Studio Projects

Creating visual effects for a 3rd person MOBA in UE5

Working across technical disciplines to reach a visual target

Realizing scope with the help of production to determine timelines

Using Niagara & Cascade to build out the first of Smite 2's characters

As a VFX Artist at Titan Forge I was...

Establishing technical structure for emergent feature needs, and solidifying shared methods for game-wide propogation of these systems

Evolving an art style with respects to the original

Adapting art to reinforce design & convey gameplay information

Authoring custom assets in

Houdini & Substance Designer

Prototyping the use of cosmetics via Blueprints

Delving into the experience personally, to gather all that is within my perview to improve.

Founding cosmetic FX pipelines & documenting procedures

Collaborating with 2D artists to animate and apply FX to their pieces

Role in Project:

VFX Artist
- Working inside of UE 4.26 to create new and improve upon existing Niagara and Cascade particle effects.
- Building a handful of master shaders to be instanced in a variety of FX.
- Implementing particle systems most often via animation notifications.
- Using Houdini to create low-cost meshes with specialized UVs for mesh particles.
- Procedural texture creation through Substance Designer to give life to mesh shaders with tiling flows or single sprite particles.
- Opitimizing FX via LODs, material switches, and scalability per system.
- Collaborating closely with senior art director to set weekly sprints, scope within a limited timeframe, and share recordings of prototypes.
- Utilizing Perforce and UnrealGameSync to pull and push changes.

Role in Project:

Lead VFX Artist at Ultra8
- Creating and implementation of Niagara and Cascade particle effect systems in UE 4.24
- Houdini Engine PyroFX spritesheets, mesh destruction animations, and 3D fluid vertex animation textures
- Using node-based material editor to create complex shaders for surfaces and post-processing
- Working with
  programmers to deploy
  VFX assets into
  gameplay systems.

Role in Project:

VFX Artist at Sanguine Studios
- Unity Shuriken particle effect creation, and fine tuning to match systems and character designs.
- Stylized 2D Photoshop sprite creation.
- Maya 3D modeling and UVing.
- Using Unity's native material interface to create custom shaders.
- Houdini Engine PyroFX rendering for spritesheet

Role in Project:

Lead Developer
- Working inside of UE 4.26 to create a wide range of game development solutions.
- Designing and prototyping gameplay elements for characters and world objects, using UE4's native blueprint system.
- Compositing Niagara particle effect emitters and systems to supplement player interactions and game world events.
- Using Houdini to create FBX, HDA, and Hbjson assets for environment art and character FX.
- Design and implementation of four distinct levels.
- Procedural texturing in Substance Designer.
- 3D modelling in Maya and texturing of models in Substance Painter.
- Creating in-game cinematic sequences.
- Producing brand materials such as logos, in-game renders, and animated action shots.

As a VFX Artist at RedBeard I was...

Creating 3D stylized visual effects in UE4 for an action brawler.

Using Niagara & Cascade to build out characters' asset libraries.

Material graphing for particles, post processing, decals and characters.

Implementing FX via gameplay event hookups and animations.

Authoring assets in Houdini & Substance Designer; 3D models & Textures.

Working in a proprietary folder structure and skinning system.

Daily playtesting to assure quality of contributions + bug triage,

Collaborating constantly with team members about ways to improve,

Doing what I loved with people I respected.