Niels van Egmond | Tech Art

My career started in art school, and I entered the industry as a 3D artist and UI artist. I was always drawn to the technical side. To gain more control over my workflow, I kept digging into the systems behind the visuals: rigging, shaders, 3ds Max scripting, Unity asset importers, Photoshop automation, animation blending, IK setups, procedural mesh generation, whatever I needed to solve the problem at hand.

Tech art defined the earlier part of my career. These days, I use it mostly in service of gameplay. As a technical designer, I still rely on shader work and animation systems, especially when working on gamefeel. But I’m always ready to jump in and help with difficult visual or pipeline challenges when needed.

Nailed It! | Mesh-Based Minigames

I prototyped several minigames for Netflix's Nailed It! Baking Bash, including ones that deform and manipulate meshes in real time, like a sculpting game. My tech art background was key in both coming up with these ideas and making them playable.

Cut the Rope | Thin-Depth Shader

I created a shader that makes 3D objects appear paper-thin from the side while preserving full 3D depth from the camera’s view. It solves a core visual challenge in Cut the Rope, making physically impossible rope layouts look consistent and believable in 3D.

CtR 3 | Nibble Nom Animation

I implemented Nibble Nom’s animations, handling his orientation on ropes, slopes, and during bounces. The goal was to give him a sense of agency, even without direct control. I added a layered system for bounce reactions and other orientation- and context-sensitive animations.