★ Hey There! ★

My name is Cole Keisling, I'm a CG Generalist with a B.S. in Animation and a minor in Art. I'm currently studying at AnimSchool under the 3D Character Program.I directed my thesis film, Baking and Entering, a three-minute animated short. During production, I created various hard surface models, designed and rigged the film's antagonist, animated numerous shots, and assisted with scheduling and documentation. For more information about the film, please visit my Baking and Entering Project Blog.

★ Illustration ★

★ Concept Art ★

★ 3D WORK ★

★ cg generalist reel ★

★ 3d modeling reel ★

★ Animation Reel ★

★ Baking and Entering ★

Synopsis: “It is a peaceful day in the woods as food truck owner Hugh prepares for another day of work selling pies. As he puts a pie in to bake, he is surprised by the presence of a looming grizzly bear. Hugh must do everything he can to prevent his unconventional customer from destroying his pie-velihood.”

★ My Contributions ★

The following are all of the shots I animated for Baking and Entering. I am responsible for all animation aspects in the animations shown above. Below is a shot Andrew Lacy splined (shown left) while I cleaned up the shot (shown right). Animated in Maya. Soundtrack and SFX mixing composed by Jacob O’Barr.

I created two major rigs for Baking and Entering: Grizztopher Robin and the “Pie On the Go” food truck rig. During the rigging process, I also picked up Hugh’s rig from Andrew Lacy. I cleaned up his weight painting and added many correctives to his rig. I am responsible for all rigging aspects in the linked videos below. Rigged in Maya. Grizz modeled and textured by Zach Legaux. “Pie On the Go” food truck modeled by me and textured by Lance Harbour and Zach Legaux.

Grizz’s rig includes but is not limited to:
- FK / IK arms
- arm fur control
- IK legs with banking and twisting abilities
- dynamic tongue and lip controls
- set expressions
- ear controls
- many face controls for ease of custom expressions
- bear body type alternates

The “Pie On the Go” food truck rig includes but is not limited to:
- automatic rolling wheels
- wheel controls
- front and back suspension controls
- push control (for Grizz to shove the truck)
- awning controls
- service window control
- door slam blend shape
- door control

Grizztopher Robin was a fun character to design. While he looks like a relatively straightforward bear, the design was challenging to solidify. The team wanted him to look cute, animalistic, and less personified. This way, he can be initially intimidating while appearing silly and harmless later in the film.

The following are the models I made for Baking and Entering. As a team, we decided what assets would work best in a food truck setting and drew inspiration from various real-world objects. Modeled in Maya.

One of my teammates, Brooklynne Scivally, created a rough mock-up of what the interior would look like with appliances. With her help, I created the two pieces shown below. I aimed to make the space look lived-in while not adding too many complex details. With the environment mock-ups finished, we were able to start modeling.

“Pie on the Go” logo designed and created by Andrew Lacy.

Initial food truck top-down view created by Brooklynne Scivally. I made additional refinements.

Before the team began storyboarding, I created a rough mockup of the scene using free models I downloaded. The scene allowed us to fully envision how much space we would need later down the line and understand how much space was in the food truck, thus allowing the backgrounds in the animatic to stay consistent.Once we finished storyboarding, I helped edit the animatic and spliced the soundtrack together. Our composer, Jacob O’Barr, utilized the mock-up when creating the final soundtrack.

During the storyboard process, I created the establishing shot, a background piece, and shots from 0:20 - 0:25, shown in the animatic.