Ioan Andrei Nistor
Senior Technical Artist
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Profile
Senior Technical Artist with 14+ years of AAA experience, specializing in Unreal Engine and Snowdrop workflows, procedural content, and performance-optimized real-time visuals. Proven track record of developing tools, destruction systems, and gameplay-integrated visual solutions while mentoring teams, establishing best practices, and creating clear documentation to scale production across disciplines.
Core Skills
- Houdini
- Unreal Engine
- Python Scripting
- Node based systems
- Asset Pipeline Management
- Performance Optimization
- Physics Simulation (RBD)
- Real Time Rendering
- Problem solving
Preferred Stack
Houdini
Unreal Engine
Python
Maya
Blender
3ds Max
Snowdrop
Lumberyard
Professional Experience
Technical Artist
Amazon Games
2024 - Current
Unannounced Project
- Contributed to studio growth from 3 to 40 developers, participating in interviews and hiring loops.
- Created skinning, rigging, and VO generation setups using in-house tools.
- Designed and maintained pipeline and editor tools using Python to improve content iteration speed and production stability.
- Developed Unreal Engine scripted action tools and Blueprint-based workflows to streamline content integration.
- Built Chaos-based destruction systems integrated with Houdini simulations to support gameplay-driven visual moments.
- Created Houdini cloth and RBD simulations, preparing optimized assets for Niagara and real-time integration.
- Developed procedural HDAs to accelerate asset prototyping and gameplay experimentation.
- Documented Unreal workflows and mentored team members during engine transition.
Senior Technical Artist
Ubisoft Romania
2023 - 2024
- Mentored and guided the local Technical Art and Art teams on proprietary engine issues and workflows, ensuring technical proficiency.
- Developed and integrated destruction simulations in Houdini into the engine.
- Coordinated and oversaw destruction set-piece deliverables across VFX, Tech, and Art teams, ensuring alignment and milestone completion.
- Served as a key liaison for the implementation of features and tools within the engine, facilitating clear communication and collaboration.
- Maintained project DCC tools to ensure operational efficiency and reliability.
- Identified and fixed performance and visual issues early in production through weekly Art Leads meetings focused on content optimization.
- Provided technical solutions for game design, level design, and art direction, improving project quality and reducing potential work loss.
- Conducted performance profiling and optimization to support game performance and player experience.
- Led development improvements of engine systems, including physics, destruction, cloth simulation, and streaming.
Senior Technical Artist
Massive Entertainment, A Ubisoft Studio
2022 - 2023
- Mentored and guided the local Technical Art and Art teams on proprietary engine issues and workflows, ensuring technical proficiency.
- Developed and integrated destruction simulations in Houdini into the engine.
- Coordinated and oversaw destruction set-piece deliverables across VFX, Tech, and Art teams, ensuring alignment and milestone completion.
- Served as a key liaison for the implementation of features and tools within the engine, facilitating clear communication and collaboration.
- Maintained project DCC tools to ensure operational efficiency and reliability.
- Identified and fixed performance and visual issues early in production through weekly Art Leads meetings focused on content optimization.
- Provided technical solutions for game design, level design, and art direction, improving project quality and reducing potential work loss.
- Conducted performance profiling and optimization to support game performance and player experience.
- Led development improvements of engine systems, including physics, destruction, cloth simulation, and streaming.
Technical Artist
Massive Entertainment, A Ubisoft Studio
2018 - 2022
- Drove new features in collaboration with game designers, programmers, and artists.
- Wrote and maintained documentation on features and best practices.
- Built destruction graph setups and fixed FBX related issues.
- Created cloth simulation presets and setups.
- Performed performance testing using in house engine profiling tools and Microsoft PIX.
- Optimized assets, including graph setup, mesh count, triangle count, texture size, texture usage, and LOD presets and switching.
- Used Python and internal tools to identify and replace expensive assets.
- Assisted with more complex graph setups.
- Debugged streaming issues and set up culling.
- Supported DCC tools and pipeline workflows.
Technical Content Validator
Massive Entertainment, A Ubisoft Studio
2015 - 2018
- Identified and fixed props that were expensive or inefficient, increasing performance and shipped quality.
- Collaborated closely with outsourcing teams and provided feedback on delivered art.
- Assisted in developing a new asset art pipeline.
- Coordinated the role across other studios and helped onboard other Content Validators.
- Provided reports to the Tech Art team.
Titles I Worked On
Unannounced Project
