CV
About Jess
I've been a contributor and lead across many disciplines from graphic design to UI/UX to motion and video, to now, game design and implementation.
My ideal place is alongside a small, excited team with something unique to say, where I can help ferry a project forward using any or all of the tools in my toolbox.
I believe in getting my hands dirty, the rule of cool, the value of specificity, and listening to what the project and team needs to become the best version of itself.
Proficiencies
Art & Design Software
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Adobe Illustrator
- Figma
- Blender
- Cinema4D
Game Dev Software
- Unreal Engine 5
- Proprietary narrative software
- Perforce & P4V
- Playfab
Info/Organization Software
- Miro
- Jira
- Confluence
- Microsoft Suite
Miscellaneous
- Street Fighter 6
- Coffee-based beverages
WORK EXPERIENCE
2024–Now
Sr. Designer (Game Presentation) — Wu–Tang: Rise of the Deceiver
My role was to reinforce the player experience and uplift the game presentation. This included implementing key game moments and presenting features in our game in player-engaging ways. My main responsibilities were cinematics, quest design, and leading the character customization team. I contributed to this project from playable prototype to vertical slice to pre-production. We used Unreal Engine 5.
Expand the tabs for details
Cameras & Technical Cinematics Design
I created opportunities for impactful game moments and cinematics across single-player and multiplayer contexts.
- Prototyped and implemented in-game cinematics, real-time scripted events, and transitions using Level Sequencer
- Established cinematic dialogue direction
- Prototyped a camera system reactive to character height and location before hand-off to engineers and tech animators
- Composed, lit, and staged cinematic dialogue to reinforce story and gameplay needs
- Implemented UI-reactive cameras within menus via blueprints
- Implemented asynchronous cinematics for client-side and server-side through blueprints and Gameplay Abilities
- Created post-processing materials
- Collaborated with tech animators, animation, and engineers
Quests & Narrative Design
I worked with our Narrative team to turn their ideas into playable quests in-engine. As the sole designer supporting the narrative team, I worked with production to manage cross-department and cross-director communication and ensure we were scope-conscious and aligned to the game vision.
- Designed questlines, objectives, overarching game narrative progression and narrative progression features
- Prototyped quest ideas and implemented quests using Blueprints and integrated proprietary narrative tools
- Created and implemented branching dialogue, quest files, greyboxing environments, NPCs, level instances, re-usable blueprints
- Defined design needs with engineers and tech artists to develop narrative tools and features
- Scoped and collaborated with art, animation, and audio
- Established review pipeline, within the narrative team and through surveys in the larger team
Character Customization & NPC Creation (Team Lead)
I led our small character customization team from pitch to production-ready. We developed dev-facing NPC creation and a player-facing game feature, leveraging Mutable, Playfab, and outsourcing partners.
- Established feature direction and player experience
- Defined design needs with Engineering to integrate Mutable into UE5 with custom features
- Guided feature pivots to meet changing game goals
- With Art Director, established scope and style perspective via asset catalogue
- With Character Art, set technical guidelines (seam placement, interaction logic between assets, asset organization and naming conventions)
- Established and reinforced asset styling and direction to be cohesive to our art direction
- With Tech Art, oversaw development of ancillary features including shaders, secondary motion (hair physics), and authoring methods for unique customization options
- With Production, developed asset tracking, pipeline flows, and assembled outsourcing packages
- Asset implementation through Mutable, Data Assets, and Playfab
- Assembled a board of cultural consultants for iteration of culturally-sensitive assets
Additional Responsibilities
Although my basic responsibilities were Cinematics, Quests, and Customization, I assisted our small team wherever we needed support.
- Implemented Gameplay Abilities
- Early lookdev for anime-style shaders
- Character look & direction
- Environment lighting
- Team vision alignment exercises
- Feature design (progression, battle pass, player journey)
- Teaser trailer editing, creating cinematics, and footage capture
2021–2024
Sr. UI Artist — Wu–Tang: Rise of the Deceiver
I established our early UI art direction and aesthetic approach. My work during this time revolved around concepting and tone-setting with light implementation.
- UI art direction, creating art bibles, defining scope approach
- Concepting full-screen UI (shops, dialogue, menus) and modular pieces (9-slices, button states, HUD, modals)
- Creating animated and still UI mock-ups using motion (After Effects), 3D (Blender), and 2D (Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator)
- Implementation of sub-levels, cameras, and blueprints for diegetic in-world menus
- UI implementation with UMG and CommonUI using blueprints, material parameters, materials, and UI shaders
- Interactive prototyping in Figma
- Exploring accessibility features through mock-up variations (high contrast modes, big text modes)
- With UX designer, created organizational maps for player experience, information architecture, game flow, etc.
2019–2021
Freelance Design & Motion
Spin Master (Toy Company)
I designed digital design work, motion graphics, video content, and animated a large-scale interactive display for Spin Master, for toy brands including Paw Patrol, Hatchimals, and Bakugan.
SoleSavy (Sneakerhead Community)
SoleSavy is a digital organization about sneakers for sneakerheads, providing the community with apps, resources, and editorial news. I worked with the marketing team in creating social media templates, motion graphics for video series, marketing material, and exclusive members-only course content on anti-botting sneaker collecting tactics.
2020–2021
Jam3X(now .monks)
Jr. Motion & 3D Designer
I animated UI for apps and web, created motion-heavy video content, and created 3D assets. Asides from aesthetic appeal, motion was used to sequence information in a digestible manner and transition users between information spaces.
- Animating full web and app experiences in After Effects
- Dev hand-off in a variety of means including style guides and libraries with animation specs and Lottie implementation
- Rapid prototyping using 3D and 2D animation
- Collaborating with designers to leverage motion design into early designs
- Marketing material including video capture, 3D environments for mock-ups, etc.
- Developing assets for WebGL websites, apps, mobile games, and AR
- Notable Clients: Oculus, Prime Video, Estée lauder
- Accolades: Webbys nomination(3), winner(1), honouree(1), FWA winner(1), Awwwards winner(1)
2018–2019
UI/UX Designer, Motion Designer
I created appealing UI and user-driven UX solutions for a variety of clients. I participated in the full process including pitching, planning, and execution. We built marketing sites, complex dashboards, and apps. As a Motion Designer, I animated UI interfaces and created video content for clients and marketing.
- Designed UI in Figma for products including dashboards, apps, and marketing sites
- Upheld accessibility standards across projects
- Created content for client pitch decks
- Created packages for dev hand-off (developer-friendly Figma files, motion design guidelines, etc.)
- Facilitated the full UX workflow: design-thinking workshops, user journeys, research analysis, information architecture, wireframes, prototyping (Axure & Figma), and user testing,
- Led a small team to produce, write, and edit 300+ educational videos for online courses on tech & design
- Notable Clients: LoyaltyOne, BrainStation, Moneris
EDUMACATION
2014–2018
OCAD University
Bachelor of Design — Graphic Design
2012–2014
York University
Incomplete Bachelor of Fine Arts — Film Production
OPEN FOR CONTRACT*
* If you're a small team that's got something fun or important to say
© Jess Tat 20XX
