
JEN HUFFA
Rendering Technical Artist specializing in scalable shader systems, stylized materials, & artist friendly workflows.
I am a Rendering Technical Artist based in Los Angeles
specializing in real-time rendering, shader systems, material workflows, & technical art pipelines.
I love being apart of the bridge where art & tech meet - creating workflows, defining master materials, & exploring new pipelines to assist content developers brings me a lot of joy. I'm especially passionate for stylized art, Substance Designer, & Unreal Engine.
I've collaborated primarily with remote & global teams.
Currently, I am full-time on VALORANT at Riot Games.
Education:
Art Institute of California-Hollywood
March 2016 - B.S. Game Art & Design
Join us for a panel featuring technical artists from Riot Games!
Leonardo Georg, Jen Huffa, & Aaron Aikman share their expertise on optimizing game performance, creating shaders, & the interpersonal skills that drive collaboration—drawing from their work on hit titles like Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, & more.
Join us on Friday, April 28th for an exciting live stream event showcasing the Technical Art department at Riot Games!
We are thrilled to welcome Jeremy Ernst, Seth Hall, Izzy Cheng, Taylor Wright, Jen Huffa, & Gaige Hallman.
FEATURED WORK
Panning Lava Lamp Noise
+ Glass Shader
Setup panning noise material with accent color & various controls along with a floating masked direction glass material for Battle Pass skinline Transition. Utilizing the vertex color we can mask in the hot spots of the accent color at the front of the weapon.
Aquatic Shader
Assisting with the aquatic glass shader & create fast iterations of the caustic noise.
By using Substance Designer we were able to test out different caustic noise patterns efficiently.
Riot Games
Rendering Technical Artist III
May 2022 - Current
Develop materials, shaders, & pipelines for VALORANT's Premium Content team. Collaborate closely with artists to build scalable shader workflows while balancing visual quality, performance, & production efficiency.
Skinlines: Abyssal, Iridian Thorn, Reverie, Transition, ORA
Software: UE5, Maya, Substance Designer, Substance Painter
Technical Artist II
March 2021 - May 2022
Developed technical art workflows & shader solutions for Blizzard's Unannounced Survival Project. Partnered with artists to improve engine integration, establish pipeline standards, & create documentation that streamlined production.
Article: Create A New Universe With Us
Software: Unreal Engine 4, Maya, Substance
Halon Entertainment
Technical Director
November 2020 - February 2021
Optimized real-time cinematics for Fortnite by improving rendering performance & creating reusable material workflows. Established pipeline documentation & technical standards while developing custom shaders for multiple trailer productions.
Trailers: The Walking Dead , Master Chief Joins The Fight In Fortnite , Sarah Conner & the T-800 Arrive
Software: Unreal Engine 5, Maya, Substance Painter
Technical Lead
August 2020 - November 2020
Led technical art support for the League of Legends Worlds 2020 Opening Ceremony, integrating animation, VFX, & real-time assets into Unreal Engine. Optimized assets & collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver a live broadcast performance.
Video: Opening Ceremony Worlds 2020
Software: Unreal Engine 4, Zero Density

Santa Monica College
3D Texturing & Rendering Professor
January 2020 - July 2020
Taught college-level courses covering PBR texturing, material creation, & shader fundamentals using industry-standard workflows. Mentored students in preparing production-ready assets for real-time applications.
Software: Unreal Engine 4, Substance Designer, Substance Painter
Unreal Technical Artist
April 2020 - June 2020
Created reusable materials, shaders, & visual effects for the studio's Unreal Engine asset library. Collaborated with artists to build production-ready assets for previs & virtual production workflows.
Software: Unreal Engine 4, Maya, Substance Designer, Substance Painter
Technical Artist
August 2016 - August 2019
Built materials, shaders, & textures. Collaborated with Character & Environment Art for an Unreal Engine RPG. Contributed across multiple disciplines including rendering, lighting, cinematics, & level building in a small indie team.
