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Full name
JOHN CIMINO
Title
3D Animator • 3D Generalist • Video Game Artist
Location
San Francisco, CA
Blurb
Senior 3D Animator and Generalist Artist with 20+ years creating characters and worlds for video games and animation.
Biography
Hi, I’m John Cimino — a Senior 3D Animator and Generalist Artist with over 20 years of experience bringing characters and worlds to life for video games and animation.
I’ve worked on beloved titles like Spore, Sims 4, and Spore: Galactic Adventures at EA/Maxis, where I helped design the groundbreaking Creature Creator animation tools. I also spent a decade collaborating with Chris Hecker on the indie game SpyParty, serving as the sole artist and animator for its cast of characters and environments.
More recently, I’ve contributed as Lead Animator on award-winning shorts like Little Fan, and as animator/modeler for unique projects such as Miegakure. My background as a generalist means I don’t just animate — I also design characters, model, rig, texture, and concept, adapting to whatever a project needs.
What drives me is creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration — whether that’s crafting expressive performances, building tools with engineers, or exploring new artistic styles.
Take a look around — I’d love to share my work and connect about future collaborations!
Experience
Lead Animator
Miegakure (Indie Game)
Animated the numberous characters for Miegakure, a puzzle-platformer exploring four-dimensional space.
Modeled and textured environmental assets, collaborating closely with the game’s creator to define the artistic style.
Contributed broadly as a 3D generalist, supporting both artistic direction and technical execution in a small team setting.
3D Animator/Feature Lead
EA - Sims 4
Led animation features and collaborated with designers and engineers to deliver key gameplay systems for The Sims 4.
Animated a wide range of characters and interactions, maintaining the franchise’s signature humor and style.
Mentored junior animators and provided feedback across the animation team, supporting consistent quality and efficiency.
Sole Artist/Animator/Designer
SpyParty (Indie Game)
Served as the sole artist on the indie game SpyParty, creating all 20+ playable characters and multiple environments.
Designed, modeled, textured, rigged, and animated characters, balancing stylization with realistic performance to support gameplay depth.
Collaborated with the game’s creator over a decade to define its visual identity and pipeline, supporting a successful Steam Early Access launch with 100k+ players and critical acclaim for its art and design.
Senior Animator / Character Designer / Concept Artist
EA/Maxis - Spore
Animated creatures and characters for Spore, a groundbreaking simulation game blending procedural systems with player creativity.
Contributed to the design and development of the Creature Creator, a tool used by millions of players to design and animate unique characters.
Created animations for a wide variety of body types and behaviors, ensuring seamless integration with procedural rigging and gameplay systems.
Designed icons, UI art, and marketing assets to support both gameplay and promotional campaigns.
Collaborated with engineers to design and refine innovative animation tools, including first-of-their-kind systems that supported Spore’s unprecedented procedural creature design.
After shipping Spore, I continued as Senior Animator and Artist on its expansions and spin-offs, including Spore: Galactic Adventures and Darkspore. My contributions included character design, animation, and concept art, as well as collaborating closely with engineers and designers to support new
Flash Animator
Mondo Media (Happy Tree Friends)
Animated on Happy Tree Friends, one of the most popular Flash animations of the early 2000s, helping define the era of viral online cartoons.
Education
Animation Mentor
Completed advanced coursework at Animation Mentor to further develop animation skills and refine my reel, focusing on character performance, acting, and polish.
Bachelors Degree in Computer Animation
Savannah College of Art and Design
I studied traditional hand drawn animation and 3-D animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design where I graduated summa cum laude.
Skills
Character Animation, Gameplay Animation, Cinematic Animation, Acting and Performance, Motion Studies, Feature Development, Character Design, Environment Design, Concept Art, UI/UX Art, Visual Development, 3D Modeling, Texturing, Rigging, Rendering, Lighting, Asset Optimisation, Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects, Mentorship, Cross-Disciplinary Teamwork, Agile Production, Feature Leadership, Creative Direction