About Jamie Kenyon
Performance Critical Graphics Engineer • VFX Solutions Developer • Thrash Metal Enthusiast
Background
I'm a performance critical graphics engineer specializing in VFX tools, where I've been working for the last 12 years. My journey in programming began long before that—cutting my teeth on Assembly language doing homebrew development for consoles like the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. Back when you had to manually optimize every instruction and knew exactly what the CPU was doing.
The games industry is long behind me now, but it's where I learned my craft. I spent years at Sony Computer Entertainment working on the PlayStation platform, contributing to titles like The Persistence, InviZimals: The Lost Kingdom, Disney Th!nk Fast, and the Buzz! Junior series. Those countless years of homebrew console development and game programming taught me the fundamentals of performance-critical code that I still apply every day in VFX.
Expertise
VFX Tools Development
- Foundry Mari (3D Painting)
- Foundry Modo (3D Modeling)
- Foundry Katana (Look Development)
- Pixar USD (Universal Scene Description)
Core Skills
- Graphics Programming / C++ / C
- Graphics Programming / C++ / C / Assembly
- Graphics Programming / C++ / C
- C++ / Posix / Win32
Philosophy
I believe in understanding systems at a fundamental level. Whether it's optimizing a rendering pipeline in a VFX tool or squeezing every last cycle out of a Megadrive, I approach problems with the precision of Assembly programming and the creative energy of thrash metal.
Performance isn't just about making things fast—it's about understanding the hardware, the data flow, and the architecture at every level. When I'm not optimizing critical paths in VFX software, you'll find me listening to Slayer and Exodus, two bands that embody the same relentless precision and raw power that I strive for in my work.
Connect
Want to collaborate or just talk shop about performance-critical graphics engineering and VFX tools?