Skills

Work Experience

Aspyr Media | Senior Technical Artist | 2022 - Present

Engine Tools: I currently manage our in-engine tools in UE5. This includes the creation and maintenance of our internal Tools plugin, Python API for other tech artists to use, and more advanced needs like editor modes, custom Slate implementations, and third-party plugin support.

Animation Design/Engineering: I worked to nativize and optimize our animation blueprints, moving as much into code as possible and multithreading the rest. I implemented a solution to utilize Unreal’s Update Rate Optimization to better handle animation calls.

Procedural Tools: I am leading a small team working in Houdini to level up our world- and level-design tools. This includes tool creation, evaluation, and profiling.

Technically Games | Owner | 2019 - Present

Technical Art Freelancing and Consulting

I work with clients from games, film, and archdev, primarily in rigging, animation pipeline, ant tools, to aid in bringing their visions to life. This includes high-detail facial rigs, rigging solutions, and best practives for creating efficient pipelines.

Stray Kite Studios | Senior Technical Artist | 2019 - 2022

Saints Row

UI Engineer: I served as a UI engineer, programming views and menus for Deep Silver Volition’s new Saints Row. This included working with art and engineering to implement the Music Player phone app and the user camera.

Unannounced Projects

LookDev, Rigging, Pipeline, Animation: I served as an all-purpose technical artist on multiple internal projects. This included developing the visual style, shaders, art creation guidelines, etc. I rigged and animated all prototype characters and props, developing a robust pipeline for when the team grew, and created placeholder animations for prototype needs.

EA Capital Games | Technical Artist | 2018 - 2019

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

Rigging and Pipeline: Rigged all characters during my time at EA in a custom rigging system I developed and wrote. Created the Maya/Max pipeline and implemented across the team. Worked closely with the lead animator to develop a bespoke rig paradigm that would be evergreen and work for all the wacky characters Star Wars is known for.

Content Branching: Developed various Perforce/Python/JIRA tools we used every day to ensure solid, robust branching between all live and dev branches of SWGoH. Worked with Release, Art, Engineering, and Production to ensure the tools meshed well with those of other departments. Distributed my tools to other teams for their use.

Robot Entertainment | Technical Artist | 2014 - 2018

ReadySet Heroes

Rigging and Pipeline: Rigged all characters for prototype projects and developed the animation pipeline in Maya to work for in-office and remote workers.

Animation Engineer: Took on the role of animation engineer on all projects studio-wide, using C++ in UE4 to develop robust and dynamic animation modules for quick iteration. Worked closely with lead engineers and animators to tailor the suite to their needs.

Orcs Must Die! Unchained

Rigging: Principle rigger on the project. Was responsible for rigging all characters, minions, and traps (after Sept. 2014) in 3DS Max. Developed an auto-rigging system (Maxscript) with customizable modules to meet any needs the animators required. Along with rigging the above assets I also skinned them. Also authored several rigging tools for use in Maya (Python).

Pipeline Automation: Principle author and maintainer of the 3DS Max and Photoshop pipelines and tool sets. Wrote multiple suites of tools for concept, modeling, texturing, export/import, animation, etc.

Asset Implementation: Primary implementer of all characters, minions, and traps on the project. This included exporting/importing from 3DS Max to Unreal, setting up all animation trees, physics bodies, etc., and any following bugs that came about from QA. Also aided the Hero team in R&D/implementation for new Heroes and abilities.

Gearbox Software | Contract Artist | 2014

Homeworld: Remastered Collection

Asset Upgrading: Retopologized all in-game ships, add-ons, engine trails, etc. Also created numerous assets used in in-game cinematics (modeling, texturing, shader setup, export/import).

VFX: Redid most visual effects in the game in conjunction with one other remote artist. This included providing feedback and direction to the lead programmer on the project in order to update the Editor, creating all texture maps and meshes needed for these effects, and profiling all effects in-game.

Full Credits:

Bounty Star (2023), DINOGOD, Annapurna - Senior Technical Artist

Potionomics (2022), Voracious Games, XSEED Games - Rigger

Saint’s Row (2022), Deep Silver Volition - UI Engineer

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-shot Adventure (2021), Gearbox, Stray Kite - Addt Tech Art Support

Fortnite Creative (2020), Epic Games, Stray Kite - Senior Technical Artist

Ready Set Heroes (2019), Robot Entertainment - Technical Artist

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes (2019), EA Capital Games - Technical Artist

Orcs Must Die! Unchained (2015-2017), Robot Entertainment - Technical Artist

Homeworld Remastered Collection (2015), Gearbox - Contract Artist

Education

The Guildhall at SMU | 2012 - 2014
Master of Interactive Technology

Indiana University | 2008 - 2012
BFA, Printmaking | Minor in Art History

Other

Mentor | Animation Diversity Foundation | 2020 - Present
Speaker | Freelancing Technical Art: A Few Dos and Don’ts | GDC 2022