A character technical director (TD), also referred to as a creature TD (

ILM Ilm or ILM may refer to: Acronyms * Identity Lifecycle Manager, a Microsoft Server Product * ''I Love Money,'' a TV show on VH1 * Independent Loading Mechanism, a mounting system for CPU sockets * Industrial Light & Magic, an American motion pic ...

, Weta) or technical animator (

Imageworks Imageworks may refer to: * Sony Pictures Imageworks, a visual effects and character animation company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada * Image Works, a video game publisher in the late-1980s and early-1990s * ImageWorks (Disney) ...

), is a type of

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

in film and

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

who is specifically concerned with

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

, creatures, and mechanical objects.

Responsibilities

The role of a character TD may vary from studio to studio in its scope, but is almost always centered around the discipline of

rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support a sailing ship or sail boat's masts—''standing rigging'', including shrouds and stays—and which adjust the position of the vessel's sails and spars to which they are ...

: the process of engineering anatomical or mechanical

kinematic Kinematics is a subfield of physics, developed in classical mechanics, that describes the motion of points, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without considering the forces that cause them to move. Kinematics, as a fie ...

systems that move and deform digital models, and the design of higher-level interfaces used by

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

animators An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...

to control the movements of those models. The role may additionally encompass disciplines such as modeling and simulation.

Software

The software used by character TDs may vary widely from studio to studio, from off-the shelf tools to proprietary in-house systems.

Autodesk Maya Autodesk Maya, commonly shortened to just Maya ( ), is a 3D computer graphics application that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, originally developed by Alias and currently owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to create assets for interact ...

is used predominantly throughout the VFX and animation industry, with

Softimage Autodesk Softimage, or simply Softimage () was a 3D computer graphics application, for producing 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling, and computer animation. Now owned by Autodesk and formerly titled Softimage, XSI, the software has been predomi ...

also having a large user-base. In the gaming industry, Autodesk Maya and

Autodesk 3ds Max Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabil ...

have been the dominant presence. Many studios pair off-the-shelf software with their own in-house software and plug-ins for rigging and simulation. For instance, Industrial Light & Magic does much of their sim setup and simulation in a proprietary package called Zeno, and Weta Digital uses an in-house simulation system they call Tissue. Notable newcomers to the field of rigging include the independent platform Fabric Engine, being used by

Double Negative A double negative is a construction occurring when two forms of grammatical negation are used in the same sentence. Multiple negation is the more general term referring to the occurrence of more than one negative in a clause. In some languages, ...

, MPC and Hybride.

Character TD responsibilities and software by studio

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...

Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. SPI is a unit of Sony Pi ...

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

Notable character TDs

Within the VFX, animation, and game development communities, a number of artists have gained name-recognition for their contributions to the field of rigging. A few of those artists include: Jason Osipa is an EA and

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...

character TD known for pioneering and disseminating (through his book '' Stop Staring: Facial Animation Done Right'') a type of facial-rigging that did not rely on

phonemes In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...

and pre-built expressions, but rather the blending of more generic poses using simplified controls often referred to as Osipa-Style controls.

Jason Schleifer Jason Schleifer is an American animator, character technical director, and entrepreneur. Schleifer started his career at Alias/Wavefront where he was a product specialist during the development of Autodesk Maya, Maya. His technical expertise in ch ...

is a Weta and Dreamworks creature TD Known for his video series "Animator Friendly Rigging", in which he discusses techniques for building complex rigging control systems that are intuitive and easy to use (thus the term "animator friendly"). Dick Walsh is a DreamWorks character TD who won a Technical Achievement Academy Award in 2003 for his development of the PDI/DreamWorks Facial Animation System. He is also known as Shrek's Dad.

References

{{reflist Entertainment occupations Computer occupations Computer animation