My background includes five years working on government contract flight simulators, where I contributed high-quality, time-sensitive assets and animations for real-time environments and collaborated closely with technical and production teams. I also have experience in mobile game animation and am currently working on an indie, multi-platform game in early development, where I handle character animation, mocap refinement, and Unreal Engine 5 Sequencer integration. My additional experience includes post production work in stereo rotoscoping and compositing on titles such as Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and several commercials. Lastly, I have five years of experience as a college professor of game development, game art, and animation & visual effects, as well as over a decade of experience tutoring and running college workshops on a wide array of subjects in the feature and video game development pipeline. I am proficient in Maya, Unreal Engine 5, After Effects, Photoshop, Premier, and am still learning, but moderately proficient in Blender. experienced with motion capture cleanup, and comfortable animating realistic bipedal human characters for games. While I do not yet have shipped commercial titles, my experience reflects sustained professional production work, long-term project involvement, and strong alignment with modern game animation pipelines.

JamesHays

My background includes five years working on government contract flight simulators, where I contributed high-quality, time-sensitive assets and animations for real-time environments and collaborated closely with technical and production teams. I also have experience in mobile game animation and am currently working on an indie, multi-platform game in early development, where I handle character animation, mocap refinement, and Unreal Engine 5 Sequencer integration. My additional experience includes post production work in stereo rotoscoping and compositing on titles such as Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and several commercials. Lastly, I have five years of experience as a college professor of game development, game art, and animation & visual effects, as well as over a decade of experience tutoring and running college workshops on a wide array of subjects in the feature and video game development pipeline. I am proficient in Maya, Unreal Engine 5, After Effects, Photoshop, Premier, and am still learning, but moderately proficient in Blender. experienced with motion capture cleanup, and comfortable animating realistic bipedal human characters for games. While I do not yet have shipped commercial titles, my experience reflects sustained professional production work, long-term project involvement, and strong alignment with modern game animation pipelines.

Available to hire

My background includes five years working on government contract flight simulators, where I contributed high-quality, time-sensitive assets and animations for real-time environments and collaborated closely with technical and production teams. I also have experience in mobile game animation and am currently working on an indie, multi-platform game in early development, where I handle character animation, mocap refinement, and Unreal Engine 5 Sequencer integration.

My additional experience includes post production work in stereo rotoscoping and compositing on titles such as Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and several commercials. Lastly, I have five years of experience as a college professor of game development, game art, and animation & visual effects, as well as over a decade of experience tutoring and running college workshops on a wide array of subjects in the feature and video game development pipeline.

I am proficient in Maya, Unreal Engine 5, After Effects, Photoshop, Premier, and am still learning, but moderately proficient in Blender. experienced with motion capture cleanup, and comfortable animating realistic bipedal human characters for games. While I do not yet have shipped commercial titles, my experience reflects sustained professional production work, long-term project involvement, and strong alignment with modern game animation pipelines.

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Language

English
Fluent

Work Experience

Senior Character Animator at Blue Dendrites
April 18, 2024 - Present
Co-Founder at Taiyaki Studios
January 12, 2022 - August 30, 2022
Academic Tutor at Academy of Art University
January 11, 2011 - March 18, 2022
Professor of Game Development at SAE Institute
May 14, 2018 - March 18, 2022
Production Assistant at Aechelon Technology
October 10, 2011 - July 16, 2016

Education

Unreal Virtual Production Fellowship V6 at Epic Games
August 2, 2021 - September 3, 2021
Master of Fine Arts - 3D Character Animation at Academy of Art University
September 18, 2006 - June 17, 2010
Bachelor of Arts - Fine Art Printmaking at University of California Santa Cruz
September 24, 2001 - June 16, 2005

Qualifications

Unreal Virtual Production Fellowship V6
August 2, 2021 - September 3, 2021