Justin Fischer

Atomic Rig

atomicrig.com · 2026 · solo, deployed

Browser-based modular 3D avatar platform. Users assemble characters on a Mixamo-compatible skeleton and export production-ready GLB and FBX.

• Built and shipped the entire product solo (front end, backend, auth, payments, infrastructure) across 500+ commits in five months.
• Stack: Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Three.js / React Three Fiber, Zustand, Supabase (Postgres + Storage, RLS), Clerk, Stripe, Modal (GPU inference), Upstash Redis, Sentry, Vercel.
• Wrote a binary FBX 7.4 exporter from scratch, covering matrix layout, Euler order, unit scale, and BindPose vs. local hierarchy, because no existing browser-side option produced engine-valid output.
• Architected an event-driven transform system to keep a 3D editor at frame rate, bypassing React's reconciler for high-frequency drag updates; documented as ADRs alongside undo/redo, state, and export decisions.
• Shipped a PBR material editor, animation system with Mixamo FBX loading, and an image-to-3D generation pipeline on GPU inference with Stripe-metered credits.
• Hardened for production: authenticated API routes, row-level security, rate limiting, secret management, Vitest and Playwright coverage.

Stealth Startup

2026 · iOS Gaussian splatting renderer and compression pipeline

Real-time 3D Gaussian splat rendering on iOS, where no existing library could run.

• Built a 3DGS renderer from scratch for React Native. Every existing library (Spark, GaussianSplats3D, PlayCanvas gsplat) hard-requires Worker and WebAssembly, neither of which the Hermes JS engine implements, so the decoder, depth sort, and material were written ground-up.
• Wrote a .spz decoder, moved per-splat dequantization from JS into the shader, replaced a comparator sort with a counting sort, and shifted ZSTD decompression to an offline prep step, taking cold load from ~5s to under 1s at 589K splats.
• Ported the material to three.js TSL on WebGPU (react-native-webgpu / Dawn) with true anisotropic splatting: per-splat 3D covariance built from scale and rotation, projected to a screen-space ellipse driving both billboard sizing and fragment falloff.
• Designed the compression pipeline: WebP-packed quantized attributes (16-bit log-domain positions, smallest-three quaternions, codebook scales and SH0) plus splat decimation: 70MB captures down to ~2.5MB, and 1.5M splats to ~500K.
• Built the surrounding product: Expo/React Native client, FastAPI backend on AWS App Runner, S3 asset streaming with on-device LRU caching, DynamoDB, and custom native modules.

ShadowBox

2026 · solo, in development

Native iOS physics puzzle game. The phone renders as a glass shadowbox with real depth.

• Swift and Metal: off-axis frustum projection driven by CoreMotion at 120Hz to lock perspective to physical device orientation.
• Single-pass frosted-acrylic shaders (Fresnel rim, background mipmap sampling, chromatic dispersion) tuned for tile-based mobile GPUs.
• Procedural volume-preserving mesh deformation, Core Haptics coupling, and velocity-mapped dynamic audio.
• 300+ commits in the first two weeks of development.

Feb 2022 – Mar 2026 · Jan 2021 – Feb 2022

Tech Lead, Technical Art · Technical Artist

Meta, Reality Labs (Avatars) · Remote

Led technical systems for Meta's avatar platform, serving millions of users across VR and mobile.

• Led multiple interdependent technical workstreams through the Style 2.0 platform launch, coordinating cross-functional teams of up to 35 engineers and artists.
• Built Python workflow automation and AI agents integrating LLM APIs to eliminate repetitive production work, an early production deployment of agentic tooling inside a real art pipeline.
• Designed and shipped an automated clothing-fit system using procedural deformation, resolving millions of garment-and-body combinations under quality and performance constraints.
• Architected dependency-graph systems for complex asset relationships and procedural generation at platform scale.
• Designed real-time character customization systems supporting user-generated content, optimized for mobile rendering budgets.
• Authored API specifications and technical documentation for the character asset pipeline; established standards and execution patterns across teams.

Oct 2016 – Jan 2021

Rigging Lead to Asset Supervisor

Baobab Studios · Remote

Character systems and real-time pipelines for Emmy-winning VR productions: Asteroids!, Crow: The Legend, Bonfire, Baba Yaga.

• Delivered film-quality character deformation inside a 90fps VR performance budget.
• Built Python pipeline tooling integrated with Unity, automating asset export and validation.
• Optimized skeletal animation for VR with LOD strategy and GPU skinning to hold frame-rate targets.
• Owned the full character technical stack from Maya through engine across shipped Oculus and Vive titles.

May 2014 – Oct 2016

Rigging Technical Director

Laika · Hillsboro, OR

Character systems and cloth pipeline for Kubo and the Two Strings (Academy Award nominee) and Missing Link.

• Built the studio's cloth simulation pipeline in Maya with Python tooling for distributed server-side jobs.
• Developed the facial system for 3D-printed faces, generating precise deformation data driving a physical manufacturing pipeline.
• Implemented deformation supporting a hybrid stop-motion/CG workflow requiring exact numerical control.

Mar 2008 – May 2014

Character Technical Director

DreamWorks Animation (PDI) · Redwood City, CA

Character systems and pipeline tools across five+ feature releases: Shrek Forever After, Rise of the Guardians, Madagascar 3, Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

• Lead Pipeline TD on Mr. Peabody and Sherman, establishing character workflows and technical standards.
• Built crowd character systems for Madagascar 3 achieving hero-quality deformation at scale on the render farm.
• Developed hair and feather simulation systems and procedural grooming tools for Rise of the Guardians.
• Collaborated with core engineering on architecture and API design for the studio-wide rigging framework.

Sep 2006 – Feb 2008

Rigging Technical Director

Laika · Hillsboro, OR

Established the character pipeline and Python infrastructure for a hybrid stop-motion/CG production workflow.