Mikkel Caiafa

Mikkel Caiafa has extensive work experience in the animation industry. Mikkel started their career as a Freelance Animator at Axis Animation in 2002, working on the game cinematics for Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick. Mikkel then joined Atari as a Senior Animator and Technical Animator, where they worked on the animation for Terminator 3: Redemption.

In 2006, Mikkel transitioned to Reel FX as a Freelance Character TD, contributing to the Kung Fu Panda Interstitials project. Mikkel later joined THQ as an Animation Lead and Technical Animator, working on an unannounced First Person Shooter video game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Mikkel's next role was at id Software as a Senior Animator and Technical Animator. During their time there, they were responsible for a range of animation tasks, including town NPC and vendor animations, mini bosses, cinematics, and traversal animations.

In 2013, Mikkel became an Animation Director at Boss Fight Entertainment, leading the animation and technical animation team for three concurrent games. Mikkel developed animation tools and pipelines, including squash and stretch modular rigs and animation retargeting.

Mikkel joined Playful Studios in 2018 as a Senior Animator and Technical Animator, where they worked on player character rigging, animations, and implementation. Mikkel also rearchitected state machines for characters in a live game.

From 2020 to 2023, Mikkel held the role of Animation Director at Groove Jones, where they provided animation direction, previz, animation, and engine implementation for various projects, including Royal Caribbean's 4D Virtual Reality Game called Swashbuckler and A Flood of Reality.

Currently, Mikkel works as a Principal Animator at OtherSide Entertainment since 2023. Further details about this role are not provided.

Mikkel Caiafa earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Computer Animation from Ringling College of Art and Design between 1994 and 1998. Additionally, in 2012 to 2013, Mikkel obtained a Certificate of Achievement from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for completing the course "6.00x: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming."