Seattle, Washington, United States
I am a technical artist and effects animator with over a decade of experience spanning visual effects, feature animation, and synthetic data generation. From creating effects for award-winning animated films and blockbuster features, to engineering procedural systems that generate photorealistic datasets at scale, my work bridges the gap between high-end creative execution and rigorous technical problem-solving. As a dynamic leader with a proven track record in scaling synthetic data pipelines and CG solutions, I am passionate about leveraging cutting-edge technology to drive innovation in AI and visual effects. I specialize in cross-functional collaboration, driving complex projects from concept to completion, and delivering impactful workflows that optimize production under strict budget and timeline constraints.
• Architected procedural workflows and material generation frameworks to scale high-fidelity 3D asset libraries for downstream deployment. • Developed automated production scripts to optimize dataset scaling, reducing technical friction and minimizing processing iteration times. [Python, Houdini TOPs] • Directed cross-functional workflows for external vendor teams, establishing rigorous quality control and validation benchmarks to ensure all deliverables met precise technical requirements.
Backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Samsung Next • Established and scaled the Synthetics Division from an initial solo role to an 8-member multidisciplinary team, driving the data generation strategy for generative video and 3D model training. • Partnered directly with ML research engineers and executive leadership to diagnose data dependencies, define project scopes, and select optimal technologies to accelerate model training loops. • Managed end-to-end technical project lifecycles, orchestrating collaboration between internal technical teams and external contractors to ensure execution within budget and timeline constraints.
• Founded and operated an independent creative studio, managing a team of 5 artists to deliver high-impact projects and generate over $100K+ in revenue.
• Client Advisory: Led technical discovery and delivery strategies for 5+ concurrent external enterprise accounts, translating complex ML model performance bottlenecks into actionable synthetic data requirements. • Data Validation & Impact: Scaled client training datasets by 30x, successfully resolving edge-case deficits and improving client model IoU from 0.657 to 0.794. [t-SNE, UMAP, PCA] • Production Delivery: Designed procedural pipelines to streamline data generation; built, hired, and managed a distributed team of 15+ contractors to execute against fluid client project timelines. • Spearheaded internal R&D initiatives to optimize data annotation frameworks, significantly driving up operational efficiency and data preparation accuracy.
• Led the solution design and deployment of procedural data generation systems for human and environment models, directly securing contract expansions with flagship enterprise clients including Apple, Amazon, and Google. • Engineered a parameterized environment generation system, balancing photorealistic visual requirements with strict machine learning engineer (MLE) programmatic controllability constraints. • Managed internal technical teams and external vendors, establishing development standards to maintain technical consistency across all client data delivery engagements.