Looking for my next
opportunity
to make a change.
The digital way.

About Me.

Hello! With 8 years of experience under my belt, I stand at the crossroads of engineering prowess and leadership finesse. My journey has been marked by a deep dive into software engineering, with a special focus on 3D graphics, complemented by achievements in engineering management, project management, and academia, as I've been a software engineer, engineering manager, technical program manager, researcher, and even business owner!
Through my popular Udemy courses, I've dabbled into teaching, breaking down complex concepts with ease and enthusiasm for thousands.

My leadership style is unique, adept at weaving together diverse disciplines to foster innovation and drive collaborative success. Excelling in roles that demand technical excellence and forward-thinking leadership, I'm the ideal catalyst for projects aiming not just for success, but to set new benchmarks.

Topics in Computer Animation

C++ / OpenGL - GLFW / Visual Studio 2019

2D OpenGL Parametric Curves & Interpolation Engine.
Supports: Linear, Bezier Cubic Catmul-Rom, Hermite, B-Splines.
Methods: Bernstein Polynomials, De Casteljau.
Can help represent position & orientation (Quaternions and Euler Angles) of 3D Objects over time.

3D OpenGL Animation Engine.
Supports: Scene Graph World Hierarchy, Skeleton Transform Kinematic Chain Traversal, Foward Kinematics Solver, Loading of BVH animation files, Inverse Kinematics Solver, Skeleton - Mesh Skinning to drive geometry.
Methods: For FK, The skeleton's joints are arranged in a hierarchy where each child is positioned and oriented relative to its parent. The engine can compute or read from a BHV file the position and orientations of each joint in a skeleton relative to the world.
For IK, an IK chain is created, and it's solved by using both Cyclic Coordinate Descent and the Pseudo-Inverse Jacobian Approach.

PD Controllers, Intelligent Agents with Behaviors.
Supports: Individual and Group Behaviors such as: Seek, Flee, Arrive, Wander and Obstacle Avoidance. Flocking and Leading for Group sims are also supported.
Methods: Every agent gets info on the state of the world per frame. With this, the sim computes the desired velocities and heading angles which are then used by the feedback controllers (PD controllers in this case) to produce corresponding forces and torques. Then, the software updates all the agent's state vector using Euler integration and then displays the agent in the world.

Simple Physics Engine.
Supports: Simulation of Particle Systems. Rockets can fly up in the air and explode with particles.
Methods: Every rocket has the current state per frame and the derivate of the state. Integration methods such as Euler and Runge-Kutta are used to solve for the dynamics of the system.

Topics in Computer Graphics & Rendering

C++ / OpenGL - GLSL / QT

3D Software Rasterizer.
Supports: Rasterization of a full 3D Scene from World Space to Screen Space with Z-Buffering. Texture Sampling, Model Shading with Lights, Camera and OBJ model loading are supported.
Methods: Starting from World Space, the software converts to Camera Space using the View Matrix, then the Projection Matrix to get to Screen Space. SS Triangle rasterization is done manually. Texture Sampling done with Barycentric interpolation. Lighting and Shading using Lambert's law of cosines.

Fully Featured 3D CPU & GPU Path Tracer Rendering Engine.
Supports: Full OBJ scene loader. Global Illumination. Different types of surface materials, colors and lights. Textures.
Methods: Solving the Light Transport Equation and shooting rays per pixel that bounce in the scene.
Direct and Global Illumination, different types of BRDFs & Multiple Importance Sampling (MIS) are among parts of technology that has been implemented.
For the GPU case, the Rendering is being solved via a shader, on a screen space sized quadrangle.
Look below for some actual results from my rendering engine!

Physically Based Shaders. "RealShading."
Supports: RealTime PBR Materials. Environment Maps. Metallic - Roughness PBR Workflow.
Methods: Implementation of Epic Game's Real Shading in Unreal Engine 4 paper found here.
General Implementation of the Cook-Torrance Microfacet Specular Shading Model. We pre-calculate the information of GI and store it in a 2D look-up Texture.

