Francis Liu

Work History

• 

  Senior Product Manager

  NVIDIA

  October 2019 - Present

  California
• 

  Head of Lighting

  Wētā FX

  April 2017 - October 2019

  New Zealand
• 

  Head of Lighting

  Wētā FX

  February 2017 - February 2019

  Wellington, New Zealand

  

  
• 

  Senior Product Manager

  Tableau Software

  October 2015 - April 2017

  Palo Alto, CA
• 

  Senior Program Manager

  Tableau Software

  June 2015 - October 2015
• 

  Senior Rendering Engineer, Product Owner and Design Lead

  DreamWorks Animation

  April 2014 - May 2015

  Redwood City

  · Gathered and expressed requirements from user base and translated into features and roadmap for Cloud based production and product renderer.
  · Conducted opposition research for competitive analysis and established new performance targets.
  · Organized and focused engineering development for scheduled releases.
  · Supported practitioners in use of complex graphical application for product design.
  · Implemented solutions within established framework to optimize user workflows and outcomes.
  · Defined training, deployment, and transition strategies for Productions.
• 

  Raytracing Product Lead

  DreamWorks Animation

  October 2009 - April 2015

  San Francisco, CA

  Responsible for defining workflows, design requirements, and performance targets for raytracing across Studio businesses.

  

  

  

  

  

  
• 

  Senior Rendering Engineer, Production Strategy Group

  DreamWorks Animation

  July 2012 - April 2014

  Los Angeles and Redwood City, CA

  · Participated in the analysis, augmentation and standardization of Lighting and Rendering workflows.
  · Researched and prototyped new Raytracing and Lighting solutions for Oriental Dreamworks, Shanghai China.
  · Cooperated with Productions to implement data and meta-data exchange pipeline between departments.
• 

  Lighting Supervisor, Tron 2

  Digital Domain

  October 2008 - August 2009

  Venice, CA

  · Supervised Look Development, Texturing and Shading teams to create digital sets and vehicles.
  · Interfaced with Disney's Art Department to define all vehicle requirements.
  · Supported Producers and Visual Effects Supervisors to formulate budgets and production plans.
• 

  CG Supervisor

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  January 2006 - October 2008

  · Supervised Look Development, Texturing and Shading teams to create digital content for several films.
  · Served as Senior Pipeline member to help steer tools and workflow development.
• 

  Sequence Lead, Look Development Lead, Shader Writing Lead, Technical D

  Sony Pictures Imageworks

  October 2000 - December 2005

  · Established lighting techniques and constructed master lighting rigs for use in sequences.
  · Developed and maintained show standards for Lighting teams.
  · Mentored junior and mid-level Lighting artists.
  · Triaged and troubleshot lighting and rendering problems.
  · Created and supported material asset definitions for various characters, creatures, props, vehicles, and environments.
  · Helped formulate overall rendering strategy.
  · Wrote and conducted training courses on digital asset creation.
  · Developed Renderman materials and light shaders.
  · Helped establish shading strategies.
  · Researched new lighting and rendering techniques.
• 

  Instructor

  The Gnomon Workshop

  1999 - 2001

  Hollywood, CA

  · Developed and taught the 3D Lighting course.
• 

  Technical Director

  Disney's Secret Lab

  January 2000 - September 2000

  Burbank, CA

  · Developed Renderman shaders for use in production.

• Technical Director

  Dream Quest

  September 1998 - January 2000

  Simi Valley, CA

  · Migrated Dream Quest from Power Animator to Renderman.
  · Developed Renderman shaders for use in production.
  · Evaluated software, including Yeti, Jig, and Renderman.

• Programmer / Technical Director

  Pixel Envy

  1996 - 1998

  Pacific Palisades, CA

  · Developed compositing plugins for Amazon Paint and Piranha.
  · Developed render farm and shot management tools.
  · Performed various Digital Artist duties: lighting, compositing, texture painting, animation, scene setup, and tracking.
  · Performed on-set survey.
• 

  Intern

  Silicon Graphics

  1995 - 1995

  Chicago, IL

  · Film and Video Technician. Onyx and Challenge Support.