- location : Lyon, France -
- contact : nd@ninjadodo.net -

K	nown as "Ninja Dodo" or occasionally "ND" online, my real name is Christiaan Moleman. I'm 24 years old and I spend my time with drawing, games, animation, writing and learning to play the guitar...

Also on this page : favourite games, films & books, etc - CV

I was born in 1983, in the city of Alkmaar in the Netherlands.
When I was little I wanted to be a paleontologist and dig up dinosaurs. A little later I read about the ancient Egyptians and wanted to be an archeologist. Through the years I've also wanted to be a writer, a cartoonist and a games programmer (in that order). Somewhere at the age of fifteen, I realized what I really wanted to do... designing computer games and making art and animation for them.

I have always been fascinated by computer games. I used to play Space Invaders and King's Quest 1 on our old (green monitored) Olivetti. That's also where I learnt my first English; you had to type commands to get something done; "open door", "talk to king", etc. - I used the hintbook.

Because my parents wouldn't buy me a Super Nintendo, I used to make games from paper...I'd draw all the screens on different pieces of paper and then I'd draw the characters, cut them out and 'play' the game. I think I was nine when I first discovered "Game Builder", a program that allowed you to create games for the PC. It was very basic but for the time, it was incredible...
After a while I moved on to "Superlogo", a simple Dutch programming language for kids. That was my first introduction to coding.
I did a few projects with Superlogo and tried a little C++, but eventually my interests shifted away from programming...

I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil, but one thing in particular that really got me going was a tv program I saw when I was eight, adding technique to enthusiasm. It was about drawing comics. Shapes, perspective, layout... all the basic stuff. Most I know today about drawing has come from practice, but the few traditional art classes I've taken and my shelves full of books on the subject have certainly helped as well. Although I really should practice more...

We used to have a Super-8 camera at home, one with the ability to record frame by frame. Armed with this camera, I took my first steps in animation. I did some clumsy cell painting using miniature paint on celluloid that we had lying around, and made a couple of funny little shorts.
I started with computer animation when I came across a copy of Deluxe Paint Animation at the age of... twelve, I think. I didn't really get it at first, but after a while I got the hang of it and made several animations, two of which can be found here and here. I even made it onto tv in a program about kids doing cool stuff on computers.

One day during my vacation - can't remember when - I was looking at the pictures in one of my uncle's science magazines and I found this article about computer effects. It showed pictures of how certain effects in "Terminator 2", "Death becomes her" and some other things were done and it also showed pictures of a 3D program. It was then I thought something like "Wow, it would be so cool if I could do that..." Who would have thought that a few years later I could?

I started 3D with trueSpace and used it all the way through to university where I was forced to use 3ds max and XSI, both of which I've grown somewhat accustomed to. Used max at work for a while (now Maya) and would usually use XSI at home when I wasn't taking a break from 3D and animating traditional with Plastic Animation Paper...

After I graduated from Teesside University (in Middlesbrough, UK) with a BA in "Computer Games Design", a course focused primarily on game art and animation, I moved back to Holland and started as an animator at Streamline Studios in Amsterdam. Meanwhile I continued my studies evenings and weekends with online school Animation Mentor, which - it has to be said - kicks ass. I've since moved to France to work at Arkane Studios.

Check out my blog for more recent thoughts and projects...


My favourite things (in order of encounter, mostly)

Games Little Big Planet World of Goo Assassin's Creed Mount & Blade Portal Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Trauma Center: Under the Knife New Super Mario Bros Shadow of the Colossus We Love Katamari Ico Psychonauts Gothic I, II & Night of the Raven Monkey Island 1 & 2 Gish Gabriel Knight I Half-Life 1, 2 & Episodes Beyond Good & Evil Prince of Persia, Sands of Time Mario 64 Deus Ex Outcast Grim Fandango Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Little Big Adventure 1 & 2 Starcraft & Brood War Donkey Kong Country Super Mario Bros 3 King's Quest VI Fiction Catch-22 Ondskan 1984 Alice in Wonderland Harry Potter Hamilton (Guillou) Chekhov's short stories The Hobbit Discworld Roma sub Rosa The Lord of the Rings

Film The Dark Knight Wall-E To Have and Have Not Children of Men School of Rock Howl's Moving Castle My Neighbour Totoro Grosse Pointe Blank The Big Sleep Batman Begins Pirates of the Caribbean The Iron Giant The Incredibles Hero Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Spirited Away Spy Game Memento Finding Nemo Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain The Lord of the Rings Fight Club The Frighteners Casablanca The Truman Show L.A. Confidential Gladiator Pulp Fiction Les Visiteurs Leon The Matrix Braveheart The Usual Suspects Men in Black The Fifth Element Romancing the Stone Toy Story Groundhog Day The Lion King Back to the Future Indiana Jones Beauty & the Beast The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Jurassic Park

Non-Fiction The Story of Writing Impro: improvisation and the theatre Peoplewatching The Illusion of Life The Animator's Survival Kit TV House, MD Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart Coupling Sharpe Quantum Leap The Mysterious Cities of Gold

Curriculum Vitae - back to portfolio

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Game animation, modeling, texturing and design.

- contact : c_moleman@ninjadodo.net


I want to make interactive characters live and breathe, make them not just look nice, but make them interesting to be around... Stories in games are getting better, graphics are getting more detailed, but still there are very few games where the characters feel truly alive.

I want to help do something about that.

- Showreel - LinkedIn profile - Downloadable CV -

Experience
- April ’07 to present - Animator at Arkane Studios in Lyon, France.
- Nov ’07 to Jan ’08 - Assisted as Animator for about two months at Widescreen Games in Lyon on behalf of Arkane.
- July ’05 to Sep '06 - Animator at Streamline Studios in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Wrote, directed and animated a 2D short film
- Researched and developed a range of ideas on how to use in-game character animation to drive interactive storytelling and gameplay
… and wrote an article about said project which appeared in games industry magazine Develop (issue 50, May 2005)
- Lead designer and artist/animator on student project Turbo Turtles, a prototype arcade game with rocket-powered turtles
- Co-designed a singleplayer mod for platformer Jazz Jackrabbit 2 with custom textures, sound and cutscenes

Education
- June ’05 to Dec '06 - Advanced Studies in Character Animation at Animation Mentor
- ’02 to ’05 - Computer Games Design BA at Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK
- ’96 to ’02 - VWO gymnasium at the Murmellius Gymnasium in Alkmaar, Netherlands

Software skills
- 3ds MAX 7: modeling, texturing and animation
- Maya 7: animation
- Softimage XSI 4: animation
- Motion Builder 7: animation
- Photoshop 7: image manipulation and texture painting
- Plastic Animation Paper 4: digital 2D animation
- Web design: HTML and some knowledge of Javascript
- Jazz Jackrabbit 2 editor: level design and custom tiles/textures

Other relevant skills
- Drawing (character design, life drawing, etc.)
- Creative writing (written short stories, essays, etc)
- Acting (taken classes)
- Languages: Dutch, Swedish, English and French

If you would like to know what sort of games, film and literature I enjoy... look just above you.

I am also a member of the IGDA and I make an effort to immerse myself in games and animation as much as possible. I go to animation festivals such as Teesside's Animex and I regularly visit Gamasutra and other games- and animation-related sites.



Showreel - CV -

- portfolio -