Epona Toose

Experience

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  Animal Logic

  May 2006 - Nov 2006

  LIGHTING AND RENDERING

  Managed a team of seven other artists to light, composite and often re-create damaged or lost shots before they went to final edit. Worked closely with the Colour Grader and Director to ensure a consistent look across the film.

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  Ivolve Studios

  Jan 2007 - Jul 2007

  LIGHTING AND RENDERING

  Clients Included: Channel 7, Sydney AirportManaged the client relationship with Channel 7 on “The Code”, translating scripts into design briefs, editing final sequences and delivering content within strict deadlines.

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  PhotonVFX

  Jul 2007 - Mar 2008

  LIGHTING AND RENDERING

  Developed lighting solutions for complex environments, developed and documented lighting workflows and mentored new lighters through the “Animalia” production pipeline.> Translating the Director’s vision into 3D and 2D media assets> Created process workflows for quick completion of 3D and 2D media assets> Liaising between departments to troubleshoot pipeline issues.

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  Calumo Group

  Apr 2008 - Feb 2009

  Business Development Coordinator

  > Building relationships top Australian ASX companies. > Strategic marketing and account entry campaigns targeting C-level executives. > Uncovering prospect needs and determining ideal product fit.> Coordinating Microsoft partner relationship with Sales team> Managing Sales Team activities across QLD, VIC, NSW and ACT. > Managed sales team reporting and partner relationship reporting systems.

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  Academy of Interactive Entertainment

  Jun 2009 - Jan 2013

  Mentoring startup games companies thru product and business development. Sourcing subject matter experts from Law, Accounting, Games and Animation. Drafting subject outlines, coursework and curriculum for accreditation. Writing Assignment Briefs and Trimester/Semester Outlines. Creating eLearning materials and course documentation for teachers. Designing blended curriculum for in-class and online environments. Supervising projects in VR and Game Development. Developing Course Materials for eLearning. Producing Assessments, Outlines and Providing Teacher Direction. Designing and Drafting Courses for Accreditation. Delivering face-to-face and online teaching. Mentoring students through their projects and professional development. Building the relationship between AIE and Local Industry. Teaching 3D Animation in Maya for Unity and Unreal Engine.

  • GAMES STARTUP INCUBATOR COORDINATOR

    Oct 2011 - Jan 2013

  • Lecturer (Animation) and Production Management

    Jun 2009 - Oct 2011
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  2and2

  Jul 2013 - Apr 2017

  Clients Include: ABC, Fair Work Ombudsman> Producing HTML5 games and interactive e-learning web content> Managing day-to-day client relationship and negotiating change requests> Leading the production department in delivering regular iterations for review > Managing conflicts between departments and between developer and client > Sourcing contract artists, delivering briefs and providing creative direction > Mentoring creative staff in an Agile, iterative production environment> Producing storyboards and translating designers vision to overseas artists Show less

  • Educational Game Design (Unity and HTML5)

    Jul 2013 - Apr 2017

  • Senior Producer, “ABC’s Zoom”

    Jul 2013 - Jan 2014
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  AIT, Raffles, Billy Blue

  Jan 2014 - Feb 2015

  Lecturer and Curriculum Designer

  > Managing and directing cross-disciplinary productions and exhibitions> Managing games, animation, app and web projects. > Drafting Project Management subject outlines, coursework and curriculum> Writing Assignment Briefs and Trimester/Semester Weekly Outlines> Creating ELearning materials and course documentation for teachers> Designing blended curriculum for in-class and online environments.

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  SAE Institute

  Feb 2015 - Aug 2016

  Lecturer (Animation) and Production Management

  > Managing and directing cross-disciplinary productions and exhibitions> Supervising games, animation, film, audio, design and web projects> Creating cross-disciplinary production schedules to fit 13 week delivery cycles > Mentoring cross-disciplinary creatives through agile development methodologies > Iterating on methods of supervision to increase product quality and student engagement > Measuring effectiveness of methods within an action research framework Show less

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  LENS Immersive

  Dec 2016 - Sept 2017

  VR Technical Artist (Unreal Engine)

  Design, storyboard and prototype the end user virtual reality experience. Manage a team of artists and designers in a remote international production pipeline to create stunning VR experiences. Onboarding and training of lead designers. Keep the Unreal project running at 90FPS to ensure smooth delivery of graphics and minimize any motion sickness experienced in VR.

