Adam McEwen

Principal Animator at Cloud Imperium Games

Stockport, England, United Kingdom

About

I have over a decade of industry experience as an animator shipping 4 AAA titles, 2 of which as lead animator. As lead / principal I have been responsible for: Providing estimates for production planning Coordinating, delegating and tracking the teams work to ensure deadlines are met Reviewing, feeding back and signing off on all work Reacting to feedback from the Art Director, Game Director and wider team Identification, evaluation and integration of relevant 3rd party hardware and software into the development pipeline Development from scratch of a smooth mocap pipeline from capture to final asset game integration Identification and resolution of development bottlenecks Working together with character artists and riggers to help them create animation friendly rigs Working with scriptwriters, designing tools for them to write for Maya to allow the animation team to work quicker and more efficiently Working with programmers so that they can expose useful information from the game engine for us to use in the animation system. As senior I have been responsible for: Using Maya to produce animation that demonstrates good understanding of animation principles and mechanics of motion Using state machine software such as Nexus (Sony in house software) and Morpheme (3rd party software from Natural Motion) to build robust character animation logic systems from the ground up, with a goal of achieving responsive gameplay balanced with realistic and natural motion Working on character, vehicle and environmental animation Editing, cleaning and enhancing mocap data and integrating into game

Experience

  • Cloud Imperium Games (Full-time · 7 yrs 10 mos)
    • Principal Animator
      Sep 2021 - Present · 4 yrs 10 mos

    • Senior Animator
      Sep 2018 - Aug 2021 · 3 yrs

  • Lead Animator at Codemasters
    Apr 2016 - Aug 2018 · 2 yrs 5 mos

  • Lead Animator at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Evolution Studios
    Apr 2015 - Apr 2016 · 1 yr 1 mo

    Worked as Lead Animator at Evolution Studios. I was taken on as a junior animator working on Motorstorm Apocalypse animating collapsing buildings, crashing planes, falling bridges, landslides and many kinds of other carnage. I have since worked on Driveclub as a mid level animator and Driveclub DLC as lead.

  • Evolution Studios (4 yrs 8 mos)
    • Senior Animator
      Apr 2013 - Apr 2015 · 2 yrs 1 mo

    • Animator
      Oct 2012 - Apr 2013 · 7 mos

    • Junior Animator
      Sep 2010 - Oct 2012 · 2 yrs 2 mos

  • Motion Graphics, 3D / VFX Animator at Freelance
    Jul 2009 - Jun 2010 · 1 yr

    Worked for various clients as a freelancer including BBC, Begbies Traynor and Schmidt Media.