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Hey! I'm Steve ^__^

I'm a technically-minded real-time artist most comfortable when blending mathematics, sculpture, and sheer creative effort. 

Seeking Contract Opportunities!
๐Ÿ‘‹ Hey! I'm Steve Z

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hey! I'm Steve Z

 
Steve Zapata Profile Photo

I'm a technically-minded, real-time artist who experiments with rendering, bends vectors, & pushes parameters to make art unique to the videogames medium.

Most at-home when blending mathematics, sculpture, and sheer creative effort. 


Location:
Bellevue, Washington
steve.a.zapata@gmail.com
SteveZapata.com
LinkedIn

 

Proficiencies

 
  • Shaders | Shaderlab/Cg/GLSL, Node Editors for Unity & Unreal

  • 3D Graphics Math | Linear algebra, Trigonometry

  • 3D Modeling & Sculpting | Blender, Zbrush

  • Scripting | C# (4 yrs), C++ & Blueprint (2 yrs)

  • Prototyping & Look Development

  • Graphics Optimization | Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Mobile

  • Unity & Unreal 5

  • Documentation | Prototype learnings,
    Asset use, Asset/art pipeline, etc.

 
 

Experience

  • Sr. Rendering Tech Artist, R&D Central | Riot Games | 3 yrs
    Stylized Rendering & Look-dev support for multiple game-teams and R&D projects.
    Supported Project Lโ€™s Character Shading & Animated Lighting System for the EVO 2023 debut.

  • Tech Artist | Niantic, Inc | 3 yrs
    Pokemon Go & AR Prototyping.

  • Guest 3D & Tech Artist | Aggro Crab Games
    Supported early Look-dev & Vertical-slice development for Another Crabโ€™s Treasure  | Released 2024.
    Made the Final Boss & Arena graphics for Going Under  | Released, 2020.

  • 3D Lead, Tech Artist, Co-Founder | PolyKnight Games, LLC | 5 yrs
    Developed, Ported, & Released: InnerSpace.

  • 3D Character Artist, R&D | Brain Performance Institute, Virtual Reality Lab | 2 yrs
    Interned, then hired as part-time. Employed here while completing my degree.

Achievements

  • 2023 | Presenter at Riotโ€™s annual Creative Town Hall | โ€œShading Pixels instead of Paperโ€

  • 2022 | 14 Game Jams to date

  • 2021 | 1st Place Award & Prize | Game Joltโ€™s Party Jam | Swatchbucklers

  • 2019 | Best UX Award | Global Game Jam x Seattle Indies x Pacific Science Center

  • 2018 | Independently developed first commercial title InnerSpace | Simultaneous release across: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, Linux

  • 2017 | IndieCade Selection | InnerSpace featured

  • 2015 | B.A. in Arts and Technology | The University of Texas at Dallas

  • 2014-18 | Work featured in digital & physical publications | Edge Magazine #278, Eurogamer, IGN, Kotaku, Playstation Blog, PC Gamer, Xbox Wire, Dallas Morning News, more...

  • 2014 | Helped manage a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign | Campaign page

 
 
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Don't forget to check out my EXPERIMENTS page for all kinds of bite-sized shader eye-candy ๐Ÿฐ 

And thank you for checking out my artwork! 

๐Ÿฆ Leviathan

๐Ÿฆ Leviathan