Zerply

Suzi Little

Simulation Artist and Pipeline Technical Director

Supervisor Simulation Artist / Senior groomer / 20 yrs

Los Angeles, CA

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Cfx Artist

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)

Simulation Artist

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth (2018)

Cfx Artist

The Huntsman's Winter War (2016)

Cfx Artist

Kung Fu Panda 2: The Video Game (2011)

Character Effects Artist

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Cloth / Hair Lead (Pre-Production)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Digital Effects Artist

I am very excited about and accomplished in creating simulation and rigging for any and all types of media. I also love building and managing teams, creating pipelines and working with creative and passionate people.

Since 2000, I've been doing character costume and hair setups, shots and scripts to help with that work.

In recent years I've had a blast working on VFX simulation for commercials, TV, features and other media like Fuhu tablets.

Work History

CFX

Ericsson

July 2022 - July 2023

Remote
Simulation Artist

Framestore

December 2019 - February 2020

Culver City, CA

Created Experian Commercials (3) – “Stampede”, “World”, “Relationship”
Skin simulation setup for stampeding and otherwise performing cows. Coordinated London office simulations,transferring and ingesting for use in LA office production. Streamlined publishes from animation/cfx for lighting.
Senior CFX

A52

August 2019 - September 2019

Santa Monica, California, US

Clothing and hair simulations in creating a "Stuff Monster" for an IKEA commercial to be shown in Canada.
Rig/Sim Artist

Blizzard Entertainment

February 2019 - August 2019

Irvine, California, US

Working with the Rig/Sim team, I contributed to dynamic simulations for two Blizzard cinematic movies supporting the World of Warcraft games. (See completed movies below.)

* Completing and troubleshooting cloth, hair simulations and cleanup for highly realistic characters
* Helping to develop the hair simulation look for one major character (Sylvanas)
* Creating Python scripts as needed for daily work.
Senior CFX Artist

Encore VFX

April 2018 - January 2019

Burbank, CA

Wrote tools to help artists with character setups, shot setups and simulation production.
Created hair and fur simulation setups and cloth costumes for characters.
Designed dynamic skin simulation solutions for animal characters.
Worked on current CW television series: "Supergirl" and "The Flash" and the DC Universe streaming series: "Titans" and "Doom Patrol"
VFX Artist

Snap, Inc

October 2017 - March 2018

Venice, CA

Snapchat -- 3D Bitmoji Animation Team
• Created rigging and simulation methods to work in low bandwidth, extremely high character variation counts.
• Customized simulations for multiple body sizes and shapes.
• MEL/Python scripting for optimization in doing sim setups and artist tools for accelerating texturing work.
CFX

Digital Domain

August 2017 - October 2017

Playa Vista, CA

Starz – “Outlander” – Live Action TV Series
• For season-end episode, using Maya’s nCloth and nHair, I created cloth and hair simulation rigs for sails, ropes and flags for 18th century sailing ships and used them in shotwork comprised of calm seas and hurricane winds.
• MEL/Python scripting to create artist tools and some custom glue code for our ship “character” which was outside the normal parameters of Digital Domain’s rig building system.
CFX senior artist

ScanlineVFX

March 2017 - August 2017

Marina del Ray, CA

Clothing and Hair Simulation for characters on DC Comics forthcoming "Justice League" feature.
Hair and cloth simulations on Aquaman & Wonder Woman. Cloth sims for Superman and Villian character.
Cloth and hair rig setup and simulations for kelp plants on feature film "Meg".
Shark simulation shot work.
CFX Artist

Digital Domain

February 2017 - March 2017

Playa Vista, CA

Created set up and finished simulation of giant moth wings for Pilot episode the "The Mist" television version of the Stephen King novel.
Hair Groomer/Sim Artist

Shade VFX

January 2017 - February 2017

Santa Monica, CA

Grooming and simulation of live action buffalo for TNT pilot episode (unaired) "Gods and Monsters".
Responsible for creating groom for longer hair and simulation for action shots with buffalo.
Simulation/Rigging

FuseFX

September 2016 - December 2016

Sherman Oaks, CA

Effects simulation for sails, flags, ropes for Starz' Black Sails (Season 4) using Maya's nCloth and nHair. Rigging in 3DSMax for various shows.
Senior CFX artist

Digital Domain

July 2015 - September 2016

Playa Vista, CA

Beauty and the Beast
Clothing, hair and fur simulation and finaling work for shots on Disney's upcoming live action interpretation of the animated classic.

XMen: Apocalypse
Cloth and hair effects and rigging work for pyramid tarp in beginning Egypt sequence. Cloth simulation for flags, cloth covers and banners. Digital double clothing setups and shot work.

All I See Is You (feature film)
Groomed a photoreal newborn baby using Digital Domain's proprietary "Samson" groom tool.

Deadpool
Clothing and hair simulation for digital doubles.

