About

Hi, I’m Maree Railton, and the first thing I want to confess is that I’m a big animation nerd.

Since 2011 I’ve been nerding about in the 2D animation world, specializing in rigging and tech for Toon Boom Harmony. That's right, I love to talk about peg hierarchies. Deformation chains get my nerd senses flaring. And don't get me started on transformation switches or hot damn I'll never stop.My portfolio includes TV series for Disney, Netflix, Dreamworks, Adult Swim, PBS and others; online projects with several million views for clients like Google and College Humor; and my own award-winning web series. In 2020 I was selected as a Toon Boom ambassador for my ongoing work and achievements in Harmony software (but not my achievements with semi-colons).I'm currently based in Vancouver, Canada, but I'm always open to chatting about exciting Harmony projects, whether remotely or around the world.

Moshi Monsters

Working with UK crew EggBug Studio, I led the rigs team in two comeback promo projects for the hit online game Moshi Monsters.For those uninitiated to the Moshi legacy, the monster characters can take almost any shape or form, requiring a fresh rigging approach to suit each character's look and movement style.The EggBug crew were great in letting me take the reigns with the rigging style -- that, and the half-cute-half-crazy character designs made this one of my favourite projects to do rigs work for.

The Freak Brothers

Working all the way from Canada, I jumped on board remotely as character rigger for Aussie studio Hooligan Animation when they took the helm for season 3 of the stoner comedy series The Freak Brothers.I've long noticed rigging styles vary from region to region, even across different areas of Canada, and the Australian team's rigging style was no exception. This project focused less on deformer capabilities, and more on creating largely 'reset-able' turnaround views through drawing swaps. This proved an interesting change of pace from the deformer-forward Vancouver style I've become accustomed to.As is often the case with adult comedies, it was always a dice roll whether the next character design would be suspiciously normal, mildly problematic, or bordering on nauseating. The good-humoured folks at Hooligan made this one a very fun, close-knit team to be a part of, even all the way from maple land.

Acoustic Rooster

In 2024 I was invited to work on a PBS series adaptation of the beloved children’s book series Acoustic Rooster and his Barnyard Band for Vancouver studio Global Mechanic. On top of my usual role as a Rigging Artist, I also flexed my Harmony nerd muscles as their part time Technical Director, guiding the technical decisions, offering Harmony technical support to the entire animation crew, and testing/documenting the outer limits of scene weight for show’s unique compositing needs.What was unique about the Acoustic Rooster pipeline? For one, the show makes extensive (and I mean extensive) use of fully animated backgrounds. In ‘farm world’, the background elements often ‘bounce’ along to the music, similar to black-and-white era Mickey Mouse shorts, or Cuphead. And in ‘music world’, Rooster’s musical imagination takes hold as the background morphs into an abstract playground of dancing shapes, inspired by 1950’s jazz album covers.On the rigging side of things, I created a handful of Acoustic Rooster’s major and minor character rigs, involving spring controllers, textured patterns, sketch-styled ‘stray lines’, and switchable IK/FK legs.As a musician (and an animation fan of course), this show was an absolute joy to be involved with, and my fingers are firmly crossed for a Season Two.

Snoopy Apple Watch

A few years back I had the opportunity to work on the official Snoopy Apple Watch animated faces as the main Technical Lead. Working with the Apple clients and a small animation team at WildBrain Studios, we developed a range of looping Snoopy and Woodstock animations for different days and occasions.This project was an awesome change of pace from the TV shows and web series I usually create for, throwing some unique technical challenges. It involved making sure the existing 2D pipeline would accommodate the new frame size and dimensions, and differing colour schemes and lengths. It also required seamless looping, the watch hands not interfering (or sometimes directly interacting with) the characters, and an absolutely strict adherence to the original character designs.I’m really proud of being involved in this unique project – the Snoopy watch face has since become a top favourite for Apple Watch users, and I can see why. Check out a review of the Snoopy Apple Watch face, or if you’ve got an Apple Watch, check it out first-hand!

Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City

Leaning fully into my 2D software nerdiness, I took on a role as 2D Technical Lead for WildBrain Studios, starting off with a reboot of a millennial childhood classic – Strawberry Shortcake: Berry In The Big City. This team was so fun to work with (and had by far the most delicious Christmas party desserts of any job I’ve worked on). I remember this show fondly from when I was a very young kid, so it was great to get to officially be part of the Strawberry Shortcake legacy.For seasons 2 and 3 I joined the berry bunch as their Technical Lead. But what does that actually mean? For this show it involved:

> Providing solutions for the show’s technical needs from start to finish, with the aim to create as smooth of an experience for the artists as possible. When the technical side of things runs so smoothly it becomes invisible to the artist, I know I’ve done my job.
> Working with the Producer and Production Co-ordinator to understand the specific technical and artistic needs for the show
> Constructing a seamless technical workflow for their Storyboard Pro > Animate > After Effects pipeline
> Setting up pipeline-ready software templates before the start of production
> Communicating with outsource studios for season 3, and adjusting Wildbrain’s existing pipeline to facilitate an outsource-friendly workflow
> Documenting all tech-related processes, software stacks, and software best practices, for reference to future productions/seasons
> Running workshops to educate production heads on new production tools
> Even more responsibilities I’ve definitely forgotten but which were probably also important

Google's Epic Career Quest

After previously working with Global Mechanic on Adult Swim’s Birdgirl, I was approached again to do character rigs on their first two seasons of Epic Career Quest, a web series promoting Google’s Career Certificates program.This was a fun series to create rigs for – with characters of all shapes and sizes, both human and non-human, who can squash, stretch, and shape-shift. Unlike some series which offer a cookie-cutter slate of character designs, Epic Career Quest offered the surprisingly satisfying challenge of tackling each rig with a new method.The cast of voice actors for the series is comprised of various YouTube stars, and to date, every episode of Epic Career Quest has racked up over 1 million views on YouTube

Birdgirl

My first run as Lead Rigger was also my first time working on an Adult Swim series, and my first time working for Global Mechanic studio in Vancouver.When I was a teenager I thought it would be the pinnacle of coolness to work on an Adult Swim TV show, being a big fan of shows like Home Movies, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law. I can now say I’ve achieved that dream, with season 2 of Birdgirl (a spinoff of Harvey Birdman) sitting proudly in my showreel.

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder

In 2020-2021 I worked on the series revival of The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder for Disney+ as Senior Character Rigger for WildBrain Studios in Vancouver. I was thrilled, not just for the prestige of working on a project for The Mouse, and not just for rigging many of the main and major characters of the beloved show, but also because I had a pre-existing connection to The Proud Family as a budding teen animator.Back in the ancient days of high school I did work experience at Brisbane studio Liquid Animation, who at the time were working on Season Two of the original Proud Family series (along with Duck Dodgers, if you remember that random Daffy Duck gem). I clearly remember the strong yearning (a.k.a. desperation) I felt after that experience of wanting someday to be a cool animator, working in a cool studio, on a cool project like that. Many years and many projects later, The Proud Family is now a favourite part of my showreel.Follow your dreams, kids. (Also practice hard, work smart, become a pro at your niche, and move somewhere you can find quality work in your field. But yeah, follow your dreams.)The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is out on Disney+

Peanuts

In late 2020 at WildBrain Studios I had the honour of working as a Harmony Rigging Artist on the first season Peanuts special Lucy’s School for Apple TV+. If like many of us you don't have Apple TV+, I can say with confidence that it looks fantastic and does the beloved Peanuts legacy absolutely proud.Peanuts: Lucy's School is out on Apple TV+

Johnny Test

In 2020 I worked for WildBrain Studios in Vancouver, Canada as a Harmony Rigging Artist on the Netflix revival of Johnny Test. The new season continues to take inspiration from the angular Dexter’s Lab style of character design often found in 90s Cartoon Network series, while promising a more sophisticated rigging and animation style for new audiences.Johnny Test is out on Netflix

