About
My name is Tami Tritz, and I’m a rigging and tool development specialist. Most of my work has been at Microsoft in HoloLens 2 development on the incubation and pitch team, which has made me highly adaptable and comfortable with many different programs and hardware. My work has been featured in OceanXplorers on Disney+/National Geographic, Altspace VR, and Microsoft Mesh: Avatars for Teams, as well as many different Microsoft Build and Ignite Keynotes.
I primarily work in Python, with significant experience in C, C#, and C++, and it’s important to me my code is buildable, readable, and clean. During my time at Microsoft, I worked with teams as small as 6 and as large as a AAA studio, and built out an art toolbox that allowed our artists to work faster and more efficiently.
For Microsoft Mesh: Avatars for Teams, I was the main technical artist managing outsourcing for hundreds of clothing, hair, and accessory assets. Both Autodesk Maya and game engine (Unity & Unreal) work are familiar to me, and I have worked the entire implementation pipeline at one time or another. I also have some VFX, animation, and 3D modeling experience, which makes communication with other artists faster and easier.
Interfacing with others is my favorite part of the job, whether that be brainstorming a solution to a pipeline problem with another artist, running the Women at Microsoft Employee Resource Group for the Mixed Reality team, or speaking in front of hundreds of members of the industry for my talk Dimensional Alchemy: Where Art and Science Meet Reality.
I also love talking about games with the public, and I regularly speak at Emerald City Comic Con, Geek Girl Con, and other conventions on various topics within games, including my panel Look Behind the Curtain: Creatives in the Games Industry and my introductory talk, So You Want to Make Video Games?
I believe strongly in the importance of mentorship and education, especially for women and non gender conforming people entering games, so I also teach introductory rigging at DigiPen Institute of Technology.
Outside of work, I love sewing, ballet, and barre, and I watch entirely too much Taskmaster (Sophie Duker and Ania Magliano are my faves).
