Jirte Vanhoenacker - Rookies 2024 Entry

Jirte Vanhoenacker - Technical Animator

Hello! My name is Jirte! I'm a digital artist, specialized in rigging and animation. Since childhood, I've been excited about telling stories and bringing characters to life. Driven by passion and perfectionism I strive to learn and grow each day. 

Chicken Mech Army - Blender Rig and Animation

On this project, I decided to go all out! To raise this army of chicken robots, I went through the entire game character pipeline, from start to finish. 

After coming up with some designs, I quickly continued to Blender to start modeling. This character was meant as a game asset. So my goal was to keep the polycount minimal. I started with a low-poly model, and later built a high-poly on top, using bevels and adding decals. In Substance Painter, I baked the normal details. This way I could keep a minimum polycount, while still getting maximum detail in the final look.

Then it was finally time to bring this beast to life! My favorite parts of the pipeline, rigging and animation, happened fully in Blender. This was my first experience with rigging in Blender, and I had loads of fun figuring things out.

After animation was done, I felt like it still needed more punch! So I animated some 2D effects by hand in Photoshop, and composited it all in After Effects.

As a final finishing touch, I added sound. I couldn't quite find the perfect sounds online, so I decided to manufacture some sounds myself, using Garageband on my phone. If you listen closely, you'll also notice a chicken clucking slowed and reverbed.

Ox Muscle Mama - Maya Rig and Animation

When I first saw this character created by Nioma van der Steen, based on the amazing concept by Sean Budanio, I just had to breathe some life into it. So I went on to rigging and animation in Maya.

Ahsoka Lightsaber Dulon - Animation

In this project, I combined two big passions of mine: Animation and Star Wars! This lightsaber dulon was animated in Maya, using a rig by Agora, and rendered in Unreal.

One of my many sportive hobbies includes lightsaber fighting! So for this animation, I had ample reference that I had filmed myself.

Here is a complete breakdown of my process animating these complex movements. Although note that attacks 5 and 6 were removed, to prevent the animation from becoming too long and repetitive

If you're curious about more of my work, or want to get in touch, follow me online!

[email protected]
https://linktr.ee/jirte_vanhoenacker
https://www.artstation.com/jirtevanhoenacker
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jirte-vanhoenacker/
https://www.youtube.com/@jirtevanhoenacker8185
https://www.instagram.com/jirte_vanhoenacker/