Nickhil
Nagpal
Creature Animation • Procedural FX • Technical Motion
My background in animation focuses on character performance, creature motion, and physically grounded movement, informing how I approach CG, VFX, and virtual production workflows.
This foundation allows me to previs, animate, and iterate with an emphasis on timing, weight, and cinematic motion while maintaining continuity across real-time and offline pipelines.
Technical Creature Animation & Rig Adaptation
Creature Animation • Rigging
Designed and adapted a creature rig to support non-standard motion and deformation requirements for production use.
• Modified an existing snake rig to support a double-headed configuration and spline-driven locomotion
• Extended rig controls to handle uneven terrain interaction while preserving animator-driven performance
• Balanced procedural motion systems with keyframed animation to achieve believable creature movement
• Optimized the rig for iteration within a production-oriented CG and VFX pipeline
Designed and executed a character animation and FX pipeline combining performance-driven animation with procedural transformation systems.
• Adapted and developed a baby elephant character from an existing model, including rigging, texturing, and animation
• Animated a 30-second performance sequence emphasizing physicality, timing, and emotional clarity
• Designed a procedural Houdini FX system to transition the character from mesh-based animation into particle-driven form
• Ensured procedural FX systems remained art-directable to preserve performance intent during mesh-to-particle transition
• Fully developed and validated animation and FX systems, independent of final lighting and compositing
Animator / CG Generalist
Animation Foundations & Motion Studies
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Built foundational character and creature animation work focused on performance, physicality, and cinematic motion.
• Jaguar walk cycle developed from blocking through full path-based locomotion
• Robot animation for a senior thesis film emphasizing mechanical motion
• Duo character dialogue and pantomime exercises focused on timing and performance clarity
• Applied animation principles alongside modeling, rigging, and texturing workflows to support previs and production pipelines