Niels Kleinheinz

Character Rigging / Scripting
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Character Rigging / Tool Development
Services
Rigging
Body Rigs, Facial Rigs, Prop Rigs

My 11 years of experience allow me to create rigs for any scale. Whether you want to do a quick commercial, an animated feature film or integrate a realistic creature into live-action footage, I’ll create a custom rig that matches your requirements. Character rigs, prop rigs, muscle rigs, mechanical rigs, facial rigs, body rigs, realtime rigs for game engines, no matter the resolution, I’m comfortable with all of them.

Scripting
Python and MEL Tool Development

Developing tools for riggers and animators alike is part of my job. My masters degree in computer science allows me to do software development with ease keeping in mind that requirements might change and the code needs to be easily maintainable. I like automating repetitive tasks and am always on the lookout to make workflows faster and leaner. Thus, I’m able to concentrate on the important parts like getting the anatomy just right and making rigs easy and fun to use.

Sculpting
Facial and Body Shape Modeling

Most rigs need some amount of modelling and sculpting, be it for facial expressions or corrective shapes to make that body deformation look just right. I’ve got extensive experience sculpting shapes and the anatomical knowledge to match either the specific stylised guidelines of a cartoon film production or the realism required for a live-action film. And since I’m a rigger at heart I know how to sculpt in a way that the shapes seamlessly integrate with the other deformers in the rig like skinning, muscle-systems, collisions etc.

Cartoony and Realistic
Computer Animation vs. Live-Action

I don’t see computer-animated feature films and live-action films with CGI elements as mutually exclusive. Both genres inform each other and push each other forward. I’m at home both in feature animation and CG creature rigging. Whether you need a fast and lean rig for 1000+ shots in an animated film or a heavy rig with muscle-system and anatomically correct deformations for 3 shots, I’ll custom tailor and scale the rigging solution to fit into your pipeline and workflows.

background
Skills
Software
Maya
100%
3ds Max
95%
Photoshop
50%
Skills
Coding
Python
100%
MEL
100%
MaxScript
80%
130
MINUTES
Average length of a blockbuster movie
1950
SHOTS
Average number of shots per movie
2300
VFX SHOTS
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
60
NON-VFX SHOTS
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Teaching Engagements

Having been in the industry for 11 years I have also been approached to teach rigging. My experience includes two classes at The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark and two times as a guest lecturer at Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam, Germany.

  • 2017 Guest Lecturer Facial Rigging, Film University Babelsberg
  • 2016 Guest Lecturer Facial Rigging, Film University Babelsberg
  • 2016 Character Rigging Consultant, The Animation Workshop, VIA University College
  • 2014 Guest Lecturer Body Rigging, The Animation Workshop, VIA University College
  • Having worked together for 2 years at Framestore I can recommend Niels with great enthusiasm. Niels has been an essential addition to rigging on Iron Man and the Framestore Rigging department in general, offering a wealth of technical expertise and experiential knowledge. His problem solving skills and self directed approach make him highly productive, and his enthusiam for collaboration not only make him a pleasure to work with but also result in outstanding work. I look forward to working together in the future.
    Jarl Midelfort
    Lead Rigger at Framestore
  • Niels is a very dedicated guy, committed to providing the best possible solution to any problem whilst assuming full responsibility. Hes also a very polite, humble and likeable personality. Its a pleasure to work with him on Ronin, and i look forward to working on other projects together.
    Stuart Ellis
    Lead Animator at Framestore
  • He is a very talented rigger and a very pleasant person. Great at problem solving and very dedicated. With both technical and artistic skills. Looking forward to work with him again.
    José Antonio Martín Martín
    Lead Rigging TD at MPC