Lucas Smarker

Work History

• 

  Freelance Animator, Art Director, and Previz Artist

  Self-employed

  July 2023 - Present

  Glendale, California, United States · Remote

  - Supporting the animation, art direction, and previsualization needs of various companies
• 

  Art Director and Lead Animator

  Very Cavaliere Productions

  August 2022 - June 2023

  - Credited as Art Director, Producer, Lead VR Animator, and VR Storyboard Artist on the VR short film titled 'Mahal' produced by Very Cavaliere Productions and Meta
• 

  Animator and Storyboard Assistant

  Studio Syro

  September 2021 - July 2022

  - Evolved the animate-in-VR workflow with Quill to develop the series 'Tales from Soda Island'
  - Participated in story meetings to help the creative director structure his ideas for the episodes
  - Created hand drawn 3D storyboards, fx elements, and character animations
• 

  Body Animator

  2K Games

  June 2021 - September 2021

  Novato, California, United States

  - Cleaned up motion capture in Maya for the game NBA 2K22
  - Worked with the story animation department to provide high quality in-game cinematics
  - Mapped IK tokens to characters and props to allow the playable character to be different sizes
• 

  Animator

  ESPN

  June 2021 - July 2021

  - Provided 3D wave and surfing animation for a 2021 Olympics promo where surfing had its Olympic debut

• Instructor

  MasteringVFX.com

  January 2021 - May 2021

  - Developed an online course for beginner animators to learn Maya using the 12 Principles of Animation
  - Created 5+ hours of content featuring lectures and step-by-step animation demos in Maya
  - Collaborated with Agora Studio and Ugur Yetiskin to provide rigs for the course
• 

  Lead Animator

  Ingenuity Studios

  April 2019 - May 2020

  - Prioritized tasks for a team of 3-5 animators
  - Bid schedules for animation tasks with producers
  - Problem solved with other CG department leads
  - Brainstormed with riggers and pipeline team to improve the animation department
• 

  Animator and Layout Artist

  Ingenuity Studios

  May 2017 - April 2019

  - Provided camera, character, vehicle, and prop animation for music videos, ads, tv, and movies
  - Made decisions quickly to create previs and layout for directors and the animation team
  - Delegated shots to other animators, and taught them camera animation and mocap cleanup
  - Utilized conventional rigging skills to problem solve complicated scenes
  - Prioritized with FX, Lighting, and Comp to make sure we were working the most efficiently
  
  
  Some of the projects I've worked on:
  
  Music Videos
  - Travis Scott - Highest in the Room
  - Billie Eillish - Bury a Friend
  - BTS - ON
  - Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande - Rain on Me
  - Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do
  - Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It?
  - Taylor Swift - Lover
  - Maroon 5 - What Lovers Do Ft. SZA
  - Maroon 5 - Three Little Birds
  - Tiesto & Dzeko ft. Preme & Post Malone - Jackie Chan
  - JJ Lin - Wonderland
  - Major Lazer & Khalid - Trigger
  - Camila Cabello - My Oh My
  - Camila Cabello - Liar
  - Eminem - Lucky You
  - Eminem - Fall
  - Kelly Clarkson - Broken and Beautiful
  - Yungblud - Original Me
  - Jennifer Lopez - Dinero
  - Elohim - Braindead
  
  TV Shows
  - Modern Family
  - Will vs the Future
  - Ghosted
  - Euphoria
  - The Walking Dead
  - Away
  - Stumptown
  - Superstore
  - Fresh off the Boat
  - Blackish
  - Runaways
  - Penny Dreadful: City of Angels
  - Good Lord Bird
  
  Movies
  - Freaky
  - The Craft
  - A Star is Born
  - Wander Darkly
  - Motherless
  - Best of Enemies
  - La LLorona
  - HellFest
  - Kim Hushable
  - Isn't It Romantic
  - Happy Death Day
  
  Commercials
  - Frito Lay - My Favorite Things
  - Ad Council - From the Future
  - Helix - Crack Your Code

  

  
• 

  Animator

  Pencil Test Studios, Inc

  April 2017 - July 2017

  Lake Forest, CA

  - Worked on a Nintendo Switch game called Crystal Crisis
  - Animated hand keyed looping idles and attacks in Maya for a ‘puzzle-fighter’ style video game
  - Communicated through email with the animation supervisor to maintain the same vision as the client
• 

  HUB Team Intern

  DreamWorks Animation

  January 2017 - April 2017

  - Worked as a key communicator between many different shows and the HUB's Digital Animation Team
  - Called out assets for the 2D sequences in 3D shows, and had them approved by the Animation Supervisor
  - Ensured artists had PS/AE files prepped with the necessary layers and custom scripts
  - Assigned tasks to artists; referring to the each show’s Bar Schedule to make sure proper time was allotted
  - Broke out greater assets into more specific assets for later use
  - Redesigned the workflow documentation for every department in TV with Publisher
  - Updated the HUB Team website with graphical UI elements and employee bios
• 

  TV Production Intern

  DreamWorks Animation

  September 2016 - December 2016

  - Developed script and animatic breakdowns utilizing Google Apps
  - Organized model packs in Photoshop for modelers overseas
  - Performed asset callouts in Tweak RV, created searchable tags for assets, and updated Shotgun
  - Conformed storyboards to animatics, such as: inputting character labels
  - Scanned, printed and updated bar schedules for Directors and Producers
  - Cleaned up Producer notes and read scripts during storyboard kickoff meetings
  

• Animator, Storyboard Artist, and Compositor

  Coco Melon

  July 2016 - September 2016

  Irvine, CA

  - Provided keyframe animation in Maya for a web series targeted for children below the age of 5
  - Storyboarded during the Pre-Production phase; tailoring story ideas to the Director’s vision
  - Cross-collaborated with rigging department to ensure high quality rigs for the animators
  - Responsible for lighting animated scenes and performing batch renders using Mental Ray
  - Composited 3D animation into After Effects with 2D environment assets and motion graphics
  - Edited rough cuts and final video passes in Premiere Pro
  
• 

  Production Assistant

  Viacom

  July 2016 - August 2016

  San Diego, CA

  - Installed and regulated events for the MTV Fandom Awards during Comic Con 2016
  - Assisted Doritos with line control and obstacle maintenance for the Doritos Gauntlet
  

• Customer Service Lead

  Titan Shops

  January 2013 - April 2016

  Fullerton, CA

  - Managed 5-15 cashier employees
  - Ensured accurate product inventory by entering and auditing data in Microsoft Excel and TA2