Software: Substance Designer, UE4, 3DS Max, Photoshop CS6, After Effects CS6
Technical Project Manager
October 2017 - October 2018
Managed technical production for an eco-friendly apparel startup while supporting web development, branding, & interactive product visualization. Created 3D assets & coordinated technical implementation across multiple platforms.

Freshi Media
Game Design Instructor
Summer Quarter 2017
Introduced students to game development fundamentals including modeling, animation, shaders, & level design. Designed hands-on lessons focused on real-time production workflows.
Software: Blender & Multimedia Fusion 2
Art Intern
Winter 2014
Created UI & marketing assets for multiple mobile titles while collaborating with both the Art & QA teams.
What people say...
"I've worked with Jen across a wide variety of VALORANT projects & releases over the past couple of years. From the start, she went out of her way to help me fill in knowledge gaps of our development pipeline even though it wasn't part of her job. That made a HUGE difference for me & says a lot about the kind of developer she is.
Since then, Jen has been an awesome collaborator on weapon skinlines & other Premium Content VALORANT projects. We worked pretty close together on the Ora weapon skins & animated player card. It was a huge project with a LOT of moving pieces, but we worked through the challenges together & both came away having learned a ton from each other.
Jen also works well with disciplines. She often finds improvements that save time for both artists & engineers, making collaboration smoother for development. She's dependable & brings a balance of creativity & technical expertise to every project.
I think one of Jen's biggest strengths is the way she approaches implementation. She always keeps performance & budget in order to meet Player expectations. She delivers high quality work while respecting technical constraints, making her a great tech artist. Any team would be lucky to have her."
Mark Bryner
Senior Visual Designer @ Riot Games | VALORANT
"We hired Jen to help us with shader development, procedural texturing, & environment art support. In other words, her areas of expertise. Almost immediately after she joined, with her help, we discovered that the team had more urgent needs. For the following 12 months, she supported the Tech Art & the Design & the Art team in areas where she had very little previous experience. This, not only didn't stop her, she performed admirably. It was a surprise to everyone that the areas she was supporting were new to her. She learned at lightning speeds, she helped train others on these areas, & gracefully adapted her support to the discipline, subdiscipline, & person she was working with. Jen is a wonderful Technical Artist, & she is a huge value add to any team she is a member of. I look forward to see many great things come from this talented artisan."
Alexis Meade
Technical Lead @ Blizzard Entertainment
"I had the pleasure of working with Jen at Halon Entertainment. We worked in the same projects for a while, & even though we were in different departments, we frequently worked together to come up with solutions for different needs of the projects. I often asked Jen for help as some of my ideas for asset work needed a deeper technical knowledge of Unreal. She would then either explain me how I could accomplish my goal or offer to help with the task, & in that case Jen always had some solution & in the rare instances when she didn't know the exact way to go about solving a problem, she would research & test possible approaches & normally give me a working answer in a couple of hours. I always found Jen a serious & professional person, & she is extremely easy to work with. I can't recommend her enough."
Joao Baptista
Lead Character Artist @ Halon Entertainment
"I had the pleasure of working with Jen on an incredibly difficult project that would have broken the spirit of a lesser person. Her ability to adapt quickly in the face of many technological hurdles & learn new software inspired her teammates. She has an excellent handle on deadlines & how to achieve them, with clear communication to get the work done. I would gladly work with her again in the future!"
Rachael Kent
Associate Producer @The Famous Group
"I greatly enjoyed working with Jen - she is hard working, knowledgeable, & excellent with clients. In a recent project she went far above & beyond my initial expectations; stepping up into a much higher role than initially discussed, managing a team, & learning a new software she had never used before. I was constantly impressed with her work ethic & ability to execute. She handled difficult personnel issues with grace & was incredibly communicative with me throughout the project."
Nathanael Horton
Producer @ The Famous Group