Seeking opportunities in LookDev; experience as Software Engineer and Technical Artist
Hi, I’m Wendy! I've worked at Pixar for eight years in both roles as a technical artist and software engineer. As an artist, I worked in our Character Shading team, and as an engineer, I've worked on our in-house USD-based shading tools and pipeline. I have artist credits on Inside Out 2. My engineering credits span Hoppers, Elio, Elemental, Lightyear, Turning Red, Luca, Soul, Onward, and Toy Story 4.
I graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Computer Science in 2017, and I previously interned at Walt Disney Animation Studios (Art & Production intern) and at Blue Sky Studios (Production Engineering intern).
Outside of work, I'm passionate about drawing, painting, and all forms of visual storytelling 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!
Fall 2025 Demo Reel
(Please contact me for password)
My projects span the spectrum from coding to painting.
Click on the images for more information.
Assorted digital paintings/studies and concept art for personal story ideas.
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Selected shots, summer 2015.
Password: chendy
Geometry reduction tool, summer 2016.
Deployed for production use, fall 2016.
2D animation, winter 2015.
Focuses on environments, world-building, and atmosphere.
Swimming animation test, winter 2015.
Set in the world from "Where I'll Go".
Virtual Reality horror game, spring 2016.
For implementation details, please see the project documentation.
Enabling video mode in mCertiKOS, fall 2016.
For implementation details, please see the project documentation.
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.
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Four iterations of a graph store service, fall 2016.
For implementation details, please see the project documentation.
Assorted sketches and assorted gesture drawings from life.
Click image to expand.
Assorted paintings/studies in gouache, acrylic, and oil.
Click image to expand.
Click anywhere to close image.
Contact
SkillsC/C++, Python
USD, Flow, Katana, Houdini, Mari, Maya, Procreate, Photoshop
ExperienceC++/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.
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.
Developed features for production tools, including web applications, proprietary tool packages, and Maya plug-in for geometry reduction.
Created short film “Brew” with team. Learned CG production pipeline, Maya and Disney’s proprietary tools.
Education
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).
