Skills

Custom shader authoring across Unity Shader Graph, HLSL, and Unreal. Focused on solving performance and visual problems that off-the-shelf materials can't address.

• Alien Age Water surface (world-space UV, eliminates tiling artifacts on irregular terrain); volumetric fog (depth texture sampling, height-responsive density); environment tile color-variation (world-position seeded, eight tileset varieties from three source meshes)
• Snuggles the Unicorn / Wing Vertex Shader Replaced 32-bone-per-enemy wing rig with a GPU vertex shader; per-instance phase randomization via Material Property Blocks so every enemy flaps independently, with zero extra draw calls
• Snuggles the Unicorn / Status FX Shader Single overlay shader handling all character status states (burning, frozen, impact flash); toggled by bools from gameplay script via a helper component; multiple states simultaneously active
• Relic Atmospheric and visual shading in Zero Engine; pushed past documented engine limits by working directly with the chief engineer on engine-level changes

Particle systems, timing, and gameplay-driven effects. Emphasis on effects that communicate gameplay state clearly and hold up on target hardware.

• Alien Age Beam pickup/drop and cloud lightning: continuous energy column from discrete particles; timing synced to gameplay events without hardcoded delays
• Grapple Star Ship boost effects with reactive jet trails, collectible pickups, environmental ambience
• Snuggles the Unicorn Fuel refill timers driven by gameplay script via shader parameters; enemy spawn effects; collectible pickups; character celebration states
• Destiny 2 Interactive beehive obstacle prototype VFX; sea monster ambient effects

Rendering pipeline setup, lighting, and post-processing, including full pipeline conversions and camera compositing for complex rendering requirements.

• Snuggles the Unicorn / URP Conversion Full standard-renderer-to-URP conversion: every shader rebuilt from scratch, batch material conversion scripted, lighting and post-processing rebuilt, outsourced store assets cleaned up to match pipeline
• Grapple Star / Depth-of-Field Fix Dual-camera Cinemachine composite: background renders with full post-processing including DoF, foreground camera renders VFX layer with post-processing disabled: sharp foreground particles over blurred background, correct depth relationships preserved
• Alien Age Full lighting and post-processing setup; all environment materials and lighting authored from scratch
• Relic All visual technical systems in Zero Engine; worked with chief engineer on engine-level rendering changes

Character rigs, animation retargeting, and constraint systems built to survive production realities like mid-development model redesigns and repeated asset updates.

• Snuggles the Unicorn / Puppet Rig & Retargeting Constraint-based retargeting system for mid-production character redesign: old skeleton drives new skeleton in real time, full animation library transferred immediately; scripted constraint rebuild utility that survived repeated model updates in seconds; biped-to-quadruped mech kitbash with aim constraints, bob dampening, and controller aim script
• Destiny 2 Modeled, rigged, and animated shipped characters: owls (Farm social space), sea monster (Titan); reactive NPC with custom animations and VFX
• Earlier Work / Jerry's Rig: Solo Animation Solo animation production, full pipeline ownership: script, storyboard, and animatic; character concept, model, textures, rig (abAutoRig), and animation; environment concept, models, textures, and lighting

Editor tools and pipeline scripts written to solve specific production problems, documented so non-technical collaborators can use them independently.

• Alien Age / Foliage Placement Tool Editor-time placement tool (collaborated with engineer): runs distribution logic in-editor, bakes as placed instances for zero runtime cost. Documented so level designers could regenerate placements independently after level changes
• Snuggles the Unicorn / Rig Rebuild Utility Scripted constraint reconnection that rebuilt the full rig from saved configuration in seconds; Maya compositing helper scripts
• Lego Fortnite / Editor Tools EUW animation range validation tool (batching, progress indicator, CSV export, configurable options); asset audit EUW with mesh LOD and triangle count enforcement at check-in via extended C++ submit validator; FX validation test suite distributed as team-specific guides
• Bungie Debug config tool for internal use; test engineering infrastructure on live service titles

Test systems design, escaped defect analysis, automation tooling, and coverage strategy. QA background is central to the tech art approach: catching systemic problems before they ship.

• Lego Fortnite / Automation Triage Tool Python tool built with Claude Code in one day: pulls daily test results via API across PC, console, and Switch; generates self-contained HTML report with cross-platform comparison, trend tracking, and Jira-linked failure notes. Turned daily triage from an assembly task into a reading task
• Lego Fortnite / FX Coverage Framework Traced escaped defects to a systemic gap in FX test coverage; built distributed test suite across platforms and scalability settings; packaged as team-specific guides so coverage scaled with content volume without scaling centralized QA load
• Bungie QA to Test Engineer progression on live service titles; test infrastructure and coverage tooling

Procedural placement and variation, baked at editor time for zero runtime cost, with visual variety that reads as hand-crafted.

• Alien Age Editor-time foliage placement tool with Tree Sizer/Rotator/Tinter: randomized position, scale, rotation, and color at placement time; three rock meshes and three tree meshes produced eight distinct tileset varieties with no additional asset authoring
• Grapple Star Procedurally animated 2D elements in the Level Select UI scene

UI built from scratch: scripted canvas, data-driven content population, and dynamic state-driven elements integrated with gameplay systems.

• Grapple Star / Level Select Screen Full scene built from scratch: 3D objects, particle systems, procedurally animated 2D elements; scripted UI canvas with clickable planet selection; text fields and scene elements populated and toggled based on selection state. Concept art by Rowan Sherwin
• Grapple Star / Dynamic Targeting Reticle Reticle appearance driven by gameplay state (target availability) rather than sprite swapping

Scripts written to solve specific production problems across C#, Python, Blueprint, and Claude Code collaboration. Not a software engineer; a technical artist who reaches for code when it's the right tool.

• C# / Unity Puppet rig constraint rebuild utility; controller aim script; status FX helper component; gameplay-to-shader parameter bridge; batch material conversion script for URP migration
• Python / Maya & pipeline Maya scripts for compositing and asset pipeline tasks; foliage placement tool (collaborated with engineer); Tree Sizer/Rotator/Tinter script
• Blueprint & EUW / Unreal Engine 5 Animation range validation EUW with batching, progress indicator, and CSV export; asset audit EUW with LOD/poly enforcement; extended existing C++ submit validator, with no prior UE5 Blueprint or EUW experience before building these
• Claude Code Automation triage tool built in one day; this portfolio site; context and memory management across sessions; framing problems clearly enough that implementation can be delegated; see How I Work