...
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
-
- Character Animator at Industrial Light and Magic
- Past
-
- Character Animator at Tippett Studio
- Character Animator at 2K Games
- Professor of Computer Animation at Expression College
- Character Animator at Reel FX
- Character Animator at Lightstream Animation
- Character Animator at Tippett Studio
- Character Animator at Snoot Entertianment
- Character Animator at EA Tiburon
- animator at buzzie productions
- Freelance Animator/Rigger at Humanew LLC
- freelance animator at Tronic
- animation intern at curious pictures
- animator at Dinometrics
- Education
-
- Animation Mentor
- Pratt Institute
- Connections
-
163
connections
- Industry
- Animation
- Websites
Mike Safianoff’s Summary
stuff mover
Mike Safianoff’s Experience
-
Character Animator
Industrial Light and Magic
(Animation industry)
November 2009 — Present (1 month)
Run of show animator on Iron Man 2
-
Character Animator
Tippett Studio
(Privately Held; Motion Pictures and Film industry)
March 2009 — October 2009 (8 months)
Run of show animator on Cats and Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
-
Character Animator
2K Games
(Public Company; TTWO; Computer Games industry)
September 2008 — March 2009 (7 months)
Character animator on Bioshock 2
Main duties were plasmid and weapon player combat animation
worked heavily with programmers and gameplay design -
Professor of Computer Animation
Expression College
(Educational Institution; Entertainment industry)
October 2007 — December 2008 (1 year 3 months)
Taught animation 1 for a little less than a year while also freelancing. I got tired of frequently having 2 or more jobs at once so since sept 08 I just teach 1 day per term in Expression's current industry techniques class
-
Character Animator
Reel FX
(Privately Held; Animation industry)
February 2008 — June 2008 (5 months)
Remote Character animator on Open Season 2
-
Character Animator
Lightstream Animation
(Animation industry)
September 2007 — November 2007 (3 months)
Contract Animator on a pitch for Lightstream's first animated feature.
Character development tests as well as production shots for a promotional sequence. -
Character Animator
Tippett Studio
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Animation industry)
April 2007 — September 2007 (6 months)
Run of show Animator for the film adaptation of The SpiderWick Chronicles.
Completed seven shots featuring creature animation and dialog driven performance.
Shots ranged from massive goblin hordes, to smaller hordes of goblins, and some close ups of single characters. -
Character Animator
Snoot Entertianment
(Animation industry)
December 2006 — April 2007 (5 months)
Animator on the independent feature film Battle for Terra, released May 1st 2009
Responsible for about 10 seconds of finished animation per week -
Character Animator
EA Tiburon
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; ERTS; Animation industry)
August 2005 — November 2006 (1 year 4 months)
Note: For all but my last two months I was also a student at AnimationMentor.com
Second level (associate) Character Animator.
Animated in game character move sets for about six months, then was brought onto the cinematics team.
Worked closely with the art director and the various Senior Animators/Animation Director(s) attempting to get the cinematics done in some sort of presentable way.
Gameplay went under several "design changes" and most of what I did for in game got cut, as did about half of the cinematic work I did.
Before I moved on I did some small bits of pre-viz for NFL Tour, and learned Motionbuilder a wee bit. -
animator
buzzie productions
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Animation industry)
March 2005 — August 2005 (6 months)
Note: For all but the first month I was also a student at AnimationMentor.com
Did a lot of animation in not a lot of time for the direct to DVD feature Furby Island.
Human and creature animation, if you could even call it animation. -
Freelance Animator/Rigger
Humanew LLC
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Animation industry)
April 2005 — May 2005 (2 months)
Note: I was a full time student during this job, I did most of the work from home
Rigged 3 characters for a very restricted game engine, which was later thrown out in favor of a much better system that I had nothing to do with. Did some animation along the way. All the rigs had to be prepped for mo cap injection, but other than set up I kept my hands clean of anything motion capture. -
freelance animator
Tronic
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Animation industry)
October 2004 — October 2004 (1 month)
Note: I was a full time student during this job
Came at pretty much the last second and provided all the needed animation for a 30 second MTV the magazine commerical, with four characters. In a weekend. -
animation intern
curious pictures
(Privately Held; Animation industry)
June 2003 — September 2003 (4 months)
Note: I did this job over the summer between my junior and senior year.
I was an intern, and all that entails. Did a lot of animation it wasn't worth paying anyone to do...mainly for a planetarium project called "Sonic Vision" and a Kids Next Door 3D short for Cartoon Network -
animator
Dinometrics
(Animation industry)
June 2003 — August 2003 (3 months)
Note: I did this job over the summer between my sophomore and junior year.
I was brought on to do some very light animation (think layout), but no one told me, so my first pass was full animation, and no one stopped me. It was a telecommute job, and I never saw the final product, which was for a museum exhibit in Georgia. I did a little over a minute of animation with a Titanus skeleton (which I "rigged") and the plan was you could press a button that would display the bones, muscles, or skin and you could watch the short that way. Included shots of the herd, protection of territory, and basic behaviors.
Mike Safianoff’s Education
-
Animation Mentor
advanced animation technique 2005 — 2006
-
Pratt Institute
BFA , computer graphics , 2000 — 2004
Lets just say I am continuing my education...
Additional Information
Mike Safianoff’s Websites:
Mike Safianoff’s Interests:
Stuff that moves
Mike Safianoff’s Groups:
-
Visual Effects, Film and Games Professionals (www.vfx-recruit.com)
Mike Safianoff’s Honors:
Living proof evolution has petered out...
Mike Safianoff’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
