Thomas Kole, technical artist.


I am a Dutch technical artist, currently employed at YIPP in Amsterdam. I have made various projects over the years, always somewhere in between programming and art, and usually they usually involve 3D.

🦋 thomaskole.bsky.social
🐘 mastodon.gamedev.place/@thomas_kole
✉️ thomas@thomaskole.nl

A Portrait of Tenochtitlan


A 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec Empire, what is now Mexico City. Made in Blender, rendered to look like aerial photographs.

Main Website (tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl)
BCON24 presentation (20:00)

National Geographic
Wired
El País

Blender Hoogtedata Addon


use public Dutch height data from PDOK in Blender.

Seams 2 Sewing
Pattern


Blender add-on for creating and tweaking sewing patterns.

Projects at YIPP


At YIPP I have worked on many location-based interactive experiences for museums. They are too numerous to list, but here you can find a few of my favorites.

Automatic environment LOD


Research at ForceField VR, on automating the capture of an entire environment into a low-poly version, inspired by photogrammetry.

Apollo 15 VR


An early VR experiment for Google Cardboard.

Half-Line Miami


A videogame mash-up between Half Life and Hotline Miami

Plotter


A plotter made out of an old drafting table. A raspberry pi hosts a server that processes SVG's, an arduino controls stepper motors attached via 3D printed parts.

Custom Motion Blur


Unreal Engine plugin for high-quality motion blur on static objects.

Virtual Production


Olympic coverage for Eurosport, a virtual F1 studio, and more. At NEP the Netherlands.

About me, contact


I am a Dutch technical artist.
For me that means I am a bit of a software developer, and a bit of a 3D artist. I enjoy bridging the gap, and applying technical knowledge to the creative proceses.

I studied video game software development at Digital Arts and Entertainment, part of HOWEST in Kortrijk, Belgium.

Afterwards (2017) I did an internship, and was later hired, at ForceField VR in Amsterdam (now part of Vertigo Games).

I then (2018) moved to NEP, a TV facility company in Hilversum. Using virtual production we worked on TV shows, in a modified Unreal Engine.

Since 2019 I have worked for YIPP, a studio in Amsterdam that makes digital interactives for museums. We use Unity in combination will all sorts of input and output (micro-electronics, projections) to make exiting on-site games for visitors on all sorts of topics.

In 2023 I released "a Portait of Tenochtitlan", a 3D reconstruction of the Aztec Empire. A side-project that got out of hand, reaching a wide audience of millions and attracting media attention worldwide.

You can find me at the following social media:
🦋 thomaskole.bsky.social
🐘 mastodon.gamedev.place/@thomas_kole

Or mail me at:
✉️ thomas@thomaskole.nl