Edward Cates Email & Phone Number

Brighton, England, United Kingdom

London Area, United Kingdom

• Helped develop the creative vision through director reviews of our main IPs. Establishing best practices such as non-linear editing and integrating major technical changes to studio workflow, including setting up our own motion capture facilities.• Directed the animation team (across multiple projects), including hiring, reviewing work, upskilling, performance reviews and highlighting where critical hires were necessary for the studio.• As always, worked closely with the team as a… Show more • Helped develop the creative vision through director reviews of our main IPs. Establishing best practices such as non-linear editing and integrating major technical changes to studio workflow, including setting up our own motion capture facilities.• Directed the animation team (across multiple projects), including hiring, reviewing work, upskilling, performance reviews and highlighting where critical hires were necessary for the studio.• As always, worked closely with the team as a whole and supported many requests helping the studio, and the teams within it, to be more self-sufficient and productive. Including design, engineering, camera, art, production, audio, technical animation, central tools and rigging, offering vision and technical help where needed.• Supported outsourcing efforts across the studio, including our traditional partners as well as establishing new partners. Show less

London, United Kingdom

• Sole animator and as such a point of contact for the team regarding all things animation.• Worked closely with the team and creative director to realise the product vision including branching out into pure design areas as and when necessary (such as 3C work).• Developed a novel solution to the problem of misaligned aim when moving from third person over the shoulder to first person look down sights. A solution Rogue Company adopted (independently of me – just to be… Show more • Sole animator and as such a point of contact for the team regarding all things animation.• Worked closely with the team and creative director to realise the product vision including branching out into pure design areas as and when necessary (such as 3C work).• Developed a novel solution to the problem of misaligned aim when moving from third person over the shoulder to first person look down sights. A solution Rogue Company adopted (independently of me – just to be clear).• Autonomously evaluated various motion capture solutions from companies such as Centroid to setting up our own facilities or using other off the shelf products. Show less

• Collaborated with a small team on the critically acclaimed Laser League, which received a score of 9 in Edge magazine.• As the sole animator on the project, I was responsible for all aspects of animation, including visual flair, gameplay feel, and the overall success of the game. With no margin for error as the single point of failure, delivering high-quality gameplay assets was crucial.• I developed the entire animation pipeline, from character proportion and edge loop feedback to… Show more • Collaborated with a small team on the critically acclaimed Laser League, which received a score of 9 in Edge magazine.• As the sole animator on the project, I was responsible for all aspects of animation, including visual flair, gameplay feel, and the overall success of the game. With no margin for error as the single point of failure, delivering high-quality gameplay assets was crucial.• I developed the entire animation pipeline, from character proportion and edge loop feedback to rigging, skinning, and technical gameplay breakdowns. I managed the animation vision and development process, executing all animations through hand-keying, and handled the importing into UE4 along with setting up the animation blueprint (state machine).• Collaboration was vital; I worked closely with the design team to align on vision, partnered with engineering for practicality, and engaged with all team disciplines, including art, audio, AI, and production, to ensure a cohesive final product. Show less

• Adding animations to the game (via the state machine blueprints) and insuring the blends, transition animations and proprietary nodes are all working and setup correctly to satisfy both artistic, gameplay and budget constraints. • Breaking down every design decision into a clear vision, workable plan and animation list, this touched on all animation systems in the game from general locomotion, stop/starting, strafing, tanking, falling, turning on the spot, Aiming procedurally via… Show more • Adding animations to the game (via the state machine blueprints) and insuring the blends, transition animations and proprietary nodes are all working and setup correctly to satisfy both artistic, gameplay and budget constraints. • Breaking down every design decision into a clear vision, workable plan and animation list, this touched on all animation systems in the game from general locomotion, stop/starting, strafing, tanking, falling, turning on the spot, Aiming procedurally via proprietary node and via blend space, looking procedurally, hand IK, feet IK, ragdoll, procedural ragdoll driven flinch, evades, various special abilities each with their own unique systems, sheathing/unsheathing, emotes, integrating FaceFX, random animation variations (such as idle variations), shopkeepers, mini games, scripted events, Brightlodge villager Sim and more. • Managed the outsourcing of 426 animation assets for the Brightlodge area of Legends. This involved the initial evaluation of outsourcers, breaking down the design into an animation list and an implementation plan, briefing the outsourcer, mentoring and upskilling the team, reviewing video reference and blockout for approval to take to a functional stage. Then the final feedback to take from functional to polished.• All of the above included working closely with the team as a whole, be that design, code, lead art/animation, other technical animators on the team, production, audio, effects and others. Again I was lucky to be able to delegate work as necessary and work with multi discipline colleagues closely to come up with creative solutions. Show less

• Was a key member of the team setting up a motion capture facility including advising on software and the pipeline into the finished game.• Rigged every character providing detailed feedback to the art team on correct placement of edge loops and character proportion.• Wrote the script for all the cutscenes which was later professionally acted by the cast from the film. The starting point on this was a short sentence from design detailing what they needed.• Oversaw the storyboarding… Show more • Was a key member of the team setting up a motion capture facility including advising on software and the pipeline into the finished game.• Rigged every character providing detailed feedback to the art team on correct placement of edge loops and character proportion.• Wrote the script for all the cutscenes which was later professionally acted by the cast from the film. The starting point on this was a short sentence from design detailing what they needed.• Oversaw the storyboarding of the cutscenes.• Broke each storyboard up into a shot list for the motion capture shoot, interviewed and cast actors for the shoot and directed the shoot. • Scheduled the team in the production of said cutscenes.• Led the block out including a great deal of feedback on cinematography. This was key to hitting the schedule to the required quality bar.• Oversaw each scene to a final state including a dynamics pass and exporting and bug fixing into the main game. It was a tight schedule and many of the cutscenes from start to finish were completed within two to three days, including bug fixing in game. • I was responsible for the complete pipeline both for in-game and cutscene work. This needed to be efficient due to deadline and quality requirements. • I also worked variously with design, art, sound and code on many technical and artistic challenges. Such as a facial animation system, rag doll setup, cloth and hair dynamics, skeletal LODs, particle systems and much more.• I would also like to note that most of the above work was done without direction and it was up to me to set the quality bar to the schedule and define what needed to be done. Show less