

  Character/Mocap/Pipeline TD and Technical Animator

  Digital Domain

  August 2008 - February 2009

  Worked on projects such as Gillette/EA, Sobe SuperBowl spot and Capital One Rewards.
• 

  Animator/Pre-viz Artist

  321Launch

  May 2008 - August 2008

  Followed storyboards and executed pre-vis for characters and camera. At times changes shots around to better match story, timing etc. Also Rigged some quadraped characters including a bear, frog and some objects including a toothbrush and miscellaneous props.
• 

  VFX Supervisor

  The Famous Group

  2008 - 2008

  On-set supervision and visual effects integration of a "Clothing Beast" animated character within live action footage for ShopStyle.com.
  Surveyed data for proper CG camera integration and choreography for creature integration.
  Built and maintained a rig for a cloth creature. Building secondary dynamics and integrating nCloth and dynamic hair based elements into rig.
• 

  Character TD/Rigger

  CHRLX

  2008 - 2008

  Responsible for rigging the fish and growing plants/trees for the internal prohect titled "Shapeshifter" released in 2011.

• Technical Director Supervisor

  Threshold Animation

  June 2007 - November 2007

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Led a team of 6 technical artists for the last 4 months of an animated feature film production. Trained crew and developed workflow methods on the fly to solve a wide range of technical and design related complications.

• Maya Rigger/Animator

  Big Machine Design

  April 2007 - May 2007

  In charge of establishing an small in-house Maya pipeline. Rigged and animating 5 animated shots for Battle Jetix / Disney. These are used as transitional segments used to and from commercials during the Battle Jetix children's program.
  
  Rigged and animated laptops as characters in 5 short battle scenes.
• 

  Maya Rigger/TD

  Ring of Fire

  March 2007 - April 2007

  Responsible for setup of a flying quadra-ped creature.
  Character is hyper-realistic and was required to have fully functioning feather system like on an owl.

• Modeler/Lighter

  Polemic Design

  December 2006 - February 2007

  Responsible for modeling furniture in 3D from plans/elevations.
  Responsible for lighting and presenting furniture as visualization for marketing and manufacturing.

• Freelance AE&Maya;

  Element AB

  2006 - 2006

  Maya Generalist and After Effects work for numerous commercials from pre-viz
  through render. At times solely responsible for all 2D and 3D work.

• Freelance 3D

  Redcar

  2006 - 2006

  Maya Generalist and After Effects work for numerous commercials from pre-viz
  through render.

• Project 3D lead

  Lipow/Stoner Design Group

  2006 - 2006

  Project lead of a 5 artist team. An 8-week project consisting of a TV
  package for Animal Planet’s friday night series called TailEvision.

• 3D Generalist/Motion Graphics

  BlueRock Editorial

  2006 - 2006

  Modeling, Rigging and Animation. Motion Graphics for lower thirds and title work. Clients included Johnson & Johnson, M&M, Maybeline and others.

• AfterFX Artist

  Homestead Editorial

  2005 - 2006

  After Effects motion graphics work for numerous commercials.
• 

  Adjunct Professor

  Pratt Institute

  2004 - 2006

  Brookly, NY ; New York, NY

  
  Introduction to Maya, Modeling, Intermediate Maya and Rigging Instructor.
  
  Responsible for developing and inventing the first Rigging class offered by Pratt Institute. Responsible for initial introduction for the syllabus and co-authored the later syllabus that was intergrated into the new program which required rigging in the curriculum.
  
  Taught all levels of skill levels from beginned to advanced in a variety of areas. Classes taught as part of Bachelor and Masters program at Brooklyn campus as well as continuing education classes at New York 14th St location.
  
• 

  Fluid Simulation TD

  Fish Eggs

  July 2005 - September 2005

  American Inventor Intro Fluids

• 3D Generalist

  Saucer Attack

  2005 - 2005

  Maya Generalist and After Effects work for numerous commercials from pre-viz
  through render. At times solely responsible for all 2D and 3D work.

• Freelance VFX Animator

  Dogmatic, Inc.

  2005 - 2005

• Character TD

  Callaway Digital Arts

  2004 - 2004

  Responsible for rigging 15 different x-ped insects for the title: “Read with me
  DVD - Miss Spider’s Tea Party”