During my time at Brigham Young University, I had the opportunity to be hired as a research assistant to work on a wide range of technical animation and rigging projects, many of which were recognized at the national level.
I served as a lead rigger, rigger, and technical animator on two short films and a game. These projects—including The Witch’s Cat (which won an Emmy at the 2024 College Television Awards), CENOTE (an Emmy winner in 2023), and the student game Solar Showdown—were all produced within the span of a single academic year. My responsibilities spanned facial and body rigging, animation support, and directing rigging teams—experiences that deepened both my leadership and technical skills.
Throughout these projects, I developed tools and systems from the ground up using Python and PyQt in Maya. One of my proudest technical achievements was building a custom auto-rigger that created IK/FK controls, limb systems, and UI interfaces without relying on any third-party tools. This project took me from knowing almost nothing about Python to building scripts, managing JSON files, and designing full-featured UIs. I was able to help the team automate the rigging process, which significantly improved our workflow and efficiency.
In my final year, I created a game-ready character rig and pipeline integration system for Unreal Engine as part of our Senior Game Capstone. This required developing a Maya-to-Unreal skeleton translation system to overcome limitations with Unreal’s animation import process. I also explored non-traditional rigging challenges, like dynamically animating tower appendages along curves using node networks, deformation controls, and skinning solutions inspired by real-world artists.
These experiences shaped how I approach problems—balancing artistic needs with performance, workflow efficiency, and collaboration across disciplines. They laid the foundation for the professional tools and workflows I continue to evolve today. I’m grateful and honored to have worked with the professors and fellow students who taught me to be a team player, a hard worker, and a disciplined learner.
Solar Showdown is a 2-player couch-competitive game where players harvest solar power, build defenses, and produce minions to attack their opponent's towers.
I had the privilege of working on all the prop rigs, the Botanist character rig, and providing some animation support.
Jealousy strikes a witch’s cat when the witch’s boyfriend proposes, prompting the cat to take drastic action in this heartwarming tale of love, acceptance, and forgiveness.
Created by the BYU Animation Class of 2023. This film won an Emmy at the 2023 College Television Awards and I got the previlege of being the lead rigger on this project. I was responsible for the facial rigging, body rigging, rig tool support, and some animation support.
When Axel, a young axolotl, is separated from his family by ancient magic, it's up to him and Memo, an unlikely human ally, to escape the cenote he’s trapped in and find his way back home.
This short animated student film marks the 20th student Emmy awarded to BYU's Center for Animation. I had the previlege to work on this film as a rigger. I was responsible for the body rigging.