Skip to main content

Cheryl Briggs

Art & Production Professor

Professor Cheryl Briggs (formerly Cabrera) joined the FIEA Art Faculty in 2019 as Motion Capture Engineer and professor of animation. She has been a VICON trained expert user since 2005, using IQ, Blade, and Shogun.

Faculty headshot

Cheryl Briggs is Professor of Animation, Level Design, and Motion Capture Engineer, Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. She is also core faculty in the Emerging Media MFA Animation and Visual Effects Track and the Emerging Media BFA Character Animation Track. Cheryl came to UCF in Fall of 2009 as founding faculty of Character Animation and served as Area Coordinator from 2014-2022. She was founding faculty of the Animation and Visual Effects program and served as Program Director from 2016-2022. Prior to UCF, she taught as Professor of Animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design from 2001 to 2009 where she was Mocap Engineer for the Department since 2005. There, she developed and taught a graduate level animation course focusing on the use of motion capture in film and games.

Cheryl is a published author and is also an Autodesk Certified Professional and an Autodesk Certified Instructor in Maya since 2005. As an award-winning animation producer and director, her students have been featured in animation festivals worldwide, and many have gone on to work within the film, television, and video game industries. You can find her portfolio of professional work and student work here www.cherylcreates.com

Cheryl is currently on the Board of Directors for the Animation Hall of Fame and is a active member of SIGGRAPH, ASIFA-Hollywood, Women in Animation, and the Society for Animation Studies.

Contact Info

Single Authored Books

  • An Essential Introduction to Maya Character Rigging (2008, Focal Press)
  • Reel Success: Creating Demo Reels and Animation Portfolios (2013, Focal Press)
  • Animating Short Stories: Narrative Techniques and Visual Design (2019, Bloomsbury Academic)
  • An Essential Introduction to Maya Character Rigging (2nd ed.). (2021, CRC Press)