Brandon Cestari

Work History

• 

  Animator

  Superseed Studios

  August 2023 - Present

• Lead Animator

  Consortium9

  May 2022 - August 2023
• 

  Senior Animator

  31st Union

  January 2022 - May 2022

  Valencia, Valencian Community, Spain

  Hand-key character animation.
  
  Responsible for taking animation from inception to implementation in engine (UE5).
  
  Mentoring junior animators and providing feedback
• 

  Lead Animator

  Yager Development

  June 2020 - December 2021

  Berlin

  Hand-key and mocap animations for the characters and creatures of the first person multiplayer shooter “The Cycle: Frontiers” video game.
  
  Responsible for hiring and building the animation team on the project as well as mentoring animators via feedback, workshops and demos.
  
  Conceptualizing and prototyping to determine the animation style for the project.
  
  Work with Tech animators to build the anim graph and state machine within UE4 for characters and creatures.
  
  Main point of contact for animation and all other departments/teams and collaborating with them to ensure animation quality and consistency in project but also to meet others objectives.
  
  Managing the animation team in general and responsible for the animation tools and pipelines improvements and maintenance.
  
  Team lead on creature design rework. I managed the multidisciplinary team to redesign the creatures for the Cycle: Frontiers. This involved leading the team from concept to implementation
  into the engine.

  
• 

  Freelance Animator

  Superseed Studios

  May 2020 - June 2020

  Worked as a freelance gameplay animator for Superseed studios providing additional animation resources to productions. Worked on multiple projects bringing life to the in game characters and creatures on those productions.

• Mid-Animator

  Pony Up picture studios

  January 2019 - March 2020

  Brisbane, Australia
• 

  Freelance Senior animator

  Freelance

  March 2018 - January 2019

  Melbourne, Australia

  For the past 5 months I was travelling through Asia on a world trip with my fiancee. We have stopped off in Australia for a year roughly before I continue on with our travels. I am currently open to freelance and remote work or possibly some short contract work. Please feel free to contact me to discuss any possible work, email is the preferred means of contact.
• 

  Remote freelance animator

  Motion Logic Studios

  September 2018 - December 2018

  Worldwide

  I was contracted by Motion Logic studios on a remote freelance basis to create a number of animations for creatures, characters and props. I worked on a few different projects for Motion logic off and on during this time.
  
  During this time as a freelancer my fiancee and I took time off to travel around the globe. Whilst travelling I took on some remote freelance animation work from time to time during the travels. We began in Japan in March of 2018 and paused the travels in December due to a job offer that began in January of 2019.
• 

  3D Animator

  SperaSoft

  November 2016 - March 2018

  Kraków Area, Poland

  Working as an animator specialising in both keyframe and motion capture to bring the many varied characters and creatures to life in some of the biggest games in the industry.
• 

  facial animator

  Cubic Motion

  April 2016 - October 2016

  Manchester, United Kingdom

  Worked on facial animations for a number of the biggest AAA video games in the industry. Polished mo-cap data to bring the highest level of quality to the facial animations in the video games in-game and cinematics sequences.
• 

  In game animator

  TT Games

  August 2015 - April 2016

  Knutsford

  Worked as an In-Game animator for the Lego Star Wars the force awakens and Lego Worlds video games. Was responsible for creating character animations that bring the Lego we all know and love come to life.
• 

  In-Game Animator

  TT Games

  February 2016 - April 2016

  Wilmslow

  Worked as an In-Game animator for the Lego Star Wars the force awakens video game. Was responsible for creating character combat animations that delivers fun and frantic combat which looks cool and spectacular while still being intuitive and providing a great gameplay experience.

• Lead Animator

  Nitro Games

  May 2012 - July 2015

  Finland

  Worked as a 3D Animator for Nitro Games on a number of projects before being promoted. Was promoted to Lead Animator and in this role I was responsible for the animations (including UI animations) but I was also responsible for all things relating to animation including rigging, skinning, research of new tools and techniques, guidelines and best practices documentation and leadership roles.
• 

  Lead Animator

  Nitro Games Ltd.

  October 2013 - July 2015

  Kotka Finland

  Was promoted to Lead Animator. Not only was I responsible for the animations (including UI animations) but I was also responsible for all things relating to animation including rigging, skinning, research of new tools and techniques, guidelines and best practices documentation and leadership roles.
• 

  Visual lead

  Nitro Games Ltd.

  September 2012 - October 2013

  Kotka Finland

  I was temporarily assigned as acting art director/Visual lead during this time as the company was looking for a new art director after the previous art director left the studio. I was responsible for managing and directing all art departments during this time and providing the art tests for the new art director candidates.
• 

  3D Generalist

  Freelance

  October 2010 - April 2012

  Johannesburg Area, South Africa

  Worked on a number of freelance animation projects ranging from adverts to company presentations.
  
  Clients:
  Mitsubishi
  Consol glass