Tom Varik
Staff Software Engineer at Pixar Animation Studios
San Francisco, California, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolTom Varik is a Staff Software Engineer in San Francisco with 11 years of experience building high-performance graphics, distributed systems, and full-stack applications. He moved from law into software, combining a JD and a BFA in motion picture production with pragmatic engineering—an unusual blend that informs his work on renderer architecture and visual fidelity. At Pixar he contributes to foundational open-source projects like OpenUSD, improving rendering correctness and material handling in hdPrman, and previously drove large-scale ingestion and collaborative editor systems at Casetext and platform work at Autodesk. Tom is known for refactoring complex graphics backends, shipping reliable low-level improvements that enhance transparency, double-sided materials, and culling behavior, while mentoring teams on scalable system design.
11 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Full Stack Javascript, Full Stack Javascript at Hack ReactorBachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Motion Picture Production, Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Motion Picture Production at Wright State UniversityJD, Law, JD, Law at University of Akron School of Law
English, French, Japanese
Stackoverflow
56reputation
356reached
1answer
1question
Github Skills (7)
c-language10
cprogramming-language10
opengl8
nodejs-addon6
nodejs6
javascript6
python6
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD
Jun 2022 - Dec 2022
Universal Scene Description
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:15 commits, 7 comments in 5 months
Contributions summary:Tom's commits primarily involve refactoring and modifying the UsdImagingGLEngine, specifically removing and replacing methods related to OpenGL state management. They also implemented and integrated support for double-sided materials and cull styles within the hdPrman renderer. Furthermore, the user addressed issues related to the handling of material IDs in mesh topologies and improved the appearance of transparency in the OSL shader.
universal-scene-descriptionscene
TGVarik/convert
Feb 2015 - Apr 2016
Contributions:118 pushes, 1 branch in 1 year 2 months
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