Lighting Artist | Look Dev | 3D Generalist
BIO
Personal Profile
My name is Rui Cui, and "Rui" here pronounce as "Ray," so you can call me Ray for short.
As an artist, I have five years of experience in 3D Lighting, Texturing, Modeling, Shading, and Rendering, especially when using Maya. Since I was studying Game Design in my undergrad year, I also have three years of experience in Substance Painter and Unreal engine, which makes me quite familiar with real-time rendering. I have one year of experience in Houdini too, and I made some cool effects with the help of it; it is a powerful tool, hope I can use it in the future. And I am also quite familiar with Nuke compositing, video editing, and photo editing. I think all those knowledge would help me better cooperate with the team in the future.
I hope all my work here can give you a better understanding of me.
Education
2020-Present
The Savannah Collage of Art and Design
MFA in Visual Effects
● Expected in March 2024, GPA: 3.81/4.0
● Scholarship: Academic Honors Grad Sch (2020 – 2023)
SCAD Achievement Grad Sch (2020 – 2023)
2016-2020
Miami University
BA in Interactive Media Studies
● Graduated in May 2020, GPA: 3.42/4.0
● Minor in 2-D Media Studies
● Scholarship: Dean’s List (2017)
Internship & Project Experience
2019
Framestore
Intern
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Create 3D assets based on supervisor's requirement
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Created different kinds of textures and improved rendering results based on customer’s needs
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Utilized the lighting resource of rendering
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Developed an artist mindset and used lighting to affect mood of the overall scene
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Increased understanding of overall workflow of the production
2019-2020
Senior Group Project
Game-Production
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Assumed the major responsibility and finished work of rendering and shading in Unreal Engine
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Made the title sequence of the game
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Made the lighting inside Unreal Engine, and ensured the shadow of the light didn’t interfere with each other
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Made the cinematic trailer for the game
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Cooperate with the modeler and the programmer in the team, and help the programmer build up the scene layout in Unreal Engine.
2023
Harbor Picture x SCAD Collaboration Project
Cologne Commercial
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Create the storyboard for the project.
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Create glass material for the cologne bottle in UE5 using Path Tracer.
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Calculate the real-world scale for the mountain and bottle at scene creation.
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Using Fog to help create the depth at the background mountain.
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Using Sequencer to make the previsualization based on the storyboard.
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Help to fix the broken edge on the bottle and the texture repetition issue on the background mountain.
2023
David Yurman x SCAD Holiday Campaign
"Create Joy"
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Record and arrange the frame range for each shot based on the boardomatic.
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Set dressed the scene based on the reference provided and the instructions.
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Built up the lighting preview for each shot in Maya based on the instructions.
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Created the camera movement based on the boardomatic and the instructions.
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Created and modified materials for all assets in the scene.
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Assisted the Lighting Lead in organizing each shot's render layers and rendering out the result.