Work Experiences

PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS | Shader Writer, Global Tech TD [2008] www.pixar.com

In Pixar I am currently employed in the role of shader writer. I am helping the shading of sets and environments in Toy Story 3. I am also taking care of tools, and small sections of pipeline relevant to my department.

ANIMAL LOGIC | Software TD, Senior Shader writer, [2008] www.animallogic.com

As a software TD and senior shader writer I joined briefly a crunch period in Animal Logic. I had a chance to improve the workflow of artists in lighting, FX and compositing by upgrading or rewriting part of the pipeline tools available to them.

As a shader writer I also helped the look development departments for the projects "Australia" (Darwin after the bombing of the Japanese air force), "The Guardians of Ga'Hoole" (the iridescent snake) and "The Knowing" (the space ship and the aliens).

THE MOVING PICTURE COMPANY | Senior Shader writer, [november 2006 - april 2008] www.moving-picture.com

ANIMAL LOGIC | Software TD, Shader writer, lighting TD [2005 - 2006] www.animallogic.com

As a software TD and shader writer (mid level up to senior level) I worked on the animated movie "Happy Feet", maintaining and expanding the main tool used for surfacing (called Freezer), writing miscellaneous tools for the lighting and the surfacing departments and developing a wide variety of surface, occlusion, volume and displacement shaders, as well as a number of nodes for 2d compositing. The same software was used also for other productions, including "300" and "World Trade Center".

Having developed a relevant portion of our surfacing, lighting and compositing pipeline, it was not hard to occasionally assume the role of a lighting TD, as well as compositor.

PYRO STUDIOS | R&D Engineer & shader writer [January-march 2005] www.pyrostudios.com

Pyro Studios is an established European video game company, located in Madrid, Spain. Among most famous titles there are Commandos, Praetorians, and Imperial Glory.
As a R&D and Shader writer I worked as a programmer, in a team of 7 people, the Next Gen Technology Dept. In this group I set up a pipeline for effective, real-time shader developing on next generation consoles (i.e. XBox 360 and Playstation 3). I also participated to the development of several features of the proprietary engine, such as dynamic real time HDRI exposure correction and Depth of Field, and both Image-Processing and sprite-based glare. Despite loving that job, I left early because of a better work opportunity.
Screen shots and videos of the new games with these shaders and engine will be released together with the release of Cops: making crime pay for Playstation 3.

REBELTHINK | R&D Engineer & shader writer [2004] www.rebelthink.com

In 2004, RebelThink was a post-production house, located in Rome. As R&D engineer I led a team of 3 programmers, working on a plug-in package called natural:Shaders, for 3dsMax scan-line renderer, Brazil and VRay.
On natural:Shaders r.1 for 3dsMax I developed the licensing system, 5 on 6 of the shaders, and several procedural additional texture maps. I also designed the GUI, and the human-machine interaction of this software.
I supervised the development of a shader library for mentalray in order to extend natural:Shaders. Finally, I took part in the development of an exporter from Evoqe SolidThinking to mentalray renderer.
A gallery of the results of these shaders is available on the RebelThink website.

FREELANCE | Programmer, shader writer and modeller

As a freelance I often got short tasks from various companies. Most significant jobs were an extensive exporter from Maya to a real-time 3D engine (www.cgs-3dtech.com, www.ultramundum.org), the creation of a library of furniture models (3dsMax, Maya) and the development of a few shaders for Final Render:Stage 2 for maya. These shaders are included in the main release of the raytracer.

CSELT | Developer [2003] www.telecomitalialab.com

CSELT (now known as Telecom Italia Lab) is a big communication R&D corporation, which established world standards such as the Mpeg format.
As a software engineer I developed a multi platform communication performance measurement system, based on autonomous intelligent agents, for MMS, WAP, FTP, and PC and mobile Chat Clients.

La Gare | Light J. and Art Director [2002]

La Gare is a big club in Turin. I programmed pre-computed laser shows and prepared a real-time OpenGL application used to create a video stream based on music intensity and dominant spectrums (in some ways similar to the windows media player or I-tunes effects). Also, as Light J. and Art Director I collaborated with several world famous DJs managing all lighting systems, real-time projections, smoke effects, mechanical devices.

Blisscomedia | 3d artist & scriptwriter [2000-2002] www.blisscomedia.com

Blisscomedia is an Italian visual FX company for musical video clips and corporate videos. As 3d artist and scriptwriter I worked on titles such as: 80\u2019s Stars, Indian Summer and Time to Rock, shown on MTV.

3DTech | 3D Artist [1999-2000] www.cgs-3dtech.com

3Dtech is a small 3D engine developer for Windows and Unix systems. As 3D artist, I worked on low poly models, animations and textures.

Education

• 2 year Master degree (2002-2004) in computer graphics (Virtual Reality and Multimedia) at the "Universidad Politécnica de Madrid", Facultad de Informatica, and in Turin, "Università degli studi di Torino", www.unito.it - full notation, and Honours (110/110 lode). One of the 5 finalists for the "MIMOS AWARD 2005" (best 3d-related thesis in Italy in 2005).

• 3 year Bachelor in Software Engineering, Turin 1999-2002. Promoted with full notation and Honours (110/110 lode). In 2003 I won the "OPTIME AWARD" (menzione) for completing one of the best academic careers in the region.

• Scientific college, Turin 1994-99. Promoted with full notation (100/100).

Proficiencies

--Developing--

• C/C++ - expert and optimizer - 6 years
• Maya API/Max SDK - proficient  3 years
• Mel - expert - 4 years
• MaxScript - proficient - 3 years
• DirectX HLSL, GLSL, CG and ASM - real-time shader writing - expert - 2 years
• Renderman shading language - expert - 2 years
• Python - proficient - 2 years
• mentalray API - proficient - 1 year
• mi scene files and RIB files - proficient - 1 year
• Visual Basic/C# - proficient - 1 year
• OpenGL - proficient - 1 year
• Java - Pascal - Prolog - Lisp - Jess - Perl - Lua - academic - less than 1 year

Industry related Software

• Maya - advanced + script + api
• Digital Fusion - advanced + script + api
• 3dsMax - advanced + script + api
• Photoshop - proficient
• Shake - proficient + api
• RAT - proficient + script
• Zbrush - academic

Spoken languages

• Italian - mother tongue
• English - very fluent
• Spanish - very fluent
• French - average
• Japanese - beginner

 Personality

Having a mixed artistic and technical background, I grew with a creative approach to very technical problems, and work very well and can train both artistic and technical people. After working in many teams, I learnt to manage effectively time, cliens, subordinates and priorities. 

Travelling the world taught me to always consider with an open mind other mindsets and cultures.

Perhaps because I am Italian, I love lively and loud people and especially hate having meals by myself.