EXPERIENCE

Technical Director | Character Simulation, Blue Sky Studios/ 20th Century Fox 
Greenwich CT, 05/2015 - present

Simulate character garments, flesh, hairs and props

Develop and maintain department tools and pipeline

Setup scenes and build pre-cloth rigs

Write scripts improving workflow and troubleshoot

Rigging Technical Artist Intern, Electronic Arts (EA)  
Orlando FL, 05/2014 - 09/2014

Develop rigging and technical animation tools optimizing calculation time on character deformation evaluations using PyQt and Maya API

Run tests and make changes to improve production pipeline and
workflow

Edit/ Optimize skin weights, fix bugs, and verify in runtime

Perform investigative R&D tasks involving future Maya releases for next-gen titles

Rigging & Lighting Leads, Industry Course with Reel FX Studios (project accepted into SIGGRAH 2014 Dailies)
College Station TX, SUMMER

Built rigs for main characters, oversaw lighting and set up lighting rigs and render paths

Animated shots and created compositing templates

Deeply involved in pipeline, storyboarding, modeling, layout, surfacing, FX and rendering

Graduate Assistant, Computing & Information Services
Texas A&M University, College Station TX, 01/2014 - 06/2015

Provide advanced technical support, classroom instruction and subject matter expertise in Open Access Labs

EMPLOYMENT

Instructor of Record, Department of Visualization
Texas A&M University, College Station TX, FALL 2013

Instructor of Digital Media Foundation

Faculty, School of Communication
Hunan University of Technology, China, 08/2011 - present

Instructor of Computer Animation, The History of Digital Media Arts, Nonlinear Video Editing, Photography

Researcher of University Media Lab and adjacent instructor in the College of Science and Technology

SKILLS

Ray trace rendering programming, tool writing, scripted rigging, physically based simulation, shader writing

C/C++/ Java, Python, Cuda/ Optix, OpenGL, Qt/ PyQt, Maya API, RSL

Maya, MotionBuilder, RenderMan, Houdini, ZBrush, Nuke, Adobe CC, Final Cut Pro

Unix/ Linux, Mac OS, Windows

PROJECTS

Pigeon Impossible (in development)
Ferdinand
Ice Age 5: Collision Course
The Peanuts Movie
NBA Live 15
Madden NFL 16

EDUCATION

Texas A&M University
College Station, TX, 08/2012 - 05/2015

M.S. in Visualization, GPA: 3.8

Beijing University of Technology
Beijing, China, 08/2007 - 07/2011

B.A. in Multimedia Network Communication Design, GPA: 3.7

University of Central Missouri
Warrensburg, MO, 08/2010 - 05/2011

Exchange Program in Studio Art: Photography & Graphic Design
GPA: 3.9

HONORS

Finalist, Student CG Awards (a.k.a. The Rookies), 2015

Sony IPAX Scholarship, Sony Pictures Imageworks, 2015

Pixar Aggie Scholarship, Pixar Animation Studios, 2015

Electronic Arts Aggie Scholarship, Electronic Arts (EA), 2015

NVIDIA Hardware Grant, Nvidia Corporation, 2015

Animation “Dam Robots”, SIGGRAPH Dailies and Texas Independent Film Festival, 2014

Stop motion short “Odyssey”, Texas Independent Film Festival, 2013

2013 Strategic Scholarship, Texas A&M University, 2012 - 2013

President’s List, University of Central Missouri, 2010 - 2011

Merit Scholarships, Beijing University of Technology, 2008 - 2009 & 2009 - 2010