Dingyi Zhou

EXPERIENCE

Senior Character Animator

Respawn Entertainment | Los Angeles, CA | August 2022 – January 2023

• Led a co-dev animation team to deliver all the animations for "Apex Legends Mobile." (Game of the Year 2022 on both iOS and Android)

• Drove daily reviews for both motion capture and hand-keyed in-game animation.

• Led the ideation process for animations, including skin entrances, emotes, skydives, etc.

• Directed the mocap shooting.

• Directed body acting, facial, and lip-sync animation for both in-game animations and cinematics.

• Art-directed cinematics from storyboard to final render with scripts provided by the narrative team.

Senior Character Animator

Applovin Inc. | Palo Alto, CA | May 2020 – August 2022
MZ Inc. | Palo Alto, CA | June 2018 – May 2020

• Animated and rigged characters with Maya, as well as created particle VFX with the in-house engine for games including “Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire,” “Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate,” “Game of War,” “Mobile Strike,” and “World War Rising” from preproduction to live-op phase.

• Provided various character animations for other unannounced projects.

• Collaborated with other art disciplines and engineers to bring the best-looking art assets into games.

Senior Character Animator/Rigger

Phoenix One Games Inc. | San Francisco, CA | July 2016 – June 2018

Kabam Inc. | San Francisco, CA | March 2014 – July 2016

• Animated and rigged characters/buildings with Maya for “Guardian Kingdoms.”

• Animated and rigged characters/buildings with Maya for an unannounced project.

• Flash animated characters/effects/UI for the “Castle Age” and “Underworld Empire.”

• Created particle VFX for all games made by the studio.

• Created animated promotion videos for the marketing kits with Adobe After Effects.

• Collaborated with other art disciplines and engineers to bring the best-looking art assets into games.

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. 

Character Animator

PennyPop Inc. | San Francisco, CA | Nov. 2013 – March 2014

• Animated the creatures/effects/UI with Adobe Flash for “Battle Camp.”

• Designed/set up the monsters in Adobe Illustrator.

• Created animated promotion videos for the marketing kits with Adobe After Effects.

Character Animator

Red Robot Labs, Inc. | Mountain View, CA | Sept. 2012 – Oct. 2013

• Maya modeled, rigged, UV-mapped, textured, and animated characters for an unreleased project. 

• Flash designed and created animations for “Life is Magic.”

• Animated characters/effects within the platform's limitations.

• Worked with engineers to determine frame-rate parameters.

Character Animator

The Base Studio | Foster City, CA | April 2012 - May 2012

• Maya key-frame animated characters for a short film titled “Call of Dude.”

• Collaborated with other animators to create a character performance process.

Mocap Animator

Mixamo Studio | San Francisco, CA | November 2011 – March 2012

• Created animations with Motion Builder for the online motion database.

• Skillfully use Motion Builder’s performance-related tool sets, cleaning up, characterization, constraints, motion blending, animation layers, pose controls, and story mode.

Cinematic Character Animator

Anitime Studio | San Francisco, CA | January 2011 – May 2013

• Animated characters with Maya for a VFX short film titled "Kui."

• Animated realistic creatures with Maya for a VFX short film titled "Storm in Sight 2: Battle in San Francisco". 

SKILLS & EXPERTISE

• 2D/3D Character Animation, 2D/3D Character Rigging, Mocap, 3D nCloth simulation, Story-boarding, Character Design.

• Animation Team Management, Art Directing, Animation Pipeline/Planning/Estimate, Outsource Supervision.