Ricky Arietta
Senior Staff Software Engineer Architecture Lead at Walt Disney Animation Studios
New York City Metropolitan Area United States
Summary
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Senior🎓
Top SchoolRicky Arietta is a Senior Staff Software Engineer and Architecture Lead with over a decade of experience specializing in graphics and visual effects software at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He brings deep systems-level expertise in C++, CUDA, Python, and shader languages, and has a strong track record building Maya plugins, GUIs, and production tools that bridge art and engineering. His background includes hands-on work across major VFX apps (Nuke, Houdini, MotionBuilder) and practical exposure to OpenGL/WebGL, enabling him to optimize rendering and simulation pipelines for large-scale animation production. Educated at Princeton (BSE Computer Science) and the University of Pennsylvania (MS in Computer Graphics and Gaming Technologies), he blends rigorous academic foundations with production-proven solutions. Known for turning complex graphics algorithms into robust, artist-friendly tooling, Ricky often operates at the intersection of research and delivery. Based in the New York City area, he pairs leadership and mentorship with a preference for performance-oriented, GPU-accelerated systems.
12 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Master's in Science and Engineering Computer Graphics and Gaming Technologies, Master's in Science and Engineering Computer Graphics and Gaming Technologies at University of PennsylvaniaBSE Computer Science, BSE Computer Science at Princeton University
English, Italian
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
1answer
0questions
Github Skills (7)
simulation8
algorithm7
pdf6
xfdf6
openmp6
adobe6
fdf6
Programming languages (1)
Github contributions (5)
rarietta/OpenGL-Deferred-Shader
Nov 2013 - Nov 2013
Contributions:22 commits in 1 day
rarietta/Projective-Dynamics
Apr 2014 - May 2014
Implementation of the Projective Dynamics simulation method proposed by Dr. Ladislav Kavan et al. in 2014. This method of simulation projects each constraint locally and in parallel by making use of the OpenMP library, which allows the algorithm to maintain real-time performance speeds even with complex models, before solving for the system globally. This is the first publicly available implementation of this research. Project video found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAG6ZEm7-Zc
Contributions:36 commits in 1 month
openmpsimulation
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