About

 Kenneth David Turner

I am a VFX supervisor and skilled 2d / 3D generalist, with over 20 years experience leading teams in animation and vfx. I’m a multi-specialist with professional credits for:

  • VFX supervisor
  • Animation Director
  • Motion Capture Director
  • Pipeline TD
  • Senior Compositor
  • Lead Animator
  • Technical Animator
  • Character Modeller

RTS 2012 awardLexhag Postproduction

Lexhag works mainly on drama for the BBC. I freelance for them as a VFX and Animation supervisor. I’m involved; in preproduction planning, on set with the production team, and off set with the postproduction team.

I supervised CG on The Fades and picked up the RTS award for best effects digital along with Alexis and Dan of Lexhag.

BlackMagic Design

I am a Fusion product specialist and demo artist for Blackmagic Design.

Audiomotion Ltd

I’ve worked closely with Audiomotion for many years. I’ve directed and performed motion capture with them. I’ve created bespoke Motion Capture pipelines that smoothly integrate with 3dsMax.

Animal Dynamics Ltd

Animal Dynamic make Large cargo drones. I’ve worked with as consultant doing a mix of product design, visualisation, and the creation of UE4 simulation environment.

Teaching

I’m an associate Lecturer at Brookes University Oxford
I am a visiting lecturer at Falmouth university, and Ravensbourne university.
I was a visiting lecturer at ‘Kajaanin University Finland’.
I have been a course advisor for SAE London.

Rebellion Developments Ltd (upto 2009)

At Rebellion I worked as an Animation Supervisor and Technical Director.  From the early days of maquettes and stop motion, to the latest motion capture and CG characters.   I built their animation department and character pipeline.

  • I realized the most challenging  tasks for in-game animation and pre-rendered video.
  • Managed, mentored and directed other animators.
  • Liaised between artists and programmers to design tools.
  • Investigated new techniques and software for the company.
  • Planned, supervised, directed and performed motion capture.
  • Coded numerous MaxScripted tools to improve animation workflow.

