I'm a Vancouver based Taiwanese FX and Lighting artist specialized in Houdini and Solaris.
I have also honed my skills in a range of industry-standard software including Nuke, Maya, and Unreal Engine.
After graduation from Vancouver Film School, I worked with Dgenz Studio creating campaign for brands like Nespresso and Tommy Hilfiger. I have proven to be have a keen eye for detail and the ability to deliver creative solutions under tight deadlines.
My education, combined with my practical experience, has prepared me to tackle complex FX challenges and fit in collaborative pipelines.
Contact: Zhaozhong.Chen@protonmail.com
Work Experience
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I create CG social campaigns for brands such as Nespresso, crepe'EAT, and Tommy Hilfiger.
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I am responsible for the FX simulations including liquid, smoke, rigid body and soft body.
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I am the lighting artist to make sure the FX looks good and match the live-action plate shot on set.
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I make sure I provide necessary and sometimes custom AOVs for compositing with Karma or Redshift.
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I am also the modeling, shading, and animation artist for the props.
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I am responsible for some aspects of compositing such as matte painting and camera tracking in Nuke.
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Attended committee meetings to propose, discuss and advance employees welfare.
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Facilitated open communication among committee members, company boards, and regular employees.
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Collaborated with fellow members manage the year-end-party for all 2000 employees.
I worked as an E&O planner at HP inc. for 3 years. I worked with external and internal clients across Taiwan, China, US, and India all the time. My main responsibility was to make sure ODM's excess amount claim over HP was accurate.
I was serving ice cream and selling cakes here.
My worked on the publishing and marketing of several films in Taiwan including The Road to Mandalay, Early Summer, and An Impossibly Small Object.
Projects
Here's my full FX reel on Vimeo. It contains the compilation of my FX shots and simplified versions of the breakdowns. You can find the detailed breakdowns for individual shots in my project blogs.
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Summon of Mimmzy (Loop simulation, Lighting, Compositing)
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Bubble Pop FX Breakdown (Simulation, Lighting, Compositing)
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Stitch Dancing FX Breakdown (crowd sim, cloud gen, fur grooming and hair vellum sim.)
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Nespresso Campaign (Set Extension Comp, Modeling, smoke and fluid simulation)
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Stormy Ocean FX Breakdown (Ocean Flip sim)
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Burning Car FX Breakdown (Fire & Pop sim)
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Swirl Explosion FX Breakdown (Explosion sim)
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Winter River FX Breakdown (Flip sim and terrain gen)
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Space Portal FX Breakdown (Volume advected Pop sim)
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Set Extension FX Breakdown (Explosion sim with life-action footage integration, match lighting and compositing)
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Kick FX Breakdown (Pop and smoke sim, Houdini to Unreal Niagara pipeline)
And please consider following my Vimeo for more FX stuff.
This is a project I did with my friend Thom. In the shot I tested out how to create looping simulations of fire, clothes, and fur moving through the wind.
The story is about the summon of Mimmzy into the mortal world. The process requires a portrait of Michael Scott.
Breakdown article coming soon.
This shot was created in Houdini 20.0 with particles and flip solvers following a video by Entegma. I was responsible for all aspects for this shot. The shot was lit and rendered with Karma XPU in solaris. Compositing was done in Nuke.
This is a project I did with my animator friend Thom Lu.
He is responsible for the animation. And I'm responsible for fur grooming, cloud generation, crowd FX, environment FX, lighting and compositing.
Breakdown article coming soon.
This is the shot I worked on with Dgenz studio for Nespresso. I was responsible for 3D camera track, 2D plate clean-up, modeling, texturing, lighting, and fluid and smoke simulation. Finishing comp, grading, and sound effects are done by another artist Pablo Saltiveri.
In this shot, the ocean was created with native flip and whitewater tools in Houdini. It was composited in Nuke with a card background. Check out the hi-res version and my other works on my Vimeo.
I was responsible for all aspects except for the flippy model which is a test geometry in Houdini.
In this shot, the fire was simulated with Axiom solver and then used to drive the velocity of the smoke. And the AOVs were denoised in Houdini and composited in Nuke. Check out the hi-res version and my other works on my Vimeo.
I was responsible for all aspects except for the models and the textures.
In this shot, the explosions were simulated with animated timescale in Axiom solver in Houdini. It was composited in Nuke with a card background. Check out the hi-res version and my other works on my Vimeo.
I was responsible for all aspects except for the background photo and the grass and rock models.
In this shot, the liquid simulations are done with native Houdini solvers. And the AOVs were denoised in Houdini and composited in Nuke with some extra elements. Check out the hi-res version and my other works on my Vimeo.
I was responsible for all aspects except for the models of trees and rocks, and the shaders of the snow and the river.
In this shot, the particles were created with built-in POP solver and advection volumes from Axiom solver. And the AOVs were denoised composited in Nuke with some extra elements. Check out the hi-res version and my other works on my Vimeo.
I was responsible for all aspects except for the models and the textures.
In this shot, the footage was 3D tracked in Nuke and then went through Maya and Houdini for geometry modeling and effects simulation. The renders and the extra shadow pass were brought back in Nuke for composing. Check out the hi-res version and my other works on my Vimeo.
I was responsible for all aspects except for the background footage.
In this shot, I modeled a low poly character in Maya; textured it in Substance Painter and then applied a Mixamo animation. I exported the animation alembic to Houdini for effects simulation. I first did some smoke sims and then used it to advect particles. I then sent everything to Unreal Engine to render with a scene I built with mega scan models. Check out the hi-res version and my other works on my Vimeo.
I was responsible for all aspects except for the character animation and the environment.
Side Projects
I played with the new cloud tool inside Houdini 20 and tried to create clouds that look like cartoon characters. Models by my friend MatchOct.
I played around with the fur tool in Houdini and did some test render.
I was creating some funny renders for my own custom t-shirt printing and this was what I came up with. Pikachu textures in Substance Painter and Fur was created with Houdini hair tool. Other assets were from kitbash and sketchfab.
Just turned my shot into a 50s TOEI movie and I really liked it.