EDUCATION
09/2020-12/2021
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA,
Certificate in Business and Management of Entertainment
01/2013-07/2019
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK,
PhD in Film Studies
09/2004-05/2006
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY,
Master of Fine Arts in Computer Art
09/2000-07/2004
University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt,
Germany, Diploma in Media System Design
WORK EXPERIENCE
09/2022-Present
Global Head of Characters and Environments, Mikros Animation, Technicolor Creative Studios
04/2021-09/2022
Global Head of Characters, Mikros Animation, Technicolor Creative Studios
08/2018-04/2021
Head of Characters, Blue Sky Studios, Greenwich, CT
09/2013-08/2018
Character Development Supervisor, Blue Sky Studios, Greenwich, CT
01/2013-08/2014
Rigging Show Lead, Blue Sky Studios, Greenwich, CT
Rigging Show Lead for "Peanuts"" (2015)
06/2012-08/2013
Senior Character Technical Director, Blue Sky Studios, Greenwich, CT
01/2012-01/2013
Lead Character Technical Director, Blue Sky Studios, Greenwich, CT
Creative lead for face rigs on "Rio 2" (2014)
05/2009-05/2012
Character Technical Director, Blue Sky Studios, Greenwich, CT
Creating expressive, flexible and efficient rigs that
allow animators to bring life to the characters and
props in films like "Ice Age": Building skeletons,
setting up deformations and engineering control
systems
09/2006-03/2009
Lead Technical Director, Spans & Partner, Hamburg, Germany
Character rigging, set supervision, development of
pipeline tools, special effects, including water, cloth
and particles
01/2005-05/2006
Unix / PC Lab Assistent, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Maintaining the MFA Computer Art network and
assisting the staff in all aspects of Computer
System Administration, maintaining the MFA
Computer Art Intranet website
02/2004-06/2004
3D Internship, ProSiebenSat.1 Production, Berlin, Germany
3D animation and modeling with Lightwave in one
of Germany's largest TV production house
08/2002-02/2003
3D Scanning Internship, Gentle Giant Studios, Burbank, CA
3D scanning and preparing of 3D scans for toys and
special effects
10/2001-07/2002
Research Assistent, Computer Graphics Center (ZGDV), Darmstadt, Germany
Modeling of low resolution characters for Virtual
Reality purposes
07/2001-09/2001
Programming Internship, IBM Hannover, Germany
Development of Java-Applets and Java Server Pages
TEACHING
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA (09/2017 - 05/2019)
Instructor for courses Thesis I and II in the BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects department.
Filmakademie, Stuttgart, Germany (January 2016)
2 day Graduate Seminar "Face Rigging & Advanced Rigging Concepts for Feature Animation"
AnimSchool, USA (07/2011 - 07/2013)
Teaching Character Technical Direction
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA (2005)
Graduate Seminar in Maya (basic interface, modeling, lighting, rendering)
Bronx Community College (CUNY), Bronx, New York, USA (2005)
Portfolio discussion, Gallery talk
COMPUTER SKILLS
Specialized in character creation workflow & organization
Software: Maya, XSI, Adobe Creative Suite, Shotgun, Office
Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac
Programming languages: Python, MEL, PHP, MySQL, HTML, C++
LANGUAGES
German (native), English (fluent), French (advanced), Italian (basic), Japanese (beginner)
AWARDS
VES Award Nomination, 2016
Animago film festival award nomination, 2008
Fulbright Professional Enhancement Grant, 2005
Fulbright Scholarship, 2004
Scholarship of Carl-Duisberg-Gesellschaft, Germany, 2002
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Member of the Visual Effects Society
Member of ASIFA-Hollywood
Women in Animation International, Inc.
Fulbright Alumni E.V.