iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Open to work. Tech art, vfx, shader, magic, sparkles, finance even. Let the cash, I mean sparkles flow.

static.klipy.com

Magic Confetti Clap

ALT: Magic Confetti Clap

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Its tax day tomorrow for estimated quarterly payments, USA freelancers. Don't sleep on it and catch a surprise bill next year. #freelance

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

How to learn something new. Make it hot!

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Trying something new with my resume to see if it converts into interviews for full time roles. Probably won't, but who knows? Put those personal unnamed projects on!

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Ripped wWise out of a project today to upgrade it and remove a third party need. Ouch.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Reminder to all the other US based freelancers and contractors... estimated taxes for Q2 are due on June 15!

static.klipy.com

The Simpsons: Bart's Savings & Tax Time

ALT: The Simpsons: Bart's Savings & Tax Time

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Back on that ARPG game design train and it feels good. Doing some HUD elements at the moment. Next up will be menu modals redesign and states or enemy AI swtup. Enemy is higher priority but UI just feels so good to do.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Curious what others are using for damage numbers. Are you using UI widgets or particles? Please explain. #gamedev #techart

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Having fun adding quantization to post processor shaders and UI shaders to make a game look low resolution arbitrarily. #Shaders #GameDev

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Annnnd now I have to go relisten to the phenomenal Yuki Kajiura soundtrack.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Trying to understand why a shader that works fine in one project does not work in another. Same exact setup, same engine version. Just... why?

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Reposted by John Emerson

Lee Scheinbeim @lee.scheinbe.im · 14/02/2026

"share a fight scene made by actual humans" its all of them, movies are made by humans. vfx artists are humans.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

One of the reasons I want to develop a Nintendo title someday is for the sweet box art. I mean the eye candy that expands upon what you see in game circa the 1980's/90's, not just a marketing made and approved comp shot. . . Something that adds weight.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Finally finished setting up the project my students will be working in this semester. Feels good to have that done. Now to just finalize blackboard (the educational app that drives me insane).

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Torn between setting up a Halo like template project for my students or an ARPG. Right now leaning towards the latter so I don't have to deal with multiplayer replication.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Decided to wrap the explosion work here. There are things I could clean up further, but its OK to call a thing done. #realtimevfx #gamedev youtu.be/mfZKI2FUVbc?...

youtu.be

Steel Drum Explosion (Games)

YouTube video by John

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Watching Sesame Street and can't help but notice Abby and all fairy magic sparkles do not have alpha opacity multiplied. I know nobody probably cares, it does not diminish the show at all and she is my daughter's favorite, but the fx artist in me really wants to fix it.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

We have had 3 live action Sonic movies and only 1 Pikachu movie. That ain't right. Pikachu is worth at least a sequel, if not a trilogy.

media.tenor.com

a picture of a stuffed animal with the words i 've been so lonely

ALT: a picture of a stuffed animal with the words i 've been so lonely

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Reposted by John Emerson

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

My only problem with this is the naming. We started with baseball terminology to describe the bigs so why not just keep using that? A (Kei), High A (Midi), AA, and AAA work.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Getting that next level up on my demo project out there. Enjoying stretching myself in non-VFX ways. #UnrealEngine #gamedev youtu.be/sysc1B44VTc

youtu.be

Hoeae Design Demo

YouTube video by John

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Started making the demo scene today and realized I had worked with a key mesh asset 2.5 times it's imported size so my scale was completely off for the rest of the world. Thankfully it was only 1 day and I can easily correct but... dang.

media.tenor.com

a man in a tuxedo with a microphone that says imdb on it

ALT: a man in a tuxedo with a microphone that says imdb on it

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Reminder for all the USA freelance and business owners. Quarterly tax payments coming due soon. I just spent an hour categorizing 2 months worth that I had back burnered. Don't be like me.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Some basic math today revealed I need around 800 dialogue entries for the demo of my game without considering duplicate use. At a max of 250 characters per entry that is 200,000 keypresses. I better start writing before the carpal tunnel gets me. #gamedev

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Unpopular opinion: Akira (1988) is not as good as people want to believe it is, everybody just likes Tron style motorcycles.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Getting a dialogue (narrative?) system up and running was easier than I imagined. Now I gotta come up with the words though. Something like 40 characters and 30 quests? This is gonna take a minute. #gamedev #UI #narrativedesign

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

It seems to me that CommonUI should be automatically enabled and used by Unreal. Course I'm on 5.3 so maybe it is in 5.6?

