José A. Báez-Franceschi

José A. Báez-Franceschi has spent his career where art and technology meet. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Practices and Emerging Forms from the University of Houston School of Art, where his work was shown in the 36th MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum (2014), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Animation, with a minor in Photography, from Ringling College of Art and Design.

Since 2020 he has led JBF Studios in Houston as senior computer animator, delivering full-cycle visual storytelling for clients — from ideation and research through final production — across still images, short animations and full-motion graphics. He brings emerging AI tools and workflows into that pipeline, including a set of ten animated characters developed for a science-fiction film using AI alongside traditional techniques.

As Game Director at Virtuix (2013–2014) he developed “TraVR”, a first-person shooter demo for the Omni VR platform built in UDK and Unreal Engine, and led the team through two versions of its adventure story.

He taught at the University of Houston for over a decade. As Instructor in Game Art and Animation in Computer Science (2007–2015) he taught Unity3D, Unreal Engine, Maya and Mudbox, grew course enrollment from 65 to 130 students, and received the university’s Group Teaching Award for game design courses (2012). As Assistant Professor of Game Design and Mobile App Design in Information Technology and Logistics (2015–2020) he was lead instructor for the Gaming and Simulation emphasis. Mentoring student teams, he guided “Big Impact Bear” to win the 2011 U.S. national final of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup in the mobile category, with further teams placing 2nd and 3rd in 2010 and 3rd, 4th and 6th in 2012.

His 3D work reaches beyond the classroom: published computer-graphics research on facial animation credits him for building and preparing the 3D face models it used; he is a co-author of a 2016 GEOPHYSICS paper on 3D-printed rock models; and he co-authored 2020 work on a virtual-reality cue-exposure and mindfulness intervention developed with Texas State University. He was also part of the University of Houston’s NEA-supported Southeast Houston Arts Initiative (2012).

Earlier he was a Computer Systems Analyst at the University of Houston (2002–2006), and took on freelance animation that reached large audiences: the Houston Rockets’ season-opening sequence (2006), modelled, rendered and animated on a 24-node render farm with Mental Ray and featuring the Sam Houston statue and the San Jacinto Obelisk; and a motion-captured 3D character with virtual jewelry, built with the Vicon II system for a Houston Museum of Fine Arts exhibition (2007). His cinematography work received a Rhythm and Hues Honorable Mention at Siggraph 2001.

Today he works in Maya, Blender and Unreal Engine 5, with over 20 years in the animation industry, and publishes his reel, original music and AI-assisted music videos on the JBF Studios YouTube channel. He is fluent in English and Spanish.

JBF Studios is where that experience becomes client work — combining hand-built 3D animation with generative AI, and treating every project as a story first.