VFX Portfolio

Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third installment of James Cameron’s saga, featuring vast ocean environments and complex water interactions. My role and responsibilities Water simulations: Distributed simulations of large-scale scenes with a high number of interacting water elements. Automation and management of complex setups combining both hero and background elements. Solving artistic challenges within the physical constraints of a physically accurate solver. Key skills developed Fast adaptation to proprietary in-house tools and workflows. Resolving complex technical issues while working within a new production pipeline.

House of the Dragon: Season 3 continues HBO’s epic fantasy series and involves large-scale water, fire, and volumetric effects. My role and responsibilities Water simulations: Developed a setup for distributed simulation of large-scale shorelines. Supported the artists who used this setup in their shots. Clouds and volumetrics: Created a setup for turning low-res cloud templates into detailed clouds at the scale required in frame. Simulated interactions of dragons flying through clouds. Smoke simulations. Dust simulations for dragon interactions with the ground. Fire: Participated in the development of the dragon fire setup. Created simulations of dragon fire, burning objects, and smoke for the opening sequence of the second episode. Tools: Developed and maintained an asset for flexible control and compensation of extremely fast fire source motion. Developed and maintained an interactive placer for quickly laying out library elements in a scene. Key skills developed Gained experience developing and maintaining a complex automated water pipeline used by other artists. Deepened my knowledge of proprietary in-house tools and mastered the fire solver and fire simulation approaches. Managed a large number of tasks under tight deadlines.

Insect Flocking System is a research focused on developing a highly controllable framework for simulating large-scale insect swarms. This system enables the creation of complex formations built from multiple insects, character morphing, and realistic behavioral patterns while maintaining exceptional performance with millions of agents. Technical implementation Designed a point-based collision system with 3-dimensional radius representation. Optimization algorithm for packing ellipsoids into any volume with artistic control of surface patterns. Created state-based behavior management system using Markov chains. It allows precise control of state proportions at each stage of the simulation. Implemented tools for previewing and precisely controlling the speed and position of the swarm at each moment in time through a shot. Several highly efficient algorithms for managing shape transitions and animation following. Developed a high-performance rendering pipeline using USD and Karma XPU. Optimized render-time memory usage using USD layering and instancing techniques. This makes it possible to render millions of animated insects on my RTX 3090. For more details on the process, visit this post.

R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned is a feature film requiring the creation of hellish creatures and environments, seamlessly integrating CG characters and effects with live-action footage. My role and responsibilities Character Development and Effects: Technical and look development of the main CG character. Implemented complex multilayered character FX (excluding the incredible cloud of souls behind him and the separated souls). Built a flocking system to manage animation for multiple souls in the portal. Environments: Designed and implemented procedural models and shading for the hell portal. Optimized and integrated the same portal setup into Astaroth’s chest portal and other characters’ chest portals. Technical Direction: Implemented optimized rendering solutions. Developed a volumetric CVEX procedural shader for Astaroth’s smoky hair and face, as well as soul faces, adding intricate details at all distances during rendering time. Developed automation tools for managing scene consistency and rendering quality control. Created a solution for fast and flexible HDR balancing and light textures baking. Later, I developed another version of Lighter, based on the same idea but more efficient, with a user-friendly Qt interface. Key skills developed Artistic character effects. Rendering optimization and resource management.

Warriors of Future is a science fiction movie featuring extensive urban destruction and alien vegetation effects. The project required creating intricate scenes of extraterrestrial flora overtaking a metropolis inspired by Hong Kong. My role and responsibilities Technical Direction: Developed a large-scale procedural system for generating intricate building destruction guided by plants. Resolved memory overflow issues while rendering highly detailed destroyed districts. Created procedural idle motions for plants at city scale. Effects Development: Conducted various particle and fluid simulations. Developed plant simulation tools. Key skills developed Optimization of large-scale scenes. Memory-efficient rendering solutions. Collaborative resolution of complex technical issues.

Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp is the sequel to the animated feature film, involving over 600 shots with animated characters and feather simulations. My role and responsibilities Grooming and feathers simulation: Responsible for the feather grooming of Woody and Buzz. Led the team in feather simulations throughout all movie sequences. Solved various issues and managed non-standard hero shot setups involving feathers. Tools development: Developed a fast and flexible feather system. Created grooming, simulation and post-processing tools. Implemented a precise animation de-intersection system based on Pixar’s paper. Developed a custom feather procedural for optimal caching and rendering. Key skills developed Proficient in implementing Karma procedurals. Expertise in pipeline optimization and automation. Capable of solving technical animation issues.

Wolf Pack is a science fiction series that involves fire effects and creature development. My role and responsibilities Technical Direction: Worked on the integration of USD and developed the 3D department’s pipeline in collaboration with my team members. Managed the assembly, rendering and optimization of complex scenes involving fire, smoke and animals. Character Development: Created the grooming for the werewolf. Developed the simulation of werewolf fur. Key skills developed Gained a deep understanding of USD concepts and pipeline solutions. Acquired expertise in grooming, fur simulation, and rendering techniques. Demonstrated strong time management skills, consistently meeting tight deadlines.

Cosmoball is a feature film comprising over 2500 shots with computer graphics. Our team faced the challenge of creating complex visual effects while maintaining consistent quality across numerous sequences. It includes multiple CG characters and doubles, large-scale full-CG environments, and a lot of FX work. My role and responsibilities Character and Effects Development: FX and look development of the antagonist’s alive “mantle” costume. Developed several procedural generators for building details in large scale environments. Created various FX, including explosions, fire, liquids, and character FX. Tools development: Worked on several optimization solutions for our in-house muscle system to address some performance issues. Developed a tool for managing muscle and tissue simulations and easy search for optimal parameter combinations. Developed a custom fog shader to address issues with performance and noise in a large-scale interior scene. Key skills developed A lot of experience with solving various technical problems. Deep and effective collaboration with my team members in a cross-functional team. Strong estimation and task planning skills.

My experience in pipeline development aimed to establish a robust and scalable production infrastructure by integrating USD technology with existing tools and workflows. This long-term activity extended across multiple productions and continuously evolved to address the studio’s growing needs. Developed workflows and tools USD Integration Framework: Collaboratively designed a USD-based pipeline architecture for 3D departments. Implemented tools for asset retrieval and tracking within the existing project management system. Created an automated scene assembly system and build scripts. Asset Resolution System: Integrated the USD Asset Resolver. Developed a context manager for granular asset resolution management. PDG-based Automation Framework: Developed PDG tools for two-way communication with the project management system. Implemented flexible task filtering mechanics based on input dependencies, statuses, and special attributes. Created tools for rendering, preview generation, and publishing task outcomes. Various Tools and Utilities: Integrated project management interfaces into all file loading nodes, enabling automatic tracking of used versions. Developed tools for easy management of AOVs to meet studio compositing standards. Integrated GitLab into the studio development pipeline and built CI/CD to simplify testing and separate development and production environments.