Projects

2018 ‘VEX’ (Vicon) Vex is a virtual reality experience made for GDC 2018
2017 ‘The Innocents’ (Netfix) CG Supervisor at Lexhag
2017 ‘Poldark series 3’ (BBC) CG Supervisor at Lexhag
2017 ‘Man in an Orange Shirt’ (TV mini series) CG Supervisor at Lexhag. Matte Painting and digital set extensions
2016 ‘Ready Player One’ (Film) LAB motion capture team with Digital Domain
2016 ‘Poldark series 2’ (BBC) CG Supervisor at Lexhag
2016 ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (Film) Senior Compositer for The Electric Pig ltd
2016 (Oliver Agency) VFX supervision and 3D matte painting
2015 ‘Dickensian’ (BBC) VFX Supervisor and head of CG at Lexhag. I was responsible for VFX in 20 episodes of the show
2014 ‘Fusion Specialist’ (BVE) Fusion specialist for Blackmagic Design at BVE
2014 ‘Poldark’ (BBC) CG and Animation supervisor at Lexhag. Created the shipwreck and digital set extension of the mine
2014 ‘tools TD ‘ (Picasso Pictures) Pipeline technical director.
2014 ‘IEP’ (SAE) Part of the Industry Experts Panel at SAE London
2014 ‘icc pro cricket 2015’ (Game) Motion capture Director for Disney India
2014 ‘Altar’ (Film) CG Supervisor
2013 ‘Blood Moon’ (Film) VFX Supervisor
2013 ‘Playtime’ (Isaac Julien ) Digital Matte Painting for the massive 7 screen installation by the world renowned artist.
2013 ‘Takamul’ (Ascension Ltd) Motion Graphics for Takamul
2013 ‘Enchanted Kingdom’ (BBC) Supervised Stereo titles for The BBCs ambitious 3D nature film
2013 ‘Downtown Abbey'(BBC) On set VFX supervisor
2013 ‘The paradise’ (BBC) CG and Animation supervisor at Lexhag. Digital set extension of the Paradise
2013 ‘Dementimania’ (Film) CG and Animation supervisor at Lexhag. Digital creatures and matte painting
2013 ‘Whitechapel’ (ITV) CG and Animation supervisor at Lexhag
2013 ‘Rapido3d tools’ Developed custom 3dsMax script to speed up workflow at Rapido3d
2013 ‘Outpost3’ (Film) senior compositor at Lexhag
2013 ‘lexus’ (promo) 3d generalist and compositor at Lexhag see on Vimeo
2013 ‘Kajaanin University Finland’ Visiting lecturer in Games Animation
2012 ‘The Text Experiment’ Project Manager and Designer. Lead a software development team for a visual association experiment at Oxford Brookes university
2012 ‘The Paradise’ (BBC) Senior Digital artist at Lexhag: Matchmoves, 3d set extensions, and digital matte painting
2012 ‘Kajaanin University Finland’ Visiting lecturer in Games Animation and Character modelling
2011 ‘Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2’ Technical animation consultant for Audiomotion and Mercurysteam.
2011 ‘Bert and Dickie (BBC)’ Senior digital artist at Lexhag
2011 ‘The Fades (BBC3)’ Senior digital artist at Lexhag (winner RTS awards Best Effects Digital )
2011 ‘South Riding (BBC)’ Senior digital artist at Lexhag
2011 ‘Kajaanin University Finland’ Visiting lecturer in Games Animation
2010 ‘SOS new york trailer’ Animation supervisor and Technical Director for the Crytek teaser trailer
2008 / 2009 ‘Aliens Versus Predator 3’ Rebellion animation engine design. Animation supervisor / TD. Motion capture Director. I supervised roughly 5000 animations for this game.
2007 / 2008 ‘Rogue Warrior (game)’ Character Artist, Animation consultant.
2007 Various PSP Titles includingStarwarsthe simpsons Technical animation supervisor
2006 Rebellion Tools Coding MaxScript for Rigging and lipsyncing tools
2006 Reverb (Feature film) Compositor
2006 AudioMotion Tools Coded MaxScript tools to retarget motion capture data
2006 Promos for 2000ad films VFX Supervisor. For work to promote rebellion owned 2000ad comics IP at the cannes film festival
2006 Miami Vice (PSP game) Lead Animator
2005 World War Zero HI res promotional stills
2005 Dead To Rights (PSP game) Lead Animator
2004 Max Script (plugin) FBX to bip file converter for the motion capture company Audiomotion
2004 Slaine (Game Demo) Lead animator
2004 Sniper Elite (Game) ‘Faking’ 1940’s Newsreel footage for video. In-game cinematics animator
2002/2003 Parasite: (Feature film) Digital FX supervisor
2002/2003 Judge Dredd (Game) Cinematic backdrops of Mega City One
2001/2002 Wardog (Game Demo) Co-designer and Lead animator
2001 Magnum PI (Game Demo) Designer and Lead animator. We spent several months developing this project before the publisher admitted they’d failed to get the rights to the IP…
2001 The WolfMan (Short) Director and Animator of 3 minute Computer Animated short
2001 GunLok (Game) Rapidly realised CGI video for game
2000 The Mummy (Game) Co-designer and Lead animator
1998/1999 Aliens vs Predator (Game) Lead animator
1996/1997 various projects Junior artist/Animator

Skills

Animation director, Animation, Motion capture Direction, lighting, compositing, rigging, modelling, coding, motion capture, editing sound and video…

Software

3d Packages: 3ds Max, Maya.
3d Modelling: Z brush, Silo.
3d Texturing: Substance designer, Substance Painter, Mudbox.
2d Software: Fusion, Nuke, mocha, Shake, Photoshop.
Game Engines: Unity, Unreal.
Editing software: Davinci, Premier,Final cut, Sony Vegas.
Sound Software: Cubase, Soundforge , Logic audio, Pro Tools.
code Maxscript, Python, Flash, html, C#, C.

Background

A long time ago I went to Abingdon school in Oxfordshire. I studied Art, Physics, and Mathematics at A level. I won a prize for design, and strangely a prize for boardgaming.
After being persuaded that there was of course no future in art, games, or computing… I flew the nest, and went to Bristol University to study Aerospace Engineering (class of 1991).
When I left university that I realized I didn’t want the safe future I’d been pushed towards. Maybe it was time to figure out what I wanted to do…so of course I formed a rock band. Several years later, and a few near misses on that ever elusive record deal, my luck was about to change. I met a game designer at Rebellion (I met her sword fighting as it happens but that is another story…).
I was blown away. Being a games designer was probably the coolest job on the planet (and better paid than music). So I got my CV together and well…..Shortly after I started the first PS1 dev kits arrived… Within a few years I was lead animator on the BAFTA nominated Aliens versus Predator…. No future in art, games, or computers … Strange how things turn out.
So far I’ve enjoyed a 15 year career in Computer Games and TV. Now with Digital Cinema production the next 15 years promises to be even more exciting.