Dingyi Zhou

Character Animator

Demo Reel
Resume
Previous Work
Contact

Demo Reel

Viewmodel Animation

Call of Duty Warzone Mobile

VALORANT — Riot Games
Animation Work Not Publicly Available
First-person weapon animations for premium skins, including equip, reload, and inspect sequences.

Full-Body Animation (Mocap + Handkey)

Apex Legends Mobile

Personal Practice

Parkour

Personal Dialogue Practice

Evil

Demo Reel

Resume

PDF Resume

Dingyi (Dean) Zhou

San Jose, CA | [email protected] | 510-324-6378

Senior Character Animator with 14+ years of experience in AAA and mobile game development, including 11+ years of outsourcing and co-development experience.
Specializing in gameplay animation, first-person weapon animation, and character performance, with expertise in hand-keyed and motion capture animation, animation direction, team leadership, and outsourcing management.
Contributed to major titles including VALORANT, Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, and Apex Legends Mobile.

EXPERIENCE

Senior Character Animator
Riot Games (via Superseed Studios) | VALORANT Premium Content | Feb 2026 – Oct 2026

Created and polished first-person weapon animations for premium VALORANT skins, including equip, reload, and inspect sequences.
Integrated and previewed animations in Unreal Engine.
Collaborated with animation leads and other teams to address feedback and meet quality standards.

Senior Character Animator
Azra Games | Ungodly | Jan 2025 – Dec 2025

Created and polished hand-keyed and motion capture animations for Ungodly using Unity 6.
Developed character performances for gameplay, cinematics, quests, and dialogue sequences.
Created expressive facial animations to support character personalities and storytelling.
Collaborated with engineers and technical artists to troubleshoot animation issues and improve production workflows.

Lead Animator
Activision | Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile | Apr 2023 – Nov 2024

Led a globally distributed animation team responsible for character animations and MTX content.
Directed animation quality and provided creative and technical feedback to internal and external teams.
Prepared animation briefs and provided artistic and technical guidance to outsourcing partners.
Oversaw character rigging, dynamic bone setups, and skin integration.
Established animation pipelines and workflows to support internal teams and outsourcing partners.

Senior Character Animator
Respawn Entertainment | Apex Legends Mobile | Aug 2022 – Apr 2023

Led a co-development animation team delivering gameplay and cosmetic animations.
Designed and reviewed hand-keyed and motion capture animations, including character entrances, emotes, and skydives.
Directed motion capture sessions and character performances.
Supervised body animation, facial animation, and lip-sync for gameplay and cinematics.
Directed cinematics from storyboards through final delivery.

Senior Character Animator
MZ / AppLovin | Jun 2018 – Aug 2022

Created character animations, rigs, and visual effects for multiple mobile titles, including Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, Crystalborne, and Game of War.
Collaborated with artists and engineers on animation production and game integration.

Senior Character Animator/Rigger
Kabam / Phoenix One Games | Mar 2014 – Jun 2018

Created character animations, rigs, VFX, and promotional cinematics for Guardian Kingdoms and other mobile titles.

Animation Director
GameVision Studios | Chicago, IL | March 2015 – Present

Art directed and led multi-animation teams.
Provided feedback for daily internal reviews.
Provided technical support and troubleshot all issues between art and engine.
Worked with the directors of the world’s most famous IPs, such as Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars, to deliver high-quality animations that are on brand.

Earlier Experience

CORE SKILLS

Gameplay Animation, First-Person Weapon Animation, Character Animation, Hand-Key Animation, Motion Capture, Facial Animation, Cinematics, Animation Direction, Character Rigging, Animation Pipelines, Team Leadership, Outsourcing Management

SOFTWARE & TOOLS

Autodesk Maya, Unreal Engine 5, Unity 6, Perforce (P4V), Jira, Confluence, Adobe Creative Cloud, Spine

EDUCATION

Academy of Art University | San Francisco, CA | 2012
Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Animation & Visual EffectsCentral Academy of Fine Arts | Beijing, China | 2006
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Animation & Film