Bill Watts Email & Phone Number

Portland, Oregon, United States

Leading a small team of character riggers handling the wide range of VFX assets for Laika’s Wildwood production.

Hillsboro, Or

Created face rigs for 3D printing replacement animation on practical puppets. Developed and maintained the data driven, build script based, procedural rigging system. Coordinated with blendshape modelers and animators to refine facial deformation targets and the joint based offset rig.

Hillsboro, Oregon

Rigged a variety of cg assets for Missing Link including bipeds, birds, props, and digital doubles. Character finaled a range of shots using ncloth simulation and sculpting. Started as intern before being promoted to junior.

Continued development of Opti-Speech, a real-time human tongue visualization program based in Unity and written in C#. Primary responsibilities included user interface design and general functionality development. My final contribution was a palate tracing system that allows a researcher to sketch the roof of a patient's mouth and have it represented in geometry. http://www.vulintus.com/

I taught Introduction to Rigging class (Rigging I). Prior to teaching, I was involved in the development of the OptiSpeech tongue visualization project. I have also acted as a research assistant to professor Eric Farrar prototyping character rigs, video editing, and managing tutorials.

Part Time. I acted as an assistant to Val Curry, a mixed media artist operating in the University of Texas at Dallas CentralTrak artist residency program. We collected a wide array of discarded toys and electronics which we assembled and reconstructed into new and interesting creations. Much of my time spent with Val was spent designing structures, creating cores of pvc pipe, and assembling the exterior elements. Core to Val Curry's work is the idea of re-purposing discarded elements in order to create unique and thought provoking structures. By combining many into one, each previously discarded element becomes more than itself as it contributes to the overall composition.

Richardson, Tx

Part time. I acted as the delivery driver from the warehouse to fourteen stores in the Dallas metro area. Also, I worked to keep stores supplied and stocked by helping keep track of inventory and vetting returns.

Full Time Summer Job. I acted as a counselor and creative designer for the Texas Pre-freshman Engineering Program hosted at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. My duties often changed rapidly and ranged from acting as a computer science teaching assistant to building hovercrafts and catapults. Projects such as the catapult were used to demonstrate the possibilities when engineering principles are creatively applied.

Full Time Summer Job. I acted as a children's (1st - 9th grade) summer activity day camp counselor. I began as a volunteer and was asked to take a paid position. Responsibilities included: ensuring safety of campers, maintaining control of groups of children, organizing activities, and promoting positive interactions between all campers.

Master Of Fine Arts (Mfa), Arts, Technology & Emerging Communications With A Focus On Character Rigging

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Arts And Humanities