Erwin Heyms — Product Manager

I’ve been intrigued by video games from the first moment I came in contact with a computer. As such I quickly dove into the world of creating custom levels in games. I decided I wanted to turn my long time hobby into my future profession when I enrolled at the NHTV IGAD program as an artist. During my time at the NHTV I came into contact with Houdini. I used the skills I developed with this program to graduate Cum Laude with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering in Game Architecture and Design, with a focus on World building and Tech art. I followed this up with an internship at Side Effects Software in Santa Monica, California. My first project in the industry was at Ubisoft Paris on Ghost Recon Wildlands, where I had a key role in the development of our procedural world building pipeline. After which I've worked on several more Video games titles at Ubisoft Montpellier as a Technical Artist, including the release of Ghost Recon Breakpoint & Riders Republic. Next to my tasks as technical artist and world builder, I have created and hosted both public and exclusive company-wide Houdini classes, both on-site and in video format, in over 80 hours of in-depth video lecture materials. In January 2023, I left Ubisoft to continue on my own business, where I provide Houdini Consulting, R&D Contractor services and Training to clients. I am also available as a speaker and masterclass teacher for expo's and industry events. Please feel free to contact me if you wish for me to host such a class at events or other such occasions. Specialties: 3D, Procedural construction, Technical level design, World building, Level Scripting & Problem solving and teaching Houdini skills.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Video Game Development Specialist with expertise in procedural design and technical art.

Location: Montpellier, Occitanie, France

Experience: 10 yrs 5 mos

Skills

Houdini
Procedural Development
Pipeline Design
Procedural Tools
World Building
Road Toolsets
Terraforming
Game Design

Career Highlights

Developed Massive Worlds Toolkit for open world games.
Hosted over 100 hours of Houdini masterclasses.
Key contributor to Ghost Recon Wildlands development.

Work Experience

Distinct Possibility Studios

Senior Houdini Technical Artist (1 yr 10 mos)

Fracture Labs

Lead Technical Artist (2 yrs 3 mos)

E-Houdini Academy

Houdini Teacher & Procedural Pipeline Integration Consultant for Games & Architecture (3 yrs 1 mo)

Houdini Teacher and Pipeline Integration Consultant (Part Time). (2 yrs)

Ubisoft

Technical Artist And Houdini Teacher at Ubisoft Montpellier (5 yrs 10 mos)

Technical Artist at Ubisoft Paris (3 yrs 6 mos)

Side Effects Software

Intern Procedural Game Design (6 mos)

NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences

Graduation year student (11 mos)

Guerrilla Games

intern level design (5 mos)

Education

Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) at Breda University of Applied Sciences

at Berkenschutse - leerling

Erwin Heyms

Product Manager

Montpellier, Occitanie, France10 yrs 5 mos experience

Highly Stable

Key Highlights

Developed Massive Worlds Toolkit for open world games.
Hosted over 100 hours of Houdini masterclasses.
Key contributor to Ghost Recon Wildlands development.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Video Game Development Specialist with expertise in procedural design and technical art.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

HoudiniProcedural DevelopmentPipeline DesignProcedural ToolsWorld BuildingRoad ToolsetsTerraformingGame Design

Other Skills

Game DevelopmentTeachingIT ConsultingUnreal Engine 5UnityUnreal Engine 3MayaLevel DesignUV mappingVideo GamesLow Poly ModelingPS3TexturingGame ProgrammingGameplay

About

Experience

10 yrs 5 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 1 mo

Average Tenure

Current Experience

Distinct possibility studios

Senior Houdini Technical Artist

Mar 2024 – Jan 2026 · 1 yr 10 mos · Remote

I was hired as Senior Technical Artist for Reaper Actual, taking on a Procedural Pipeline Specialist and World Building role as a full time contractor. I Integrated my Open World Framework, the Massive Worlds Toolkit into their World Building Pipeline and played a fundamental role in shaping the open world LD and Art Pipeline for the project.
In this role I was responsible for the creation of the open world Landscape and its biomes, foliage layouts created using Houdini and PCG.
As well as the distribution of grass actors and RVT materials for road and airport tarmac decals.
I also created and managed the road layouts of the map, including those for villages, cities and other Points of interest.
I managed the Procedural Art Team under me, and I provided various tutorials and documentation to the team, and trained LD and Artists in the use of the tools and pipeline.

