Joe Maleski
Verified Expert in Design
Digital Designer
Monterey, CA, United States
Toptal member since August 22, 2024
Joe is an experienced 3D and Unity technical artist with over a decade of experience developing games and AR and VR applications. His diverse skill set, encompassing UX design, 3D art, technical art, and programming, makes him an ideal asset for smaller teams. His passion for creation and professional attitude are clearly reflected in his work.
Portfolio
Metroid Prime Arm Cannon Alternate Design
Line Spaceship
Overwatch Style Study
Steampunk Pistol
Hylian Shield
M25 Hornet
Work Experience
Unity Developer
American Electric Power
- Designed and built the UI/UX of multiple AR and VR applications.
- Developed shaders and implemented the logic for a dynamic weather system used in our VR applications.
- Built 3D props for our applications, such as ladders, toolboxes, fire extinguishers, personal protective equipment (PPE), and multimeters.
- Created animations depicting a line worker losing balance and falling from a ladder, as well as a combine harvester snagging a power line, pulling it down, and triggering an arc flash.
- Built design documents for multiple AR and VR applications.
Adjunct 3D Modeling and Surfacing Instructor
Columbus College of Art and Design
- Taught the creation pipeline for high-quality, optimized 3D assets for real-time applications, covering 3D modeling in Maya and ZBrush, retopology, UV mapping, physically based rendering (PBR) texturing, and material setup in Unreal Engine.
- Instructed on general UV and shader techniques to produce captivating effects optimized for gaming and real-time applications.
- Guided students to master the art of balancing texture size and polygon count, enabling them to craft visually stunning and high-performance assets.
Unity Developer
3D Cloud
- Designed hard surface 3D models for the Lowe’s Holoroom application.
- Created tiling PBR textures in Adobe Substance 3D Designer for use in environment art.
- Designed UI and created animations for the Lowe's Holoroom application.
3D Artist
Battelle Memorial Institute
- Created character models to be used in VR applications.
- Built environments in Unity to be used in our VR applications.
- Wrote C# code for features and UI in our VR applications.
Education
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Animation
Columbus College of Art and Design - Columbus, Ohio, USA
Undergraduate Coursework in Graphic Design
Otterbein University - Westerville, Ohio, USA
Skills
Tools
Autodesk Maya, Adobe CC, Substance Painter, Adobe Creative Suite, Pixologic ZBrush 4R8, Substance Designer, Marmoset Toolbag 3, Adobe Substance 3D, Visual Studio, Git, Blender
Languages
C#
Platforms
Figma
Other
Unity3D, 3D Modeling, Hard Surface Modeling, 3D, 3D Rendering, 3D Visualization, 3D Animation, Unity Shaders, Augmented Reality (AR), 3D Design, Unreal Engine 5, Unreal Engine 4, 2D Animation, 3D Rigging, 3D Textures, Graphic Design, ARKit, ARCore, 3D Art, Unity3D GUI Development
Experience
- Adobe CC - 18 years
- Pixologic ZBrush 4R8 - 12 years
- Unity3D - 12 years
- Autodesk Maya - 12 years
- Substance Painter - 10 years
- 3D Animation - 10 years
- C# - 7 years
- Unity Shaders - 3 years
Tools
- Autodesk Maya
- Adobe CC
- Substance Painter
- Pixologic ZBrush 4R8
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