Chu Tang

Work History

• Health & Wellness Entrepreneur

  LifeWave Brand Partner

  June 2022 - Present

  Remote

  I help golfers/tennis players from mid 40s to 60s who experience a decline in their sports performance due to aging. I help them experience youth renewal to play golf/tennis like they were much younger with powerful swing and precision. The offer is simply by wearing a 100% drug-free, 100% non-transdermal, super convenient, and affordable stem cells activation patch that increases your flexibility, mobility, bone density, and muscle strength. This patch uses light therapy to activate your own stem cells using your own emitted infrared light! Athletes have been using LifeWave patches for 20 years: https://www.vitalitysbest.com/blogs/news/two-decades-of-lifewave-transforming-lives-through-light
• 

  Sr. Graphics Engineer

  Soul Machines

  July 2019 - December 2022

  Develop GLSL shader library and architect customized Deadline/AWS rendering pipeline which supports scale, flexibility, and robustness.
• 

  Certified Cellular Health Assistant Coach

  Cellular Health Coaching

  April 2020 - August 2020

• Render Architect

  MSG Ventures/Obscura Digital

  June 2018 - July 2019

  San Francisco Bay Area

  Responsible for designing the CPU/GPU render platform infrastructure and implementing the next-generation unified rendering system for immersive 360 VR experience. This system encompasses on premise render farm and Deadline/AWS cloud rendering and distributed toolsets to be used both in-house and by the clients. Applications include Mistika VR, Nuke/Nuke Cara VR, Cinema4D, After Effects, Houdini, Octane, Redshift, and Arnold. In addition, responsible for finding solutions of supported components to the render pipeline including render server hardware configuration, scalable NAS storage, and 360 VR stitching application. Develop full stack render pipeline tools (React/Python).
  

• CG Pipeline Supervisor

  Vesalius Creations, Inc.

  November 2017 - June 2018

  San Rafael, CA

  Setup a CG VFX pipeline using in house Google Cloud (Firebase) publishing/installing tools built with npm Node.js. Wrote Maya cloud publishing UI in Python/PyQT/PySide for all departments. Trained a team of 30+ artists onsite and remote (London, Germany, Italy, and NZ) in using cloud publishing/installing tools, documented workflows, color pipeline, standards, and best practices. Applications involved included Maya, Arnold, Ziva, Mari, Nuke, Conductor, Photoshop, Zbrush, and Mudbox. Customized Jira for CG production tracking system in replace of the out of the box system such as Shotgun. Set up artists environment for migrating from Windows to Linux.
• 

  Senior RenderMan Software Developer

  Pixar

  October 2014 - October 2017

  Emeryville, CA

  Developed RIS C++ shader plugins for Linux, Windows, and OSX. Enhanced RenderMan for Houdini/Katana Python/C++ plugins and Scenegraph API. Wrote production friendly user's guides and improved user experience and workflow efficiency. Also wrote RenderMan for Houdini online documentation from the start to completion: https://rmanwiki.pixar.com/display/RfH/RenderMan+for+Houdini. Provided Pixar Studio internal support as well as external onsite customer support. Advocate for the productions in the RenderMan team. Presentations of RenderMan for Houdini at Siggraph Pixar's Art & Science Fair and debut presenter for "How Pixar propelled the evolution of CGI" at NASA's Goddard Flight Center to over 165 attendees including the rocket scientists: https://istcolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/content/spring-2017-colloquium-series-chu-tang
• 

  Senior Shader Writer/Look Development TD

  Bron Studios

  November 2013 - June 2014

  Burnaby, BC

  From the ground up, solely responsible for setting up the company's first time RenderMan for Katana pipeline including surfacing, lighting, and rendering as well as developed physically plausible surface and light shaders and utility co-shaders. This was on Linux. Wrote a NPR shader for the stylized animation look. First version of the shader library was completed within 6 weeks. Setup, documented, and presented the color pipeline from Photoshop/texturing to Avid/editing. Setup, documented, and trained the team in Renderman/Katana in addition to troubleshooting and setting up rendering/baking processes. Additionally, completed look development of the main character.
• 

  Shading Technical Director

  Pixar

  June 2010 - October 2013

  Responsible for all phases of the shading pipeline including creating UV in Maya, texture painting in Photoshop/Paint3d, sculpting in Mudbox, shading using Slim, and writing shaders and Slim templates, commands, and scripts as well as fixing shading related pipeline tools that were written in Python, SL, Tcl, Perl, Shell, and other scripting languages. Also groomed and shaded hairy character using in-house hair system as well as look developed refracted assets such as water. Converted old assets and shaders from previous films that were done in a different pipeline. Worked in a very high dynamic and fast pace environment where the shortest deadline was delivering first look in 2 days from the day of receiving the art concept to completing painting and shading the hero asset with variants. End products are short films that are being broadcasted on TV, Disneyland theme park, as well as theatrically shown preceding Pixar features.
• 

  Look Development TD

  ImageMovers

  March 2009 - June 2010

  Look Development TD on "A Christmas Carol".
  Lead Look Development TD on "Mars Needs Moms".

  

  
• 

  Senior Shader Writer

  Laika

  January 2008 - February 2009

  Developed core RenderMan shaders and library using Houdini OTL for user interface. Enhanced SOHO (Houdini RIB generator) using Python. This was on Linux.
• 

  Shader Writer/Look Development TD

  Wētā FX

  October 2004 - January 2008

  Lead Shader Writer and Look Development TD for all plant assets on "Avatar"; Shader Writer and Look Development TD on "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" and "Eragon"; key shader writer and surfacing TD for the main creatures in "Bridge to Terabithia"; Shader Writer, Look Development TD, and Lighting TD for "Xmen3" and "King Kong".

  

  

  

• Shader Writer/Look Development TD

  Jim Henson Creature Shop - London

  May 2003 - November 2003

  Shader Writer for "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" and "The Water Giant".

  
• 

  Shader Writer/Look Development & Lighting TD

  Wētā FX

  March 2000 - September 2002

  Shader Writer, Look Development TD, and Lighting TD for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

  
• 

  Technical Director

  Dream Quest Images

  May 1998 - February 2000

  Shader Writer and Lighting TD on "Mission to Mars"; "Bicentennial Man" ; and "Mighty Joe Young";. One person team Cloth Animation TD on "Inspector Gadget".

  

  

  

• Senior Software Engineer

  Square USA, Los Angeles

  October 1996 - May 1998

  Designed and implemented a real-time game in C++. Wrote production tools in C++ and Lisp.
• 

  Software Engineer

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  February 1995 - October 1996

  Designed and implemented an application framework, a set of C++ classes and pre-built GUI components. Wrote Composer plugins and macros for "The Ghost and the Darkness".

  
• 

  Senior Systems Analyst

  Sony Pictures Entertainment

  January 1994 - February 1995

  Designed and implemented Residuals application.
• 

  Project Development Manager

  Altium (An IBM Company)

  July 1989 - January 1994

  July 1989 - 1991 - Software Engineer. Developed and maintained CAD application in C.
  July 1991 - 1992 - Technical Project Lead. Led a group of 7 software developers in design and developing add-on application to the main CAD application in C.
  July 1992 - Jan 1994 - Project Development Manager. Led a group of software developers in the next generation object-oriented CAD system using C/C++.