Wellington’s Hard Surface Modeling infrastructure capabilities

Description

The Premier Animation, Rigging, and VFX Outsourcing Studio

If 3D models are the “sculptures” of a game, then Animation is the divine spark that gives them life. A game can have the most beautiful character model ever created, but if it moves poorly—if it slides across the floor, if its attacks have no “weight,” if its face is a lifeless mask—the illusion is shattered. Movement is the core of interactivity. It is the player’s primary means of expression, and it is the language through which characters and worlds communicate. This is the domain of Animation, Rigging, and Visual Effects (VFX).

This is a discipline of two halves: the unseen, highly technical foundation of Rigging (building the digital skeleton and controls), and the expressive, artistic performance of Animation (the act of “puppeteering” that skeleton). It is a field further enhanced by VFX, the “magic” of game art—the explosions, fireballs, and ethereal glows that create spectacle and provide critical gameplay feedback.

To excel at this requires a rare, hybrid talent. A great rigger must be both an engineer and an anatomist. A great animator must be both a technical “keyframer” and a method actor, capable of conveying emotion through the subtle tilt of a head or the shifting of weight in a stance. The challenges are enormous: creating rigs that are flexible enough for animators but performant enough for the engine; animating hundreds of “gameplay” actions (walks, runs, jumps) that “blend” together seamlessly; and creating cinematic “story” animations that drive a narrative forward.

Our studio is a dedicated production house focused exclusively on the science and art of motion. We are a collective of technical directors, riggers, keyframe animators, mocap specialists, and VFX artists. We exist to be your external motion department, a trusted partner to take your static 3D models and imbue them with character, weight, and life. We handle the entire motion pipeline, from the creation of complex Character & Facial Rigs to high-volume Gameplay Animation, cinematic Cutscene Animation, and stunning Real-Time VFX.

This document will provide an exhaustive breakdown of our motion-centric services. We will explore our deep, philosophical approach to “gameplay-first” animation, our meticulous, multi-stage rigging and animation pipelines, our mastery of the industry-standard toolchain (Maya, MotionBuilder, Houdini), and the flexible engagement models designed to bring your characters and worlds to life.

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Section 1: The Philosophy: Movement as Gameplay and Narrative

 

Our core belief is that “animation is not just a visual layer; it is a core game mechanic.” Every single movement must serve a purpose, and that purpose falls into two categories: Gameplay or Narrative.

1.1. The “Gameplay First” Animation Philosophy: In an interactive medium, “looks cool” is secondary to “feels good.” This is the core of gameplay animation.

• Readability & Feedback: The player must be able to read an animation instantly. When an enemy is about to attack, it must “telegraph” that intent with a clear “wind-up” animation. When the player lands a hit, the enemy must react with a clear “hit” animation.

• Responsiveness: This is the most critical element. When the player presses “jump,” the character must feel like they jump instantly. This is a constant battle between artists and designers. Animators want long, beautiful, “follow-through” animations. Designers want instant control.

• Our Solution: The “3-Frame Rule”: We are masters of this balance. We design our animations (like an attack) in distinct “A-B-C” phases:

  1. Phase A (The “Anticipation”): The first 1-10 frames. The “wind-up.” This is the part that can be “canceled” by the player, ensuring responsiveness.

  2. Phase B (The “Action”): The “active” frames. This is the “damage” part of a sword swing. It’s fast, powerful, and cannot be interrupted.

  3. Phase C (The “Recovery”): The “follow-through.” The character recovering their balance. This is the longest, most “animated” part, but it, too, can be “blended” or “canceled” by the next player action (e.g., a “dodge roll”).

• This technical, design-centric approach to animation ensures our work not only looks good, but feels perfect to control.

1.2. The “Performance” Philosophy (Narrative & Cinematic): For cutscenes and story moments, the philosophy shifts. We are no longer mechanics; we are actors.

• Acting & Emotion: Our cinematic animators are trained actors. They understand how to convey complex emotions—doubt, fear, joy, rage—through body language, timing, and facial expression.

• Beyond the Body: Facial Animation: This is our super-specialty. A lifeless face is the #1 killer of immersion. We are experts in complex, joint-based facial rigging and animation, allowing for subtle, nuanced performances that truly sell your story. We can animate from audio, from video reference, or from scratch.

1.3. The Rigging Foundation: The “Marionette” None of this is possible without a world-class “rig.” The rig is the digital skeleton and control system for the 3D model.

• Our Rigging Philosophy: “A rig should be a tool for the animator, not an obstacle.”

• Our Process: We build rigs that are both flexible and standardized.

  • Flexible: Our rigs include all the controls an animator dreams of: IK/FK switching (for arms/legs), stretchy limbs (for cartoon effects), bone-driven “jiggle” (for fat or accessories), and complex facial UI controls.

