For  The Sims: Pets, I served on both the pre-production and production teams - At both Electronic Arts (Redwood City, CA) for the PC version and Edge of Reality (Austin, TX) for the console versions.

 

Starting at EA on pre-production, I worked with a very small team to create the prototypes that would be the basis for all the production work that was to come later.  I adopted the CG puppies and kittens. Using existing adult animal meshes, I modeled the pups and kittens.  I then went on to create the blendshape expressions that would be used by animation and also the various shapes that would be used to make specific breeds in the "Create-A-Pet" room. The shapes used to create breed were bone poses, so this also involved a hefty amount of weighting and tweaking.

 

Finally, I worked on creating a few fur blend shapes that would be used to fuel the fur technology of The Sims: Pets.

After production launched, I moved to Austin, TX (My hometown).  There I continued creating production assets like collars, animal patterns and pelts - all to give the players more customization over their new digital best friends.

 

Having spent a lot of time in pre-production with the new Sims: Pets technology, I was also able to assist the console teams with the custom tools and methods for creating these little critters.