about
My name is Dan Englesson and I’m working as Lead USD Pipeline Technical Director at Goodbye Kansas Studios. For the past 6 years I have been leading the development of a new VFX pipeline completely based on Pixar’s open-sourced OpenUSD framework, enabling us to efficiently take on large-scale cinematics and VFX projects.
Prior to moving back to Sweden I worked at Pixar Animation Studios in San Francisco for 5 years, where I worked on the movies Coco, Finding Dory and The Good Dinosaur as a Lightspeed and Pipeline Technical Director developing and maintaining the pipeline in the Pipeline team as well as optimizing renders in the Lightspeed team. Furthermore I worked in the RnD department optimizing light sampling for Pixar’s inhouse sampler that became a part of Renderman later on.
Before joining Pixar I worked as a Core Engineer at The Moving Picture Company in London creating new tools for blockbuster movies such as World War Z and The Jungle Book.
I received a Master of Science degree in Media Technology and Engineering in 2012. An education that gave me a strong knowledge in math, physics and programming techniques needed for creating state of the art visual effects for movies and games, which has enabled me to work with some of the best in the industry.
- Lead USD Pipeline Technical Director at Goodbye Kansas Studios 2020-present
- Pipeline Technical Director at Goodbye Kansas Studios 2018-2019
- Lightpseed Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios 2017-2018
- Global Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios 2015-2017
- Pipeline Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios 2014-2015
- Core Software engineer at The Moving Picture Company 2013-2014
- Crowd Technical Director Resident at Pixar Animation Studios 2013
- Global Technical Director Intern at Pixar Animation Studios 2012
- M.S thesis position / intern at The Moving Picture Company 2012
- Laboratory assistant in TNM069 - 3D Computer Graphics 2010
- Article in Post Magazine - Why USD is crucial to a Modern VFX Studio 2023
- Podcast at CG Garage - USD at Goodbye Kansas Studios 2022
- Podcast at Yellow Brick Road - Making an efficient USD Pipeline 2022
- Talk at 24 Hours of Chaos - Creating an efficient USD pipeline 2021
- Talk at Embark Studios - The basics of USD 2020
- Talk at Electronic Arts - The basics of USD 2020
- Talk at Stockholm Houdini User Group - The basics of USD 2020
- Talk at Media technology days at Linköping University. - Talked about how it is to work in the VFX industry as a Software Engineer 2020
- Part of a team that organized and planned the reception of 200 new students at Linköping University 2010
- Master of Science in Media Technology and Engineering at Linköping University, Sweden 2007-2012
- list of completed courses
- Swedish: Native
- English: Full professional proficiency
- Languages: Python, C++, C, Java, Rust, Lua, OSL, MySQL
- API/Libraries: OpenUSD, CUDA, GLSL, OpenCL, OpenGL, OpenMP, pThreads, TBB
- Programs and tools:Houdini/Solaris, Maya, Nuke, Blender, Vray, Renderman, Katana, Unrea
- Operative system experience: Linux, Windows.
