About Peter
Hello and welcome to my porfolio website! My name is Peter Mo and I am a 3D Generalist with special focus in Texturing, Shader Development, Lighting, Rendering, and Compositing. I have taught the aforementioned topics, as well as basic Modeling, Rigging, and Animation in my 10-year career as a professor of Digital Arts and Animation at Cogswell College and other institutions of higher education.
In 2008, I had worked on a small team to develop a Facebook app that peaked at #5 in Daily Active Users. While teaching, I'd also worked with several indie mobile game developers and have experience using Unity, and later, Unreal. At Cogswell College, I've had the opportunity to work with other experienced industry professionals and talented students on Project X, a project-based class simulating an industry work environment and producing award-winning animated shorts. I had been supervisor of the Lighting and Compositing teams on several films and have become Director of Project X in 2017.
Director
January 2017 -
Cogswell College, San Jose, California
Project X is a project-based course allowing students to work in a fast-paced, industry-like environment. As Director, I am responsible for coordinating the different departments of the production pipeline and keeping everyone on schedule. I am also responsible for recruiting new students and giving portfolio reviews to students who took the class for portfolio credit. Most students who have worked on Project X have gone on to become very successful in the fame and film industries.
Lighting and Effects Director
August 2012 - December 2016
Cogswell College, San Jose, California
Before being promoted to Director of Project X, I was the Lighting and Effects Director for the films Driven (2013) and Trouble Brewing (2016). I worked with a team of student lighting artists and compositors to establish the final look for our films. We used V-Ray for Trouble Brewing but had used Renderman for all previous films, including Driven. We also switched to using Nuke for compositing from Fusion. My primary role was training and helping students troubleshoot problems, although I would sometimes work on content which ended up in the final films.
Lead Artist for Mobile Games
September 2009 - October 2013
Aerende, Inc., Palo Alto, California
I was responsible for creating all 2D and 3D art assets for several iOS games. We primary used Unity, Maya, and Photoshop to make all the games. I also assisted in fine-tuning game mechanics using Objective-C in Xcode. Published games include Secret Agent and Fruit Pong.
Professor of Digital Arts and Animation
January 2008 -
Cogswell College, San Jose, California
In my 10-year teaching career, I've taught practically every class within the 3D production pipeline: Modeling, Rigging, Animation, UV Unwrapping and Texture Painting, ZBrush sculpting, Look Development, Lighting, Rendering, Special Effects, and Compositing. I currently teach the Advanced Texturing, Lighting and Layout, and Composting and Special Effects classes. I create my own content for class and must constantly keep up to date with new software and techniques.
Lead Artist for Facebook App “Speed Racing”
November 2007 – March 2008
I used Flash to create 2D vector artwork of many different car models and accessories. The app peaked at #5 in Facebook Daily Active Users category in early 2008.