Experience

• Undead Labs Seattle, WAPrincipal Technical ArtistJanuary 2017 - Current

• State of Decay 3 (In Development)

  • Lead prototyping team(s) to explore new franchise features.
  • Architect and primary developer of several key runtime world systems.

  State of Decay 2

  • Content, pipeline, and tools development in Unreal Engine 4 (C++) Maya (Python) and Photoshop (Python).
  • Extend UE4 to provide our open world game with greater performance and fidelity.
  • Balance performance across multiple platforms and scalability settings.
  • Enable artists to reach their goals with workflow optimization and force multiplication.

• NC2 Media, Seattle Redmond, WASenior Technical ArtistAugust 2015 - December 2016
• • Gameplay programming, rapid prototyping, art, animation, effects, ui, and performance optimization in Unity.
  • Brought 8 small but diverse games to completion in 1 year with 2 developers and 2 artists.
  • Game development for web using HTML5 and React.
  • Develop level editing tools, designer-tweakable procedural generation solutions and other tools, systems, and editor extensions to hasten our development with Unity and enable all team members, no matter how technical, to contribute in order to hit our aggressive milestones.

• 5TH Cell Bellevue, WASenior Technical ArtistAugust 2013 - August 2015
• • Architect and implement a powerful content creation environment and tool deployment infrastructure.
  • Develop asset pipeline with support for batch and automated operations.
  • Tool creation and force multiplication to support 30+ member art and design team.
  • Create documentation and conduct training workshops to introduce new tools and concepts to the team.
  • Create innovative tools to overcome production challenges, maintain existing tools, and improve artist workflows, stability, and task automation potential wherever possible.
  • Construct complex material node networks, support material tools, and author shaders.
  • Reverse-engineer game and tool bugs, working with artists and engineers to resolve problems quickly.

• Electronic Arts Orlando, FLTechnical ArtistMay 2012 - May 2013
• • Provide general artist support, communicate between art and engineering disciplines, and manage information from the content creation application through integration into the run-time environment.
  • Create innovative tools to overcome production challenges, maintain existing tools, and improve artist workflows, stability, and task automation potential wherever possible.
  • Construct comprehensive, accessible technical documentation for tools and workflows for company-wide use.
  • Expand the uniform authoring tool and shaders to support content creation for new game features.
  • Provided technical support to a cleanup of the Madden NFL and NCAA assets and general football pipeline, collectively containing more than one million game assets and pieces of metadata. Streamlined automated build error detection and performed analytics with the extracted data to better organize the effort and manage artist tasks. Established the cause of build errors, evaluated their validity, and collaborated with engineers and artists to apply a fix.
  • Embedded Perforce and proprietary asset management database functionality in scripts to automate metadata connections and changelist actions, providing greater control over the incredible volume of managed assets.

• Adayana Government Group Urbana, ILGame Artist IIFebruary 2010 - May 2012
• • Create efficient 3D environments, level designs, props, vehicles, characters, rigs, particle systems, event and effects scripting, lighting, and animations in Unity for immersive, interactive courseware.
  • Establish pipeline standards and develop tools to enhance productivity and output quality.
  • Determine visual targets and performance guidelines. Instruct junior artists on new tools and techniques.
  • Set up in-house motion capture system for facial and body animation. Managed integration with our workflow.
  • Work directly with software engineers to establish gameplay and game management systems in Unity.
  • Develop key features, content, and core user experience for the mobile component of our flagship project.
  • Create instructionally sound, aesthetically pleasing web courses for civilian and military use.
  • Developed engaging activities to teach course learning objectives and evaluate learners.

• Freelance Artist & DeveloperJanuary 2007 - Sept 2022

• Rival Wizards (Snapchat Instant Games)

  • Gameplay programmer for multiplayer match-based tower defense game with dedicated servers using Nakama
  • Authored data management pipeline

  Tower Defense Force (Facebook Messenger)

  • Sole Gameplay Programmer plus HTML5 game engine development
  • Casual asynchronous challenge multiplayer with 10 million unique players

  Freelance

  • Web development, graphic design, motion graphics and animation, copy writing, and brand marketing.
  • Consult clients and evaluate their needs, determine project budget and scope, anticipate obstacles and avoid them with creative solutions.

• Illinois State Water Survey, Center for Watershed Science Champaign, ILData Visualization ProgrammerJuly 2006 - December 2006
• • Develop a real-time OpenGL application to display interactive models of USGS digital elevation map data with a large array of data manipulation and playback tools, customizable viewing filters, and intuitive user experience.