Melanie Beisswenger

Melanie Beisswenger

Senior/Lead Animator & Animation Instructor

Lead Animator

Mainz, Germany

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Senior Animator

Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt (2016)

Senior Animator

Roby, Toby's Fantastic Voyager (2016)

Lead Animator

Emerald Green (2016)

Animator

The Seventh Dwarf (2015)

Lead Animator

Sapphire Blue (2014)

Animator

Riddick (2013)

Riddick: Blindsided (2013)

This Is the End (2013)

Now You See Me (2013)

Animator

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Happy Feet Two (2011)

Animator

There's Bliss in the Kiss (2010)

Fly Me to the Moon 3D (2008)

BioShock (2007)

Animator

Happy Feet (2006)

Visual Effects Supervisor

Puca (2006)

Animator

Anderswo - Die Krawallah (2004)

Animator

Body Experiments

Lead Animator

Smaragdgrün

Lead Animator

Saphirblau

Freelance Animator

Magnum - Release the Beast

I am a senior/lead character animator, director and educator with over a decade of production experience on feature films, TV and interactive. My animation credits include the Academy Award winning feature film ‘Happy Feet’, its sequel ‘Happy Feet 2’, the TV launch commercial for the BioShock game, as well as work on the VFX features ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Riddick’, and ‘Now You See Me’, the animated German feature film ‘The 7th Dwarf’, and I was Lead Animator for the CG character on the live action feature films 'Saphirblau' and 'Smaragdgrün'.

I also love to teach animation!
Work History

  • Professor

    Stuttgart Media University

    February 2018 - Present
    Stuttgart Area, Germany

  • Animator

    Bacon Productions

    August 2017 - September 2017

  • Character Animator

    Digital District

    February 2017 - March 2017

  • Animator

    Walking The Dog

    August 2016 - August 2016

  • Lead Animator

    ARRI Film & TV

    November 2013 - September 2015
    Munich Area, Germany

  • Animator

    TRIXTER

    September 2012 - September 2013

    animated on:
    The 7th Dwarf (full CG feature)
    Iron Man 3

  • Senior Animator

    Modus FX

    April 2012 - August 2012

    Character / creature animation and behaviour development tests for feature film projects:
    “Riddick”
    “Now You See Me”
    “This is The End”

  • Animator

    Dr. D Studios

    July 2010 - October 2011

    - Animated characters for Happy Feet 2
    - Animated character tests to assist in the development of the animation style
    - Helped in the testing of and provided feedback on the functionality of the rigs

  • Asst. Professor

    School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technolog

    July 2007 - June 2010

    Taught 3D character animation in introductory and advanced classes with focus on acting and character performance.
    Taught animation development and preproduction, story and concept. Supervised BFA Animation Final Year Projects.
    Co-developed BFA course curriculum, and class contents and teaching materials for above classes.
    Guest Lecturer at SAE Institute in Perth, speaker at fmx '08, fmx '09, VIEW conference, CG Overdrive

  • Computer Animation Festival Producer SIGGRAPH Asia 2008

    ACM SIGGRAPH

    2008 - December 2008

  • Consulting Visiting Facutly

    IDD - Institute of Digital Design

    June 2008 - June 2008

    Teaching character animation and consulting on course curriculum.

  • Senior Animator

    EyeballNYC

    May 2007 - June 2007

    Previz and character animation for the TV commercial for the game 'Bioshock'

  • Senior Animator

    nWave Digital

    November 2006 - April 2007

    Character animation for the stereoscopic 3D feature film 'Fly Me to the Moon'

  • Animator

    Animal Logic

    July 2006 - October 2006

    Lip sync and facial animation for the feature film 'Happy Feet'

  • 3D Character Animator

    Freelance

    April 2005 - June 2006

    - Animated for studios such as Spans & Partner, Acht, Soulpix, Metricminds, Echopark, Zeal, Visthetic in Germany and Anima in Turkey
    - Worked on TVCs and projects such as Plus - The Little Prices, Kalle Katjes, Scout 24, Jaegermeister Wild Shopping, ComBOTS Soccer Players National Teams and Aliens, Arcelik Campaigns, game cinematics Spellforce 2 & Gothic 3

  • 3D Animation Supervisor

    DQ Entertainment

    September 2004 - February 2005

    Directed and supervised animation for pilots, TV shows and Direct-to-DVD (Disneys “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”, Aberle Films “Donkey Ollie”).
    Planned shots, solved technical and artistic problems.
    Organized workflow and managed team of 75 Animators.

  • Animator and Artist

    Freelance

    October 2001 - June 2004

    3D Character Animator at Pixomondo Studios.

    3D Character Animator, “Elsewhere - The Krawallah”, Independent children TV series pilot, 13 min

    VFX Supervisor and Animator, “Puca”, Germany
    Short film combining live action, puppet and 3D animation, 15 min.
    Supervised a team of 8 digital Artists
    Developed pipeline for 3D tracking, 3D character extension and compositing
    3D animation, modeling, tracking, lighting, effects animation and compositing

  • 3D Artist

    blaxxun interactive AG

    May 1999 - September 2001

    Designed, modeled, rigged and animated real-time characters

  • 3D Artist

    Viewpoint Datalabs

    June 1998 - February 1999
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Education

  • Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

    2001 - 2004

  • University of Southern California (USC)

    1997 - 1998

  • Technische Universität Darmstadt

    1994 - 1998

  • Animation Mentor

    ? - ?