Bio
Game Developer - Lead/Principal Technical Artist - Indie Studio Head - Unreal Engine Specialist
Skills
12+ Years of UE3/4/5 Experience
Experience using all aspects of UE3-5 to create both AAA and Indie titles. I've served as a Senior/Lead Technical artist specializing in performance / optimization, shader creation, blueprints, data analysis, pipeline design and other production improvements on over 10 shipped projects.
12+ Years of Industry Experience
I've spent 12+ years as a Sr./Lead Technical Artist, Level Designer & Sr. Environment Artist at ILMxLAB, Tripwire Interactive & Hi-Rez Studios.
Shipped Titles: Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Maneater, Hanako: Honor & Blade, Espire 1 VR (consulted), Chivalry 2, Killing Floor 2, SMITE, Global Agenda, Tribes: Ascend, Paladins.
11+ Years of Full 3D Pipeline Experience
Experience using software necessary for 3D Art: 3ds Max/Maya, Substance Painter, Zbrush, Houdini, Photoshop, Topogun and others. Various employed pipelines ranging from low->medium->high poly pipelines to high poly->re-topo->low poly pipelines. Experience with a variety of texturing methods and styles.
8+ Years of Technical Art Experience
8+ Total years working with pipeline development, performance, optimization, data analysis, UE4/5 blutility tools, PIX/graphics profiling, CPU profiling, Powershell tools & GoogleScript spreadsheet data analysis/automation.
11+ Years of Creative/Art Direction & Leadership Experience
Experience from 2008-2010, 2013-Present as the above leadership roles on UE4 Title Hanako: Honor & Blade. Responsibilities include: overall artistic direction, creative direction and game design, project management, pipeline development, time management/scheduling, overall team management/staffing, technical art/performance, UI development and gameplay blueprints.
10+ Years of Mentoring
Spent most my professional career also mentoring students and industry hopefuls both directly and indirectly through tutorials, workshops, panels, talks and live streams. Cultivating growth is always a goal.
Education & Work History
January 2021-Present
Lead Technical Artist, Performance | LucasFilm/ILMxLAB
Responsible for managing overall performance strategy for all ILMxLAB and some other LucasFilm real-time projects using Unreal Engine. This involves hardware testing, content budgeting, visual r&d, AB testing, documenting, creating training guides, performance milestones and other full-stack technical artist deliverables (shader libraries, etc.)
Novemer 2017-January 2021
Sr. Technical Artist | Tripwire Interactive, Roswell, GA
Responsible for performance, master shader creation, data analysis, triaging/tasking of performance work and managing one direct report as well as providing consulting on performance/workflows for 1-3 publishing projects at a time. Served this role from start-to-finish on Maneater running as point for performance on all threads (GPU/CPU) and tasking all departments with performance work for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.
March 2010-November 2017
Senior Artist, Technical Artist | Hi-Rez Studios, Alpharetta, GA
Responsible for creating environment assets from start-to-finish. I spent 1 year at the Junior level, 2 years at Mid-Level before becoming a Senior Artist in September 2013.
2008-2010, 2013-Present
Co-Founder, Lead Developer | +Mpact Games, Woodstock, GA
In charge of overall creative/artistic direction for Hanako: Honor & Blade and managing the project and Indie studio, +Mpact Games
2006-2010
Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA
Earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Interactive Design and Game Development.
Awards
2020
Epic MegaGrant Recipient
Received an Epic MegaGrant for our work on Hanako: Honor & Blade.
2017
Best Multiplayer Editor's Choice - IndieDb
Received this award from IndieDb's Editor's Choice awards for Best Multiplayer for our Early Access title Hanako: Honor & Blade.
2010
Best Environment Art - Hanako
Received this award for having the best environment art at the SCAD GDX Entelechy show, which features student work from all SCAD campuses.
2006
Gold Medalist - Junior Olympics
Competed in the Jr. Olympics in '06 and earned a Gold Medal in forms for Tae Kwon Do.
Career Highlights
- Served as Lead Technical Artist for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, with over 40 hours of 60FPS content, serving as sole department leader for performance/optimization between ILMxLAB, Disney Imagineering and a third-party partner.
- Lead and shipped Hanako: Honor & Blade, a $0 budget AAA-quality indie title, with small team of 6-10 devs, a passion project dedicated to my late mother.
- Served as Senior/Lead Technical Artist for multiplatform release of Maneater (Xbox One, PS4, PC; Switch port afterwards for 6 months).
- Recipient of Epic MegaGrant for Indie Project Hanako: Honor & Blade in October 2020.
- Original Designer/Creator of Arena Mode for SMITE
- Responsible for all tower objectives in SMITE, start-to-finish (as of July 2014)
My Mission
Create and master game art at the highest level. Having touched nearly all parts of game development, combine the high and low level perspectives to provide well-balanced leadership, processes, and strategy. I strive to transform my experiences in AAA and indie game development into strengthening teams, reducing overhead, and helping the entire development process be as efficient and smooth as the performance of projects I have the privilege of working on.
Random Tidbits
I practiced Wing Chun (style of kung fu) at a serious, private academy that teaches the way it was taught in the old days. I love metal/heavy music and go to a lot of shows. Music runs in the family, singing is my favorite thing to do during downtime. Also, a huge food snob, especially for Thai food.