Videogame Development

Raw OpenGL / Unity / Unreal Engine

OpenGL: From Scratch Minecraft Clone

NeonDodge VR - A Multiplayer VR Dodge Ball Game.

Lumos - A Multiplayer Hack n' Slash Game

I am a virtual mentor of thousands! I created a 3D modeling, animation, and rendering course on Udemy, guiding over 9,000 aspiring creators through the digital art maze with clarity, humor, and lots of practical tips!

Star Instructor Status: Earned a stellar 4.7/5 star rating with more than 1,500 reviews, proving that I can not only walk the walk but also talk the talk. My students don’t just learn, they excel and leave rave reviews about their journey.
Beyond the Screen Connections and Mentoring: Fostered a vibrant online community where students become peers, critics, and collaborators, turning solitary learning into a team sport. I personally mentor a few of them in their careers.
Feedback: Turned student feedback into my secret sauce for course improvement, ensuring each lesson is clearer, more engaging, and packed with value. It's like having a GPS for teaching—every comment steers the course to greatness.
Teaching Technical Aspects: As an engineer, I squeezed in many technical topics for aspiring 3D artists. Some of my students have used the knowledge to become Technical Directors or switch to a more technical profession. I feel very proud of this!
Lifelong Learner & Sharer: Constantly updating course content with the latest tools, trends, and tricks of the trade, ensuring my students are always in the know and on the cutting edge.

Check out the course here:

Thriving in the chaos of startup culture and bringing order to the universe of established tech giants, I've been the go-to person for engineering management that gets things done. Here's the scoop on how I lead teams to build software that rocks.

In my own company I co-created back in Colombia I:

Built the engineering team from the ground up, handpicking talent that grew from 0 to 20+ engineers in 2 years, while maintaining a voluntary turnover rate of less than 5%.
Directed the development of several AR/VR based products.
Established KPIs that focused on code quality, deployment frequency, and team satisfaction.
Implemented a customer feedback loop into the development process, resulting in great customer satisfaction and a 90% retention.
Fostered a culture of ownership and accountability, where everyone's voice could lead to the next big idea, contributing to a 100% project completion rate.

In other companies I've worked for I have:

Upped by 30% the project delivery speed, showing our ability to hustle and deliver.
Reworked the software development process. Understood where the bottlenecks where and provided solutions to common problems. By integrating automation, introducing code reviews, and emphasizing user-centric design, I streamlined operations and made workflows as innovative as the products we developed. Metrics-driven decisions and a commitment to continuous learning ensured the team stayed ahead of the curve, transforming challenges into triumphs and redefining what it means to deliver exceptional software.
Time-to-Market Reduction: Slashed by 30%, because being first or fast matters in tech!.
Boosted Team Satisfaction by 25%, proving that happy engineers are productive engineers.
Product Quality & Team Productivity: Improved by 35% and 50%, respectively, showcasing my commitment to excellence and efficiency.
Done not just managing but getting down in the trenches as well. I’ve coded, debugged, and help with design choices.
Understood that building teams isn’t just about stacking skills, it’s about creating a culture. A place where feedback is important and everyone’s ready to lend a hand.

I've been an academic explorer at the intersection of computer science, graphics, virtual reality (VR), and human-machine interaction. My journey has been one of curiosity, discovery, and impact.

In every paper and presentation I gave, I aimed to not only illuminate the path of current technology but also to lay the groundwork for future innovations that redefine our interaction with the digital world.

Here are my latest publications. Please check them out!

Juan Sebastián Vargas Molano, Nicolás Casanova, Oscar Carrillo, Wilson J. Sarmiento:
Recognition of Emotional influence of a character. Experimental Design and Preliminary Results. VR Workshops 2020: 717-718

Juan Sebastián Vargas Molano, Gloria Mercedes Díaz, Wilson J. Sarmiento:
Parametric Facial Animation for Affective Interaction Workflow for Avatar Retargeting. BRAINS/WS-AFFIN@AmI 2018: 73-88

Thank you for taking the time to go through my whole website. I hope you liked what you saw.

It means a lot to me.

Looking for my next opportunity to make a change. The digital way.