Home > Animation       Animation       Modeling          Characters          Props and Vehicles          Stills and Environments      Print, Mobile & Web      WIPs/Exercises      About My Demo Reel Maya, MAX, Character Studio| ~2:00 A compilation of work from 2004 through early 2005. The full versions of each animation in the reel are available below and in the "WIPs/Exercises" section. RoboCop vs. ED-209 Maya | ~2:00 I made this derivative animation first and foremost as a tribute to Phil Tippett, who is my idol. Besides ED-209 from RoboCop, Phil Tippett animated the Imperial Walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, the chess pieces in Star Wars, the dragon in Dragonslayer, and a million other things. I also made this piece as an exercise, and an endurance test in preparation for my own original short films. It took over a year's worth of weekends to make this animation, and my goal was to maintain the same level of quality throughout. FPS Animations Maya | ~0:16 In an effort to steer my work more towards game development, I've aimed to create some cyclable animations for an FPS-style game. As a setting, I chose the original "Die Hard" movie from the 80s, so this piece features two of the more prominent weapons from that film: the Beretta pistol and MP5 submachine gun. I'm still sorting out what sounds to use, so this piece is currently presented here in complete silence. "Hi Lloyd." Max | ~0:13 This piece was created as a test for a game animation company. I was told to create a lip sync animation in MAX as proof of my abilities to do face morphs and phoneme modeling. This is probably my best example of realistic lip-sync. I also worked across applications, finishing the modeling in Maya and then generating the animation with MAX. Superhero Fight Max, Character Studio | ~0:20 Another test for a different company. They were looking for superhero-style fighting and movement, so I picked sort of a generic Spider-Man-style fight sequence using simple character models and Character Studio's Biped skeleton. This is my best example of my work with Character Studio (CS). Click here to see the same animation with the CS bones revealed. The Dynamic Sewer Maya | ~0:11 It's a sewer, and it's dynamic! This piece involves cloud and tube particles, fields, and fluids. I created it as a quick Maya dynamics exercise for a local company. Ironclad Coronado Maya | ~0:40 Arriving at your local dealership, Spring 1971. Invasion: Normandy Maya | ~0:10 I made this at about the same time that EA came out with their Allied Assault E3 cinematic. I was originally going to have a 1-2 minute beach invasion animation, and this was one of the shots I storyboarded. I always kind of liked how this turned out, I've included it on this page because it's my best example of coordinating multiple characters in one scene. I used path animation and the Trax Editor to give each soldier a unique performance in the frame. Human Crazy Glue Maya | ~0:10 The sound clip here is from "What About Bob?". This was an entry to the Ten Second Club competition in August 2003. I didn't win, but it was a great learning experience. I think this is probably my best example of cartoon-ish animation, thus far. Hating the Colonel Maya | ~0:10 The sound clip here is from So I Married an Axe Murderer. I actually made this before I even knew about the Ten Second Club. I was inspired by Onur Yeldan (http://www.onuryeldan.com/) to come up with a simplistic character with which to make dialogue exercises. "Joey..." Maya | ~0:20 Here's another short series of acting clips using a very basic character. The subject this time is the movie Airplane!, and the actor is Peter Graves. The Chase Maya | ~0:28 I made this over the course of a couple weekends as an "inanimate object animation" exercise. I had quit smoking a few weeks earlier. All work © 2006 Kevin Kraeer / Kraeer Animation All other trademarks mentioned on this Web site are the property of their respective owners.