An introduction to 3D rigging

Have you ever considered a career in 3D animation? Or wondered whether you had the right skills to pursue a career in a more technical role such as a rigger or technical director? As a follow-up to the session on 2D rigging, this session will shed light on the life and experience of those who work behind the scenes on the technical side of 3D productions.

This ScreenSkills session will feature a panel of animation professionals ready to answer all of your burning questions as well as giving an insight into what they do in their roles day to day. Hear from industry specialists like Eoghan Garvey, rigging supervisor at Axis Animation, Will Pryor, head of rigging and CFX at Axis Studios, Giulia Dell’Armi, senior character TD at DNEG and Elena Borla who is the Character TD at DNEG and Ana Maria Savastre, junior rigger at Blue Zoo Animation Studio. 

Our panel have worked on many high profile productions including Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Doctor Strange, Ron’s Gone Wrong and Avengers: Endgame.

The panel will be chaired by Lucy Teire.

Who it's for

This event is aimed at new entrants or anyone who is considering in transferring into the more technical roles in animation.

Our panel will include:

Giulia Dell'Armi has been a Character TD for (almost) the past 10 years, working on all kind of projects: advertising, tv series, cinematics, VFX and animation feature films.

It was her passion for films, that got her curious initially: she wanted to discover more about how they were made. In particular she’s always been fascinated by how, in the visual effects and animation world, art and technology blend together to bring such amazing content on the big screen, and wanted to be part of it!
“And that’s we they do in rigging: we merge technical and artistic side bringing characters to life.”

Ana Maria Savastre is a rigger at Blue Zoo Animation studio. She has been part of the rigging team for two years, during which has worked on various short form projects as well as some children’s TV shows, such as: Go Jetters and The Adventures of Paddington.

Her interest in rigging started during her undergraduate degree at Bournemouth University, where she learned how to apply her knowledge of mathematics, programming and art in order to produce a medium that animators use to bring characters to life. 

Elena Borla is a senior character TD at DNEG Feature Animation and has been part of the team since the first movie in production in the Feature Animation department, back in 2017. She started working in the industry 9 years ago, after previous experiences in video production and documentaries. Initially working as a generalist for cartoon productions and advertisements in Italy and Germany, she decided to focus on rigging when she moved to London. Since then she had the chance to work on assets (characters, complex props, and vehicles) and rig development for animated tv series, shorts, and feature films, working for companies like Blue Zoo, Minimo Vfx, and DNEG. 

Will Pryor’s passion for breathing life into creatures through rigging first came about in the early 90’s, after watching the Spielberg epic Jurassic Park. Since then, he’s gained over 17 years experience in the animation and VFX industry, graduating from Portsmouth University with a degree in computer animation before working for a myriad of industry-leading studios including Milk, DNEG, Framestore and ILM. Having worked on commercial, TV and film projects, Will is now at Axis as head of rigging and CFX. Overseeing a team of riggers, CFX artists and technical directors, where he ensure they continue to enhance their solutions for advanced assets rigs.

After studying Animation at Ballyfermot College Dublin, Eoghan Garvey began his career in the rigging department in Brown Bag Films. There he worked on several major TV series such as Vampirina, Doc McStuffins and Peter Rabbit and eventually worked his way up to rigging supervisor.  After this he moved on to working in feature film, joining Boulder Media to establish their rigging department for the My Little Pony feature. Eoghan is now working as rigging supervisor at Axis films - ensuring that all characters in our projects are of the highest calibre, mentoring artists, solving technical challenges and translating the character vision into reality.

Lucy Teire (panel chair) is head of production at Interference Pattern animation studio in Edinburgh. She has more than 15 years experience in the animation and visual effects industry producing high-end CGI animation for commercials, game cinematics, films and broadcast. Lucy has a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Oxford University and an MSc in Animation and Visualisation from the University of Dundee.

This event is supported by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund with contributions from UK animation productions.

This session will take place online via Zoom. Click ‘get ticket’ to reserve your place: you must login or register before you are able to get a ticket for this event. Before the start of the session, a joining link will be sent to you via email.

If you are no longer able to use your ticket, we ask you to please contact support@screenskills.com  so that we can release your place. Our sessions are often oversubscribed, so we’d like to give other freelancers the opportunity to fill available spots. Thank you for your consideration.