Christopher P.

For this project I designed a scalable webpage as well as a backend server that converts any picture into LEGO. The algorithm is simple at its core: mapping color brightness levels to LEGO brick colors, but in order to support extremely dark or bright images, I adjusted it to dynamically change the ranges to make each color of brick appear a relatively equal amount. That also tackled one of the other huge challenges with this project: the image had to be buildable with a real physical LEGO set. This meant I couldn't use more than 300 of each brick color. In the rare occasion where a color ran out, I made an algorithm to generate a pattern that smoothly transitions to the next best color. I could gush about this project for hours, but the last thing I'll mention is that I utilized AI before it was cool, in the form of face detection and background segmentation. Knowing where a person's face was in the image allowed me to zoom in on it and draw out all the little details. Removing the background of your image allowed me to create different "filters" that replace your background with solid colors or patterns.

For the 2nd Avatar movie, Trigger XR was tasked with creating a website where you could create an alien fish and then send it off into the ocean, raising money for Keep Our Oceans Amazing for each fish created! The entire development team worked tirelessly to push the quality of web-based 3D to its absolute limit, using things like caustic shaders and god beams to sell the look of the ocean. My primary focus was building the character creation UI and squeezing every bit of detail we could out of the level geometry without setting phones on fire. To do this while still creating the illusion of a large ocean, I had the fish path around one central piece of geometry while keeping the camera focused inward. This trick gives us an interesting background while avoiding seeing for long distances. With resources freed up I could make this bit of geometry more interesting rather than just a big rock: things like overhangs, arcs, caves, large alien plants adding depth and intrigue. As I mentioned I also developed the entire frontend for this project. Thankfully, the designs from our creative department translated well into scalable Vue components. This gave me time to really fine tune the futuristic feel of the UI, creating several CSS animations for trays opening, button clicks, transitions between pages and more. I also wrote code to load elements dynamically and allow the user to rotate the fish by dragging it around.