Vanessa Ruffra
Senior Character Animator Gameplay · Quantic Dream, Ubisoft
Video game animation is a craft of its own: where film can polish every shot, games demand interactivity, real time and the feeling of control. It is a demanding, technical and highly sought-after discipline. It has been Vanessa’s specialty for 17 years.
She has worked on twelve AAA productions at Quantic Dream and Ubisoft, including Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Assassin’s Creed, Ghost Recon and Prince of Persia. Major titles where the quality of gameplay animation directly shapes the play experience of millions of players. Today, she passes on this expertise to studios and animators through her company AniMotion, helping them progress and master the specific constraints of video games.
Working with Vanessa means learning animation from someone who masters a side of the craft few courses truly cover: real time, the gameplay loop and technical constraints. She passes on the sense of movement and weight, but also the production logic specific to video games, the one that opens the doors of major studios.
Filmography:
Heavy Rain · Beyond: Two Souls · Assassin’s Creed · Ghost Recon · Prince of Persia
Games Vanessa Ruffra has worked on
Courses mentored by Vanessa Ruffra
Video Game Animation · One-Year Program
The complete video game animation program brings you to the level expected by AAA studios: you build a fully playable character integrated in Unreal Engine, along with a professional demo reel.
Game Animation Fundamentals
Learn to create the essential animations of any game character: idle, walk, run, jump and simple attacks, plus the constraints that make a character pleasant to control.
Locomotion & Motion Capture
Master the locomotion systems of AAA productions, from walk cycles to advanced transitions, and the pro methods for cleaning, retargeting and characterizing motion capture.
Combat
Build a complete combat system with combos, dodges, parries and hit reactions: dynamic animations designed for gameplay and production.
NPC & Artificial Intelligence
Bring non-player characters to life: they move, detect the player and fight. Assemble a real gameplay prototype staging the player-versus-enemy interaction.
Join the Bouncing Ball Discord
Peer support, student reviews, career advice and job offers.