VFX-ARTIST

На данный момент VFX-ARTIST.

Мои компетенции и опыт

**Melnikov Ivan Vasilievich**

Male, 48 years old, born on May 6, 1978

📞 нужен доступ к резюме | ✉️ нужен доступ к резюме — *preferred means of communication*

📍 Reside in: Saint Petersburg | Citizenship: Russia | Work permit: Russia

💼 Available for remote work, ready for rare business trips

**Desired Position and Salary**

**Lead VFX Artist / Art Lead**

*Specializations:* Designer, Artist

*Employment type:* Full-time, part-time, project work / one-time assignment

*Work format:* Remote

*Desired travel time to work:* Any

### **Work Experience — 17 years**

**June 2022 — May нужен доступ к резюме years)**

**GameplayGalaxy** (USA, нужен доступ к резюме )

*Industries: IT, System Integration, Internet (Internet Companies, Software Development, Media, Marketing, Advertising, PR, Design, Production, Publishing)*

**Lead VFX Artist / Art Lead**

* **Leadership & Art Direction (first few months):** Formed an art team from scratch: hired 3 artists, established onboarding and mentoring processes. Developed a Visual Styleguide for the game prototype — a unified visual language that the team followed for the next 6 months. Established a review pipeline: weekly feedback sessions and task tracking in JIRA, which significantly reduced asset iteration time.

* **VFX & Shaders:** Created a library of custom shaders and real-time effects for trick mechanics from scratch (fire, smoke, sparks, tire tracks, destruction). Implemented multi-component VFX prefabs in Shuriken Particle System: sprites + animated meshes + particles + pre-render.

* **Tech Art & Animation:** Created rigs and skinning for characters and props, set up technical animation for motorcycle tricks. Integrated assets into the engine, configured materials and lighting systems. Optimized particle systems and shaders, reducing GPU load without losing visual quality.

**March 2019 — June нужен доступ к резюме years 4 months)**

**deemedya ltd** ( нужен доступ к резюме )

**Lead VFX Artist / Art Lead**

* **Leadership (last 6 months):** Headed the art direction: hired 2 animators, established the production pipeline and review system. Created technical specifications (TZ) for the internal team and external outsourcers, controlled deadlines and asset delivery quality. Wrote technical documentation for VFX and animation pipelines.

* **VFX & Shaders:** Created a complete set of real-time effects for combat mechanics of projects (hits, impacts, character abilities) in Unity Shuriken. Developed a library of node-based shaders for character and environment materials.

* **Full-cycle 3D Production:** Modeling, texturing, and skinning of characters and props. Character and prop animation (Autodesk Maya / Blender). Worked with outsourcers: asset acceptance, technical validation, and integration into the project.

* *Projects:*

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**April 2018 — February нужен доступ к резюме months)**

**Nival Network** (Saint Petersburg, нужен доступ к резюме )

*Industries: IT, System Integration, Internet*

**Technical Artist**

* Integration and configuration of assets, writing technical documentation, creating rigs and skinning for characters and props, modeling and texturing, animation of vehicles and props, creation of real-time effects and shaders.

* Participated to varying degrees in the work on several company projects:

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**July 2016 — January нужен доступ к резюме year 7 months)**

**Sphere Production LLC** (ООО Сфера Продакшен) (Saint Petersburg, нужен доступ к резюме )

**Senior VFX Artist**

* Creation of real-time effects in Unity3D, working with particles, modeling, texturing, skinning, character animation, shader development, and prop creation. UI animation.

* *Portfolio:* нужен доступ к резюме

**July 2015 — July нужен доступ к резюме year 1 month)**

**armor5games** (Saint Petersburg)

**VFX Artist**

* Creation of real-time effects in Unity3D, working with particles, modeling, texturing, skinning, character animation, shader development, character concepts, and prop creation.

* *Portfolio:* нужен доступ к резюме

**January 2007 — March нужен доступ к резюме years 3 months)**

**PTK Production Television Company** (Moscow, нужен доступ к резюме )

*Industries: Media, Marketing, Advertising, PR, Design, Production, Television and Radio Broadcasting*

**Screen Graphics Artist, Compositor**

* 3D-2D animation for TV and multimedia. Broadcast design, program intros, interstitials, promos, in-program graphics and animation, advertising films and commercials, operational graphics, infographics, background and character rendering, storyboard creation, character and environment concepts.

