AI · Real-Time 3D · Enterprise

Michael Wilken

New technology arrives as a promise. I make it deliver — practical, production-grade implementations shaped to a company’s real landscape and goals, and teams built to keep delivering after the demo ends.

01 / The Function

Promises don’t ship themselves. New platforms rarely lose on capability. They lose in the gap between a brilliant demo and a customer’s production line — where someone has to understand the pressures and motivations on both sides of the table, speak build and business in the same meeting, and hold trust through the hard middle until a pilot becomes a habit. That gap is my work. I’ve run it from both sides: inside the platform company serving its most demanding customers, and inside the customer’s world shipping with the platform’s tools. Either way the job is the same — design it, build it, and defend it in the room where the renewal gets decided.

Creative

Came up inside elite, high-pressure agency creative departments. I understand the people who make the work — their pressures, their motivations, their bar.

Technical

Toyota’s Virtual Garage to Epic’s enterprise front line. Real-time 3D shipped under production constraints — hands still on the tools daily.

Business

Ran the P&L. I understand what adopting new technology actually costs a business mid-production — and what makes it worth it.

02 / The Record

8yrsbuilt and led Epic’s enterprise TAM group
35+car models shipped with Unreal Engine HMI
1→40person profit center grown from a single 3D/VR role
  1. REC.01Epic Games2017–2025
  2. REC.02Automotive HMI35+ models
  3. REC.03Saatchi & Saatchi LA1→40
  4. REC.04AI at Scale

Shown as concept. The originals shipped under NDA.

Net REC.01 — 02 · The Record

Epic Games

Eight years building and leading Epic’s enterprise Technical Account Manager group — the front line between Unreal Engine and the companies betting real production on it. Inside the platform company, serving its most demanding customers.

8yrsbuilding and leading the enterprise TAM group
2017–2025at Epic Games
Bench plate: copper turbine study emerging from darkness
REC.01 · bench plate — turbine study

Full record ↓

Net REC.02 — 02 · The Record

Automotive HMI

Unreal Engine instrument clusters and cabin interfaces shipped in production cars — real-time 3D held to automotive production constraints, on the dashboard and on the road.

35+car models shipped with Unreal Engine HMI
UE5in production, in the cabin
Bench plate: instrument cluster study in copper and dark glass
REC.02 · bench plate — instrument cluster study

Full record ↓

Net REC.03 — 02 · The Record

Saatchi & Saatchi LA

A single 3D/VR role grown into a 40-person profit center — the real-time and virtual production group behind Toyota and Lexus work, run with agency pressure and a P&L.

1→40person profit center, grown from one role
Toyota · Lexusflagship accounts
Bench plate: array study, one element becoming forty
REC.03 · bench plate — array study, 1→40

Full record ↓

Net REC.04 — 02 · The Record

AI at Scale

AI run as production infrastructure, not a demo — ComfyUI pipelines, capture-to-engine workflows, and generative systems directed with taste.

capture→engineLiDAR scans to real-time environments
ComfyUIdirected generative pipelines
Bench plate: signal pipeline study, threads of light
REC.04 · bench plate — signal pipeline study

Full record ↓

03 / Experiments

Net EXP.01 — 03 · Experiments

Capture → Engine

A capture-to-engine pipeline turning large-scale LiDAR scans into production-ready real-time environments.

LiDAR → UElarge-scale scan to engine
Bench plate: terrain capture field study in contour lines
EXP.01 · bench plate — capture field study

Bench log ↓

Net EXP.02 — 03 · Experiments

Directed Generative Imaging

Generative imaging workflows run as a directed system — model-agnostic, taste-driven.

model-agnosticdirected as a system, judged by taste
Bench plate: optics study, cine lens in copper and steel
EXP.02 · bench plate — optics study

Bench log ↓

Net EXP.03 — 03 · Experiments

Agent Orchestration

Testing agent orchestration for production pipelines.

in testagents against production pipelines
Bench plate: orchestration study, node structure in copper
EXP.03 · bench plate — orchestration study

Bench log ↓

L3Plate Archive12 platesDESCEND ↓

04 / Contact

  1. J1Direct lineEMAIL · LINKEDIN

Record REC.01 · The Record

Epic Games

2017 – 2025 · ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Unreal Engine was leaving the games industry — for factories, studios, design floors, and broadcast trucks. Someone had to stand where the platform met its most demanding enterprise customers, and stay there. I built that function: Epic’s enterprise technical account management group, from first hire to standing practice.

