Todd Widup – Rigging Supervisor at
Sony Pictures Imageworks
Todd has been a mentor for us for years and has worked on some really big projects so I asked him to share a bit of his work and how he manages his day.
Alright I suppose I should do a brief introduction. Hi, my name is Todd Widup and I am a Rigging Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks where I work on VFX projects.
That is to say, I work, currently exclusively, on our VFX films that come in from clients and over the last couple years. Films like “The Marvels”, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and currently the “Ghostbusters” sequel, along with a couple of unannounced projects.
So, without further ado, here is “a day in the life of a Rigging Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks”.
Typical day
Normally, my typical day starts at 9:00am.
I login and start checking emails, seeing what assets were published on my shows, yes, shows…I am usually on two shows at a time. I also look over what models need to be reviewed, what rigs are ready for review, and I review assets in modeling already for the shows.
Now, since I’m in the Midwest and Sony is on the West Coast, I have about 2 hours before everyone else starts working so I go thru and get some time to do some testing or work on an asset, if there is one…and there usually is.
I also use this time to write a few python scripts to assist with automating some things I do routinely for rigs or asset prep work.
Once the teams start logging in, it’s meeting time lol. Most days, I have 4 hours roughly of meetings, but there are occasions where it is closer to 7 hours.
I have show production touch bases, team touch bases, animation rounds and show rounds as well as department meetings and show tech meetings.
In between all those meetings, I am usually trying to sync with my artists, helping where I can, assisting our junior or interns on tasks.
Having taught for the Apprenticeship program with Rigging Dojo for years and teaching with a state university, I watch my new artists a lot, helping them with picking up workflows and techniques with our proprietary systems and tools.
In addition, as a supervisor, I am involved with the interview process for new artists.
My normal day ends someplace between 7 and 8 pm my time. Normally my last meeting is around 6:30/7pm and then I wrap up a few emails and messages and commit anything I have been working on that day so it is backed up just encase of a systems issue.
As you can see, it’s lots of meetings and reviews, and a little on the box time, but all well worth it.
Student advice
As a supervisor and artist, I get asked a lot of questions .. especially from the mentor students I have had in the past along with the classes I have taught at a state university. So here goes a few.
Do you have any tips on keeping track of it all or what has or hasn’t worked well with the spread out teams?
I have had the pleasure of having a phenomenal group of coordinators on each show. They help to keep me sane and focused and track most things. Beyond having a personal coordinator, I use google calendar for tracking key dates so i get pop up notifications on a lot.
Additionally, in the studio, we use Shotgrid for task tracking which is a huge help as well.
What do you look for in a reel?
I get that a lot from students in my college classes. In general, I’m looking for good samples of deformation, joint placement, variety of work (hard surface, bodies, faces) and python scripting.
Showing those 4 things goes a long way for me.
Thank you Todd for giving us a look into your day!
Rigging Dojo
You can find more about Todd here
https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-widup-51633a1/
And learn more about our Apprenticeships if you want to have experienced mentors like Todd guide your career path and level up your skills.