Stefan Habel

Visual Effects Software Developer

Photo from Flickr: Am Sandtorkai in Hamburg's HafenCity

Résumé — Stefan Habel

Visual Effects Software Developer

Last updated: 10 November 2023

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Profile
Seasoned software engineer with over 13 years of professional experience contributing to the global visual effects & animation industry, focusing on user interfaces. Keywords: Python, C++, Qt, UI/UX, Git, Katana, Slack, Scrum, Kanban, Sphinx, Doxygen, CI/CD, Jenkins, Targetprocess, Jira, Trello, Linux, Houdini, Maya, SIP, pybind11, Gimp, Icons, SVG, Emoji, Naming Things
Extensive experience of commercial software product development for leading VFX & animation studios, covering the full software development life cycle, from ideation to deployment and maintenance.
Engineering experience of working with a large, organically-grown Python/C++ codebase with a large API surface.
Product experience of customer relationship management across various timezones, including on-site visits, as well as representation at trade shows and industry events.
Leadership experience of managing a distributed team of software engineers.

Work Experience
		Employer	Roles	Projects
	Since April 2022	🇨🇦 Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver, BC, Canada	Staff Production Engineer Senior Production Engineer	CG Pipeline Libraries Asset management and data-handoff tools
10 yrs	January 2012 – January 2022	🇬🇧 Foundry London, England	Application Architect Technical Product Manager Lead Engineer Product Designer Software Engineer	Katana / Look Development & Lighting
2.5 yrs	July 2009 – December 2011	🇬🇧 Framestore London, England	R&D TD Effects TD	GRAVITY (2013) FX department-wide projects
4 mos	March 2009 – June 2009	🇩🇪 Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction Ludwigsburg, Germany	Freelance R&D Engineer	Filmakademie Application Framework aQtree
2 mos	August 2008 – September 2008	🇩🇪 Black Mountain VFX Studios Stuttgart, Germany	Freelance Houdini FX TD	Mattoni Star Water Dress Prima TV
1 yr 4 mos	February 2007 – May 2008	🇩🇪 Thomas Hummel Ludwigsburg, Germany	Freelance Web Developer	fmx.de itfs.de
1.5 yrs	April 2005 – September 2006	🇩🇪 Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction Ludwigsburg, Germany	R&D Intern	Facial Animation Toolset for Maya
Education
		Educational Institution	Degree	Field of Study
2.5 yrs	October 2006 – March 2009	🇩🇪 Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction Ludwigsburg, Germany	Postgraduate Diploma	Technical Directing
4.5 yrs	October 2001 – March 2006	🇩🇪 Fachhochschule Wedel University of Applied Sciences Wedel, Germany	Diplom (FH) (equivalent to a four-year Applied Bachelor's degree)	Media Computer Science

Certificates

March 2017	January 2018	November 2023

Specialties
		My favorite is	But I'm also familiar with
	DCC tool	Katana	Houdini, Maya
	Scripting language	Python	MEL, PHP, JavaScript, Unix Shell, NSIS, VBA
	Programming language	C++	C#, Java, Pascal