My time at Capcom Vancouver was heavily focused on material and shader development in Unreal Engine, supporting a large-scale AAA production. My title was Material Artist eventually was changed to Senior Technical Artist but filled the role as a General Artist. The role sat at the intersection of art and engineering, collaborating closely with artists, designers, and engineers to prototype, develop, and optimize materials, pipelines, and workflows.
Early on, the focus was on building and refining environment shaders, ranging from straightforward surface materials to more complex, layered systems. These included dynamic moss growth, sand accumulation, wetness, puddles, waterfalls, rain and water interactions, all designed to respond believably to lighting and gameplay conditions. Foliage shaders and storm effects followed, introducing wind-driven motion and weather variation to environments.
A significant portion of the work involved vehicle materials. Car shaders were designed to transition visually over time, from clean and polished to sunburned, dusty, scratched, peeling, and cracked. These systems allowed for flexible visual storytelling while maintaining performance constraints.
Later in production, the focus expanded to character rendering. This included shaders for eyes, hair, skin, and wrinkle maps, as well as post-processing effects that supported gameplay and narrative moments. Since the project was a zombie-focused title, this naturally extended into blood effects, gore shaders, slicing, and dismemberment systems that balanced visual impact with real-time performance.
Throughout the project, performance was a constant consideration. Optimizing geometry, shader complexity, material instructions, and draw calls was critical to maintaining frame rate and stability. Tooling and pipeline improvements were developed alongside production needs, using Python, PyQt, MEL, and Unreal visual scripting to streamline workflows and reduce friction for artists.
Overall, this role strengthened both my technical depth in real-time rendering and my ability to translate artistic goals into scalable, performant systems within Unreal Engine.
From a practical standpoint, this was easily the most convenient commute I had during my time in Vancouver. My mornings were simple and predictable: a short walk to Production Way Station, a quick train ride, and just a few stops later I’d step out in the SOHO district, with Capcom right there. It made day-to-day work noticeably less stressful and set a good rhythm for the team.
Early in development, the project itself felt bold and playful, (a bit crass at times) leaning into the irreverent tone that made the original Dead Rising games stand out. Over time, however, creative direction began to shift. Advisors from Montreal were brought in to broaden the game’s appeal, and the narrative and overall tone gradually white washed it. This led to multiple pivots, and the project drifted away from what originally defined the franchise.
As development continued, tensions reportedly grew around creative direction and alignment with the parent studio in Japan. While much of what followed was discussed informally within the industry, the outcome was clear: the studio eventually shut down, bringing the project to an abrupt end. It was an unfortunate conclusion to what began as a promising and energetic chapter, especially given the talent and effort invested by the team. I don't have content from this experience as the game never shipped and the studio shut down abruptly.