Who are we?

When Disney decided to close the Lucasfilm Singapore branch, a bunch of artists, eager to stay and continue the legacy, got together to open a new kind of studio.  We’re studio ulu and we love to make stuff, be it digital or real-world objects. From 3D assets for high end games and Hollywood film productions, to collectibles, sculptures and jewelry. With combined 70 years of experience, we handle all aspects of development- concepting, model, texture, groom, 3D printing and manufacturing. 

 

Meet the team:

Michal, the founder and creative director of ulu. He's been supervising asset teams at ILM, MPC, Animal Logic and the Orphanage for the past 17 years. Both an experienced leader and educator, Michal holds bachelor's degree in fine art and has contributed to numerous courses and workshops in various art schools. Besides work in VFX and games industries, he's developed a jewelry line and sells sculptures to private collectors. Around the time he parted ways with ILM, he left his legacy as the Grogu bronze statue, installed where Lucasfilm studio once was. Demoreel

Sendhil is our senior modeler, who started his career in 2006 as a character modeler in Pixion Studios, Mumbai. During his 17 years of career in the VFX and feature animation industries, he's worked for domestic and international studios including MPC, DNEG, Barajoun and most recently ILM.  He's made major contributions to the  Academy Award  winning shows including The Jungle Book, Dune and many others. Demoreel

With 15 years of experience working at ILM, Jei is well versed across a variety of different art styles, ranging from the stylized and cartoony to highly realistic models. An expert organic modeler, he's worked on hero creatures, digital doubles, set up face shape libraries as well as in shot sculpting. Over the years he has contributed to iconic films such as Space Jam: A new legacy, Avengers: Endgame, Ready Player One, Warcraft and the Clone wars series and countless more. Outside of ILM he has also done sculpture work for 3d printing purposes. Demoreel

Daniel, recipient of the VES Environments Award for ILM's work on Ready Player One, with 25 years of VFX experience as a 3D generalist and virtual production artist on shows like "The Mandalorian" or "The book of Boba Fett". While at Unity Technologies, Daniel has been involved in the development of the Hair System (3rd best Tech at SIGGRAPH 2022) and the implementation of Weta's VFX Environment and Grooming Unity Tools. Currently designated as our AR/VR/Digital Twin expert, Daniel's been indispensable, thanks to his multifaceted approach in choosing the right tools for the task. Demoreel

Rakesh, 3D modeler and generalist, developed his cross-disciplinary skill set as a result of early exposure to the performing arts including mentorship, ideation, and creative problem solving. At ILM he's been involved in modeling anything from digital doubles to hard surface and environments for projects such as LOR: The Rings of Power . Before ILM, Rakesh was the lead lecturer at Mages Institute.

Samuel Chew is a senior modeler specializing in complex environment work. He started his career in Double Negative, then worked at ILM Singapore for the last 8 years. Sam has contributed to countless digital worlds, including Aquaman, End Game, Starwars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, All the lights we cannot see and many others. His work on both Ready Player One and The Rings of Power environments have won VES awards. As the ILM Singapore's area tech lead, he's honed his pipeline knowledge and supported the team with the necessary tools and software. Demoreel

With over 11 years in the creative industry, Ching Yee has played many parts, from scuplting toy figurines for MightyJaxx to animating award-winning short films "Sonder" (2018) and "Soft Rain" (2023). However, her true passion lies in character art for games and digital sculpture. She is well-versed in the game pipeline, performance limitation, and has a flair for providing relevant technical solutions thanks to her extensive background. Ching Yee has shipped several games on various platform and her most recent contribution involves first-of-its-kind AR/VR experience which will be released in the near future. 

We still have space for 2 more key employees. We're always on the lookout for talent. What sets us apart from most studios is our structure is cloud based. We're location independent, and therefore open to remote hires from anywhere in the world, as long as you have a proven record of prior work with the big boys.

If you're a freelancer with own clients, but in need of infrastructure and TPN certified facility, we're open to collaboration as well. Please email us at hello@studioulu.com.