WENDY CHEN

ABOUT ME

Seeking opportunities in LookDev, experience as Software Engineer and Technical Artist

Taken in 2023 at Pixar

Hi, I’m Wendy! I’ve worked at Pixar for 7 years in both roles as a Character Shading technical artist and as a software engineer on our in-house USD shading application and shading pipeline. I have credits on Toy Story 4, Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red, Lightyear, Elemental, and Inside Out 2.

Before Pixar, I graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Computer Science in 2017. I have worked as an Art & Production Intern at Walt Disney Animation Studios and as a Production Engineering Intern at Blue Sky Studios.

Outside of work, I love drawing and painting. I adore all forms of image making and problem solving.

I am seeking roles where I can combine my full range of technical and artistic skills. Let’s make something great together!

REEL

REEL

Winter 2024 Demo Reel

WORK / PROJECTS

WORK / PROJECTS


My projects span the spectrum from coding to painting.
Click on the images for more information.


Digital Painting
DIGITAL PAINTING
Disney
DISNEY
Blue Sky
BLUE SKY
Where I'll Go
WHERE I'LL GO
Don't Blink
DON'T BLINK
OS video mode

VIDEO
MODE
MCERTIKOS
Rendering
RENDERING
Painting
TRADITIONAL PAINTING
Sketches
SKETCHES

DIGITAL PAINTING

Assorted digital paintings/studies and concept art for personal story ideas.
Click image to expand.

DISNEY

Selected shots, summer 2015.
Password: chendy

BLUE SKY

Geometry reduction tool, summer 2016.
Deployed for production use, fall 2016.

WHERE I'LL GO

2D animation, winter 2015.
Focuses on environments, world-building, and atmosphere.


REVISED ANIMATION TEST

Swimming animation test, winter 2015.
Set in the world from "Where I'll Go".

DON'T BLINK

Virtual Reality horror game, spring 2016.
For implementation details, please see the project documentation.

VIDEO MODE IN MCERTIKOS

Enabling video mode in mCertiKOS, fall 2016.
For implementation details, please see the project documentation.

RENDERING

Accelerated ray tracer, fall 2015.   GPU ray tracer, spring 2016.   Unidirectional path tracer, fall 2016.
Images shown below were produced from the above ray tracing and path tracing projects.
Click image to expand.

DISTRIBUTED GRAPH

Four iterations of a graph store service, fall 2016.
For implementation details, please see the project documentation.

SKETCHES

Assorted sketches and assorted gesture drawings from life.
Click image to expand.

TRADITIONAL PAINTING

Assorted paintings/studies in gouache, acrylic, and oil.
Click image to expand.

RESUME

RESUME

PDF VERSION
WENDY CHEN
PICTURES & CODE

WENDY CHEN

  Contact

Software Engineer & Technical Artist

wenchenme@gmail.com

LinkedIn

vverovvero

wendyyychan

  Skills

Languages

C/C++, Python


Software

USD, Flow, Katana, Houdini, Mari, Maya, Procreate, Photoshop

  Experience

Pixar
Software Engineer
July 2017 - Current

C++/Python development on in-house application Flow which authors USD shading data and sends scene information to the renderer via Hydra. Support shading pipeline and character/sets workflows in Flow, Mari, and Katana. Debugging shading and USD opinion composition across assets and shots.


Pixar
Character Shading Technical Director
September 2022 - June 2023

Character shading on variety of characters for 'Inside Out 2', including recreating Anger and Mom's looks. Shading work done in Houdini, Mari, Flow, Katana.


Blue Sky Studios
Production Engineering Intern
June 2016 - August 2016

Developed features for production tools, including web applications, proprietary tool packages, and Maya plug-in for geometry reduction.


Walt Disney Animation Studios
Art & Production Intern
June 2015 - August 2015

Created short film “Brew” with team. Learned CG production pipeline, Maya and Disney’s proprietary tools.

  Education

Yale University
B.S. Computer Science
August 2013 - May 2017

3.73 GPA. Studies in computer graphics and visual arts.
Teaching Assistant for Andrew Sherman's parallel programming course (Spring 2017) and for Julie Dorsey's computer graphics freshman seminar (Spring 2016).