Alvaro Varomix Castaneda
Technical Artist @Meta
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WORK HISTORY
Technical Artist @Meta
Scale — Designed and built data processing pipelines that handled 5M+ 3D assets from multiple commercial and open-source providers, powering generative AI model training.Research — Procedural hair systems I developed contributed directly to two published research papers: HairSapiens (image-based hair priors) and Quaffure (real-time neural hair simulation).Procedural Content — Built a library of ~1,500 procedural hair grooms in Houdini (head hair, facial hair, eyelashes) supporting digital human initiatives across multiple teams.Cross-functional Impact — Developed a tattoo material pipeline adopted by 6+ downstream teams, expanding asset coverage from 100 to 1,200+ textures.AI + Creative Tools — Built an LLM-powered agent embedded directly inside Houdini, bringing natural language interaction to procedural 3D workflows.Platform Leadership — Served as the primary Houdini platform authority across Reality Labs — license management, documentation, onboarding, and cross-team enablement.
EDUCATION
Self-taught
PRO, Animation/Visual Effects
Udacity
C++ Developer Nano Degree, Computer Science
IEU Universidad
Bachelor of Science - BS, Artificial Intelligence
SKILLS
ABOUT ALVARO VAROMIX CASTANEDA
Self-driven technical artist, passionate about computer graphics and problem solving, I have worked with big and small productions finding solutions and integrating them in a production pipeline.Been teaching Houdini for 13 years and I love to interact with students, both at beginner and professional level.I love that my job is both artistic and technical, helps me stay engaged and up to date on my field.Tools of the craft: SideFx Houdini, Nuke, Python, Vex, C++, Linux.• 20+ years production experience in television commercials, film or animated features• 10+ Years of experience using Houdini in a production environment• 3+ Years of experience developing procedural systems to create synthetic data to train machine learning algorithms.• 10+ Years of experience teaching VFX related topics like Houdini and Python.• Excellent attention to detail, in both artistic and technical disciplines.• Proven ability to multi-task, prioritize and problem solve, both individually and as part of a team.• Ability to take direction, communicate and interact positively in a collaborative group environment.• Strong knowledge of Python and mid of C++.
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