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

I see other parents of young children and can't help but feel so young in comparison. Is this impostor syndrome for parenting?

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Wrapping up a contract and am available for work as either contract or FTE in real time VFX. If you need assistance meeting your goals, please reach out. Together we can achieve something great! #gamedev #realtimevfx #vfx #unrealengine johnemerson.artstation.com

johnemerson.artstation.com

John Emerson

VFX Artist

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Reminder that before 1915 the US Postal Service technically allowed the mailing of your children. Only a few cases are known to have occurred, but it was with trusted (aka well known) carriers. How much do you trust that Waymo and do they have deliver at the same standard as the USPS?

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Good times when you get the emote system in your game working. #gamedev

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Putzing around making my own version of the hologram map based on this video. Not sure yet if I'm going to go down the PCG route or not to bring in holographic buildings. May end up trying out my render target as a height mask to do some offsets. www.youtube.com/live/IBuqoNw...

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

This is a nice breakdown of a sci-fi shield effects. Well done. #realtimevfx #gamedev

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Reposted by John Emerson

Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

PLEASE SHARE 🧪‼️ Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. Scientific American has published a guide to the EVIDENCE-BASED vaccine recommendations in place BEFORE ACIP members were removed by the administration. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-...

scientificamerican.com

Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science

These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Geoff Keighley puts foot in mouth to please financial backers, news at 11. The only people upset by this are dev's and any C-suite with a production or finance staff knows its not true. This has been dragging on for a while gang and it really is much ado about nothing.

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Blasts from the past to make you feel warm and fuzzy after you close your 1000 browser tabs.

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Reposted by John Emerson

Kate✨STUFFSCAPE Game @shrimpsykate.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

🟦 VFX Vault VFX help ✨ 'Sharing some great tips which VFX Vault posted today - to help out very common issues with ribbons and trails in UnrealEngine ✨ Tutorial here: youtu.be/nJBwKF7os8g?... #UnrealEngine #UE #vfx #rtvfx #tutorial

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

I think my daughter's electronic piano has Chrono Trigger songs built into it. Get 'em started young on that video game music life!

media.tenor.com

a video game screen shows a chrono trigger from 1995

ALT: a video game screen shows a chrono trigger from 1995

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Reposted by John Emerson

Florian Smolka @smou.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Another "unexpected" behavior for this #VFXFriday If frac() just leaves the fractional part of the number why is the result not this mirrored gradient that we'd expect? Because what is happening under the hood is x -floor(x)! So for example frac(-0.1) is -0.1 - (-1) = 0.9 🤯 #realtimeVFX #gamedev

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Just twiddling away, relearning #Sidefx #Houdini from the ground up because the disjointed haphazard approach I used to date is no longer sufficient. Jordan Allen has put together, in my opinion, the best intro series. It's clicking (finally). @doublejumpacademy.bsky.social

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

It's amazing what a sphere can do in #realtimevfx

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Finally figured out the genre for a game idea I have and it's exciting. A lot easier to talk about it now. Probably still financially unobtainable though. Oh well.

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Reposted by John Emerson

Simonschreibt @simonschreibt.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

New VFX/Tech Art Newsletter is out! 📃Read online: simonschreibt.de?na=view&id=28 ✋Subscribe: simonschreibt.de/newsletter/ #gamedev #realtimevfx #vfx #techart

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John Emerson @jemerson.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Took the plunge and canceled my Maya renewal so I force myself to use Houdini all the time and can't fall back on Maya as a crutch. #SideFX #Houdini

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