Mike Jordan

Owned the animation pipeline across multiple titles: cleaned/retargeted mocap (MotionBuilder) and keyframed animation into UE4/Unity; authored additive layers, root-motion/in-place variants, notifies/events. Created production rigs for bipeds, creatures, and mechanical assets (IK/FK, constraints, deformation order, corrective shapes); implemented physics interactions (ragdolls, vehicle suspensions). Developed Python/MEL tools for batch skin weighting, export/import, and naming validation; standardized rig/anim conventions and LOD/compression settings to hit performance and memory budgets.

Architected modular character/creature rigs in Maya (facial blendshape libraries, corrective shapes, clean deformation/skin weighting); authored and polished character/creature animation (keyframed & mocap); built blend spaces/state machines, Montages, additive layers, and root-motion/in-place variants; synced Notifies/curves with gameplay/VFX/audio and refined timing/transitions. Integrated animation in UE5: Control Rig, IK Retargeter, Animation Blueprints (state machines, Montages), LOD strategies for skeletal meshes, Chaos Cloth/Groom and PhAT setups; profiled with Unreal Insights/Anim BP Profiler to maintain target FPS.

Managed the animation pipeline across multiple game titles, cleaning and retargeting mocap data and keyframed animations into Unreal Engine 4 and Unity. Created production rigs for bipeds, creatures, and mechanical assets with IK/FK setups, constraints, corrective shapes and animation deformation orders. Implemented physics interactions such as ragdolls and vehicle suspensions. Developed Python and MEL tools for batch skin weighting, export/import automation, and naming convention validations. Standardized rigging and animation conventions including LOD and compression settings to meet performance and memory budgets.