Contact

nielsvaes@gmail.com

http://www.nielsvaes.be

Experience

Embark Studios, Stockholm, Sweden. - Technical Animator

August 2020 - current

EA DICE, Stockholm, Sweden. - Technical Animator

November 2017 - August 2020

Animation/character tools in Python/Qt, support, rigging, skinning, training, pipeline design, outsource management

Natural Motion Games, London, UK. — Technical Animator

June 2015 - August 2017

Pipeline improvement and setup, rigging and skinning, tools programming

LuGus Studios, Genk, Belgium — Technical Artist

February 2013 - May 2015

Rigging, skinning, pipeline setup, Unity programming (C#), modeling, animating

Niceberg Studios, Genk, Belgium— Animator

November 2013 - March 2014

Junior creature animator

Skills

3D

  • Maya
  • Motionbuilder
  • Unreal Engine
  • Blender
  • Morpheme
  • Frostbite

Programming

  • Python
  • C#
  • Lua
  • MEL

Other

  • Photoshop
  • Substance Painter
  • Substance Designer

Projects

Unannounced Embark Studios game — Playstation, PC, XBox

Currently working on the first game at Embark Studios. It’s a 3rd person, futuristic shooter. I’m working on animation tools and on the character pipeline. I’m also developing an open source connectivity system between DCCs (Maya, Houdini, Blender) and Unreal Engine called skyhook.

Unannounced EA DICE game — Playstation, PC, XBox

Working with the character artists on tools and pipelines in pre-production. Redesigning a fundamentally new customization and tracking system that extends to gameplay, animation, audio and UI.

Battlefield V — Playstation 4, PC, XBox One

On Battlefield I initially started out working with the animators, supporting them and building on existing animation tools. After which I took over the entire technical part of the character pipeline. I provided training, wrote tools that boosted productivity upwards of 1000%, handled skinning outsourcing and supported character artists.

Dawn of Titans — iOS, Android

Responsible for the lion’s share of rigging and skinning of all the titans in the game. Worked extensively on improving and optimizing the animation pipeline. Did a lot of programming in Python and Lua for standalone, Maya and Morpheme tools.

LiftOff — PC

I did the modeling, programming and level design for the initial prototype that caught the attention of an established name in drone industry. After production started on the game I did the rigging and skinning of the characters.

Order of Battle: Pacific — PC

As a freelancer I did all the rigging, skinning and animating of every infantry unit in the game.