Experience

Senior Technical Artist
Age of Learning | 2020 to Present

  • Implementation of art assets within game technical framework.

  • Solve technical challenges in collaboration with engineering team members.

  • Deliver product features in collaboration with members of cross-disciplinary team.

Technical Art Lead
Institute for Creative Technologies – University of Southern California | 2010 to 2020

  • Initiate and execute updates or additions to the production pipeline

  • Construct concrete plans to turn application ideas into tangible deliveries

  • Coordinate the efforts of a small team of creators

  • Maintain knowledge of all areas of a project to facilitate communication and decision making

  • Design and provide feedback on UX and UI elements

  • Establish direction on art and design related issues, both in house and with sub-contractors

  • Rig and skin characters and vehicles

  • Model both high and low resolution assets of various types

Technical Art Consultant
HIA Technologies | 2017 to 2019

  • Setup and maintain Maya and Unity asset pipeline

  • Coordinate subcontracting work

Technical Artist
Institute for Creative Technologies – University of Southern California | 2004 to 2010

  • Model and texture of detailed character, vehicle and environment assets

  • Create storyboards and concept art

  • Script tools and rigging to facilitate the production process

Generalist
Dragonlight Productions | April to October 2003

  • Model, texture and create shaders for complex characters, objects and environments for cinematic
    purposes

  • Build low resolution models and textures for in game use

  • Fulfill miscellaneous duties including scene set up, lighting and the creation of concept art

Designer
Mattel | October 2002

  • Design and arrange imagery on packaging to fit style and marketing goals

Intern
Dynamix | April 2001 to June 2001

  • Model and texture objects and characters for in game use

  • Photoshop rendering of images for marketing and production purposes

Skills

Augmented Reality, Balsamiq, C#, Git, Maya, Mecanim, MEL, Modeling, MotionBuilder, Photoshop, Production Pipelines, Project Management, PyMEL, Python, React, Rigging, Rive, Scan Processing, Substance Designer & Painter, Subversion, Texturing, Unity, User Interface Design, User Experience Design, Virtual Reality, Wrap

Projects

ABCmouse | Educational software for early learners. | 2023 - present

Adventure Academy | Educational MMO for elementary age children | 2021 - 2023

My Reading Academy & My Math Academy | Educational games for early learners | 2020 - 2021

ReLiving Paleontology | Natural History Museum of LA County augmented reality application. | 2019

DEVP | RAND partnership focused on police training. | 2017 - 2019

VRN | Children’s Hospital of LA partnership focused on patient education | 2017 - 2019

CLOVR | CableLabs partnership exploring future virtual human interfaces. | 2016

RAM Replay | DARPA investigation of neural “replay” in memory formation & recall. | 2016

PAL3 | Personal Assistant for Life Long Learning. | 2014 – 2019

Canvas | Rapid educational movie creation for the Smithsonian. | 2014

STAT | Crisis management trainer for the Santa Anna Unified School District. | 2015

VITA | Interview training for adults with autism. | 2014 - present

Bravemind | Exposure therapy for soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. | 2013 – 2018

SPS | Training of medical professionals with standard patients. | 2014

ELITE | Interpersonal skills trainer for junior officers. | 2012 – 2019

STRIVE | Resilience training for soldiers. | 2013

Virtual Human Toolkit | ICT platform allowing for easy creation of virtual human scenarios.

InterFaces | Interactive agents located at the Museum of Science in Boston.

SSI | Informational agent aimed at Army recruitment.

Flatworld | CAVE like simulation environment. | 2004

Bloodrayne 2 | Game cinematics. | 2003

Mission Impossible 2: Operation Surma | Game cinematics. | 2003

Lords of Everquest | Game cinematics. | 2003

Education

University of Oregon | School of Architecture and Allied Arts

1997 to 2004

  • Bachelor of Fine Arts in Multimedia Design (focus on illustration and 3d modeling/animation)

  • Architecture Minor

Publications

Hartholt, A., Mozgai, S., Reilly, A., Whitcup, W., Liewer, M., Fast, E. (2019) “Ubiquitous Virtual Humans: A Multi-Platform Framework for Embodied AI Agents in XR” IEEE-AIVR 2019

Swartout, B., Nye, B., Hartholt, A., Reilly, A., Graesser, A., Vanlehn, K., Wetzel, J., Liewer, M., Morbini, F., Morgan, B., Wang, L., Benn, G., and Rosenberg, M. (2016) “Designing a Personal Assistant for Life-Long Learning (PAL3)” FLAIRS-29

Rizzo, A., Hartholt, A., Grimani, M., Leeds, A., Liewer, M. (2014) “Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Combat Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” IEEE Computer July

Yeh, S., Newman, B., Liewer, M., Pair, J., Treskunov, A., Parsons, T., Reger, G., Spitalnick, J., Rothbauma, B., Rizzo, A. “Application Development and Clinical Results from a Virtual Iraq System for the Treatment of Iraq War PTSD”

Artstein, R., Debevec, P., Lane, C., Liewer, M., Morie, J., Narayanan, S., Noren, D., Piepol, D., Swartout, B., Traum, D., Williams, J. (2010) “Ada and Grace: Toward Realistic and Engaging Virtual Museum Guides” 10th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents - IVA 2010

Recommendations

Available upon request