Gretchen Freitag

Work History

• 

  Technical Animation Artist

  Walt Disney Animation Studios

  April 2023 - Present

  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · On-site

  
• 

  Assistant Production Specialist

  Texas A&M University

  May 2016 - Present

  College Station, TX

  • Training and supervising of student workers
  • Manages the Viz Lab production studios
  • Tracking inventory of the Viz Lab resources
  • Coordinating equipment rentals
  • Upkeep of the equipment management database
  • Create promotional videos for recruiting
  • Plan artist exhibitions for the Viz North Galleries
  • Organize the Viz-a-GoGo exhibition & showreel, the culmination of student work from the past year
• 

  Simulation Artist

  Mainframe Studios

  January 2021 - April 2023

  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• 

  Tech Anim Artist - Finch

  Mill Film

  December 2019 - April 2020

  • Learning to build complex cloth simulations
  • Building & running cloth simulations for various characters
  • Set up set dressing techanim assets
  • Create a template for sculpting cloth assets.
  • Frame sculpting and cloth matching.
  • Post simulation clean up.
• 

  Tech Anim Artist - CATS (2019)

  Mill Film

  February 2019 - December 2019

  • Learn techanim, cloth, and fur workflows.
  • Promoted to a ‘Shot Owner’. Manage a small team of artist complete all techanim elements of a shot.
  • Assigning and briefing artist on techanim tasks.
  • Preform QC checks on downstream elements and create flags for broken or missing caches.
  • Assemble and publish shot & character packages for lighting.
  • Present techanim QC to supervisor for final approvals.
  • Facial, body, and cloth tracking with 3D elements
  • Master proprietary tools for facial tracking with 3D models
  • Frame sculpting. Clean up facial animation & body deformations
  • Adding muscle deformations and jiggle simulations
  • Building & running cloth simulations for characters
  • Running Houdini fur simulations
  • Testing fur renders in Katana
  • Updating and modifying the pipeline packages
  • Mentoring junior artists to use the pipeline
  • Teaching techanim tools to other artist
  • Receive critiques and make appropriate changes on a tight production schedule

  

  
• 

  Assistant Production Specialist

  Department of Visualization, Texas A&M University (Viz Lab)

  May 2017 - February 2019

  Bryan/College Station, Texas Area

  • Train and supervise student workers
  • Maintaining the Viz Lab production studios
  • Coordinating equipment rentals
  • Upkeep of the equipment management systems
  • Plan artist exhibitions for the Viz North Galleries
  • Organize Viz-a-GoGo, the culmination of student work from the past year.
• 

  Instructor of Record

  Department of Visualization, Texas A&M University (Viz Lab)

  January 2015 - May 2017

  Bryan/College Station, Texas Area

  • Teach undergraduate level courses
  • Plan weekly & semester class calendar
  • Evaluate & grade assignments, milestones, and final projects.
  • Develop instructional material, such as syllabi, visual aids, & tutorial sessions for various 3D software.
  

• Project Manager

  The LIVE Lab

  May 2015 - January 2016

  Bryan/College Station, Texas Area

  • Run morning check-ins for daily tasks
  • Plan weekly sprints in order to meet the long-term goals
  • Conduct employee evaluations
  • Created various workflows using Hansoft to enable efficient communication between supervisors and artists.
• 

  Teaching Assistant Disney Summer Course

  Texas A&M University

  April 2015 - September 2015

  College Station, TX

  • Collaborate with 4 teams to complete animated shorts
  • Assist each team in creating a production plan & deadlines
  • Develop asset & shot lists with production leads
  • Lead internal dailies to review and critique asset progress
  • Mentor students in creating consistent look development
  • Run bi-weekly external reviews via BlueJeans with mentors
  • Monitor render farm for equal resource distribution
  • Mediate interpersonal disputes and resolve conflicts
• 

  Surfacing Lead DreamWorks Summer Course

  Texas A&M University

  April 2014 - August 2014

  College Station, TX

  • Lead a team to complete an animated short
  • Create & maintain asset & shot lists
  • Responsible for shading all character, props, & environments
  • Work with teammates to create our established look and feel
  • Receive and apply feedback from professional critiques
  • Collected work for reviews
  • Hold bi-weekly meetings to assess progress and goals
  • Accepted into SIGGRAPH 2015 Dailies
• 

  Production Lead - DreamWorks Summer Course

  Department of Visualization, Texas A&M University (Viz Lab)

  May 2013 - August 2013

  Bryan/College Station, Texas Area

  • Lead a team to complete an animated short
  • Plan 10 week team calendar with an iterative process
  • Propose and lock deadlines
  • Create and maintain Asset & Shot Lists
  • Collected work for reviews
  • Hold bi-weekly meetings to assess progress and goals
  • Accepted into SIGGRAPH 2015 Dailies