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ANIMATION REEL
ABOUT KRISTAPS
Hi, my name is Kristaps Šķuburs but most call me kris (09/12/1997). The exploration of characters and their personalities in their particular situations is what I find to be most valuable and exciting. I find the passion and wisdom behind the inquiry to be uplifting. I'm from Latvia.
I made my first bouncing ball and some spaceship laser fight animations in PowerPoint, when I was in my school's first-grade computer class. I been doing projects ever since, as a generalist and programmer.
Through projects, I found animation to be the most fun and decided to go to an Animation Mentor where I first heard and learn the 12 principles of animation and realized that this is something I wish to pursue from all other disciplines.
I like playing basketball from time to time and to take walks with my dogs. I grew up watching a lot of animated tv shows and that's where I picked up English from :D I like playing competitive video games too
EXPERIENCE
I been doing projects for profit as long as I can remember, the thing that I find the most fun in them is the teamwork and having a group of unique talent working together to bring a single project to life. The profit aspect insuring that the work is focused, but the teamwork and unique projects making them also creatively fulfilling. I usually was the person who filled in for whatever we needed, quickly adapting and picking up aspects of the CG pipeline like rigging, lighting, texturing, modeling, etc.
I started to lead and manage naturally to help out my fellow co-workers, so the projects could flow smoothly. One thing that I was often thanked for was showcasing visually how to do the things I picked up, making guides, recording short private videos, and making short gifs, which helped my co-workers to understand hard-to-get aspects of software. I explained aspects so no one is left behind and everyone's unique talents would shine. I could pick up these technical skills so quickly because of my programming experiences as a developer in java / c#, who also has learned web development like typescript, javascript, and backend communication.
OFFER
Besides my animation skillsets, I can assist with giving feedback by doing simple and crude drawer-overs. I can also offer the perspective of both the creative and the technical and assist in communicating between technical and artistic, as I have experiences, in both fields. With my programmer and 3D Generalist experiences and my animator and 2D digital drawing experiences. I can see both perspectives. Here are some examples of how I have done so in the past :
I have talked with my freelance project managers and explained how some aspects would take too much time in a technical sense, as with my artistic background I could understand how long it would take to do. This happens regularly but a direct example would be:
Short animation snipped for a presentation where a person catches a basketball does a line of dialogue, and afterward uses a computer as a transition into the presentation. I mentioned to my manager who put a deadline that was extremely short that even if the animators would be paid double time and we would rush through the animation the rendering for this snipped would take longer than the time we have required, so the manager explained the situation to the client add more time was added to finish everything with no rushes or overtime.
I often time worked on tasks that were about setting up the files and technical aspects of the project, like layout, asset preparation, and cinematography, specific aspects of the project. As I did the task I kept the artistic freedom of my animators in mind, while not neglecting my background artists and lighters. I Implemented this for all my tasks but a direct example would be:
I was setting up a complex sequence where planets would zoom in and zoom out to different planets I made it so that the backgrounds are all very easily replaceable and used proxies in different files, so my background artists would only have to worry about the planet aesthetic. For my animators, I made sure that the major technical movements were already animated by me in a way that would be very easy to modify, with curves, so the animator only had to worry about conveying the right feeling through movement and not be bogged down on how to execute the task technically
SKILLS
Language:
Latvian - Native
German - Listening: Proficient | Speaking: Limited Working Proficiency
English - Proficient
Software:
Blender - Expert | Maya - Proficient | Unity 3D - Proficient | Adobe Suite (Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro) - Proficient | General free software ( Krita, Gimp, Paint, etc) - Proficient
Programing languages: C#, Java, Typescript, Javascript
Education:
Animation Mentor, Alumni, Character Animation
Highlighted
PROJECTS
Sandbox Interactive
Animator at sandbox interactive
Roles: Animator
DREAM TEAM | HAM&STER
One of the first bigger projects started out with me messing around on youtube. My Dad suggested me to make a kid-show focused youtube channel. So I did and had a main character being a mascot superhero car fighting a dinosaur and from that spun off the dream team show, where a team of superhero vehicles fight crime, one of the big villains being a posh dinosaur with a freeze ray. Later another show was added to the channel called Ham and Ster, thought up by my brother, which focused on two hamsters who build stuff together and bud heads. The channel grew attaining 17 and a half million views in its lifetime. Both shows distribution rights were sold to Shanghai Leadjoy and a decision was made to move into freelance
Roles: Creator, Technical Animator, 3D Generalist, Rigger, Prop-Modeler, 3d Management
HEY SPIKEY
Hey Spike, was one of the freelance projects that were done later down the line. The skillsets from Dream Team and Ham&Ster transferred over well. My main job here was guiding the team of freelancers, troubleshooting, and helping them out with the technical side of things. I did most of the layouts and technical setup, and 3d Management things like folder structure, naming, etc. I trained some of the 3d artists/lighters/renders and animators in blender software and how to use it properly.
Roles: Layout, Technical Trainer and Educator, 3D Generalist, 3D Management
GIGABOT
This project was a commercial and 3d rigs. I rigged multiple toys to move specifically only as the toys could. There were quadruped and spider-type toys as well as humanoid ones. For the commercial, I provided the layout and the technical setup. I was also there for troubleshooting and helping other freelancers fix technical problems that showed up. Animation and rendering were done by other freelancers.
Roles: Rigging, 3D Generalist, 3D Management, Cleanup
KCCUB - AR APPLICATION
An AR application for children's carpets. I was a 3d adviser. As I have made and published unity 3d game, this helped with setting up files and making the production smooth. I modeled some files and assisted with sorting what files should and should not be purchased that would work better in unity 3d game engine. I prepared those 3d assets and rigged them. I made 3d assets unity ready, and the animations as well. I had to adjust animations, sometimes fully re-animated them, and edit animation with the non-linear animation workflow to make the animations "story/action sequences" that fit the visuals of the carpet.
Roles: 3D Adviser, 3D Generalist, NLA Animation Editor, Cleanup, 3D Management
GYM
A gym was developing a visualization program on how to use their equipment and had captured mocap files. My job was to target their mocap data on a low poly character, clean up the mocap and make 3d models and rigs of the equipment they were using. The gym did provide a 3d kit of starting model modules with a rigged low poly character, which assisted with production
Roles: Mocap Retargeting, Animation Cleanup, Prop-modeling, Prop-rigging
MORE...
I have been a part of many more projects spanning from commercials to stereoscopic work to games to 3d animation shows, to particle simulations, and many more. I have worn a lot of hats as a 3d generalist
Roles: Many Hats, 3D Generalist
TRIVIA
I also like to do personal creative projects, that are just for fun. I like to host or assist with hosting competitive tournaments in the video games I play and make fun little trailers for them. One of my favorite activities is making comics and little storys. I also enjoy playing basketball from time to time and to take walks usually with my dogs
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