Cathal McNally [Technical 3D Artist, Software Engineer, Generalist, Leprechaun]
A little about me:
I am an Irish born and bred Games developer who recently moved to South Africa from Germany where i was working for Audi the last 3 years and am now seeking a better quality of life and fresh career opportunities and horizons. At the moment I am situated in George but am probably going to move to Cape town in search of employment.
Availability:
Currently Available for Fulltime, Partime, Freelance or Contract work within my skillset.
Professional Profile:
Experienced Technical 3D Artist and programmer with the ability to quickly pick up and use new coding languages, tools and software applications.
Dedicated team member with a passion for games development and the ever growing games industry. Patient and creative problem-solver with exceptional organisation and communication skills.
Committed to excellence and performing above and beyond the call of duty.
Key Skills:
• Expertise in Object Oriented programming including:
- C/C++(DirectX, OpenGL, Half-Life SDK),
- C#(Winforms, XNA, Kinect, WP7 & WPF),
- Java(J2SE, J2ME),
- Flash (ActionScript 2 & 3),
- Visual Basic & VBS,
- JavaScript for Photoshop,
- SQL (MySQL & Oracle).
• Experience using Html, CSS and PHP in the creation of websites. Experienced using Wordpress and Joomla. I develop and maintain the website www.sourcemodding.com providing free tutorials on the subject of games development through modding Half-Life to the masses.
• Hands on experience modifying and writing custom code for the Source Engine, CryEngine 3, Unreal Engine 4 and Unity
• Good working knowledge of design and development of applications using Object Oriented Analysis and Design with UML 2.0. Deep understanding of the Software development life cycle and how to maintain it.
• Expertise in content creation systems such as 3d modelling packages 3DStudioMAX, Softimage XSI, Maya, ZBrush, Blender and Sketchup.
• Experience manipulating and creating graphics with Photoshop, Quixel Suite and Algorithmic Substance Tools.
• Experienced in creating both high and low poly models that have carefully unwrapped UV maps and clean geometry focused on complimenting the Physically Based Shading model.
• Highly motivated, excellent communication skills and experienced at working as part of a team.
Projects:
• 3D Modelling
- BMW M3 High Poly realistic rendering attempt.
- Massey Ferguson TE20 My love for tractors seeps through in this detailed TE20
- 1967 Chevrolet Impala Part of an art test for a local games company, The Triangle limit was 4K.
- Baby T-Rex Dino Another Art test with a triangle limit of 4k once again.
• Programming
- Heart Surgery demo (XNA, Kinect): Practical segment of my dissertation in my games development degree where I created a basic heart surgery simulation which interfaced with the kinect and was rendered through XNA.
- The Archiver: Browser tool for archiving pages through a right click. Available for FireFox and Chrome.
Experience:
3 Years employment with e.solutions GmbH in Germany as a 3D Technical Artist Specializing in Real-time asset creation, programming and testing for the Volkswagen group including Audi, Porsche and Bentley.
The new Audi TT is the first car to showcase the system I had a part in creating, more can be read
about it here. The Audi R8, Q7 and A4 information clusters are the latest software systems I worked on.
• My roles included:
- The creation and realization of graphics for use on an OpenGL based embedded system,
- Creation of 3D meshes with multiple UV sets and morph modifiers through Maya,
- Shader creation to manipulate 3D mesh attributes in real-time based on feedback given by the underlying system,
- Use of clever optimization techniques to save memory bandwidth and load times on a realtime graphics system,
- Animation using in house tools and AfterEffects,
- Debugging and profiling with a view towards optimization,
- Object Oriented Programming/Scripting [C#, Javascript, Lua] in the creation of tools for the development pipeline,
- Meeting very strict and tight deadlines,
- Working as part of a team taking and giving input when applicable.
Education:
Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Programming with Computer Games Development from Letterkenny Institute of Technology Ireland.
Irish Leaving Certificate (Honours) equivalent of High school.
I am an Irish born and bred Games developer who recently moved to South Africa from Germany where i was working for Audi the last 3 years and am now seeking a better quality of life and fresh career opportunities and horizons. At the moment I am situated in George but am probably going to move to Cape town in search of employment.
Availability:
Currently Available for Fulltime, Partime, Freelance or Contract work within my skillset.
Professional Profile:
Experienced Technical 3D Artist and programmer with the ability to quickly pick up and use new coding languages, tools and software applications.
Dedicated team member with a passion for games development and the ever growing games industry. Patient and creative problem-solver with exceptional organisation and communication skills.
Committed to excellence and performing above and beyond the call of duty.
Key Skills:
• Expertise in Object Oriented programming including:
- C/C++(DirectX, OpenGL, Half-Life SDK),
- C#(Winforms, XNA, Kinect, WP7 & WPF),
- Java(J2SE, J2ME),
- Flash (ActionScript 2 & 3),
- Visual Basic & VBS,
- JavaScript for Photoshop,
- SQL (MySQL & Oracle).
• Experience using Html, CSS and PHP in the creation of websites. Experienced using Wordpress and Joomla. I develop and maintain the website www.sourcemodding.com providing free tutorials on the subject of games development through modding Half-Life to the masses.
• Hands on experience modifying and writing custom code for the Source Engine, CryEngine 3, Unreal Engine 4 and Unity
• Good working knowledge of design and development of applications using Object Oriented Analysis and Design with UML 2.0. Deep understanding of the Software development life cycle and how to maintain it.