Archibald's Next Big Thing

2018-19 brought me to Vancouver, Canada, where I took on a role with Titmouse Animation on the Dreamworks TV show Archibald’s Next Big Thing as a Harmony Rigger.Having recently found creative fulfillment with the success of Swift And Loose, I now wanted to focus on my rigging productivity, creating fast but reliable pipelines for creating excellent quality Harmony rigs. In the course of my 1.5 year contract with Titmouse Animation I rigged and built a gigantic 416 things, including:- 259 character rigs (major character turnarounds, redresses, multi-view setups, mouth comps and blinks)
- 157 props (including several full vehicle turnarounds with up to 16 views, a giant multi-view robot, and various props with individual animation needs)Archibald's Next Big Thing is out on Netflix

Shopkins

In 2017 I worked in-studio at Pixel Zoo in Brisbane, Australia as their Lead Rigger. Their major series at the time was Shopkins, based on the successful Moose Toys toy line.The Pixel Zoo crew were new to Harmony at the time, and I was tasked with restructuring and completely redressing the existing rigs from the Shopkins movie for regular use in the World Fair season of the TV show. The web version of the show has a very huge and very young audience, commanding an extremely fast production schedule.Alongside rigging the major human ‘Shoppies’ characters, I also lead the transition of the original Shopkins characters from Flash to Harmony. Using the Flash To Harmony script as a launching pad I developed an efficient routine for getting the existing character rigs converted into the new software with as little redesign as possible.

College Humor: Furious 7

Back in the day I did some freelance animation work Studio Joho in Brisbane, Australia. If you'll indulge my name dropping for just a second -- Studio Joho was a small little studio founded and run by Joe Brumm, who very soon after went on to create the smash hit show Bluey.Studio Joho's regular clients included the hit YouTube channel College Humor. I worked on the Furious 7 project, where I animated and composited some very interesting scenes, including the Rock and guns and bombs and a million explosions, and Paul Walker and Vin Diesel driving out of a skyscraper because… action movies.As this was a remote project, Joe was very flexible in allowing whatever workflow I wanted to use. To create these FX-heavy shots I went with a mixture of Toon Boom Studio (pre-Harmony!), Photoshop, and After Effects.The video has racked up over 6 million views on YouTube

Swift & Loose

Swift And Loose is a 9 x 5 min adult detective series aimed at a mystery-loving audience. It premiered on the Railtoons Animation YouTube channel in October 2017. It was written, produced, directed, animated, rigged, and composited by Maree Railton, with composer Jeremy King and a hand-picked voice cast from four different countries.Taking inspiration from classic film noir to gritty indie animation, Swift And Loose brings a unique visual style to an unusual detective story about revenge, forgiveness, and what it means to be human in a world full of loss.

Awards/ScreeningsWINNER Best Animated Series: NZ Webfest 2018
Official Selection & Finalist: Melbourne WebFest 2018
Official Selection & Finalist: FIS-MED 2018 (Festival Internacional de Series web de Medellín)
Official Selection: Rio Web Fest
Official Selection: Rolda Web FestSynopsisSwift And Loose tells the story of Harley Swift (voiced by Sharon Belle from the popular web series Carmilla), a quick-witted private detective who is struggling to get back on her feet after the fiery death of her brother and detective partner, Tony Swift.When a predatory businesswoman known as Madame Wolfe (voiced by Cassandra Wladyslava from the Warframe game franchise) shows up at Swift Detective Agency with burn scars and a missing employee, Harley must put aside her fears and investigate the seedy underworld of Woods Street.As the case becomes more complex so too does the relationship between the young detective and her domineering client, especially as Harley becomes increasingly unsure of Wolfe’s true motives.The original soundtrack from composer Jeremy King melds smoky noir-like jazz with gritty modern synths to create an incredibly emotive soundscape, fitting for the dramatic setting of Swift And Loose.

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