Rév O'Conner

About Me

I'm Rév, a senior technical artist with a career spanning over a decade. I started off with characters, then moved into shaders and pipeline development.

Optimisation comes naturally after years of working close to VR headsets and their performance budgets. I thrive on building custom solutions to new problems.

Get in touchRequest CV

At a glance

  • AvailabilityAvailable for full time / Contract
  • Rate~ US$ 4000 / month
  • Experience12 years
  • Worked WithAustralia, Isreal, USA, France, Thailand

Experience

Jan 2025 - May 2026Senior Technical Artist
CompanyXreality Group (Red Cartel)
LocationSydney (Remote)
DescriptionCharacters, shaders, FX, mixed reality on Quest 3
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Identified and co-authored a fix for a bug in the zallist “Simple Lit” shader graph implementation for Unity, where opaque shaders rendered as transparent under mixed-reality passthrough.
  • Developed a Unity tool for calculating shader variants through a button-driven UI, eliminating the need to run multiple in-game scenarios manually.
  • Resolved two defects in the Meta SDK mixed-reality pipeline: distant virtual objects failing to render or occlude correctly, and glass being tracked as an opaque surface in environment depth. The fix added a 16-bit channel to the existing _depthMaskRT buffer to act as an occlusion flag activated on glass surfaces.
  • Extended Meta SDK functionality in Unity to support distant virtual objects in augmented reality despite the sensor's depth-data range limitations.
  • Authored a custom invisible-lit shader that writes to Z-depth, enabling both occlusion and relighting for Meta's MRUK within mixed-reality environments.
  • Built a tool that generates primitive colliders from imported 3D assets, reducing manual setup time for the environment team.
  • Implemented a UV-based shapekey system in Blender to convert Character Creator characters into the studio's custom character pipeline.
  • Implemented shader-based particle culling to contain particles within a room without relying on colliders, reducing CPU overhead.
  • Optimised shaders and authored VFX (decals, weapon effects, impacts, bear spray, smoke, and others) in Unity using HLSL and C#.
  • Profiled runtime performance using OVR Metrics Tool and RenderDoc.
  • Produced 3D models with trim-sheet textures, alongside clothing and dynamic props for the environment.
Sep 2022 - Nov 2024Senior Character Technical Artist
CompanyV-Armed
LocationTel Aviv (Remote)
DescriptionCharacter pipeline rebuild, AAA shader authoring, supervision
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Led end-to-end redevelopment of the character pipeline, improving the modular character system and establishing a studio-wide custom rigging workflow.
  • Optimised Unreal Engine performance through the development of consolidated master shaders, reducing instruction count and texture-lookup operations to meet VR performance budgets while raising character visual fidelity to AAA standards.
  • Supervised the international character team at the Bangkok studio.
Jan 2024 - Mar 2024Character Supervisor
CompanyAnimated Storyboards
LocationBangkok (On-site)
DescriptionCharacter Supervisor and Mentor
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Completed a three-month assignment on behalf of V-Armed, training the Bangkok studio's character artists on the master shader and rigging system developed in-house, and facilitating knowledge transfer and pipeline adoption across studios.
Oct 2020 - Jul 2022Senior Technical Character Artist
CompanyVFR
LocationTel Aviv (Remote)
DescriptionLook-dev pipeline, MetaHuman tooling, speech-anim transfer
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Contributed to the character look-development pipeline and produced clothing assets and hair grooms using XGen.
  • Developed custom tooling to adapt proprietary third-party character rigs and convert them for use in game engines, streamlining the character-creation pipeline.
  • Authored a proprietary Python tool for MetaHuman rig transfer within Maya, predating Epic Games' official DNA file editing capabilities.
  • Engineered custom tooling for the seamless transfer of speech-synthesis animations between Maya and Unreal Engine.
Jun 2019 - Jun 2020Lead Character Artist
CompanyImpossibility Labs
LocationCalifornia (Remote)
DescriptionRealistic VR characters for Artheon VR Museum
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Produced realistic characters within the technical constraints of VR for the simulation-based video game Artheon VR Museum.
Jan 2017 - Apr 2019Character Artist
CompanyGlobal Paradise
LocationRemote
DescriptionCreatures and characters for a mobile game
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Created creatures and characters for a mobile video game
Dec 2015 - Jan 20173D Rigger and Animator
CompanyFlamingo Games
LocationParis (Remote)
DescriptionSoft-body-style rigs on a strict joint budget; MaxScript exporter
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Rigged and animated blob-like characters to simulate soft-body behaviour while staying within a strict joint budget.
  • Maintained the studio's in-house 3ds Max exporter tool, authored in MaxScript, to remain compatible with ongoing updates to the proprietary game engine.
Jan 2014 - Jul 20153D Modeler
CompanyMoorepark Museum
LocationRemote
DescriptionMiniature vehicle models, KeyShot rendering
EXPANDEXPAND
  • Produced miniature models of trucks and vehicles and rendered them using KeyShot.

Projects

ERTSSEXR training simulator (Mixed Reality - Unity)
ClientDoD, USA (Operator XR)
RoleSenior Technical Developer for XR
Unannounced pilotAnimated TV series (Unreal Engine)
ClientNetflix (Kurangi Cinematic)
RoleLead Shader Artist
V-Armed Virtual Training SystemXR Training Simulator (PCVR - Unreal Engine)
ClientBelgium PD / Mexico / LAPD / NYPD / DHS / IDF (V-Armed)
RoleSenior Technical Character Artist & Pipeline Supervisor
Cyber EveNFT (V-Ray & Maya)
ClientVFR.ai
RoleTechnical Artist & Look-Development Artist
Artheon VR MuseumSimulator Video game (PCVR - Unreal Engine)
ClientArtheon
RoleLead Character Artist
TGP SurferVideo game (Mobile - Unity)
ClientGlobal Paradise LLC
RoleCharacter Artist

Tools

3D Software
Maya3ds MaxBlender (intermediate)Houdini (beginner)ZBrushMarvelous DesignerWrap 3DMariSubstance DesignerSubstance PainterOrnatrixXGen
Game Engines
Unreal Engine 5Unity 2022 LTSUnity 6
Rendering
V-RayArnold
Programming
PythonC++C# (Unity)HLSLCNasmBash
Scripting
MaxScript (intermediate)AutoHotkeyHTML/CSS
Visual Scripting
Unreal Blueprint
Collaboration & Tooling
PerforceGitJiraMonday.comMicrosoft TeamsSlackDiscordConfluence