Eight years on the front line of adoption — designing the engagement, holding trust through the hard middle between pilot and production, and defending the work in the room where the renewal gets decided.

Dark copper lattice framework receding into fog
fig. 1 — platform at enterprise scale: structure resolving out of the dark.
  • 8yrson the enterprise front line
  • 0→1TAM group built and led
  • 2017–25Unreal Engine, enterprise

Record REC.01 · on permanent display

Record REC.02 · The Record

Automotive HMI

35+ CAR MODELS · UNREAL ENGINE IN THE DASHBOARD

Real-time engines were a promise to the car industry: one graphics stack from design review all the way to the dashboard itself. I worked the gap between that promise and start-of-production — Unreal Engine running as the human-machine interface in shipping vehicles.

35+ car models shipped with UE-based HMI across the programs I supported. Production constraints, safety sign-off, tier-one integration — the unglamorous middle where a demo becomes a habit.

Instrument cluster specimen render, copper and dark glass
fig. 1 — instrument cluster, specimen render.
  • 35+models at start-of-production
  • UE5as the production HMI stack
  • SOPshipped, not demoed

Record REC.02 · on permanent display

Record REC.03 · The Record

Saatchi & Saatchi LA

1→40 · TOYOTA · LEXUS

Hired as a single 3D/VR generalist inside Toyota’s agency; left having grown that seat into a 40-person profit center — building Toyota’s Virtual Garage and shipping work for Toyota and Lexus.

Ran it as a business, not a lab: hiring, pipeline, and the P&L. That’s where I learned what adopting new technology actually costs a company mid-production — and what makes it worth it.

Precision lens specimen render, copper and dark steel
fig. 1 — the craft side of the ledger: optics, specimen render.
  • 1→40person profit center
  • P&Lowned and grown
  • 2marquesToyota · Lexus

Record REC.03 · on permanent display

Record REC.04 · The Record

AI at Scale

CURRENT · PIPELINES · COMFYUI · CAPTURE-TO-ENGINE

The same gap, new technology. Generative AI arrives as a demo and stalls the same way real-time 3D once did. I run the current stack hands-on — ComfyUI pipelines, capture-to-engine workflows, agent orchestration — as production systems, not experiments.

The bet is the one it’s always been: taste plus infrastructure. Directed systems that hold a bar, on hardware I own, shaped to real production constraints.

Parallel copper light trails converging in darkness
fig. 1 — long exposure of a pipeline: many threads, one output.
  • Localfirst — owned hardware
  • Directedsystems, not prompt roulette
  • Prodconstraints, real deliverables

Record REC.04 · acquisition ongoing

Net EXP.01 · Experiments

Capture → Engine

ACTIVE · LIDAR IN, REAL-TIME OUT

A capture-to-engine pipeline turning large-scale LiDAR scans into production-ready real-time environments — raw point clouds in, engine-clean geometry out.

Current focus: throughput and repeatability. The path from field capture to engine should be a system, not a heroic one-off.

Copper scan contour lines revealing dark terrain
fig. 1 — terrain resolved line by line out of the dark.

Bench log · EXP.01 · live

Net EXP.02 · Experiments

Directed Generative Imaging

ACTIVE · MODEL-AGNOSTIC, TASTE-DRIVEN

Generative imaging run as a directed system — model-agnostic, taste-driven. The models change monthly; the direction doesn’t.

Local-first on owned hardware, tuned pipelines over prompt roulette. The output has to survive a professional bar, not a feed.

Copper structure emerging from dark fog
fig. 1 — a structure emerging from fog: directed, not found.

Bench log · EXP.02 · live

Net EXP.03 · Experiments

Agent Orchestration

ACTIVE · PRODUCTION PIPELINES

Testing agent orchestration for production pipelines: which work can be delegated to autonomous systems, and what supervision structure keeps the output at a professional bar.

Early, deliberately — small crews of agents on real tasks. The same discipline as building a team, applied to software.

Copper turbine specimen, many blades on one axis
fig. 1 — many blades, one axis: specimen render.

Bench log · EXP.03 · live

MW-01 · MATERIAL