Carlos Ulloa is one of 10 nominees for Developer of the Year in the 2014 net Awards. He is based in Brighton, UK, and his work centres around combining music and 3D graphics to create games and visualisations. We quizzed him to find out more.
What are your main areas of expertise?
I make games, music visualisations and creative apps, all in beautiful 3D. I specialise in high-end interactive 3D design and development for a variety of platforms including Unity, WebGL and mobile.
Give us a summary of your career so far.
I've been passionately involved with 3D graphics since the early 90s, working at Psygnosis and Sony on Playstation and PC games. Then I moved into online advertising, creating interactive pieces for leading agencies in Madrid, Barcelona and London.
In 2006, I created Papervision3D, an Open Source engine that pioneered the use of 3D graphics in Flash. A year later, I founded HelloEnjoy together with my partner Libertad, and we've been designing and building playful experiences every since.
What have you been working on over the last year?
During 2013 we developed two client projects: Samsung Racer S, a racing demo optimised for mobile browsers, and Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge, a social-powered unveil of a new concept car, developed together with TBWA Hong Kong.
We also created HelloRun, a hypnotic 3D runner game focused on speed and rhythm, featuring music by indie dance band Du Tonc.
What have been the particular high points of your career?
I think HelloRun is my best project so far as it combines my passion for games with my love of music. The development was quite a challenge, especially since it was one of the first WebGL projects to be fully optimised for mobile devices. Adding support for mouse, keyboard, touch screen and Leap controls also meant a lot of work. But working on the graphics was probably what I enjoyed most, writing GLSL shaders synchronised to the music is my definition of fun.
What are you excited about at the moment?
I'm interested in exploring new ways to interact with visuals and audio, transforming the relationship between music, graphics and interaction.
Tell us about an important lesson you've learned in your career.
You can always do one more rewrite, and you probably should.
Name an 'unsung hero', someone you admire who deserves more recognition for their work.
I follow Nicolas Barradeau, a very talented graphic coder from Paris. I'm also a big fan of Theo Tillberg, his work is always interesting.
The public voting phase of is the net Awards is now closed. Judges voting will begin on 31 March 2014.
