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Mina Daoud
Mina Daoud
Lead asset artist, senior environment, Houdini generalist
Cairo, Egypt

Summary

I'm a Senior Environment Artist and Houdini Generalist with 14+ years of experience in film, episodic VFX, and virtual production.
He specializes in procedural environment workflows, look development, and delivering high-quality, production-ready worlds across offline and real-time pipelines.
With international studio experience and a strong mentoring background, he blends artistic vision with technical precision to drive teams and projects forward.

Skills

3D ModelingPBR TexturingDigital SculptingUV Mapping3d assetsVFXCinematicsUDIMProp ModelingHigh-poly ModelingLow-poly ModelingHard Surface ModelingEnvironment Modeling3D VisualizationLightingRenderingenvironment organicHoudiniorganic modelingscatteringLook Development

Software proficiency

Maya
Maya
ZBrush
ZBrush
Substance 3D Painter
Substance 3D Painter
Houdini
Houdini
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
SpeedTree
SpeedTree
Photoshop
Photoshop
RizomUV
RizomUV
Gaea
Gaea
World Machine
World Machine
World Creator
World Creator
Marvelous Designer
Marvelous Designer
Keyshot
Keyshot
Katana
Katana
Clarisse iFX
Clarisse iFX
Nuke
Nuke
Arnold
Arnold
V-Ray
V-Ray
Marmoset Toolbag
Marmoset Toolbag
CrazyBump
CrazyBump
Substance 3D Designer
Substance 3D Designer
Redshift
Redshift
Substance 3D Sampler
Substance 3D Sampler
mental ray
mental ray
After Effects
After Effects
Premiere
Premiere
AutoCAD
AutoCAD
Lumion
Lumion
Twinmotion
Twinmotion
UVLayout
UVLayout

Reel

Productions

    • Movie
      SnowWhite
    • Year
      2025
    • Role
      Key environment artist
    • Company
      MPC London
    • TV Production
      The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
    • Year
      2024
    • Role
      CG Generalist
    • Company
      Ghost VFX
    • TV Production
      For All Mankind Season 4
    • Year
      2024
    • Role
      CG Generalist
    • Company
      Ghost VFX
    • TV Production
      Star Trek Discovery season 5
    • Year
      2024
    • Role
      CG Generalist
    • Company
      Ghost VFX
    • Movie
      Fast X
    • Year
      2023
    • Role
      CG Generalist
    • Company
      Ghost VFX
    • TV Production
      Prehistoric planet 2
    • Year
      2023
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      MPC episodic London
    • Movie
      Aquaman and the lost kingdom
    • Year
      2023
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      MPC films London
    • Movie
      Snow White
    • Year
      2023
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      MPC films London
    • Movie
      Disenchanted
    • Year
      2022
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      MPC films London
    • Movie
      Mousa
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • Movie
      The Knower
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • Movie
      Ahmed Noterdame
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • Commercial / Advertisement
      nestle
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • Commercial / Advertisement
      Vodafone
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • TV Production
      Leabet Newton
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Trend VFX
    • Commercial / Advertisement
      dekwa el tayeb
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • Commercial / Advertisement
      Lays
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • Commercial / Advertisement
      Tornado
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • TV Production
      Wadi al Jinn the cave
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Trend VFX
    • Commercial / Advertisement
      Sunsilk
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • Commercial / Advertisement
      Galaxy
    • Year
      2020
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Aroma Studios
    • TV Production
      The Choice 2
    • Year
      2022
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Trend VFX
    • TV Production
      The Choice 1
    • Year
      2020
    • Role
      3D Environment Artist
    • Company
      Trend VFX

Experience

  • Senior Environment artist & Houdini Generalist at Squids VFX
    Cairo, EG
    August 2024 - Present

    * Creation of environments, lighting, rendering, shading, and Lookdev, with a

    focus on USD, Solaris, and Karma in Houdini.

    * built a complete environment for TV Commercials, covering landscape, tree

    creation in SpeedTree, Megascans integration, procedural texturing, layout,

    Scatter and set dressing.

  • 3D Instructor & mentor at Nayzak animation school
    Cairo, EG
    March 2024 - Present

    I teach 3D Environment courses part-time at Nayzak, focusing on Maya,

    Unreal, and Houdini, while using tools like Substance Painter, ZBrush,

    SpeedTree, WorldMachine, Gaea, and others to support the classes.

  • 3d environment artist at V360 energy
    London, GB
    January 2024 - May 2024

    Working on creating optimized very low 3D assets for VR Headset, in

    modeling and texturing, and importing them into unreal inside the projects.

    Using Maya, Unreal, Substance painter, ZBrush, and many more to support the workflow.

  • CG Generalist at Ghost VFX
    London
    January 2023 - November 2023

    Created and developed assets, including organic and hard surface models,

    props, terrains, environments, and foliage, using manual and procedural

    modeling in Maya and Houdini, integrating Megascans with USD and Solaris,

    while also providing 3D tool training to junior team members.

     Created the full environment for “The Walking Dead”, including landscape

    concept, tree creation in SpeedTree, Megascans integration, procedural

    texturing, layout, Scatter, and set dressing.

     The walking Dead, Star Trek, Fast X, and For all Mankind

  • 3d Key Environment at MPC FILMS
    London
    January 2022 - January 2023

    Disenchanted movie

    I was responsible for modeling the well of magic outside and inside, ropes with multiple variations, and the moss that was surrounded by the well of magic (Modeling, Sculpting, and UV) (Maya, and ZBrush).

    3D real-time modeling and Virtual production

    I was responsible for;

    ● Modeling and sculpting

    ● Assets optimization

    ● LOD OPTIMISATION

    ● UVs sharing

    ● Texturing

    All that I did was (modeling, sculpting, UV, and texturing) working for Unreal models and LOD optimization.

    Maya, ZBrush, substance painter, and Unreal

  • 3D Environment Artist at AROMA
    Giza Dokki, Egypt
    August 2020 - August 2021

    3d modeling assets, props, and environments, Texture painting, and shading

    • Arnold and Clarisse Workflow

    • worked on a lot of advertisements and movies

    • Modeling mid to high poly Modeling, hard surface modeling

    • VFX cinematic pipeline workflow, PBR Workflow, and UDIM Workflow

  • Environment Artist at Trend VFX
    Giza, Egypt
    February 2020 - July 2020

    3d modeling assets, props, and environments, Texture painting, and shading

    • Arnold and Clarisse Workflow

    • worked on a lot of TV series, and movies

    • high poly Modeling, hard surface modeling

  • Manager of the 3D art department at Marina Vierge Group
    mohandessen, Egypt
    January 2014 - January 2020

    Manager of the 3D art department

  • team leader at M&M
    cairo, Egypt
    August 2012 - July 2013

    Leading Modeling, animation, ... rendering, manage whole projects

  • 3D generalist at Ramy Anton's Jeweler
    cairo, Egypt
    November 2010 - June 2011

    3D modeling for printing on CNC and Laser machines

    for gold production and jewelry

  • 3D generalist at Vision
    cairo, Egypt
    May 2010 - October 2010

    3D modeling for Villages

  • 3D generalist at Silver House
    cairo, Egypt
    September 2009 - June 2010

    Modeling and animation for exterior villages and environments

  • 3D generalist at Vadecom
    cairo, Egypt
    January 2007 - June 2009

    3D modeler, animator for logos, products, landscape, and exterior

  • 3Ds max Trainer private and special courses at YAT educational center
    cairo, Egypt
    January 2006 - July 2006

    3Ds max Trainer private and special courses