HoudiniUnreal Engine 5Pipeline Design

Fracture labs

Lead Technical Artist

Apr 2023 – Jul 2025 · 2 yrs 3 mos · Remote

I'm collaborating with the team at Fracturelabs to create their upcoming survival shooter Decimated.
I started in a mentoring role and was hired in on part-time basis to oversee the tech art team and handle the procedural pipeline integration.
Finished part-time work in February 2024 as the project was scaled down, retained a consulting role.

E-houdini academy

2 roles

Houdini Teacher & Procedural Pipeline Integration Consultant for Games & Architecture

Promoted

Jan 2023 – Feb 2026 · 3 yrs 1 mo

I provide Houdini Consulting and R&D Contractor Services with a focus on World building & Procedural Pipeline Design for Games and Architecture.
I have over a decade of experience developing procedural tools and pipelines designed to provide high quality, interactive procedural workflows for several large scale triple-A video game titles.
I developed and provide a procedural (open world) pipeline using Houdini for the Unreal Engine 5.
My Massive Worlds Toolkit provides a solid foundation for large scale open world development, providing a ready to integrate open world pipeline.
I also provide custom made procedural world building and tools development for Games and Architecture Visualization.
Additionally, I develop and provide in depth lectures and mentoring for Houdini as part of my E-Houdini Academy Initiative. With a 50 Hour course foundation course currently available.

Game DevelopmentTeachingProcedural DevelopmentIT ConsultingHoudini

Houdini Teacher and Pipeline Integration Consultant (Part Time).

Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 · 2 yrs

Ubisoft

2 roles

Technical Artist And Houdini Teacher at Ubisoft Montpellier

Mar 2017 – Jan 2023 · 5 yrs 10 mos

Worked as a Technical Artist on Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Riders Republic and Beyond Good and Evil 2.
I focused on the creation, maintenance and usage of procedural tools used in the world building process. Features developed and created by me on this project include: the road network, railroads, natural road-side decoration placement such as cliffs and rock formations and maintaining our procedural compositing pipeline in Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Additionally, I worked on various world building and support tools for Riders Republic, including procedural sound placement for rivers and mountains, backdrop vegetation generation & wildlife spawning tools.
I created and hosted a 38 hour E-Learning Houdini Masterclass for the company, in addition to hosting 100+ hours of Live classroom lectures.
Besides this, I also hosted an 8 hour Houdini Masterclass at MIGS 2018 in Montreal on road construction and advanced Pathfinding techniques in Houdini. I am available for other conferences and masterclasses.

Technical Artist at Ubisoft Paris

Sep 2013 – Mar 2017 · 3 yrs 6 mos

Developed tools at the core of Ghost Recon Wildlands.
Specifically I have been responsible for the Road and Settlement toolsets as well as the terraforming compositing pipeline.

Side effects software

Intern Procedural Game Design

Mar 2013 – Sep 2013 · 6 mos · Santa Monica, Los Angeles

I developed level and tile generator assets and demonstrated these through video and live presentation at Siggraph 2013.
The generator was created to work in combination with the Houdini Engine Unity Plug-in.

Nhtv breda university of applied sciences

Graduation year student

Feb 2012 – Jan 2013 · 11 mos

I am working on a Procedural FPS Arena Level Generator.

Guerrilla games

intern level design

Sep 2011 – Feb 2012 · 5 mos · The Randstad, Netherlands

Prototyped a weapon system for Killzone 4 - Shadow Fall
Designed together with a small team, on a production level for Killzone 4 - Shadow Fall.
Designed, created and scripted a white boxed single-player prototype level, containing
several prototype level and gameplay features for Killzone 4 - Shadow Fall.