  • Standardized: Our rigs are “engine-ready.” We build them to be perfectly compatible with Unreal Engine (UE Mannequin) or Unity (Humanoid) systems. This means your “walk” animation will work on any character using our rig, and you can seamlessly use engine-native features like IK foot-placement.

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Section 2: Core Motion Service Offerings (Exhaustive Breakdown)

 

Our studio is split into three technical-artistic divisions, working in perfect sync.

2.1. Division: Technical Art & Rigging This is the “engineering” division. They build the tools and skeletons.

• Character Rigging (Biped & Quadruped):

  • Process: We take your “skinned” 3D model and build its entire internal skeleton. This includes placing every joint (bones), painting “skin weights” (which vertices move with which bone), and building the “control rig” (the colorful, external controls the animator uses).

  • Deliverables: A fully-rigged character file (.MA, .MB, .BLEND) that is performance-tested and animator-approved.

• Facial Rigging (Specialized):

  • What it is: Creating the 50-100+ “bones” or “blendshapes” required for realistic (or stylized) facial expression.

  • Deliverables: A character head with a robust “Facial UI”—a floating control panel that allows animators to control individual parts (e.g., “left eyebrow raise,” “right lip corner pull”) or use “master” controls (e.g., “Smile,” “Sad,” “Angry”).

• Mechanical & Prop Rigging: We also rig non-living things: the complex reloading mechanism of a sci-fi rifle, the suspension and wheels of a vehicle, or the opening/closing of a treasure chest.

• Pipeline & Tooling: Our most senior technical directors can build custom tools for your project, such as “auto-rigging” scripts or animation library exporters that plug directly into your engine.

2.2. Division: Keyframe Animation (Gameplay & Cinematic) This is the “performance” division. Our animators create motion “by hand,” frame by frame.

• Gameplay Animation (“Anim-Sets”): This is the high-volume work for the “player” and “AI” characters.

  • Process: We create the entire library of motions a character needs. This is a massive, organized list.

  • Deliverable (Example “Biped Melee NPC Anim-Set”):

    • Locomotion: Idle, Walk (F/B/L/R), Run (F/B/L/R), Strafe (L/R), Turn-in-place, Jump.

    • Combat: “Telegraph” Attack (Heavy/Light), Attack (Heavy/Light), “Hit React” (from F/B/L/R), Death (x3 variations), Block.

    • Social: Taunt, Patrol (look around), Idle (variation).

  • We deliver these as 30-50 individual animation files (.FBX) that are all “in-place” (run on a treadmill) and perfectly “loopable,” ready for your engineers to blend them in-engine.

• Cinematic & Story Animation:

  • Process: This is not a “loop.” This is a “shot.” You provide the “storyboard” or “pre-vis” (a rough version). Our animators, working from a “blank slate,” will “hand-key” the full performance, including body, face, and fingers. This is the “Pixar” style of animation.

  • Deliverables: A single, long animation file for a specific cutscene shot.

2.3. Division: Mocap & Real-Time VFX This division handles high-volume motion and environmental “magic.”

• Motion Capture (Mocap) Services:

  • What it is: For realistic human motion, Mocap is often more efficient than keyframing.

  • Our Service: We do not capture the data. We are the “post-production” house. You send us the raw, messy Mocap data (e.g., from an Xsens suit or Vicon stage), and our “Mocap Cleanup” team will:

    1. Solve & Retarget: “Solve” the data onto our character rig.

    2. Cleanup: Fix all the “jitter,” floating feet, and penetrated limbs.

    3. Enhance: Add “keyframed” polish on top, exaggerating the “weight” and fixing the “floaty” feel.

  • Deliverable: We turn 10 minutes of “messy” data into 50 clean, “game-ready” animations.

• Visual Effects (VFX) Design:

  • What it is: The art of “real-time magic.” This includes explosions, muzzle flashes, fire, magic spells, smoke, and “impact” effects.

  • Process: This is a highly technical art form, using “particle systems” and “shader graphs” within the game engine itself (Unreal Niagara, Unity Particle System).

  • Deliverables: We don’t deliver a “file.” We deliver the VFX System itself, built inside your game engine project, ready to be “triggered” by your code.

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Section 3: Toolchain and Technical Prowess

 

Our animators and riggers are masters of a complex, interconnected set of software. Our pipeline is built for efficiency and compatibility.

• Autodesk Maya: This is the undisputed, 800-pound gorilla of the animation and rigging world. 95% of our rigging and keyframe animation is done in Maya. Our studio has a deep, shared library of custom MEL/Python scripts for Maya that automate common tasks (e.g., “export this animation to Unreal format”).

