John Sheffield

Available to hire

I have a deep and diverse background in game development, especially 3D gameplay animation, character and prop rigging, creation of tools in Python and MEL for asset management and export, and integration of animated…

About

I have a deep and diverse background in game development, especially 3D gameplay animation, character and prop rigging, creation of tools in Python and MEL for asset management and export, and integration of animated assets into game engines such as Unreal and Unity. I’m driven to create compelling character expressions that excite players and challenge my own artistic horizons, while maintaining a keen interest and expertise in accomplishing it 100% on time and in budget. Since 2024, I’ve been animating on contract, and continue to improve my skills with personal projects like real-time cinematics, studying the new animation nodes in UE5, and pursuing additional training through cgCircuit and iAnimate.

  • Joined August 2025

Industry experience

  • Gaming
  • Software & Internet
  • Media & Entertainment

More experts in Seattle, United States

Projects · 1

2025 Gameplay Animation Reel

Here is some of my favorite work from the past few years! I did all the animation shown, as well as some rigging and tech art. I'm currently looking for a new gig, whether full-time in Seattle/Bellevue or remote, or on contract. My resume and latest demo reel link are at https://www.twine.net/signin Some of this material is only permitted to be shown in a job-seeking context. Please feel free to share with other animators and development teams who might be looking to hire someone. Thanks!

  • 3D Animator
  • Character Rigger

Work experience· 9 roles

Senior Animator / Tech Artist · Battle Barge @ ProbablyMonstersJan 2024 – Aug 2025 · 1 yr 8 mos

• Created a diverse range of character animations, from human locomotion and traversal animation sets, to complex creatures such as a swarming quadruped and a non-bipedal six-armed floating boss with melee, ranged, and hybrid variants. • Developed rigs for a wide variety of character assets, either from scratch, or by extending base Advanced Skeleton setups to meet unique animation needs. • Led external rigging efforts by supervising contractors, including overseeing creation of a prominent facial rig. • Authored Maya tools to export, as well as to import and constrain, armor and clothing sets and weapon rigs, with an emphasis on streamlining animator workflows. • Expanded player animation capabilities in Unreal 5 by leveraging skeletal retargeting and animation blueprint nodes, nearly doubling the available motion set. • Co-founded the animation pipeline in collaboration with the lead artist.

Senior Animator · Monster Squad GamesMar 2020 – Aug 2025 · 5 yrs 6 mos

• Animated and rigged bipedal player characters, quadrupedal monsters, and a vampire that switched between locomotion styles. • Prototyped dramatic and exciting ways of spawning monsters, e.g. punching through walls, swarming from holes, leaping from looted containers. • Set up several environment pieces as skeletal meshes with physics assets, to enable players to attack and progressively destroy them. • Set up player facial animation sharing, using retargeting and pose assets. • Wrote tools to export animated assets to FBX, singly or in batch, with options to attach Python script for unusual cases to keep the animLayer stack free of export-time tweaks. • Wrote several useful tools for animation, including an arbitrary FK-IK switch, a marking menu-based control selection tool, and a means to store and access a pose library.

Animator · E-line MediaJun 2017 – Aug 2025 · 8 yrs 3 mos

• Created robust and exhaustively-researched character rigs for over a dozen species of sea life, from a humpback whale and sea turtle, to sharks and squid. • Created animals for a wide variety of sea creatures, a human diver, and marine vehicles whose motion was based on animals. • Co-developed prototypes for animal interaction as a primary element of gameplay. • Wrote the Python pipeline for animated assets, and was responsible for integrating them into Unity.

Animator · Fun Bits InteractiveAug 2016 – Aug 2025 · 9 yrs 1 mo
Technical Director · LucasArtsMar 2013 – Aug 2025 · 12 yrs 6 mos
Technical Artist · Titan StudiosDec 2010 – Aug 2025 · 14 yrs 9 mos
Lead Animator · Iron Lore StudiosJul 2008 – Aug 2025 · 17 yrs 2 mos
Artist · Flagship StudiosMar 2007 – Aug 2025 · 18 yrs 6 mos

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