Animation (a): to make or design in such a way as to create apparently
spontaneous lifelike movement; (b): to produce in the form of an animated cartoon.

According to Webster that sounds about as much fun as watching paint
dry. As we know, it's not boring at all. Creating movement and personality from scratch is actually a pretty awesome thing.

My name is Ben Stanton. I'm a Senior Animator at Airtight Games in Redmond Wa. I'm traditionally a Hand Key Animator but have years of experience with all facets of the motion capture pipeline. I am proficient in Maya, MotionBuilder, and 3D Studio Max.

My game experience includes:

Senior Animator at Airtight games in Redmond, Wa. I am currently working at Airtight and have been been primarily focusing on all player movement and one of the largest enemies in our game. I assisted the Lead Animator and Art Director in directing and organizing the Mocap shoot at SCEA in San Diego and taught the team how to process the data using MotionBuilder 2011.

Senior Animator at Realtime Worlds in Dundee, Scotland. Here I worked with a team of 3 Animators on one of the most ambitious projects ever conceived. We used traditional hand key techniques as well as Motion Capture, which I planned, directed, and tailored in MotionBuilder.

Lead Animator at Zombie Studios in Seattle, Wa. Where I lead the animation team on Saw: The Video Game for the XBox 360, PS3, and PC. It was at Zombie that I gained a lot of experienced as a Mocap Director and Actor.

These projects have allowed me to animate, with both hand key and Mocap, many different characters performing a wide range of interesting movements. It has also taught me how to create pipelines, organize task lists, and have a very active role in hiring and mentoring new animators.

Being an animator is, in my opinion, one of the greatest professions in the world. Training your eye to completely study all facets of movement: weight, timing, anticipation, follow through, etc., is a pretty amazing thing. Especially as a video game animator where you are actually able to interact with your art...... unbelievable.

Thank you very much for taking the time to look through my site. If there are any questions or request, don't hesitate to drop me a line.
Ben Stanton