Experience

Please visit LinkedIn for my latest work experience

Apple | Freelance Lighting & LookDev Specialist
2/2022 – Current
Created content for Apple’s website, photoreal product ads, & live events.

Preymaker NY | Freelance Unreal Engine Generalist, Lighting TD, CG Lead, Art Director
1/2021 – 12/2021
5 minute stylized short film
– Worked side-by-side with director to develop the environments, assets, main character, look, workflow, and pre-rendered short film
– Led small team of artists from Los Angeles to Capetown
Senior LookDev Artist (Arnold/Maya) – Snow & Ice Sculptures – “BetMGM: Wayne Gretsky” Spot
Realtime VR Maze – Unreal Engine Generalist, Lookdev/Lighting, R&D

Epic Games | Virtual Production Fellowship in Unreal Engine
10/2020-11/2020
I’m honored to have been chosen for the Virtual Production Fellowship with Epic Games, an intensive 5-week training in Unreal Engine 4.25. Myself and 100 other fellows were each sponsored to create a short film in UE with the help of Epic Mentors, Technical Artists, and full-time class instruction. Fellows had five weeks from concept to creation to produce a short film using the tools learned in class with the theme being “Exploration.” I used the cavernous environment I’d developed in the months prior as the basis for my short. The Fellowship was easily one of the most incredible experiences of my career to date. My short film can be viewed here.

Self-Training | Concept Design, Unreal Engine, Python
07/2020-09/2020
Took personal time to self-train in Unreal Engine, Python scripting, and environment design. I’d designed a cavernous “Underground Bookstore” in my Environment Building class at Brainstorm School in 2019. I wanted to build upon this design, create it in CG and render it in Unreal Engine. I’d also done some Python scripting for Maya tutorials on the side to aid in simple tool dev that I look forward to building upon in the future.

Apple | Freelance Lighting & LookDev Specialist
5/2019-6/2020
Rendered toon-shaded animated music video to air before & after Tim Cook’s Keynote at the World Wide Developers Conference 2019.
Lighting for the Airpods Pro release trailer.
Look development for assets used on the Apple website, trailers, and delivered to various vendors for use in advertisements for various Apple products.

CoSA VFX | Freelance CG Generalist  (Layout/Modeling/Texturing/Lookdev/Lighting, Redshift/VRay)
1/2019-4/2019
TV series including Lucifer, The Orville, Swamp Thing, Gotham and Another Life

The Mill LA | Freelance CG Generalist (Layout, Texturing, LookDev, Lighting)
11/2018-12/2018
Broadcast spot: Walmart – Golden Globes 2019

CoSA VFX | Freelance CG Generalist  (Layout/Modeling/Texturing/Lookdev/Lighting, Redshift)
11/2018
TV series including Gotham and The Gifted

EightVFX |  Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling/Texturing/Lookdev/Lighting)
7/2018-10/2018
Broadcast Spots – Pepsi “NFL Theme Song,” Pepsi – “NFL Ice the Kicker,” Samsung “Bixby: Explore the Sandbox”

Zoic |  Freelance CG Generalist (Texturing/Lookdev/Lighting)
7/2018
“The Walking Dead” Trailer for Comic Con

Chimney |  Freelance CG Generalist (Layout/Texturing/Lookdev/Lighting)
5/2018-6/2018
“MGM: Springfield” Broadcast Spot

The Mill LA |  Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling/Layout/Lighting)
5/2018
Broadcast Spot – “XBox: More Powerful”

Framestore |  Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling/Texturing)
2/2018-4/2018
Various NDA real-time projects

EightVFX |  Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling/Texturing/Lookdev/Lighting)
1/2018
Broadcast Spot – “Toyota: Dream Crasher”

Zoic  |  Freelance CG Generalist (Lighting, VRay)
9/2017-12/2017
Various Mobile App Spots – “Final Fantasy”

Electric Theatre Collective |  Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling/Texturing)
8/2017
Broadcast Spot – “Shave Butter: GTM Campaign”

The Mill LA |  Freelance CG Generalist (Lighting, Arnold)
7/2017-8/2017
Broadcast Spots – “Energizer: Poof,” “Writing on the Lens”

Zoic  |  Freelance CG Generalist (Lighting, VRay)
4/2017-6/2017
180 Degree Museum Experience, “Museum of the Bible: Stories of the Bible”
TV Episodic – “Game of Thrones: Season 7, Episode 1”

Framestore  |  Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling/Texturing)
1/2017-3/2017
Broadcast Spot – “Audi – S5”
Broadcast Spot – “Build Your Dreams – Letters to Leo”
Broadcast Spot, Disneyland Ride “Summer of Heroes- Guardians of the Galaxy, Mission Breakout”

a52/Elastic  |  Freelance CG Generalist (Texturing, Lookdev, Lighting – Vray, Substance Painter, Mari)
11/2016-1/2017
Broadcast Spots – “American Express: Portal, 5X”

Electric Theatre Collective | Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling/Texturing)
9/2016-11/2016
Broadcast Spot: “Jose Cuervo: Last Days on Earth”
Broadcast Spot: “Nissan: Sunchaser”

Framestore | Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling)
9/2016-9/2016
Broadcast Spot: “Trex: Signature Walkout”

Eight VFX | Freelance CG Generalist (Modeling, Texturing, Animation, Rigging, Cloth Sim, Lighting, Rendering, Precomp)
7/2016-9/2016
Broadcast Spots: “Let Go: Jump,” “Quicksand”
Trailer – “League of Legends Finals”

The Mill NY | Staff CG Generalist (Previs, Modeling, Texturing, Animation, Rigging, Look Dev, Lighting, Rendering, PreComps)
07/2013 – 7/2016
-Various photoreal and stylized Broadcast Spots including:
“Hennessy: A New Further”
“Disney: Magic All Around”
“Universal Studios: Volcano Bay”
“Lincoln: Paint”
“ESPN: College Football 2016”
“Under Armour: Rule Yourself”
“Brand Jordan: Re2pect”
“Nike: Hypervenom Brazil”
“Google: Play Your Heart Out”

Skills

Maya
Unreal Engine 4
Mari, Substance Painter, some Substance Designer
Arnold, VRay, Redshift for Maya
Nuke
ZBrush
Basic PFTrack, 3DEqualizer
SpeedTree

Linux, Windows, Mac OS

Currently Learning – UE Blueprints, Python

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts | Film and Animation
Rochester Institute of Technology

Epic Games | Virtual Production Fellowship in Unreal Engine
Fall 2020

Brainstorm School | Environment Design 1
1/2019-4/2019

Reference

Stephen DeLalla
Apple, LookDev Team Manager
Contact info available upon request

Wyatt Savarese
Past VFX Supervisor, The Mill NY
[email protected]