Diego Jiménez - 3D Integration Artist & Game Production Educator

About Me

Professional Summary & Philosophy

I am a 3D Integration Artist, Optimization Specialist, and Game Production Educator with over 12 years of hands-on experience bridging asset creation with technical engine implementation inside Unity and Unreal Engine. My core focus is mobile and real-time performance optimization, draw call management, VRAM profiling, and functional character rigging.

My expertise spans the complete asset lifecycle: functional character and prop rigging (Maya), look development, hypercasual and voxel/blocky asset implementation, and extreme asset optimization for hardware constraints. I translate art to engine while enforcing strict draw call, VRAM, and polygon budgets.

Academic Background

Master's Degree: Video Game Design & Production - UNIAT
Bachelor's Degree: Animation, Digital Art & Multimedia - UNIVA

Certifications

NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute Certified in "Fundamentals of Deep Learning", focusing on matrix calculation foundations. Applied toward creative pre-production, workflow assistance, and streamlining asset pipelines through node-based AI adaptation (ComfyUI).

Core Technical Competencies

Game Engines & Ecosystems: Unity, Unreal Engine, Vuforia (AR), Google Antigravity, Google CLI.
DCC & Texturing: Autodesk Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Autodesk Mudbox, Autodesk 3dsMax, Magica Voxel, Photoshop, Substance Painter.
Pipeline & Tracking Hubs: ShotGrid (Shotgun), Jira, GitHub, Unity Hub.
Workflow Assistance & AI Tools: ComfyUI (Node adaptation), Invoke.AI, Stable Diffusion frameworks, Matrix computation concepts.

Languages

Spanish: Native
English: Fluent
French: Intermediate
Italian: Basic

Let's Discuss Your Next Project

Professional Experience

Senior Game Production & 3D Integration Lecturer

2019 – Present

Tecnológico de Monterrey, UNIVA, & UNIAT (Remote & In-Person)

Designed and delivered comprehensive academic courses covering 3D modeling, functional character rigging, lighting/texturing, engine integration, and game asset optimization across multiple prestige universities (including UNIAT since 2021 and Tec de Monterrey since 2024).
Mentored multiple cohorts of digital animation and game design students, structuring production management methodologies and evaluating milestone capstone projects.

Senior 3D Generalist & Integration Artist

2022 – 2024

Ascended Studio (100% Remote)

Handled the end-to-end art integration pipeline inside Unity, balancing aesthetic quality with performance requirements across diverse production lifecycles.
Executed 3D art optimization and asset deployment for a wide catalog of hypercasual mobile titles tailored for external publishers.
Contributed to look development, high-fidelity asset setup, and engine integration for the high-fidelity horror game project "Death Front" (Steam Demo), balancing visual assets with VRAM streaming constraints.

Senior 3D Artist & Optimization Specialist

2017 – 2022

Aeria Canada (100% Remote)

Managed the 3D asset pipeline and full engine optimization tasks inside Unity Engine for high-volume mobile game environments under strict blocky/voxel styling constraints.
Contributed to the performance profiling and asset budget optimization for the studio's PC deployment, "Block Survival: Legend of the Lost Islands" on Steam.
Optimized characters, items, weapons, and environment elements using Magica Voxel, Maya, and proprietary engine tools to secure stable runtime performance metrics on target devices.
Established art asset production guidelines that streamlined rendering tasks and minimized memory overhead across extensive asset databases.

3D Generalist & AR/VR Artist

2015 – 2017

Oomovil

Executed 3D art pipelines, environment layout setups, and user interface configurations for interactive commercial mobile applications and AR/VR (Augmented & Virtual Reality) advertising activations utilizing Unity and Vuforia.
Maintained full artistic ownership under demanding turnarounds, bridging general technical integration requirements with immediate front-end assets.

Co-Founder & Art Director

2013 – 2015

HYPNIC Studio

Co-founded an independent studio and led the artistic execution for the mobile deployment title "4TheKing," focusing on early high-resolution mobile screens (iPad Retina).
Supervised concept artists and animators, managed internal milestones, and personally executed asset modeling, functional character rigging, and engine integration setups.

3D Environment & Rigging Artist

2011 – 2012

Kaxan Media Group

Contributed as a 3D asset and environment artist for a high-profile 3D animated feature film, following a structured production pipeline using asset tracking networks (ShotGrid / Shotgun).
Integrated secondary character and prop rigging setups in Maya, and transitionally developed environment modules for the intellectual property's companion kart racing title on PlayStation 3 (PS3).