• Autodesk MotionBuilder: When dealing with high-volume Mocap data, MotionBuilder is the tool of choice. Our Mocap team uses it for its powerful retargeting and data-editing toolsets.

• Blender: We also maintain a fully separate, Blender-native rigging and animation pipeline, as its capabilities have grown exponentially and many clients prefer a fully Blender-based workflow.

• Houdini: Our most senior VFX artists use Houdini to procedurally generate complex visual effects (like a tornado) or “bake” complex simulations (like a building collapse) into an animation.

• Game Engines (Unreal & Unity): Our VFX team works directly in your engine. Our animation team uses real-time “live-link” plugins to see their Maya animation running on the character, in the engine, in real-time. This “in-engine review” is critical for avoiding surprises.

• Review & Pipeline:

  • ShotGrid: We manage the entire “Motion” pipeline here. An “NPC_Melee_Attack” asset moves from “Rigging” -> “Animation (Keyframe)” -> “Animation Review” -> “Exported”.

  • Video Review: We use video-review tools (like SyncSketch) where you can “draw” over a video of our animation, giving frame-by-frame notes (e.g., “at frame 42, this foot is slipping”).

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Section 4: Pricing and Engagement Frameworks

 

The “cost” of motion is based on “time” (seconds of animation) and “complexity” (e.g., a simple biped vs. a 6-legged dragon). Our pricing reflects this.

Model 1: Fixed Price (Per-Asset / Per-Second) This is the most common model for well-defined animation tasks.

• How it Works: We provide a “Per-Asset” or “Per-Second” quote.

• Best For:

  • Rigging: We “tier” the complexity.

    • Tier 1 (Simple Prop, e.g., door): $200.

    • Tier 2 (Standard Biped, IK/FK): $2,000 – $4,000.

    • Tier 3 (Hero Biped + Face Rig): $8,000 – $15,000.

  • Gameplay Animation: We “price per animation.”

    • Simple Loop (e.g., Idle): $200.

    • Complex Loop (e.g., Combat Run): $500.

    • Complex Action (e.g., “Get Up from Prone”): $800.

    • “Anim-Set” Bundles: “Get our 40-animation ‘Melee NPC’ set for a fixed price of $15,000.”

  • Cinematic Animation: We price “per-second.”

    • “10 seconds of high-quality, hand-keyed cinematic performance”: $5,000 – $10,000 (depending on character complexity).

  • VFX: Priced “per-effect” (e.g., “Small Impact FX”: $150, “Large Explosion FX”: $1,000).

Model 2: Dedicated Team (Retainer) This is the “Scalability” model for large-scale motion needs.

• How it Works: You pay a fixed, flat monthly fee for a dedicated, managed “pod” of riggers and animators.

• Example “Motion Pod”: For $25,000/month, you receive: 1 Senior Rigger/Tech Artist, 2 Mid-Level Animators, and a part-time Producer.

• Best For:

  • AAA Co-Development: Your RPG has 200 unique characters, each needing a full anim-set. This is the only way to manage that volume.

  • Cinematic-Heavy Games: Your narrative game has 30 minutes of cutscenes. A dedicated team will work on this for 12 months.

  • LiveOps: Your game needs new “Emotes,” “Finishers,” and “Weapon” animations every single month. A retainer team provides this content pipeline.

• Benefit: The most cost-effective model (a 20-30% discount vs. “per-second” pricing). The team becomes experts in your game’s “feel” and rigging system.

Model 3: Time & Materials (T&M) This is our “Consulting” and “R&D” model.

• How it Works: You pay a simple, pre-agreed hourly rate for our most senior technical and animation directors.

• Best For:

  • Prototyping “Feel”: You’re not sure how your character should move. You need a “master” animator to spend 40 hours just prototyping the “run” and “jump” until it “feels” right.

  • Mocap Cleanup: The volume is unknown. You pay us “by the hour” to clean as much Mocap data as we can.

  • Technical Consulting: You need our Technical Director to spend 30 hours building your initial Unreal “Anim-Graph” or rigging pipeline.

 

Conclusion: Your Partner in Motion

 

Static models are just sculptures. It is motion that transforms them into characters. It is rigging, animation, and VFX that build the intangible “feel” of a game, create the spectacle that players remember, and tell the stories that make them care.

This craft is a complex, technical, and artistic challenge. Our studio was built to solve it. We are not just a collection of animators; we are a dedicated, managed production house for all things motion. We provide the technical foundation of rigging, the artistic performance of animation, and the spectacular magic of VFX.

We are your “on-demand” motion department, ready to integrate with your team, understand your game’s unique “feel,” and bring your entire world to life. We invite you to send us your 3D model for a free rigging and animation review. Let us show you the life we can breathe into it.