Zerply

Kristoff Johnson

Passionate and Experienced Character TD / Rigger

Senior Character TD / 18 yrs

Mountlake Terrace, WA

Hire Me

Senior Character TD

Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012)

I am a passionate and experienced Character TD who has developed, rigged, implemented, and managed multiple characters, creatures, and systems for projects and studios successfully over the last 10 years. I pride myself in attention to detail, problem solving, providing robust solutions, thinking outside of the box, working well within a team environment, finding solutions within a defined scope, and delivering assets on time with a high level of quality.

Work History

VFX Rigger

Laika

January 2022 - Present
VFX Rigger

Laika

January 2022 - January 2024
Principle Technical Animator

illFonic

March 2019 - January 2022

Predator Hunting Grounds
Arcadegeddon
Character TD / Rigger

Bungie

February 2017 - January 2019

Bellevue WA

Destiny 2
Senior Technical Animator / Rigger

Armature Studio

September 2014 - December 2016

Austin TX

Shipped titles:
Recore (Xbox One, Windows 10)
Character TD / Rigger

Disney Interactive Studios

July 2011 - March 2013

Shipped titles:
Epic Mickey 2, The Power of Two
Wii, WiiU, Xbox360, PS3
• Managed over 150 unique characters across all platforms.
• Assisted environment and tech art teams with animated props, collisions, and vfx assets.
• Maintained consistency of characters between Wii and Next Gen console platforms.
• Supported animation team with scripted tools, batch export of animations assets, and workflows.
• Worked with modeling team on issues of topology and deformation.
Freelance Character TD / Rigger

Sixense

January 2013 - February 2013

San Francisco, CA
Character TD / Rigger

Total Immersion Software

July 2010 - June 2011

Shipped Titles:
- PTSD Medical simulator (PC)
- HAPE Medical Simulator (PC)
- DARPA DOGS IED Simulator (PC)
In charge of character rigging, animation, and technical integration of DARPA simulator projects.
Scripted Mel based automated rigging system and Maya to Max motion capture pipeline.
Created motion capture blending rig which allows animators to edit motion capture directly on the character rig.
Developed robust layered facial control system.
Create and maintain morpheme animation networks for character motion in engine.
Direct motion capture actors in shoots for projects.
Support technical art and animation team with problem solving and robust solutions for character related animation systems.
Rigging Instructor

Academy of Art University

September 2008 - May 2011

Instruct undergraduate and graduate level students in character setup and advanced rigging techniques including: working in an efficient production pipeline, organization, thinking outside the box, awareness of anatomy as it applies to deformation and characterization, Maya muscle systems, setup as it applies to animation, and many other aspects important to the creation of easy to use and robust character rigs.
Freelance Character TD / Rigger

Zoo VFX

June 2010 - June 2010

Developed 3 unique rigs for David Attenborough's "First Life" in association with Atlantic Productions and ZOOFX in London.
2 x One-Hour Series for BBC Two, BBC Worldwide and Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Two-Hour Special for Discovery Channel
Character Technical Artist

Sega Studios San Francisco

October 2006 - April 2010

San Francisco, CA

Rigged and maintained over 50 characters and vehicles per project. Rigged facial and full body solutions for motion capture and cinematic assets. Maintained automated rigging system in MEL. Authored destructible assets, collisions, rag-dolls, and interactive menus. Authored Havok behavior state machine networks for runtime characters and assets. Developed FaceFX animation pipeline with multi-language localization. Supported animation, design, and engineering teams with problem solving, robust solutions, and scripted tools.
Flash Developer

Microsoft

1998 - 2000

Authored flash based training demos and prototypes for the Tablet PC User Assistance team, Picture It! CD products, Welcome movie and products' preview. Worked with localization issues and teams.