Varun Talwar
Senior Software Engineer at Pixar Animation Studios
San Francisco, California, United States
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolVarun Talwar is a Senior Software Engineer with 12 years of experience building high-performance graphics and tooling for film-quality visual effects and mapping platforms, currently contributing to Pixar’s core USD (Universal Scene Description) codebase. He brings deep C++ and Python expertise from roles at Pixar, DreamWorks, Mapzen and Snap/Zenly, focusing on pipeline integration, rendering engines, and robust backend fixes that improve API stability and cross-platform builds. Varun’s work on USD includes bug fixes, refactors, test updates and build-script hardening—practical contributions to one of the industry’s foundational open-source scene description projects. He blends studio production experience (surfacing, MARI integration, crowds tools) with systems-level engineering, enabling artist-friendly tools that scale in production. Based in San Francisco with an MS in Computer Graphics and Game Technology from Penn, he has a rare mix of artist collaboration and low-level systems craftsmanship that keeps complex pipelines reliable.
11 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Masters of Sciences, Computer Graphics and Game Technology, Masters of Sciences, Computer Graphics and Game Technology at University of PennsylvaniaDelhi Public School - DwarkaBachelor of Technology, Information Technology, Bachelor of Technology, Information Technology at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
English, Hindi
Github Skills (11)
c-language10
api10
cprogramming-language10
python10
apidoc10
usd10
refactor9
refactoring9
cmake9
unit-testing9
build-system8
Programming languages (11)
Github contributions (5)
PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD
Aug 2019 - Dec 2022
Universal Scene Description
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:10 releases, 115 reviews, 276 commits in 3 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Varun primarily contributed to the USD (Universal Scene Description) project by fixing bugs and improving code quality within the codebase. Their work involved addressing coding errors related to path handling, ensuring Python interpreters were 64-bit, and fixing build script issues. The user also focused on refactoring the code, removing deprecated functions, updating tests, and making improvements to the API. Their contributions focused on improving the core functionality of the project's API.
universal-scene-descriptionscene
tallytalwar/OpenUSD
Sep 2019 - Feb 2025
Universal Scene Description
Contributions:2 PRs, 78 pushes, 27 branches in 5 years 6 months
universal-scene-descriptionscene
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