Hi, I'm Dominic Larrieu, a college animation student based in Chicago, IL. I love creating expressive, eye-catching character animation and short videos for social media. I enjoy experimenting with new tools and styles—from Blender and Maya to TikTok trends—and collaborating with a team to bring fun stories to life. Currently I work as a Technical Artist at The Studio at UIUC, building dynamic VFX in Unreal Engine, prototyping modular systems, and collaborating with artists and designers. I'm excited to expand my skills in VR/AR, rigging, and real-time animation, and I'm always eager to learn new tools and styles.…

Dominic Larrieu

Hi, I'm Dominic Larrieu, a college animation student based in Chicago, IL. I love creating expressive, eye-catching character animation and short videos for social media. I enjoy experimenting with new tools and styles—from Blender and Maya to TikTok trends—and collaborating with a team to bring fun stories to life. Currently I work as a Technical Artist at The Studio at UIUC, building dynamic VFX in Unreal Engine, prototyping modular systems, and collaborating with artists and designers. I'm excited to expand my skills in VR/AR, rigging, and real-time animation, and I'm always eager to learn new tools and styles.…

Available to hire

Hi, I’m Dominic Larrieu, a college animation student based in Chicago, IL. I love creating expressive, eye-catching character animation and short videos for social media. I enjoy experimenting with new tools and styles—from Blender and Maya to TikTok trends—and collaborating with a team to bring fun stories to life. Currently I work as a Technical Artist at The Studio at UIUC, building dynamic VFX in Unreal Engine, prototyping modular systems, and collaborating with artists and designers. I’m excited to expand my skills in VR/AR, rigging, and real-time animation, and I’m always eager to learn new tools and styles.

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Work Experience

Technical Artist at The Studio at UIUC
March 1, 2024 - Present
Created realistic and eye-catching VFX, shaders, and technical art for multiple projects using Unreal Engine's Niagara system to enhance immersion with effects such as dirt excavation, waterfalls, environmental dust, and stalactite drips. Developed custom shaders balancing visual quality and VR performance. Built complex Blueprint systems including AI for fish and bats to simulate life-like environmental interactions. Produced graybox environments supporting level design, facilitating efficient asset iteration. Developed modular VFX systems improving production efficiency by enabling developers to integrate effects across various gameplay scenarios.
3D Animator Intern at Jump Simulation Center | UIUC
June 16, 2025 - August 22, 2025
Participated in an XR game development internship at Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Rigged 3D models with skeletal and muscle controls, animating anatomy including muscle contractions and organ movement. Adapted simulations for VR and AR platforms, optimizing performance and UI/interaction methods. Collaborated using Git for version control and contributed actively in team meetings.

Education

Certificate in 3D Animation & Rigging at Animation Mentor
August 1, 2025 - October 19, 2027

Qualifications

Add your qualifications or awards here.

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Education, Gaming, Healthcare, Software & Internet
    paper Scared Girl MC PSX style

    This was a team project for my game development class. We worked on a horror game concept in a PSX style. The Game concept was called wide asleep and it’s about a young lady that gets her senses stolen. She must solve puzzles while avoiding enemies in order to receive her senses back. I was their 3D artist and Animation that worked on the character model.
    https://www.twine.net/signin

    paper Cartoon Persona

    This is my 3D designed character that I create to be my persona/Massot for my Youtube channel. I wanted to create this character as a way to improve my modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging and animation skill plus I wanted a eye-catching character to appear in my Youtube videos. I have all sort of plans in store for this character including animation tests, reenactment of scenes, Vtuber creation, low-scale games and etc.
    https://www.twine.net/signin

    paper Mary from Jump XR Simulations Internship

    During my time at the Jump XR Simulations Internship, I served as the 3D Animator for their virtual patient project. My primary responsibility was to bring realistic, life-like animations to the patient character, Mary. To achieve this, I accurately depicted the physical symptoms of ARDS, developed a new rig to support expressive facial animations, and built a streamlined pose library to facilitate efficient lip-syncing. This role allowed me to apply and expand my animation expertise in a highly specialized field, contributing to a medical training tool that helps students strengthen their understanding of serious patient conditions.
    https://www.twine.net/signin