Tech Animator · Unreal Authorized Instructor · Shooters
Animation
systems
for Unreal.
I'm Diego Balarezo. I architect gameplay animation for 1P/3P shooters — modular systems where one setup drives every character, and the headroom to run 100 of them on screen.
Unreal Authorized Instructor
Accredited by Epic Games · 2026 ↗
LEGO Fortnite
Niagara-based VFX creation for LEGO versions of Fortnite emotes, adapting visual effects to the LEGO visual style.
No More Room in Hell 2
Implemented gameplay animation systems for player characters and AI in this cooperative multiplayer survival horror shooter.
Metal Eden
Developed gameplay animation systems for enemy AI characters including humanoid enemies, robots, and mechs.
Nyan Heroes
Built the full gameplay animation system from scratch for a multiplayer shooter featuring cats controlling mechs.
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway
Contributed as Technical Artist handling shaders, tools development, art optimization, and lighting.
Unannounced AAA Projects
Senior Technical Animator on AAA multiplayer online shooters under NDA, building gameplay animation systems and multiplayer pipelines.
Technical animation
reel.
How it
works.
Locomotion
architecture
The base graph owns logic and transitions; the assets live outside it. Weapons and archetypes plug in through layer interfaces, so an animator can ship a new weapon or a new archetype and never open the base graph.
Modular
cosmetics
Body parts, weapons and attachments are swappable layers, each carrying its own dynamics: ponytails, capes, backpacks, wings. It is the way Fortnite ships cosmetics, and it is built so an outsourcing team can add content straight into the core setup.
100 on
screen
A co-op zombie shooter running up to 100 characters. Significance decides which features stay on at each distance, and animation sharing carries the background crowd. The significance pass itself belonged to another team; my part was the setup that let them toggle features and leave animation alone.
GAS-driven abilities, motion warping and runtime IK — so gameplay intent and animation agree on where the character actually lands.
Humanoids, robots and mechs sharing a single animation system instead of one per archetype. New enemy types stop being new work.
Capes, ponytails and cloth cost frame time, and the budget changes with the mode and the character count. I run that number before anyone rigs, so nobody builds something the game cannot afford.
Unreal-native
technical
animation.
I'm a Technical Animator & Tech Artist in Lima, Peru, focused on Unreal Engine 5 and first/third-person shooters, and an Unreal Authorized Instructor accredited by Epic Games. My work is character systems: one setup that drives every character, and a pipeline an outsourcing team can feed on its own.
The process is the same on every project. I build the architecture in Blueprints so animation and design can iterate at full speed, and once the design settles I move the hot paths to code with engineering. The team never waits on a rebuild to try an idea.
How many dynamics a character can afford is a decision about the mode, not about taste: 5v5 is not 50v5. So I run that budget before anyone rigs. And I build on Unreal's standard rather than around it, because custom work puts a person in the middle of every new character. On the team side that means one shared source of truth for priorities and ownership, and decisions written down where the next person can find them.
Unreal Authorized Instructor
Accredited by Epic Games · 2026 ↗