As a part of the Masters in Entertainment Arts and Engineering at the University of Utah, we are tasked with teaming up and developing an alternative controller with an attached game. Our team came together around the idea of a party game that gives you an excuse to be silly. Our alternative controller is housed within wearable hats that sense the players tilting their heads and moves their Gnome accordingly. Players have to move their bodies to navigate their Gnome under falling hats and return those hats to the center for points.

On this team I was the sole animator and rigger of all moving 3D assets. I assisted in other areas, but rigging and animating were my focus. The bulk of my work came down to 4 main assets. 

The 1st main asset I animated is the Seal with a saddle. The Ice level required a seal that would swim around until a Gnome got near enough to ride it. I rigged the 3D model in Maya 2023 and also animated it there. The hardest part was dealing with the somewhat strange natural stance of a seal, it made setting up the skeleton and weight paints more difficult. The seal walks, swims, and sits itself on a ledge to then clap.

The 2nd main asset I animated are the playable Gnomes themselves. A bobble was given to add personality to the Gnomes. This one was fun because it sets the players expectations of what the game's mood will be. This was done using Unity animator.

The 3rd is the log obstacle in the forest level. The logs required an animation that would alert the player that the log was going to come rolling at them. Using the unity animator I animated the top log on the pile to jump 3 times then roll a few full rotations backwards like it was revving up, then releasing them on a roll toward the players.

The 4th main asset I animated was a Mushroom Man that serves as a power up that runs away from the player. The Mushroom Man has a falling from the air assembling animation and a run cycle animation. These animations were also made in Unity animator.