GEOMETRIC
TOPOLOGY
Converting complex high-poly AI sculpts into clean, quad-based meshes for distortion-free animation.
Understanding how vertex normals dictate surface shading and shadow casting in real-time engines.
Industry Fact: Pixar characters often exceed 100,000 polygons just for the face to ensure subtle emotional transitions.
PBR
MAPPING
Flat-mapping 3D surfaces with zero stretching to ensure texture pixel density (Texel density) is uniform.
Creating flat color maps that contain zero lighting data to allow dynamic engine shadows to work.
Industry Fact: A 4K texture uses 4x more memory than a 2K texture. Professional artists use “Atlasing” to save GPU power.
SKELETAL
KINEMATICS
Defining which parts of a mesh follow which bones to prevent “pinching” at joints like elbows.
Setting up Inverse Kinematics so that moving a character’s hand automatically positions the arm.
Industry Fact: Modern game rigs can have over 500 bones, with 100+ bones dedicated solely to facial expressions.
PHOTON
DYNAMICS
Mastering how light bounces off surfaces (indirect lighting) to create realistic indoor scenes.
Simulating individual light particles to produce physically accurate reflections and refractions.
Industry Fact: Sub-surface scattering (SSS) is the tech used to simulate light passing through skin or wax.
STUDIO
PIPELINES
Ensuring assets can move seamlessly between Blender, Maya, and Unreal Engine without data loss.
Creating lower-quality versions of models that swap in automatically when the camera is far away.
Industry Fact: The “Pipeline TD” is often the highest-paid technical role, ensuring different software talk to each other.