At FNX Technologies, I led technical initiatives to transform the fashion industry through innovative cloud-based rendering solutions. Our platform integrated seamlessly with industry-leading tools like Browzwear’s VStitcher and Clo3D, empowering designers to work digitally and sustainably. This work helped fashion brands accelerate their workflows, minimize physical prototyping, and embrace the future of digital apparel design.

FNX partnered with key players to seamlessly merge 3D virtual garment workflows into the wider fashion ecosystem. For example, our collaboration with Alvanon integrated their diverse digital mannequins into our platform, enhancing workflow adaptability and solidifying FNX’s role in fashion innovation.

Working on this project provided me with a deep understanding of the distinct challenges between developing internal VFX tools and creating a software product designed for unsupervised use by hundreds of designers worldwide. In Visual Effects, we often dedicate extensive time to perfect individual assets, ensuring there are no technical issues. At FNX, however, the focus was on delivering a render pipeline that maintained technical excellence while minimizing user intervention. This required the pipeline to automatically handle a diverse range of assets, balancing enhancements like applying crease weights to subdivision meshes for improved visuals with the need to avoid potential intersection issues, particularly when working with digital mannequins.

Through my work at FNX, I was able to combine my expertise in computer graphics with my commitment to sustainability. This experience reinforced my belief in the power of technology to address global challenges and inspires my ongoing pursuit of impactful, interdisciplinary projects.

FNX's success led to its acquisition by LFX Digital, underlining the platform’s value in enhancing digital product creation and commerce.

My Key Contributions:

• Cloud-Based Rendering Pipeline: Built and managed a team responsible for plugins and render submissions to FNX's proprietary cloud-based compute graph framework. These graphs automated tasks like mesh cleanup, shader optimization, and scene assembly in Blender, streamlining apparel design processes.

• Tool Integration: Spearheaded the integration of FNX's platform with tools like VStitcher and Clo3D, providing designers with a comprehensive, accessible, and efficient digital workflow.

• Integration with the Wider Fashion Ecosystem: Collaborated with Alvanon to securely integrate their digital mannequins into our workflows, ensuring robust data encryption to protect Alvanon's proprietary data throughout the process.

• User Experience and Design: Contributed to UX and design decisions to ensure that fashion designers had intuitive and accessible tools, enhancing their ability to work efficiently within the digital design platform. See the video on the right!

• Fashion Tech R&D: Contributed to additional research on novel methods for interacting with digital clothing, including automatically generating diverse design options from parameters such as garment geometry, graphics, and color palettes.

• Internal Processes: Envisioned and implemented tools that provided developers, customer support, and leadership with clear, actionable insights into compute node activities. These tools were instrumental in streamlining debugging efforts for engineering teams and offered critical data for informed decision-making by leadership.

• Scalable Infrastructure: Optimized render jobs to maximize business profitability while maintaining a seamless user experience, ensuring the platform’s scalability and reliability for brands of all sizes.