Resume // 2026

James Preston Cardona

Senior Real-Time 3D Designer Unreal Engine Immersive Experiences Virtual Production

Dallas, TX JamesPrestonCardona@gmail.com (214) 883-9567
01 // Profile

Professional Summary

Senior real-time 3D experience designer with 20+ years of experience spanning Unreal Engine, architectural visualization, virtual production, VR/AR, interactive media, character development, motion capture, cinematic production, and technical direction.

Specializes in combining real-time technology, visual design, and production pipelines to transform architectural and creative concepts into interactive environments, cinematic experiences, and client-facing digital products. Experienced leading complex projects and collaborating across architecture, design, development, and production teams.

02 // Expertise

Core Expertise

Unreal Engine Real-Time 3D Architectural Visualization Immersive Experiences Environment & Level Design Virtual Production VR / AR Character Development Motion Capture Cinematics Real-Time Lighting Visual Effects UX / UI Technical Direction Pipeline Development Project Leadership
03 // Tools

Tools & Technologies

Real-Time / 3D

Unreal Engine, Blender, 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, Substance, Marvelous Designer, Twinmotion, Revit, Unity, Anima, Daz Studio

Production / VFX

Nuke, After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, SynthEyes, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Development

C++, C#, Python, JavaScript, Three.js, HTML5, CSS3, PHP, SQL, MySQL

Additional

Pro Tools, FL Studio, Logic, Ableton
ADA Accessibility, HIPAA Compliance

04 // Experience

Professional Experience

VLK Architects

Experience Designer

  • Design and develop interactive real-time architectural environments in Unreal Engine for client presentations, design communication, immersive visualization, and experiential storytelling.
  • Lead character-development and motion-capture workflows for real-time architectural and interactive experiences.
  • Create cinematic architectural visualization content integrating real-time 3D, animation, virtual cinematography, lighting, editing, motion graphics, compositing, and visual effects.
  • Develop immersive VR experiences that allow clients and project teams to explore architectural environments at full scale before construction.
  • Design and refine real-time and virtual-production pipelines supporting interactive, cinematic, and live production workflows.
  • Optimize complex architectural assets, materials, lighting, characters, and environments for real-time performance and presentation.
  • Collaborate with architects, designers, visualization teams, and technical stakeholders to translate design concepts into polished interactive and cinematic experiences.

iTours

Director of Digital Design

  • Directed creative design and technical production across interactive experiences, mobile applications, VR/AR, animation, web development, and commercial media.
  • Led projects from concept and client discovery through design, development, production, testing, and final delivery.
  • Managed client relationships, project planning, technical direction, contracts, schedules, and multidisciplinary production workflows.
  • Directed mobile VR and AR application design, development, and production.
  • Developed interactive experiences combining 3D content, UX/UI, animation, video, and application development.
  • Directed commercial and branded content from concept and scripting through cinematography, animation, lighting, editing, motion graphics, and color finishing.

City of Dallas

Coordinator III / Digital Designer

  • Designed and developed digital products and interactive systems supporting Dallas Municipal Court, City Attorney’s Office, City Manager’s Office, Community Prosecution, Community Court, Dallas Love Field Airport, and Dallas Police initiatives.
  • Led UX/UI design and full-stack development for public-facing and internal applications.
  • Researched, designed, and developed Municipal Court payment kiosk interfaces, digital docket systems, digital signage, and other public-service technologies.
  • Supported server infrastructure, Active Directory, databases, VMware environments, networking, and security for digital systems and services.
  • Designed and administered multimedia streaming infrastructure supporting multicast and unicast video delivery.
  • Produced documentary video, motion graphics, photography, and digital media for City Attorney, Community Prosecution, Dallas Police, and Dallas City Council initiatives.

KVIA ABC Channel 7

Master Controller

  • Managed master-control operations supporting live and scheduled television broadcasting.
  • Performed technical-directing functions for live television and broadcast production.
  • Supported satellite acquisition, linking, rebroadcasting, signal routing, and transmission workflows.
  • Produced and edited broadcast content using linear and non-linear production systems.
  • Created motion graphics and provided camera, editing, and production support for commercial and station content.
05 // Education

Education

University of Texas at Dallas

Bachelor of Arts and Technology, Game Design

2018

TechSkills

Microsoft Systems Engineer

2009

El Paso Community College

Associate of Multimedia Production Technology, Web Design

2006