David Gardner Animation Reel
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Phone 415-710-6267 ~
For Resume, please see below or click here to view directly.
Marvel Nemesis Fight Intro and Outro Animations
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Whenever you would win or loose a fight in the 2 person fighting game Marvel Nemesis - Rise of the imperfects, it would play one of these, among other, animations. These are the ones that I worked on.
Conan! - Playstation3 Xbox 360 -
Conan, Created for the Playstaion3 and Xbox360, is an action adventure game created at Nihilistic Software. The game follows the famed barbarian, Conan as he slashes, hacks and rips his way through countless oppressive enemies to gain wealth, power and of course, women.
Lead Combat Deisgner
Senior Animator
Gamespot.com - 7.5 - Captures the Conan feel, Combat is fantastically brutal. "Derivative as it is, Conan is still a viscerally satisfying adventure."
GamePro Magazine - 8.0 - "Fans of Conan will appreciate this game as much as hack-and-slash fans who've never heard of the franchise. It's a lot of fun, challenging without being frustrating and all in all, a great example of its genre."
Conan was the first game that I was credited as Lead Combat Designer. I began work on the project as the Senior Aniamtor at nihilistic software. But during production began designing the feel and gameplay behaviors of combat. The video demonstrates what I had the largest effect on during the production, Combat.
I spent most of my time developing how the player interfaced with the game; how the combat and interactable objects (doors, leavers, naked ladies) would feel when controlled by the player. Coming from the animation department allowed me to create animations and tweak the way the player would not only see them, but feel as well.
The combat design for Conan attempted to bring a level of feel to the player that 2D side scrolling action games would normally bring, to a 3D environment. Games like Castlevania, Double Dragon, and even fighting games like King of Fighters or other SNK and Capcom games were used to inspire the feel of the combat in Conan.
My biggest goal with the combat in the game was to make it feel as real as possible. The player was meant to be able to physically deal damage to his enemies in the most realistic manner possible. Though Conan would do some pretty outlandish things, when the player wanted to take an enemies shield he would literately grab it from the enemy and enter into player vs. enemy grapples showing him either rip the shield from the enemies grasp.
I really loved to add all the physical elements into the animation, showing him hold an enemy by the wrist and grab a weapon ripping it from his hand within the animations, but also to make it feel as fast and responsive as possible.
Overall the project was quite allot of fun and of course an amazing opportunity to work on one of my favorite fictional characters ever created. My biggest regret in the end looking back? It's not nearly violent enough! So I guess I'll have to do one more Conan game before I die, to really do the barbarian the insanely violent justice he disserves.
See a full review and more media for Conan at Gamespot.com
David Gardner Resume
download my · R E E L ·
Phone 415-710-6267 ~
nerd.starwars@gmail.com
· A N I M A T I O N E X P E R I E N C E ·
Doublefine Productions - Aug 2008- Present
- Lead Animator – December 2006 – Present
Gameplay and Cinematic animator for the project Brutal Legend directed by Tim Shafer. Creating in-game assets, working with Tim and the design department as well as heavily with artists to bring to life their visual goals. Cinematic work with heavy emphasis in bringing the emotional levels of the characters to a new height in games.
Nihilistic Software - Sept 2004- Present
- Lead Animator – December 2006 – Present
During this project my responsibilities consisted of animating and directing animators to create all of the in game animations as well as a large amount of cinematic sequences. Daily responsibilities also consisted of animating and tuning effects, camera and audio to seamlessly translate the animation style into player feel. Responsibilities also consisted of directing storyboard and animation layout for all of the Cinematic sequences in Conan. Including editing sound and dialogue.
Responsibilities consisted of game play design, engineering how the player interacts with the game and interfaces with the story. Tuning difficulty levels and creating new story elements as well as guiding each department so the entire project maintains a cohesive look and feel. Conan - Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 Unnaounced Playstation 3 Title still currently in development
- Senior Animator – Sept 2004 – December 2006
Employed as Senior Animator for the project Marvel Nemesis on the Playstation2 /Xbox. Helped develop the animation style and direction for the majority of the in-game animations as well as gave cinematic direction for in-game cutscenes.
Sony Computer Entertainment - October 2002- July 2004
- Animator - October 2002 - July 2004
Employed as an animator on the Playstation2 title Rise To Honor. A adaptation of popular Hong Kong action movies. With Jet Li as our staring character we used motion capture directed by Yuen Woo-Ping to bring a realistic style of kung-fu action into the Playstation2. My duties on this title consisted primarily of Key frame animation and Motion capture editing and implementation.Would meet regularly with production companies to discuss future projects that Nihilistic Software could potentially Develop.
· E D U C A T I O N ·
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Character Animation; Academy of Art College, San Francisco
· S O F T W A R E ·
- 3D modeling and texturing skills.
- Advanced Rigging knowledge with a minor amount of .mel scripting ability.
- Proficient in Autodesk Maya and MotionBuilder Photoshop, Premier, Sony Vegas, and After Effects with a Working knowledge of Final Cut Pro.
- Familiar with Level Design and Scripting Tools as well as Exporting pipelines and Perforce File structure.
- Proficient in Adobe After Effects, Premiere and Photoshop .
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- References and Additional Material Available Upon Request.
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