Shadertoy
Catopia (Unity Engine CS377g)
Unity game dev (2020)
VR

About me:
I'm a new grad from Stanford University where I studies computer graphics. I love all kinds of art!! When I'm not in school, I'm an illustrator and I love participating in artist allies, and embarking on many strange art journeys.
I am a 3D artist and Unity Engine generalist. Looking for work after I finish my undergrad in December 2024![email protected]
reel
resume
new website (carrd)
old website (melissaran.github.io)

Please enjoy some fun projects :)

Flower breeding game :D

Totally procedural flowers bloom and intermingle, exchanging genetic info... I mean, uh, tons of parameters in an overly complex data structure...
Made in Unity.

JUNE + SECRET ATLELIER

Realtime environment piece I made in Blender (Eevee). Breakdown is embedded below, and also in my reel! All models and textures belong to me, as well as concept art. (In my personal art, I do not use AI.)I created this environment as a part of my art book project, where my goal was to fill 40 pages with original illustration and 3d art within one month, June 2024. I sell this book at vendor events, which I post about on my instagram!This year I have really fallen in love with books. Isn't it crazy that drawings, photos, 3d renders, texts, and even stuff like QR codes can come together to create something new? Please enjoy...

MOON STORY

I was a CURIS intern at Stanford summer 2023 and 2021. Moonstory is an outdoors AR learning journey that I worked very hard on, made in Unity. My contributions include a wide range of things such as... implementing the narrative/ progress system, implementing AR learning activities, creating sprites and artworks, 3d modeling, shaders, wrangling UI, fighting Niantic Lightship, placating child study participants, etc. I definitely pulled late nights for this project, so I'm happy it was accepted to CHI 2024. Thank you to my mentor Alan Cheng for introducing me to HCI research, I had a good time!ARTICLE (ACM)

Shaders I made for fun!!

I recently had the opportunity to learn to develop Unity games for the Oculus headset!
Here are my little projects:

VR PROJECTS (2022)

For older Unity work, please see this link:

• More Game Dev (2020)

Below: a spicy noodle simulation and a vine grower :)
Password: pup2022

Moon Festival is a short CG animation I created with a team of 10, in two weeks during my internship at Pixar. Below the video, I go into more detail about my experience with this project.Thanks so much to my amazing and kind peers and mentors. I hope you enjoy it!Password: pup2022

My contributions were concept art, tackling numerous shading challenges (including food and the moon monster), helping to create storyboards, and making graphics for our signage-heavy set. I've included these artworks below.Early during the ideation phase I made concept art of this gross egg monster in the sky, thinking about Junji Ito drawings, and the team decided to go with it. This monster had little basis in physical reality: optically, it didn't behave exactly like a moon or an egg, so it was a challenge for me to shade it. I've included a few photos I took of my screen during the shading process, as well as some scallion pancakes I am really proud of.When making illustrations for, and shading the electric signage in the scene, I wanted to convey a retro, familiar, and neon feeling, drawing from my memories of Asian snack packaging and Chinese TV ads I watched as a kid, but with a subtly cursed twist.Please enjoy this gallery of artwork I managed to salvage from the depths of our team Discord channel.