Christopher Rutledge is an LA-based animator, director and CG artist.
Christopher Rutledge's works are 3D animations, most created in Houdini. His characters have a distinct wobbly style, with cartoonist appearances but realistic textures. Characters created using this contrasting combination results in a distinct visual style that is "uncanny valley" in a good way.
As a freelancer, Christopher have collaborated with numerous artists on projects of different style of scale. He initially made some goofy shorts for Adult Swim, but as he grew his portfolio and met more artists, both online and in person, he started working on more commercial projects such as advertisement for Beats and Nike. However, his real passion still lies within working on his personal projects where he is in full control of the art style and narrative. His passion is to create films and screen them at festivals.
Christopher's experience really motivates me to try to create projects in which I can fully express myself. I hope to at least try to follow his path of screening at festivals instead of doing only studio work where my personal sway is limited. I think freelance is similar to entrepreneurship such that building a brand is a challenging process but can result in incredible results compared to a stable job.
My favorite project that Christopher showed was "Man's Best Friend". In it, Christopher animates an intentionally bizarre looking dog into a live action sequence, which creates contrast and a freaky sense of humor. The animated dog, when compared to real dogs standing next to it, seems "fake", as in it is not rendered realistically, but it still fits the narrative and aesthetic perfectly. This piece shows that not all CG animation and special effects need to be perfectly realistic even when placed in an live action film; it really depends on the vision of the filmmaker.