Trisha hanley

Trisha hanley

Head of Character Effects at Disney Animation Vancouver

Senior CFX TD / Senior Character TD / 15 yrs

Vancouver, Canada

Hire Me

character effects artist

The Boss Baby 2 (2021)

Cloth and Hair Supervisor

The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019)

Cloth Lead - CFX Technical Director

Smallfoot (2018)

Senior Cloth and Hair Technical Director

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Senior Cloth and Hair Technical Director

Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)

Senior Cloth and Hair Technical Director

The Angry Birds Movie (2016)

Character Technical Director

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

Character TD

Turbo (2009)

I have a passion for bringing together my creative and technical problem solving skills into character effects, rigging and programing. I am an experienced rigger who consistently brings enthusiasm, commutation, and multi tasking to my work. I have enjoyed the new challenges applying my skills as a rigger to dynamic cloth and hair setup. I enjoy applying my artistic skills to grooming hair and full body fur.
Work History
  • Head of CFX

    Walt Disney Animation Studios

    March 2022 - Present
    Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Moana 2 - Head of Technical Animation

  • Character Effects Lead

    DreamWorks Animation

    January 2021 - January 2022

    Trolls Holiday Special 2
    Lead CFX on five sequences that were used for developing a new cloud based pipeline for production and worked with the development team to test, review, and refine cfx workflows for cloud based pipeline.
    For those sequences, represented the CFX department in show meetings, reviewed bidding, casted shots to artists, reviewed artist work, and worked with production supervisor to manage the expectations of our schedule in relation to technical issues around the new cloud based pipeline.
    Converted and updated Branch, Delta, Cooper, Prince D, cloth and hair setups from Trolls 2 pipeline to cloud based pipeline

  • Character Effects Artist

    DreamWorks Animation

    January 2020 - December 2020

    Boss Baby 2
    - Cloth, hair, and environment simulation shot work.
    - Hair setup for generic children holiday variation.
    - Joined CFX tools development group to help develop and update tools for the CFX department.

  • CFX Lead - Jumanji: The Next Level

    Sony Pictures Imageworks

    June 2019 - December 2019

    - Lead the cloth and hair team of 4 artists to create realistic CG ostriches, digital doubles, and supervised CFX shot work for the desert sequence.
    - Finished grooming the digital ostrich and fully groomed the Ruby digital double
    - Created the dynamic hair setup for the ostrich and the show’s pipeline which allowed us to mix and match different simulation setups on the ostrich as needed for any given shot

  • Cloth Technical Director Lead

    Sony Pictures Imageworks

    September 2018 - June 2019
    Vancouver, Canada
  • CFX Supervisor on Angry Birds 2

    Sony Pictures Imageworks

    August 2018 - May 2019
    Vancouver, Canada Area

    - Co-Supervised a team of about 25 CFX artists whose tasks included cloth and hair development, production shot work, and new tool development
    - Worked under the Visual Effect Supervisor to ensure the artistic vision of the show stayed consistent with the first Angry Birds Movie
    - Led daily reviews of artists’ work giving artistic reviews, determining which shots needed VFX Supervisor approval and approving shots.
    - Setup dynamic hair and cloth for some new characters, supported and upgraded characters from the - first Angry Birds Movie
    - Supported cloth and hair pipeline, mentored and taught artists to solve technical issues in Sony’s pipeline
    - Worked with other CFX leads to flag issues across all shows, reviewed code and collaborated to guide the direction of the department

  • Senior Cloth and Hair Technical Director

    Sony Pictures Imageworks

    January 2015 - September 2018
    Vancouver, Canada Area

    Smurfs (Jan 2016 - Present)
    Hair grooming
    Hair Dynamic Setup

    Angry Birds (Jan 2015- Jan 2016)
    Hair, feather, and grass grooming.
    Hair and cloth dynamic setup.
    Hair and cloth shot work.
    Taught hair tips and tricks class.

  • Cloth Lead - Smallfoot

    Sony Pictures Imageworks

    June 2017 - August 2018
    Vancouver, Canada Area

    - Responsible for maintaining the cloth pipeline, and provided support to hair pipeline
    - Setup the cloth for the main character Percy, and our generic male character
    - Developed hair training for new hires, and mentored new artists
    - Co-led the marketing short Super Soozie: managed a team of 7 artists, and co-led the artistic reviews and approval of shots

  • Character Technical Director

    DreamWorks Animation

    July 2009 - December 2014
    Glendale, Ca

    - Rigged motion systems and deformations for body, cloth and hair on fat/skinny humans, very stretchy and cartoony ghosts, dragons, snails, and quadrupeds
    - Designed and implemented multiple python qt tools to improve setup time and workflow for in-house rigging application
    - Programed a python qt application that is used for cross show file syncing
    Overhauled and improved vehicle motion system and vehicle dynamics
    - Implemented short neck generic dragon with three body variations and seven different sets of accessories
    - Developed clothing and crowd support pipeline for generic characters
    - Provided support for multiple characters and pipeline issues as show crewed down
    - Taught deformation workshop and hair training class for in-house rigging application

    Worked on Boss Baby, B.O.O, How To Train Your Dragon2, Turbo, Puss In Boots

  • Rigging Contractor

    Texas A&M University

    2011 - 2012

    Contracted with Gil Rosenthal to work on Any Fish project developing fish rigs that can have the morphometrics(shape) change with given TPS data.

  • Rigging Contractor

    Texas A&M University

    2011 - 2012

    Contracted with Gil Rosenthal to work on Any Fish project developing fish rigs that can have the morphometrics(shape) change with given TPS data.

  • Research Assistant

    Texas A&M University

    August 2008 - December 2008

    - Developing computer-animated stimuli for use in animal behavior experiments.
    - Developing of a real-time interface between computer animations and behavioral tracking data.
    - Preparing/assisting in writing manuscripts for publication in refereed journals

  • Techincal Artist Intern

    Electronic Arts

    May 2008 - August 2008

    - Created and updated existing tools and scripts for Artist to use.
    - Worked on Facial Rig rig for Male and Female

  • Techincal Artist Intern

    EA

    May 2008 - August 2008
    Tiburon, FL

    - Created and updated existing tools and scripts for Artist to use.
    - Worked on Facial Rig rig for Male and Female

  • Graduate Assistant Teaching

    Texas A&M University

    January 2008 - May 2008

    - Teaching Assistant for Viza 615
    - Course work involved advanced animation, and creature rigging.
    - Responsible for technical instruction of Maya.

  • Graduate Assistant Non-Teaching

    Texas A&M University

    June 2007 - August 2007

    Audio Visual Work in the Viz department

  • KVR-TV Station Manager

    University of Texas at Austin

    June 2004 - May 2005

    - Responsible for running student television station, managing a $130,000 budget and a paid staff of 15, and over 200 active volunteers.
    - Make reports to the Texas Student Publication Board about current status of the station.

  • Sony Pictures Entertainment

    ? - Present
Education
  • MS Visualization Science

    Texas A&M University

    August 2006 - May 2009
  • BS Radio-TV-Film

    The University of Texas at Austin

    August 2001 - May 2005