RRév O'Conner
estd. 2014

About

Senior Tech Artist and
Character Pipeline Supervisor.

Experience

  • Identified and co-authored a fix for a bug in the zallist “Simple Lit” shader graph implementation for Unity, where opaque shaders rendered as transparent under mixed-reality passthrough.
  • Developed a Unity tool for calculating shader variants through a button-driven UI, eliminating the need to run multiple in-game scenarios manually.
  • Resolved two defects in the Meta SDK mixed-reality pipeline: distant virtual objects failing to render or occlude correctly, and glass being tracked as an opaque surface in environment depth. The fix added a 16-bit channel to the existing _depthMaskRT buffer to act as an occlusion flag activated on glass surfaces.
  • Extended Meta SDK functionality in Unity to support distant virtual objects in augmented reality despite the sensor's depth-data range limitations.
  • Authored a custom invisible-lit shader that writes to Z-depth, enabling both occlusion and relighting for Meta's MRUK within mixed-reality environments.
  • Built a tool that generates primitive colliders from imported 3D assets, reducing manual setup time for the environment team.
  • Implemented a UV-based shapekey system in Blender to convert Character Creator characters into the studio's custom character pipeline.
  • Implemented shader-based particle culling to contain particles within a room without relying on colliders, reducing CPU overhead.
  • Optimised shaders and authored VFX (decals, weapon effects, impacts, bear spray, smoke, and others) in Unity using HLSL and C#.
  • Profiled runtime performance using OVR Metrics Tool and RenderDoc.
  • Produced 3D models with trim-sheet textures, alongside clothing and dynamic props for the environment.
  • Led end-to-end redevelopment of the character pipeline, improving the modular character system and establishing a studio-wide custom rigging workflow.
  • Optimised Unreal Engine performance through the development of consolidated master shaders, reducing instruction count and texture-lookup operations to meet VR performance budgets while raising character visual fidelity to AAA standards.
  • Supervised the international character team at the Bangkok studio.
  • Completed a three-month assignment on behalf of V-Armed, training the Bangkok studio's character artists on the master shader and rigging system developed in-house, and facilitating knowledge transfer and pipeline adoption across studios.
  • Contributed to the character look-development pipeline and produced clothing assets and hair grooms using XGen.
  • Developed custom tooling to adapt proprietary third-party character rigs and convert them for use in game engines, streamlining the character-creation pipeline.
  • Authored a proprietary Python tool for MetaHuman rig transfer within Maya, predating Epic Games' official DNA file editing capabilities.
  • Engineered custom tooling for the seamless transfer of speech-synthesis animations between Maya and Unreal Engine.
  • Produced realistic characters within the technical constraints of VR for the simulation-based video game Artheon VR Museum.
  • Created creatures and characters for a mobile video game.
  • Rigged and animated blob-like characters to simulate soft-body behaviour while staying within a strict joint budget.
  • Maintained the studio's in-house 3ds Max exporter tool, authored in MaxScript, to remain compatible with ongoing updates to the proprietary game engine.
  • Produced miniature models of trucks and vehicles and rendered them using KeyShot.

Projects

Stack & tools

3D Software
Maya3ds MaxBlender (intermediate)Houdini (beginner)ZBrushMarvelous DesignerWrap 3DMariSubstance DesignerSubstance PainterOrnatrixXGen
Game Engines
Unreal Engine 5Unity 2022 LTSUnity 6
Rendering
V-RayArnold
Programming
PythonC++C# (Unity)HLSL
Scripting
MaxScript (intermediate)AutoHotkeyHTML/CSS
Visual Scripting
Unreal Blueprint
Collaboration & Tooling
PerforceGitJiraMonday.comMicrosoft TeamsSlackDiscordConfluence