Joel Ku

Current

• Character Technical Director II at LucasArts

Past

• Senior Technical Artist at Activision
• Character Specialist at Secret Level
• Instructor at Art Institute of California — San Francisco

• Character Rigging Artist at Stormfront Studios
• Directed Study Instructor at Academy of Art University
• Lead QA Engineer - Taipei Office at Symantec Corp.
• QA engineer at Ulead System Inc.

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Education

• Academy of Art University
• Yuan-Ze University

Recommended

3 people have recommended Joel

Connections

317 connections

Industry

Computer Games

Websites

• My Website
• My Company

Joel Ku’s Summary

Joel is a fast learning team player always striving to grow personally and professionally. There is not a single day he is not doing reading and researching to improve himself.
Doing things with positive attitude and a big smile is his signature impression. That is because he believes there are always more solutions than problems, and all solution should start with a big smile and right attitude. That attitude always make his customers happy, which he believe is the most important thing.

Projects worked on:

Star War Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition(2009)
Call of Duty, World at War(2008): Wii
Quantum of Solace(2008): 360, PS3
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows(2008): Wii
Golden Axe: Beast Rider (2008): 360, PS3
IRON MAN, The Video Game (2008) : 360, PS3
Eragon™ Game(2006) : PS2, XBOX, XBOX 360, PC

Joel Ku’s Specialties:

. Developing high Quality Creature rigging pipeline
. Developing and support various tools to speed up animation task
. Creature and mechanical procedural rigging in Maya
. Mel, Max and Maya Python API development

Joel Ku’s Experience

• Character Technical Director II

  LucasArts

  (Privately Held; Computer Games industry)

  January 2009 — Present (11 months)

  - To Design, develop, and support the character rigging pipeline

• Senior Technical Artist

  Activision

  (Public Company; ATVI; Computer Games industry)

  May 2008 — January 2009 (9 months)

  In Central Technology group, this position is to support our worldwide development studios, and it will be given a unique opportunity to work with multiple developers and projects while learning the very latest art techniques. Main responsibilities will be to adapt various workflows, maintain quality and techniques for all asset creation throughout the development process.

• Character Specialist

  Secret Level

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Entertainment industry)

  November 2006 — April 2008 (1 year 6 months)

  This is a senior position in Secret Level. The Character Specialist is responsible for the design, documentation and implementation of animation tools and pipelines. Examples of a Character Specialists tasks would include - developing & testing animation controls, writing animation transfer routines, developing specialized animated subsystems, review of character designs, proposals for new systems and architecture, and the guidance of Character Support Technical Artists.

• Instructor

  Art Institute of California — San Francisco

  (Educational Institution; 51-200 employees; Entertainment industry)

  July 2007 — September 2007 (3 months)

  Instructor of character rigging class

• Character Rigging Artist

  Stormfront Studios

  (Privately Held; Computer Games industry)

  July 2005 — November 2006 (1 year 5 months)

  Rigging Characters for Animation department, problem solving for animation pipeline and animation tools developing for projects of Eragon and several unreleased project.

• Directed Study Instructor

  Academy of Art University

  (Educational Institution; 51-200 employees; Animation industry)

  July 2006 — August 2006 (2 months)

  Mentor student to finish his rig and pipeline needs of his animation short, thesis project.

• Lead QA Engineer - Taipei Office

  Symantec Corp.

  (Public Company; Computer Software industry)

  January 2000 — July 2000 (7 months)

  Quality assurance task for the localization version
  of the Symantec Product

• QA engineer

  Ulead System Inc.

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Computer Software industry)

  January 1990 — March 1992 (2 years 3 months)

  Testing Graphic Software and feedback ,including
  Cool 3D
  PhotoImpact
  Video Studio Pro

Joel Ku’s Education

• Academy of Art University

  MFA , Computer Art, 3D animation , July 2002 — January 2005

• Yuan-Ze University

  BS , Industrial Engineering , 1992 — 1996

Additional Information

Joel Ku’s Websites:

• My Website
• My Company

Joel Ku’s Interests:

Self Improvement, Reading, Self improvement, Traveling, New technology, Investing, Professional networking, Gourmet cooking,

Joel Ku’s Groups:

International game developers association member.

•    VideoGame Professionals

Joel Ku’s Honors:

Jedi Dual Saber Award, April 2009

Joel Ku’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch