Peter Christensen

14-years Hollywood Experience

I'm currently Head of the Character TD department @ Encore VFX. Our nine-show project load involves most of the super hero shows on television: Flash, Titans, Doom Patrol, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning...basically, if it's on television, from the DC universe, and has super powers, I probably had some hand in rigging it.

The demands and complexity of running Encore's rigging department doesn't leave me a lot of time to update my demo reel (not to mention client agreements that limit my access to reel-material). So instead, I'll use this site to share some of the highlights of my 14-year career in LA's Film & Television VFX industry. Some films, like Narnia, are ancient history, but these projects played a role in shaping my rigging career into what it is today.

Encore
DC Universe
DESTINY

Encore

DC Universe

DESTINY

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Skill Set

  • Effective team management and inter-department communication
  • Create movie-quality, complex character/animal/mechanical rigs for Film & TV
  • Design, create, test, and maintain character rigs/skinning/deformations
  • Develop/Code character setup scripts and other supporting tools
  • Create secondary dynamics motions
  • Strong knowledge of human and animal physiology

Jan 2016 – Present

Rigging Supervisor

Encore VFX

TV: Doom Patrol

TV: Titans

TV: The Flash

TV: Batwoman

TV: Supergirl

TV: Legends of Tomorrow

TV: Black Lightning

TV: Riverdale

TV: MacGyver

  • Managing the rigging department including project assignments, quality control, mentoring riggers on the pipeline and best-practice techniques
  • Scripting advance character setup tools to upgrade the preexisting process and rigs
  • Building and supporting rigs for a variety of characters, vehicles, aliens, and animals, for crowd simulation software and TV episodes
  • Constantly interfacing with show supervisors, modeling and animation departments to fulfill request, meet demands and troubleshoot pipeline errors 
  • Documenting manuals for proper pipeline procedures to standardize the process in all department

Feb 2013 – Oct 2015

Rigging Lead

Prologue Films

High-End Game Cinematic: Bungie's Destiny

  • Create, adapt, and support rigs and skinning for high-rez humanoid, alien, mechanical, vehicle assets
  • Create MOCAP rigs and script tools to integrate animation onto high-rez rigs
  • Add secondary animation through nCloth and dynamics
  • Script tools for animators including character GUIs, MOCAP animation transfer, resolution baking, etc
  • Script environmental population and set dressing tools
  • Collaborate with pipeline, modelers, and animators to meet technical and artistic needs

Jan 2013 – Feb 2013

Previz Artist

Luma Pictures

TV: Agents of SHIELD

  • Modeled and rigged digital characters to match actors' likeness
  • Create virtual sets to match practical set blueprints
  • Adapted script to a virtual portrayal through animating characters and camera

March 2013 – May 2013

Freelance Character Setup / Rigger

Super 78

Dreamworks Theme Park Fabrications

  • Rigged DreamWork's Madagascar primary and secondary characters for posing

May 2012 – Jan 2013

Freelance Character Setup / Rigger

XY3 Studios

Educational Rigging DVD Series

  • Full creature rig
  • Develop curriculum for instructional 3-Disk set Rigging DVD
  • Research and implement most efficient methods of character controls

Mar 2012 – May 2012

Character Setup / Rigger

Stargate Studios

TV Pilot: ABCs Beauty and the Beast

  • Rigged/skinned all quadruped creatures
  • Created and simulated creature effects including muscle mass, slobber, and armor
  • Automated character setup with MEL scripting
  • Generated crowd simulations and crowd characters

June 2010 – May 2011

Final Layout Artist

DreamWorks Animation

Short Film: How to Train Your Dragon: Legend of the Boneknapper

TV: How to Train Your Dragon: Gift of the Night Fury

TV: Monsters vs Aliens: Night of the Living Carrots

  • Finalized scenes, character and prop positions, and camera motion before animation
  • Rigged and supported Previs characters
  • Applied stereoscopic 3D to shots for emotional and visual impact

Dec 2007 – May 2010

Character Technical Director

DreamWorks Animation

Film: Kung Fu Panda II

Film: How to Train Your Dragon

TV: Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special

TV: Madagascar Valentines Special

  • Rigged/skinned characters (body and face) and props for production
  • Maintained and modified character rigs through-out production

Aug 2006 – Sept 2007

3d Artist / Rigger

Sprite Animation Studios

Film: Undisclosed Disney Animated Movie

Film: Gon

  • Rigged/skinned primary and secondary characters, biped and quadraped
  • Created auto-rigging tool for face setup on diverse head shapes (MEL)
  • Create tools for quick creation and transfer of facial poses/expressions (MEL)

Nov 2005 – Aug 2006

3d Artist / Rigger / Previz

Reality Check Studios

Film: Journey to the Center of the Earth

Film: Messengers

Clients: Toyota, Target, DTV, Mojave Las Vegas Museum, etc.

  • Rigged and animated various characters and creatures
  • Created high quality, fully animated Previz including camera direction, animation, and FX
  • Designed, modeled, and lit CG characters and sets for production

Mar 2005 – Oct 2005

TD Animator

Rythm & Hues

Film: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

  • Simulated dynamic and non-dynamic motion of hair, fur, skin, and cloth
  • Wrote scripts to automate tasks using proprietary scripting language
  • Evaluated rigs and recommend efficient technical solutions