Senior Technical Artist III · 17+ years

James CoddingtonUnityClaude Code + MCPSlots & GamesRemote · PNW (Pacific Time)

Hi, I'm James, a classically trained artist and digital technologist. For 17+ years I've shipped games, prototypes and visualizations for game studios, app developers and R&D labs, and today slot and casino games are my specialty. Claude Code is my partner in Unity, so one hands-on artist moves at the speed of a small team, and I have a great time doing it.

Casino & slots

Whole games,
owned end to end.

Slot games are my bread and butter. I've owned the technical art on entire titles: taking master comps apart, bringing them to life with animated sequences and real-time VFX, and getting it all running smoothly on the cabinet.

  1. Master compsPhotoshop
  2. AnimationAfter Effects
  3. Sequences + motionPNG · motion graphics
  4. Real-timeUnity · VFX
  5. CabinetShip it

Comp to engine

I break master comps down in Photoshop and After Effects and rebuild them as clean, game-ready layers and PNG sequences.

Animated sequences

Idles, wins, impacts and anticipation, built in After Effects and exported as PNG sequences, all the way up to full character animation.

Real-time VFX

Particles, shaders and real-time effects in Unity that blend seamlessly with the animated sequences, so nobody can see the seam.

Particles & motion graphics

Coin showers, sparkle, smoke and fire, plus motion graphics, all tuned to read beautifully on the cabinet.

Controllers & animators

Animation controllers and state machines built, upgraded and kept tidy across a whole game family.

Clones & upgrades

Cloning proven games into new titles and upgrading older ones, quickly and without breaking what works.

Big wins & features

Big-win celebrations, bonus rounds and feature presentations that make the moment land.

Want to see it?

Most of this work lives with the studios I made it for. Let's set up a private viewing.

Request a private viewing
RestrictedFILE JC-26 · PARTIAL RELEASE

Some of my best work isn't public.

  • HoloLens prototypes for US DoD ████████ ███████ at Microsoft
  • CGI and VR for Lockheed Martin, DARPA and NASA JPL
  • VFX for premium slot games on ██████████ proprietary hardware
Request a private viewingOne-to-one, over a call.
What I do

Make it. Integrate it.
Ship it.

FX

Real-time VFX & animation

Big wins, particles, shaders, UI animation and cinematics in Unity, Unreal and Godot.

IN

Integration & pipelines

Assets reach developers at the right scale, in the right place, doing the right thing. Clean naming, optimized, tidy in Git and Perforce.

$

Slot games, end to end

From master comps to cabinet: real-time VFX, animated sequences, particles, motion graphics, controllers, big wins and features. I own the technical art on the whole game.

AI

Claude as a partner

The craft came first. Claude Code, Cowork and MCP connect to Unity, After Effects and Google Flow and take the busywork, so more of my time goes into the art.

How I build

Building

I was shipping real-time VFX and animation for well over a decade before Claude Code existed. Now Claude is a partner: it takes the wiring and the busywork, often in the background, while I stay on the parts players actually feel.

  1. DesignI lock the look and timing myself in Photoshop and After Effects, the way I have for 17+ years.
  2. ExploreClaude drives Google Flow in the background and only comes back with solid results, so I keep working on other things.
  3. BuildClaude Code works with me in Unity over MCP: animation controllers, shaders, prefabs and particle systems, built to my spec with more detail and more layers.
  4. PolishTiming, VFX and performance, hand-tuned by me. That's the part that sells it.
> big-win celebration. Comps and my timing sheet are in Art/BigWin. Match them.
● flow      background plates, running in the background
● unity-mcp create_gameobject BigWinFX
● unity-mcp add_component ParticleSystem (coins, 240/s burst)
● unity-mcp write_script WinCounter.cs
✓ flow: solid results kept, the rest discarded
✓ scene wired to your timing · ready to tune
> nice. Timing and glow pass is mine.
Kind words

What teammates say

“He started every day with an energy that inspired the whole team.”
Robert BurnettCEO, Metamax Development
The cut scenes and animations he made “were just outstanding!”
Marco WilliamsFounder and CEO, Hashbang
Great at “bridging the gap between the creative and technical sides of the game.”
Joseph HernandezGame Producer, Valiant Games
“An inexhaustible font of creative energy and productive output.”
Ryan R. BondSenior Producer
Experience

Where I've worked

Ainsworth Game Technology
Senior Technical Artist III. Casino game VFX in Unity from After Effects, Photoshop and Google Flow comps, pairing my technical art with Claude on controllers, shaders and particle systems.
2025 – 2026
Valiant Games
Senior Technical Artist (contract). Mobile 3D puzzle game: Unity integration, VFX and pipeline, bridging art and engineering, plus UI/UX concepts, sizzle reels and music.
2024 – now
datacraft technologies
Founder. My own studio: end-to-end games in C#, Unity and Adobe tools, plus AR/VR and digital twins for enterprise.
2023 – now
Hashbang
Technical Art Lead. Hands-on on AAA console/PC and Web3 projects: cinematics, animation, environments, VFX.
2022 – 2023
Scientific Games
Senior Game & Technical Artist. VFX, 3D/CGI and 2D animation for premium slot games on proprietary hardware.
2019 – 2022
Microsoft
Designer II, Ambient Computing & Robotics. Hired as a contractor, converted to full-time. HoloLens and enterprise AR prototypes, including US DoD projects.
2015 – 2018
Eqogo
Lead 3D Artist. AR product design and visualization.
2017 – 2019
Cloudesign
Art & Technical Lead. CGI, VFX and VR for Lockheed Martin, DARPA, NASA JPL, Toyota.
2008 – 2015
Earlier
Art on the 2.5D dungeon crawler Symbiote at ThistleBit, and 3D at Foundation Content.
2006 – 2011
Microsoft design patent 3D AR navigation UI 2 Microsoft hackathon awards 2017 AWS Solutions Architect BA, Art Technology & Fine Arts School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Contact

Let's light it up

I'm based in the Pacific Northwest (Pacific Time) and open to remote Senior Technical Artist, real-time VFX and Unity roles in slots, games and beyond. Off the clock you'll find me outdoors on a Onewheel, imagining optimistic futures.