Introduction

Episode 52 is with Angel Muniz, a 3D journalist and technical artist. She talks about her groundbreaking work in XR on a bunch of interesting projects. Also discusses working on NSF grants, building automation tools, thoughts on the future.

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Episode notes

I welcome Angel Muniz, a 3D Generalist and Technical Artist who shares about her transition into the game industry, talking with Bungie, getting her first job, and going back to school. Hear career advice about how the art field is changing, creating automation, learning integration, and getting your first position. Learn about knowing your value, having mentors, passion & curiosity, and advancing your career.

We then discuss hackathons, growing your skills, her VR portfolio, and her love of learning. Hear about emotional intelligence, politics, listening, bodystorming, and how we process information. Discover AI machine learning, building an experience to help with anxiety, XR, wearables, aerospace, and NASA.

Learn about integrating XR into education, roles outside of triple-A, different projects she’s worked on, challenges around hiring, toxic environments, and thoughts on being neurodivergent. Hear about overwhelming job descriptions, changing skills, the metaverse, wantrepreneurs, reading the room, and not being critical when playing games.

Towards the end we talk about networking, connecting with the IGDA, Global Game Jam, the value of GDC, and the game dev community in Houston. Hear about games like Graveyard Keeper, kind words for this podcast, where to connect online, new tech battles, keeping your skills sharp, her mentor’s advice on making progress each day, and info on my YouTube presentation about careers outside of traditional game development.

Bio:

Angel Muniz is originally from Texas, a former NASA JSC - Animation & Graphics Lab 3D Intern, who worked on growing the game industry in Houston —mainly in the XR field. Angel served as a Co-PI for a National Science Foundation Grant & Adjunct Professor for the Dynamic Reality Technology program (AAS in XR) at Coastal Alabama College. With a background in public speaking for high-performance art/PBR & optimization, she was a keynote speaker for the University of Pennsylvania, a guest lecturer at the University of Houston - Computer Science, Microsoft’s HoloAcademy in Redmond, Immersive Tech Conference, IGDA, and more. For over 7 years, Angel has worked as a 3D Generalist and Technical Artist - CGI for Amazon AWS, TenGun, TYM Studio, Practical VR, Ong Innovations, and served as a consultant to many more. She’s been a professional mentor for the game developer community co-creating and participating in boot camps, hackathons, and one-on-one sessions with artists and developers. She is currently building an application in XR and plans to apply for her 2nd NSF grant to fund her research in behavioral health, communication, and technology. Angel is an advocate for neurodiverse individuals in the field as she continues her work in the game industry. She is an avid learner and seeks to build and utilize new tools in automation for game art in the industry.

Show Links:

* Substance Designer website

* SMU Guildhall website

* Digipen website

* NSF Grants website

* Rain on Your Parade Steam

* IGDA website

* Global Game Jam website

* GDC website

* Graveyard Keeper website

* The Survivalists Steam

* Detroit: Become Human Wikipedia