• Expertise in content creation systems such as 3d modelling packages 3DStudioMAX, Softimage XSI, Maya, ZBrush, Blender and Sketchup.
• Experience manipulating and creating graphics with Photoshop, Quixel Suite and Algorithmic Substance Tools.
• Experienced in creating both high and low poly models that have carefully unwrapped UV maps and clean geometry focused on complimenting the Physically Based Shading model.
• Highly motivated, excellent communication skills and experienced at working as part of a team.
Projects:
• 3D Modelling
- BMW M3 High Poly realistic rendering attempt.
- Massey Ferguson TE20 My love for tractors seeps through in this detailed TE20
- 1967 Chevrolet Impala Part of an art test for a local games company, The Triangle limit was 4K.
- Baby T-Rex Dino Another Art test with a triangle limit of 4k once again.
• Programming
- Heart Surgery demo (XNA, Kinect): Practical segment of my dissertation in my games development degree where I created a basic heart surgery simulation which interfaced with the kinect and was rendered through XNA.
- The Archiver: Browser tool for archiving pages through a right click. Available for FireFox and Chrome.
Experience:
3 Years employment with e.solutions GmbH in Germany as a 3D Technical Artist Specializing in Real-time asset creation, programming and testing for the Volkswagen group including Audi, Porsche and Bentley.
The new Audi TT is the first car to showcase the system I had a part in creating, more can be read
about it here. The Audi R8, Q7 and A4 information clusters are the latest software systems I worked on.
• My roles included:
- The creation and realization of graphics for use on an OpenGL based embedded system,
- Creation of 3D meshes with multiple UV sets and morph modifiers through Maya,
- Shader creation to manipulate 3D mesh attributes in real-time based on feedback given by the underlying system,
- Use of clever optimization techniques to save memory bandwidth and load times on a realtime graphics system,
- Animation using in house tools and AfterEffects,
- Debugging and profiling with a view towards optimization,
- Object Oriented Programming/Scripting [C#, Javascript, Lua] in the creation of tools for the development pipeline,
- Meeting very strict and tight deadlines,
- Working as part of a team taking and giving input when applicable.
Education:
Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Programming with Computer Games Development from Letterkenny Institute of Technology Ireland.
Irish Leaving Certificate (Honours) equivalent of High school.
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CV cathalmcnally March 2016.pdf
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Comments
I'm also curious about the QOL compared to Germany. I've considered applying for positions there, and I thought the government was fairly strict on working hours and even being expected to take work home.
Bad Weather (It really makes a difference)
In general i found the German people to be very closed up, private and often rude. (Not everyone of course) My German Girlfriend will testify to that as well. She is also part of the reason I am here in South Africa. She was brought up here in George SA for half of her life and has a real thirst for life unlike your typical German who aspire to work crazy week hours and get their 24 Days holiday in the sun, only to return to work the crazy stressful hours..
Germany is crazy strict, so many laws and rules that really dont need to exist.
Everything is about money there, Everything. How big your house is, how fast your car goes, how pretty your wife is. Its nuts..
Everything is Dubbed into German, EVERYTHING. Your will be hard pressed to find an Original Version Movie in English.
Not everything was bad, Services were excellent (Especially online),
The Euro is a strong currency compared to the current Rand
You get really well paid there and if you dont or or cant work you get state aid which is alot of money.
The Autobahn (need i say more?)
So why did we leave a really good paying job to come to South Africa?
For one the people here are more like the Irish in terms of being relaxed and easy to speak to.
Why work a whole year to go on vacation when you can live good weather and beautiful scenery?
The games development scene is not much bigger in Germany to be honest, Sure you have a few heavy hitters like Crytek but that is about it.
Germany has good security but after Paris and the threats from ISS South Africa seems safer to us than Europe right now..
And i guess we are looking for a new adventure :)
Thank you, It could be better tbh but I'll get there :D. My answer above should give you an idea of why we moved but really you know everyone is different and you may get work there, and love the country you end up in and never return to SA. Its a pity atm that the Rand is so weak versus the Euro, it makes it very difficult for people to make the move even to trial it :/, Europe is not a cheap place to live even with Government Aid.
That said if any of you need advice or tips for moving to Germany or Ireland let me know and I'll pass what knowledge I know onto you :)
I would love to hear about your adventures in Germany at Audi - hope you can come to Cape Town for one of the next meet-ups! Very impressive models you have, Your tractor could have definitely been featured in one of the million Farmsimulator games I'm certain! :D This is very relative. Germany has had a huge influx of immigrants from the middle east and there have been a couple of incidents but keeping in mind that there were over 1 Million Immigrants that came to Germany it's been fairly civilized... Aaand of course South Africa has its own set of violence and criminality *cough* *#Feesmustfall* *cough* so I would disregard the safety factor in this comparison.
But I hope you find footing here and hope to chat soon about some of your work experiences!
Your right though, Crime does happen everywhere, Even in Dublin in the last few months there has been a Drug related Gang war between families so nowhere really is safe safe, just gotta stay under the radar i guess.
My ultimate Dream is to make a "Better" Farm Simulator, Something like a cross between, BeamNG, SpinTires and Farm Simulator. Maybe someday :D
I might just be moving to Cape town and would love to join the meetup :D
Thanks for the friendly and warm welcome :D