Christopher Hogstead

Work History

• 

  CFX

  Animal Logic

  August 2020 - November 2021

  Vancouver, Canada
• 

  Character TD supervisor

  Endnight Games

  April 2020 - July 2020

  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• 

  Lead Creature FX TD

  Image Engine

  September 2019 - March 2020

  Vancouver, Canada Area

  Mulan 2020
  Bloodshot 2020
  
  Worked on simplifying and documenting Image Engine’s hair system while working on Bloodshot. This is a system that pipes Houdini simulations and proprietary hair deformation systems into Gaffer. My role turned into one of detective at a point, solving problems and errors in not only how we deform the hair for render, but how we prevent bugs from creeping into deformed hair.
  
  I also created CFX focused artist tools that mirrored common industry tools from Autodesk Maya into SideFX Houdini.
• 

  Lead Creature TD

  Cinesite

  January 2016 - July 2019

  London, United Kingdom

  Lead a team of up to eight junior to mid-level CFX and tech anim artists. Supervised the following:
  - Muscle Simulation & Setups
  - Cloth Simulation & Setups
  - Hair Simulation & Setups
  
  Witcher (2020)
  Avengers: Endgame (2019)
  Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
  Robin Hood: Origins (2018)
  Adrift (2018)
  Commuter (2018)
  Assassin's Creed (2016)
  Independence Day Resurgence (2017)
  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
  Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• 

  Lead Creature TD

  Electric Theatre Collective

  September 2015 - December 2015

  London, United Kingdom

  Lead a small team for developing a Creature FX pipeline and quality controlled animation rigs. This included:
  - Muscle and fat system based on cMuscle jiggle and my own custom curve solution for rigging muscle geometry
  - Skin simulation, based on nCloth but modified to preserve edge length and maintain volume.
  - Tech fix setup for sculpting final fixes in shot.
• 

  Creature TD

  Cinesite

  April 2015 - September 2015

  London, Greater London, United Kingdom

  Ant Man (2015)
  Gods Of Egypt (2016)
  
  - Muscle Rigging
  - Cloth Simulation
  - Shot Sculpting
  - Character FX tool writing
  - Character FX Pipeline development

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• 

  Rigging TD

  Framestore

  January 2015 - April 2015

  London, United Kingdom

  Avengers: Age of Ultron
  Tarzan
• 

  Rigger

  MPC

  March 2014 - December 2014

  London Area, United Kingdom

  Muscle Rigging, face rigging, one off shot rigs, and packaging assets.
  
  Monster Truck (2014)
  Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
  Night at the Museum 3 (2014)
• 

  Tech Anim Artist

  MPC

  July 2013 - February 2014

  - Cloth - simulation, sculpting
  - In shot skin fixes - shaping muscle, fat, other types of materials.
  - groom / hair - styling, render optimizing, simulation.
  & some rigging / scripting
  
  Godzilla (2014)
  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
  Maleficent (2013)
• 

  Rigger / Shot Finaling

  Newbreed Visual Effects

  June 2013 - July 2013

  Worked with Maya & Houdini in various aspects of the pipeline. From skin weighting rigs for production to setting up shots in Houdini I learned from and worked with some great talent in the industry.
  
  Horns (2013)
• 

  Character Rigger / Creature FX TD

  Image Engine

  June 2010 - February 2013

  RIPD (2013)
  Elysium (2013)
  Battleship (2012)
  Safe House (2012)
  Hop (2011)
  SSX (game cinematic) (2011)
  The Thing (2011)
  Immortals (2011)
  Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)
  
  As a rigger at Image Engine I have been tasked with:
  - Creating and implementing python based auto rigs.
  - Analyzing scripts and making changes for efficiency and coding standards.
  - Animation puppets for blocking animation.
  - Muscle systems based on deformers and joints.
  
  As a creature FX TD I have been given the tasks of:
  - Shot sculpting bones and muscles in shot.
  - Fine tuning muscle and fat simulations.
  - Creating clothing rigs / problem solving rig issues.
  - Running cloth shots and trying to hit a creative target for cloth deformation.

  
• 

  Lighting TD

  Freelance

  August 2011 - September 2011

  The Story of Luke (2011)
  - Mental Ray for maya to light a short sequence involving facial animation.
  - Created a global light rig and fine tuned for each shot.
  - Met a tight deadline.
• 

  Creature TD

  Arcana Studios

  September 2010 - January 2011

  Built rigs for small production based on a comic book series. Developed photo-real muscle system based on the manipulation of joints and curves.
  - Built auto rigging systems to create muscles and base rigs
  - created facial gui with an override system for realistic/effective face movements.
  - optimized and simplified rigs because I would not be around for the rest of production.
• 

  Tutor

  The Art Institute of Vancouver

  July 2009 - September 2010

  Help students learn the basics of 3D and 2D applications.
  Give students feedback on their assignments.
  Elaborate on topics raised in class.
• 

  After Effects Artist

  Studio Voltz

  May 2010 - June 2010

  - Worked independently & consistently meet deadlines, reviewed shots with supervisor and applied critique to complete the shot.
  -Created a shot layout & naming convention for each shot that was passed down the pipeline.

• Vfx Generalist

  Ogilvie Films

  March 2010 - June 2010

  - modeled, rigged, animated, light, tracked and composited 3D butterflies
  - worked remotely
  - self managed
• 

  Rotoscope Artist

  Prime Focus World

  February 2010 - March 2010

  Rotoscope Shots of various complexity for production on a feature film.
  
  2D to 3D conversion (stereoscopic)

• sales and guitar tech

  marthas music

  2004 - 2006

  Camrose Alberta, Canada