Black Sails ~ Season 3 -- Special FX VES Award Winner!
Solving simulation and rigging challenges with a new fleet of ships on Starz' flagship show "Black Sails" (Season 3). Using nCloth and nHair, completing ship setups and shot work for live action integration. Simulation of sails, flags, ropes (over 3000 of them!) and pulleys as well as moving anchor chains. Some special one offs of rope snapping, hurricane wreckage sail and flag work.
CFX Senior Technical Director

Sony Pictures Imageworks

December 2014 - July 2015

Cloth and hair simulations on shots for the animated feature Hotel Transylvania 2.
Many shots had exaggerated movement with extreme stretching and squashing of the characters. Using nCloth, nHair and Sony's proprietary rendering system Katana.
Rigging/Simulation TD

Digital Domain

September 2014 - November 2014

Continuing simulation and rigging work for "Black Sails", a Starz TV show. Responsible for rigging and simulation of Spanish galleon sailing ship, including flags, sails, lines, anchor and anything else that simulates movement. Writing scripts to accommodate easier facilitation of work and pipeline efficiency related to my work. Using nCloth/nHair for simulations.
Simulation/Rigging TD

Reliance MediaWorks

April 2014 - August 2014

Creating simulation setups and and shot creation for sails, flags, ropes and other simulated elements on 18th century sailing vessels.
These elements are featured in shots for the second season of Starz' newest series, "Black Sails". Black Sails is an Emmy winning show, capturing the 2014 Emmy for best Special and Visual Effects in a Supporting Role.
Reliance MediaWorks

April 2014 - July 2014
Senior Character Effects (CFX) Artist

DreamWorks Animation

March 2014 - April 2014

Character effects simulation and clean up for "How To Train Your Dragon" characters for FUHU's new "DreamTab" tablet.
Simulation Artist

The Mill

February 2014 - March 2014

Creating simulation assets and working on shots for a series of 4 DirectTV commercials.
Working with nCloth and nHair setting up costumes, wires for characters and doing shots.
Writing some Python installation scripts.
Senior Character Effects (CFX) Artist

DreamWorks Animation

January 2014 - February 2014

Working on DreamWorks' new "DreamTab" project for children's tablet, FUHU. Doing character effects work for some of DW's legacy characters (Shrek, Po, etc).
Cloth/Fur Artist

Mind Over Eye

October 2013 - October 2013

• Set up cloth and fur for Santa outfit for a blue horse, the main character. Completed shots with this costume.
• Setup and did shot work for giant Santa bag which blows up.
• Created particle and rigid body simulations
Senior Cloth Simulation Artist

Digital Domain

September 2013 - September 2013

COMMERCIAL: NBA 2K14 Spot
• Cloth simulation of LeBron James’ uniform for the upcoming NBA 2K14 game release.
• Final sim needed to cut seamlessly with photoreal footage of LeBron.
Cloth Simulation Artist

Logan

August 2013 - August 2013

COMMERCIAL: KIA 2014 Car Spot
• Created one-off cloth simulations using nCloth for artistically draped cloth around car.
• At end of simulation, final draped cloth needed to gracefully form into a fixed car-shaped geometry.
Senior Cloth Simulation Artist

Digital Domain

July 2013 - July 2013

COMMERCIALS: Two 90-sec Warner Bros. spots

• Two 90 second spots for an upcoming fantasy medieval-themed game

• Cloth setup and simulations using nCloth.

• One spot involved slow-mo, frozen moment action with wind.

• Another spot had fast fighting animation and quick wind motion.
Senior Character Effects (CFX) Artist

DreamWorks Animation

July 2009 - July 2013

Glendale, CA

FILMS: Turbo, Kung Fu Panda 2, Megamind, Kung Fu Holiday (TV special)

• Established costume pipeline for film production enabling artists to set up costumes efficiently and within specifications for each show. Provided step-by-step tutorial WIKI pages for artists, detailing required show technical workflow. (Turbo)

• Developed library clothing setups for hero and generic characters used by artists during production.

• Collaborated with software, animation and character rigging departments to facilitate smooth flow of assets through all departments,
Senior Technical Director - Cloth/FX

Sony Pictures Imageworks

March 2007 - June 2009

FILMS: I Am Legend, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Created and supported cloth costumes for hero and generic characters for use during production.
• Developed a generic costume pipeline which created costumes on the fly upon shot creation, thus enabling hundreds of costume variations to be created quickly and within studio and show specification.
• Collaborated heavily with dynamics software engineer to develop Sony’s proprietary cloth solver “Tango.” Ensured success of software by testing, suggesting tool improvements and finding ways to simplify workflow.
• “Tango” is now the primary software in the studio, replacing previous off-the-shelf programs.
• Helped junior members of team with shots, updating costumes and writing tool and pipeline scripts.
• Developed Maya Classic panel cloth costume setups and cloth shots with Syflex for "I Am Legend".
• Created grass and cracked pavement layout and rendering for same.
• Preproduction cloth costume setup and costume creation pipeline work for "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs".
•Completed cloth and hair simulation and finaling shots for both movies.
Senior CFX Artist

