Varun Talwar

Varun Talwar is a Senior Software Engineer at Pixar Animation Studios since August 2019, contributing to the enhancement of the open-source Universal Scene Description (USD) project. Previous experience includes roles as a Software Engineer at Zenly, Inc. and Snapchat, Inc., focusing on map technologies, as well as serving as a Senior Graphics Engineer at Mapzen, where Varun worked on cross-platform rendering engines for GIS datasets. At DreamWorks Animation, Varun held multiple technical director positions, leading the integration of MARI into the surfacing pipeline and contributing to projects such as "How to Train Your Dragon 2." Varun's early career includes an internship at PDI/DreamWorks involving animation technology and academic experience at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, where Varun developed a realistic cotton cloth shader, and at Cadence Design Systems, where a utility for noise analysis was designed. Varun holds a Master of Science in Computer Graphics and Game Technology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.