### **Education**

**1997** — Higher Education

TOO PNKhP "Finist" — Lacquer Miniature Artist

### **Professional Development & Courses**

* **2018:** Fundamentals of Character Rigging ( нужен доступ к резюме , Rigger)

* **2017:** Fundamentals of 3D Animation ( нужен доступ к резюме , 3D Animator)

### **Skills**

* **Languages:** Russian — Native | English — A2 (Elementary)

* **Core Competencies:** 3D Modeling, Drawing, VFX / Special Effects, Graphic Design, 3D Graphics, Animation, Team Management, Anatomy, Game Development.

* **Software & Tools:** Blender 3D, Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Spine 2D, Unity, Unreal Engine, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Houdini.

**Driving Experience:** Driver's license category A

### **Further Information / About Me**

**Lead VFX Artist / Art Lead** with 17 years of experience in GameDev and TV. Expert in creating optimized real-time effects (Unity/Unreal) and configuring shaders. I have successful experience in team management (Art Lead), building production pipelines, and training neural networks (ComfyUI, LoRA). I focus on the balance between visual quality and performance on mobile and PC platforms.

* **VFX & Real-Time Effects:** Creation of complex multi-component effects (sprites + particles + animated meshes + pre-render). Deep expertise with Shuriken Particle System (Unity) and Niagara (Unreal Engine). Optimization of VFX prefabs for mobile and PC platforms, LOD system configuration. Development of animated texture sheets (sprite sheets), flipbook animations, and mesh-based effects. Creation of VFX libraries and reusable prefabs to accelerate production.

* **Shaders & Technical Art:** Visual shader programming in node-based editors (Shader Graph in Unity, Material Editor in Unreal). Configuration of PBR materials and custom effects (distortion, dissolve, fresnel, rim lighting). Integration of assets into the engine, configuration of render pipelines (URP / Built-in). Basic understanding of Houdini for procedural content generation.

* **Full-Cycle 3D & Animation:** Complete 3D production cycle: concept → modeling → UV → texturing → rigging → skinning → animation. Character and prop animation, technical animation for gameplay. Creation of rigs (including for trick mechanics) and skinning configuration.

* **Generative AI & Neural Networks:** Expert application of ComfyUI for integrating AI into the workflow pipeline. Static and video generation: Stable Diffusion (Qwen Image, Flux AI), Wan2.1, LTX, KlingAI, Runway, Veo. Training custom LoRA models for project stylistics. Working with ControlNet for controlled generation (poses, composition, depth maps). Using AI to accelerate the creation of concepts, textures, and sprite sheets.

* **Leadership & Production:** Formation and mentoring of art teams (hiring, onboarding, feedback cycles). Building VFX and animation production pipelines from scratch. Writing technical documentation and Visual Styleguides. Working with outsourcing: creating technical specifications, asset acceptance, deadline and quality control. Task tracking in JIRA, working with version control systems (Git, Perforce).

* **Motion Design & Broadcast Graphics:** 7+ years of experience in TV graphics and multimedia. Broadcast design: intros, promos, infographics, advertising commercials. Compositing and post-production in Adobe After Effects, video editing.

### **Technical Skills Summary**

* **Game Engines:** Unity 3D, Unreal Engine

* **3D/2D:** Blender, Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Spine 2D, Houdini

* **VFX/Compositing:** Adobe After Effects, Photoshop

* **AI:** ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion, ControlNet, Runway, KlingAI

* **Production:** JIRA, Git, Perforce, Notion, Confluence

* **Languages:** English (Basic, technical proficiency for working with software/documentation).

### **Portfolio**

* **LinkedIn:** нужен доступ к резюме

* **Work Examples (YouTube):**

* Effects and animation: нужен доступ к резюме

* Effects OLD: нужен доступ к резюме

* Animation and rigging: нужен доступ к резюме