Yin Wu
ABOUT

From on‑set crew
to the final frame

Film and VFX professional with international experience across the US, China, New Zealand and Austrilia. Credits include Devs, The Mandalorian: Season 2, M3GAN 2.0, and Zombies 4, with roles spanning on-set crew to CG generalist at The Mill Shanghai. Experienced across feature films, commercials, and campaigns for global brands such as Apple, Tencent Games, and Shanghai Disney.

Selected Work

Credits

Film & TV

M3GAN 2.02025
Zombies 42025
The Mandalorian — Season 22021
Devs2020

Commercials & Campaigns

OPPO × UCLDowny — South East AsiaDisneyland ShanghaiEarth: Revival — Game TrailerFoodstuffsAvatar · ESPN · Disney ChorusTron: Ares × SNF on NBC
Toolbox

Software & Skills

Houdini

Lighting / FX / Procedural

Solaris · USD

Look Dev / Pipeline

Maya

Hard-surface Modeling

Blender

Generalist

Nuke

Compositing

Unreal Engine

Cinematic Rendering

Lighting & Look Dev

  • Houdini lighting
  • USD pipeline in Solaris
  • V-Ray, Redshift & Arnold
  • MaterialX, VEX & Arnold material builders

Procedural & FX

  • Procedural modeling & shading
  • VEX scripting
  • Environments — terrain, water, scattering
  • Pyro, Vellum, RBD & fluid sims

Modeling & Texturing

  • Maya hard-surface modeling
  • ZBrush & Substance Painter
  • Marvelous Designer & SpeedTree
  • Gaea & Mari

Comp & Finishing

  • Nuke slapcomp & final comp
  • DaVinci Resolve
  • Unreal cinematic sequences
  • Basic Python scripting
Career

Experience

May 2025 — Present

Environment Modeler & Surfacing Artist

Cosmic Dino StudioBrisbane, AUS · Sup: Mathias Lautour

Working directly with the Director and Head of Assets to model, texture, and surface high-quality 3D assets. Building detailed assets in Maya, Substance Painter, and ZBrush, and populating complex exterior environments and foliage with SpeedTree — delivering GPU-rendered environments under tight production deadlines.

Mar 2025 — Jan 2026

Lighting TD

Fathom PicturesAuckland, NZ · Sup: Rhys Dippie, Damon Duncan

Lit CG vehicles for night-street chase sequences in Houdini with V-Ray — projecting HDRIs onto lidar scans so reflections track naturally at speed, and rendering headlight and interactive-light passes for compositing. Also lit the “Nightwraith” creature to match plates.

M3GAN 2.0Tron: Ares — SNFAvatar: Fire and Ash
Feb 2025 — Mar 2025

Lighting TD

Blockhead StudiosAuckland, NZ · Sup: Jimmy McPhie

Short TVC contract in Houdini and Redshift for a Shanghai Disney Park spot. Lit and rendered the fairy petal and particle trails, simulated petal rain across multiple shots, and authored shaders for the CG map.

Disneyland Shanghai
Oct 2024 — Jan 2025

Environment TD

Cause and FXAuckland, NZ · Sup: Sam Tack, Chris Lyne

Delivered procedural environments in Houdini, rendered with Karma in a full USD/Solaris pipeline. Built a procedural vineyard with vine growth, cliffside draping, and a burnt variant, plus a large-scale night orchard with animated procedural vine growth blocked out in Unreal for client approval.

Zombies 4
Mar 2022 — Oct 2023

3D Generalist

The MillShanghai, CN · Sup: Simon Glass

Hired for Blender expertise, then self-taught Houdini on the job. Recreated a Buenos Aires street in Blender for OPPO × UCL — beauty pass in 1.5 weeks. Handled ship retopo, destruction FX and debris for the Earth: Revival trailer, and built lavender fields and floating-rose sequences for Downy.

OPPO × UCLEarth: RevivalDowny
Mar 2021 — Mar 2022

CG Generalist

Red + PlusShanghai, CN

Part of a small in-house VFX team, involved across the entire production pipeline from early planning to final rendering — including on-set supervision to ensure smooth integration of VFX elements.

Jul 2019 — Aug 2020

Production Assistant & Trainee

Base FXBeijing, CN · Sup: Nicole Nonis, Yingxue Zhang

Coordinated communication across departments and translated feedback between English and Chinese while tracking shot progress. Completed a 10-month intensive CG asset-creation training program covering topology principles and production-ready modeling standards.

The Mandalorian — Season 2
Aug 2018 — Oct 2018

Camera P.A.

FX NetworksSanta Cruz, CA · Sup: Kristy Choo, Matthew Penry-Davey

On-set Camera Production Assistant and Office P.A. before and after principal photography — supporting the camera department during shoots and coordinating logistics and documentation in-office.

Devs

Education

Jul 2025 — Apr 2026

Master of Design

Media Design SchoolNew Zealand

Researching scalable studio models to improve pipeline efficiency and reduce job volatility, and designing systems to manage freelance teams more effectively.

Sept 2014 — Jun 2018

Bachelor of Film & Digital Media

University of California, Santa CruzCalifornia

Transitioned from an Astrophysics B.S. to Film, training in photography, lighting, directing, editing, sound design, and screenwriting.

Memberships

May 2025 — Present

Visual Effects Society

Member

Joined VES with recommendation letters from Rachel Copp and Steve Dorner.

Oct 2024 — Present

VFX Professionals' Guild of New Zealand

Board Member

Supporting event planning across Auckland & Wellington, event photography, and managing community content and studio promotion on the guild's channels.