About / Danci Shen

I make real-time worlds feel alive, across film, immersive experiences, and interactive installations.

A creative technologist working where code meets craft: shaders, procedural systems, and AI tools that help the whole team move faster. I'm happiest when a problem is half creative, half technical.

Palo Alto, CA Available for collaboration

(01) / Expertise

What I do.

Unreal Engine, Niagara, Substrate. HLSL / GLSL / MSL shaders and materials, real-time lighting and look development with Lumen. Mobile shader optimization for iOS AR.

LED volume and ICVFX pipelines, nDisplay, Composure, RenderStream, Disguise. On-set color grading, dynamic lighting, and live troubleshooting for broadcast delivery.

Houdini VEX, PCG, HDAs and VAT. Procedural systems plus tooling and automation: a custom Blender addon, Unity editor scripts, and Python for Maya, Blender, Houdini, and Unreal. Perforce, GitHub.

3D Gaussian Splatting, OpenUSD PointInstancer, AI-assisted asset generation with ComfyUI and diffusion, MediaPipe tracking. Currently researching real-time across physical AI, robotics, and film.

(02) / Education

Education.

2024 – 2026 Savannah College of Art and DesignMA, Interactive Design & Game Development Savannah, USA

(03) / Experience

Where I've worked.

2025 – Now Aako SpatialTechnical Artist (AR). Custom shaders and procedural VFX in Reality Composer Pro and Unity; mobile-optimized AR content on iOS. Remote / San Diego

2022 – 2024 FieldFusion TechnologyTechnical Artist (AR). Real-time AR for live entertainment and installations; integrated Gaussian Splatting, cloth simulation, and AI tooling into production pipelines. Hangzhou, China

(04) / Selected Projects

What I've built.

Mar – May 2026 SplatGarden | WebGL 3DGSTechnical Director, browser-based Gaussian Splatting viewer in Three.js Real-time

Mar – May 2026 The Memory ClocksmithLighting TD, Maya-to-Unreal workflow with Lumen (SANM EoY 2026) Animated Film

Jan – Mar 2026 Gentle MonsterTech Lead, Unreal virtual production (SCAD x Harbor Pictures x ETC) XR Film

Jan – Mar 2026 AI Voxel StudioTechnical Pipeline Lead, 3DGS to Unreal (2nd Place, NVIDIA AI Summit) Tool Dev

Jan – Mar 2026 ManitaireTech Art, Unity VFX Graph for immersive UI (GDC 2026) VR

Oct – Dec 2025 Lotos StationTech Lead, Unreal virtual production (SCAD Day) XR Film

Oct – Dec 2025 Kohler LEDTech Art Lead, LED volume workflows (SCADPro) XR Film

Jun – Aug 2025 Mayo ClinicTechnical Artist, real-time shaders and VFX for VR (SCADPro) VR

Jun – Sep 2024 HUGTechnical Director, Houdini-to-Unreal real-time rendering (Dubai Design Week) Digital Art

(05) / Recognition

Awards & shows.

Awards

NVIDIA AI Summit2nd Place2026

Meta Morph AwardShortlisted2024

London Chinese Art ExchangeSilver Award2023

Golden Crown Intl DesignGold Award2021

H.C. Andersen Art AwardsBronze Medal2021

Hiiibrand Intl Brand DesignMerit Award2021

Singapore Art DesignSilver Award2021

Hong Kong Contemporary DesignBronze Medal2021

Exhibitions

GDCManitaire VR2026

SCAD DayLotos Station2025

Dubai Design WeekHUG2024

ChinaJoyRecur2024

London Chinese Art ExchangeGroup exhibition2024

Let's build something alive.

Currently researching real-time across physical AI, robotics, and film. Always open to collaborations that live between code and craft. Selected work lives on the Works page.

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