DreamWorks Animation

June 2007 - June 2007
Cloth and Hair Supervisor

Walt Disney Animation Studios

October 2004 - February 2007

FILM: American Dog (released as "Bolt")
• Managed cloth and hair development team during R & D phase resulting in cloth/hair pipeline for library setup and shot production
• Advised and monitored progress on studio-wide cloth and hair development projects.
• Created methodology for publishing of costume products with Disney’s system and oversaw its implementation.
• Worked with software and other production teams to shape Disney’s proprietary cloth solver “Fabric” which is now the default cloth solver used at the studio.
• Collaborated with the Director, Art Director and DFX Supervisor, to define the character and animation of costumes and hairstyles.
• Designed “Wedgie,” a time-saving artist’s tool used to run simulation wedges and complete associated renders. This tool later expanded for use in other studio areas such as FX.
• Managed cloth team from R&D to shot production.
• Worked with rigging and animation departments to seamlessly integrate the cloth simulation process into character rigs.
Leadership Development Program

Walt Disney Animation Studios

October 2004 - February 2005

During my time working at Disney as a Cloth and Hair Supervisor, I was fortunate to be able to take advantage of their management training program entitled "Leadership Development".
In this 12-course program I gained many valuable management skills like strategic planning, feedback, delegation, effective listening, relationship building, conflict resolution and time management.
This program was a great help to me in carrying out my role as a supervisor at Disney.
Lead Cloth/Hair Technical Director

Sony Pictures Imageworks

March 2003 - October 2004

FILM: The Polar Express
• Developed several hero and secondary character costumes using a combination of simulation and rigging. Completed cloth and hair shots throughout the movie. Developed and maintained cloth and hair shot pipeline scripts.
• Managed a team of 6 cloth technical directors, while also supporting 25 cloth/hair department members with shot setup problems.
• Assisted cloth/hair crew with shot specific solutions and scripting as needed to supplement the pipeline. Interfaced with animation, rigging, modeling and lighting departments to resolve shot problems and facilitate smoother shot completion.
Character Technical Director

NCsoft

November 2002 - February 2003

• Created rigging GUI to assist animators in accessing rig for animation.
• Rigging for medieval fantasy game characters
Senior Technical Director - Character Finaling

Walt Disney Feature Animation

November 2001 - November 2002

FILM: Mickey's Philharmagic -- 3D Stereoscopic Ride Film for the Magic Kingdom in Florida
• Character finaling and cloth dynamics setup and shot production.
• Worked with animators to understand rigs so they could complete animation.
(Some animators were recently transitioning from 2D to 3D)
• Updated and added improvements to rigs as requested by animation.
Freelance Hair & Cloth Artist

Klasky Csupo

December 2001 - February 2002

Produced simulated clothing and hair for a special 3D short project, directed by Paul Vester.
Working title was "Milo".
Using Jig volumetric software for the hair setup and animation and Maya Cloth (classic) for the clothing, I worked with two other artists to help bring Paul's main "Milo" female character to life.
Senior Technical Director Cloth/Hair

Sony Pictures Imageworks

July 2001 - November 2001

FILM: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".
• Ran cloth and hair simulations for several flying broom shots
• Completed shots to visual effects supervisor's specifications
Senior Technical Director

Walt Disney Feature Animation

February 2001 - July 2001

FILM: "Mickey's Philharmagic" ~ Stereoscopic ride film for Disney World.
• Updated and improved rigs as needed for animation.
• Rigged props for animation
• Created and updated character website for tracking asset production
• Worked with animators to understand rigs so they could complete animation.
(Some animators were recently transitioning from 2D to 3D)
Cloth/Hair Technical Director - Project Lead

House of Moves

January 2000 - January 2001

PROJECT: Digital humans for ArcVision architectural rendering program.
• Helped create over 80 digital humans, doing various mocap animations.
• Costume setup and simulation for digital characters
• Hair groom, shading and simulation for all characters
• Completed rendering duties for all character, a 360 degree view for each animation
FX Artist & 3D Generalist

DUCK

January 1999 - January 2000

COMMERCIALS: Pebbles Cereal, Whirlpool, Walmart
SHORT FILM: The Snowman
• Dynamic particle simulation work for various commercials
• Animation of some elements
• Created sparks, energy beam, electric arcs for short film "The Snowman".
3D Generalist - CBS Digital

CBS Corporation

November 1996 - May 1999

TV SERIES: X-Files, Touched By An Angel, The Late, Late Show
TV MOVIES: Invasion, Host, Virtual Obsession, Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! (Marabunta)
TV ASST:
• Various bumpers and interstitials for CBS Kids Show, a Saturday morning program.
• Daytime Soap Campaign bumpers
• Annual Emmy Awards Logo
• CBS Special Assignment (Channel 2) Opening Title
• Hollywood Squares concept design animation
• Completed 3D generalist duties for a variety of projects
• Modeling, texturing, character and prop rigging, animation, pre-visualization, element rendering, final rendering, dynamic effects animation, cloth simulation
• Worked directly with clients to produce various spots, from start to finish (Example: Hollywood Squares pre-visualization, CBS Special Assignment and 49th Emmy Awards logos)
3D Generalist

Square Enix

October 1996 - April 1997

PROJECT: SIGGRAPH Real-time Animation Project of SquareSoft characters
• Generalist duties including: rigging, animation and rendering of characters
• Rigged biped humans and animals
Sony Pictures Imageworks

? - Present