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  Robot House

  Sept 2017 - Nov 2017

  Lighting Artist on Rumu

  Design lighting and create materials to achieve an emotional response from the audience based on direction from the game designer and lead writer. Optimize the Unity scene to run smoothly at 60 to 90FPS.

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  Plastic Wax

  Sept 2017 - Jan 2019

  3D Assets TD and Shot Assembly (Contract)

  Craft pipelines to efficiently assemble all moving parts in a rendered or VR scene. Find and prevent any communication or technical breakdowns between artists, programmers and producers. 3D visualization in Max and Maya. Also Unity, Unreal, Vray and Redshift. Titles: Mortal Kombat 11, Civilization Vesuvius, CoD: Black Ops and the SpongeBob SquarePants Interactive VR Experience for Nickelodeon.

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  Somewhere New

  Oct 2017 - Jun 2018

  Technical Art Direction (Unity)

  Develop pixel perfect mockups and pitch documents to secure investment. Design the logic and spawning rules for a 3D procedural city building game, made in Unity, for mobile devices. Craft pipelines to convey design and manage asset teams. Train team in effective practice and encourage identification of and development in their chosen professional specialization.

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  GIRRAPHIC

  Jul 2019 - Mar 2021

  Lead Unreal Designer (Virtual Production)

  UE4 live virtual production and AR graphics delivery for TV Broadcast, virtual and augmented reality. Training new staff in Girraphic production pipelines. Developing documentation, assets and resources to assist production and encourage autonomy. Train team in effective practice and encourage identification of and development in their chosen professional specialization. Keep all projects (VR or AR) running at 90FPS to eliminate lag / delay in frames and ensure a perfect sync between live television feeds and composited 3D graphics. Clients include Formula 1 and Supercars. Show less

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  Strange VFX

  Sept 2020 - now

  Unreal Engine Consultant

  Helping folks integrate Unreal Engine elegantly into new or existing pipelines for animation, visualization and virtual production. Currently working with Digistor and Videocraft, experts in media and entertainment technology solutions.

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  MI Studios

  Oct 2021 - Aug 2022

  Creative Director

  Originally hired to optimize lighting and improve framerate of the game, then made Creative Director halfway through production to fill the need for executive leadership in the art team. Accomplishments:- Improved framerate from less than 20FPS to a healthy 80FPS+ - trained all artists (included concept art and UI) in the use of Unreal Engine to increase problem solving capability in the team- helped integrate artists into the prototyping and QA pipelines to get them directly involved with developing artistic solutions to design problems and be able to communicate issues effectively and appropriately to the programming teams. Show less

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  Two Bulls

  Jul 2022 - Jan 2023

  Technical Artist

  Going through design notes and seeking clarification on client needs to find big interesting R&D questions to explore in Unreal Engine. + Running experiments to identify issues and map out pipeline best practice + Identifying art team needs and developing tooling and technique solutions+ Stress testing design and art team ideas to find performance boundaries and platform requirements

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  University of Technology Sydney

  Feb 2023 - Aug 2023

  Real Time Animation Course Development & Delivery

  Pitched, wrote and developed a 12 week course in Real Time Animation using Unreal Engine. Delivered the first iteration to Bachelor degree students in 2023 and currently working on the second iteration.

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  Academy of Interactive Entertainment

  Apr 2023 - Aug 2023

  Lecturer 3D Animation for Games and VFX

  Teaching all aspects of the 3D production pipeline for both introductory VFX and Games students. Major focus on Maya, Nuke and Unreal Engine

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  Pop Family Entertainment

  Aug 2023 - Feb 2024

  Unreal Compositor

  Compositing traditionally rendered passes via Maya and Katana with backgrounds rendered from Unreal into Nuke