WELL DONE, GROGU…

A MANDALORIAN FAN FILM

While working at Walt Disney Studios, I pitched and created Well Done, Grogu, a short film designed to explore the possibilities of real-time filmmaking and character creation inside Unreal Engine 5.4. I wrote, directed, and built the project from the ground up, using the production as a sandbox to push cinematic storytelling through game engine technology.

All characters—aside from the Mandalorian—were sculpted and built entirely from scratch, complete with custom rigs, textures, and grooms. This allowed me to establish a fully in-engine cinematic pipeline, from concept through to final render, where every asset was optimized for both performance and visual fidelity. The project became a testing ground for blending feature-level artistry with real-time workflows, bringing a Star Wars-inspired story to life with speed and creative flexibility that traditional pipelines can’t match.

MONSTERS AT WORK  ENVIRONMENT BUILDS AND FLY-THROUGHS

While working as a 3D Asset and Previs Artist on Disney’s Monsters at Work Season 2, I created a series of Unreal Engine environment flythroughs to help visualize key sequences before animation. I also modeled and textured most of the environments and assets featured in these scenes. These real-time previews gave the team an early look at shot composition, pacing, and set design—bringing Monstropolis to life with dynamic camera moves and cinematic storytelling.

KEY ART – TONBO

This key art was created for my feature film, in development, Tonbo, a science fiction samurai epic set in the 8th century. The piece depicts a pivotal moment in the story—a lone ronin, standing on the banks of a quiet river, as he discovers the wreckage of a mysterious starship. The composition blends the grounded textures and atmosphere of feudal Japan with the striking, otherworldly presence of advanced alien technology, capturing the film’s core theme: the collision of two worlds.

STARFIGHTER DESIGN – WELL DONE GROGU

For my Mandalorian fan film Well Done, Grogu, I designed and built these custom starfighters in Unreal Engine 5 using kitbash components from the TechNuevo Greebles Kit. Each ship was assembled with attention to the layered paneling, thruster details, and mechanical elements that give them a worn, utilitarian Star Wars feel. Subtle lighting and engine effects were added to enhance realism and integrate the ships naturally into the film’s visual style.

FEATURED PROJECT

MONSTERS AT WORK “UNDERGROUND DIGGER”

I created this 3D model for Monsters at Work, bringing the “Underground Digger” to life with clean, production-ready topology in Maya and detailed textures painted in Substance Painter. Designed for animation and integration into complex environments, this asset reflects both technical precision and stylistic consistency with the show’s world.

MOANA 2 KAI THE WAVE CHARACTER BUILD UNREAL ENGINE 5.5

I created this wave character for Moana 2 while working as Unreal Engine Technical Director for Walt Disney Studios. Sculpted in ZBrush, then rigged in Blender, the wave was brought to life inside Unreal Engine 5.5, where I handled custom shader development, environment design, and cinematic lighting. The goal was to craft a character made entirely of water — expressive, interactive, and visually rich — using a real-time pipeline that blends artistry with technical performance.

FEATURED PROJECT

GREAT WHITE SHARK SCULPTURE AND TEXTURE

This lifelike great white shark was sculpted in ZBrush, retopologized and rigged in Blender, and textured in Substance Painter for a high-quality, production-ready asset. Designed with clean topology, detailed surfacing, and accurate anatomical features, the model was built for real-time rendering in Unreal Engine 5.
From wireframe to final textured render, this creature showcases my focus on realism, efficient UV layout, and cinematic-ready detail—ideal for both animation and interactive experiences.

FEATURED PROJECT

Johnny’s Lair – Monsters at Work (Season 2)

I recreated Johnny’s Lair entirely from scratch for Monsters at Work – Season 2, modeling and sculpting each element in Maya, ZBrush, and Blender before texturing the full environment in Substance Painter. The set was then brought into Unreal Engine to build previs shots and explore cinematic camera work in real-time. Having the environment fully interactive in-engine allowed for rapid iteration on lighting, composition, and shot design—streamlining the storytelling process during production.From wireframe to final textured render, this creature showcases my focus on realism, efficient UV layout, and cinematic-ready detail—ideal for both animation and interactive experiences.

REAL-TIME CHARACTER BUILDS

INSIDE OUT 2

While working at The Walt Disney Studios, I created real-time versions of the cast of Inside Out 2 in Unreal Engine 5.5. Each character was developed with custom texture-based particle systems, advanced physics simulations, and meticulously tailored grooms. Every groom was uniquely crafted to match the personality and design of the character—from the flow of hair strands to the way they reacted to movement and lighting—ensuring the fidelity stayed true to Pixar’s feature-quality standards.

This work marked a major milestone in real-time production, as these became the first-ever real-time characters approved by Pixar.