I joined Together Labs (formerly IMVU) in 2019 during the early development stages of WithMe, a mobile social gaming app designed to bring a fun, social, avatar based game to a younger audience — building on the foundation of the companies’ flagship game, IMVU. The intention was not only to expand the audience, as the majority of IMVU’s user based was adults, but also to bring the tech into the future, implementing PBR materials, advanced lighting, and a modernized avatar system that would let you customize your avatar in ways previously limited by IMVU.
When I started, the team was still defining the game’s style and character art pipeline, as well as building custom tools within a non-standard game engine. Over three and a half years, I played a central role in building the product from the ground up—helping to solidify the art pipeline, ultimately leading a full migration to Unreal Engine that included mass-converting hundreds of assets within strict resource budgets and timelines, and developing outsourcing pipelines for scalable asset production. As part of this, I served as an outsourcing art lead, providing art direction and technical feedback to external vendors across multiple large-scale projects and ensuring all deliverables met internal standards for visual quality and technical specification.
As a Senior Character Artist, I was pivotal in developing and refining the player customization pipeline—creating facial and body blendshapes, a modular mix-and-match system for clothing items, and an extensive library of equippable assets including hair, clothing, and accessories. Beyond hands-on execution, I proactively sourced concept art and pitched new asset themes to shape the project's overall visual identity and create appeal for our user base. I also created illustrations and 3D renders for marketing purposes. I established production documentation and protocols, mentored junior artists, anticipated potential pipeline issues, and provided QA support and actionable art feedback to continuously elevate the quality of our team's output.
Ultimately, many of the assets and themes I championed resulted in measurable boosts in marketplace user engagement, earning recognition from senior leadership and the board for creative direction and design excellence, of which I am particularly proud of.
