May El Zein - Personal Portfolio

About me

An out-of-the-box 3D Artist and Motion Designer pursuing a Master’s degree in Animation and Game Direction in search of an opportunity to professionally express creativity. I am a consistent hard worker interested in creating appealing, entertaining, and useful visuals.

What i'm doing

3D

Creating dynamic 3D scenes and effects across various softwares
Graphic Design

Creating interactive designs from posters to social media posts
Games

Developing and directing games of different genres and style
Motion Graphics

Creating captivating animations to convey a story

Technical Skills

Maya

Blender

3ds Max

ZBrush

Unity

Unreal Engine 5

Motion Builder

Vicon Blade

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe AfterEffects

Adobe Premiere

Adobe Illustrator

Krita

Davinci Resolve

Canva

Powerpoint

Languages

Arabic (Mother Tongue)

English (Fluent - C2)

German (Beginner - A1)

Resume

Education

Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences
2023 — present
Masters of Animation and Game Direction
Final Grade 1.6 (German Scale) - 3.8 (US GPA)
Notre Dame University Louaize
2018 — 2021
Bachelors of Computer Graphics and Animation
Final Grade 1.3 (German Scale) - 3.76 (US GPA)
Thesis Grade: 1.0 (German Scale) - 4.0 (US GPA)

Experience

Marketing Design Working Student @ Döhler Group
04.2025 — present Darmstadt - Germany
- Creating social media posts and videos to market Döhler's food and drink products.
- Working on animated infographics to support Döhler's marketing objectives.
- Responsible for digital signage on company screens.
Motion Capture Intern @ Metricminds GmbH
08.2024 — 02.2025 Frankfurt am Main - Germany
- Cleaned, solved, retargeted, and edited motion capture data for various projects.
- Expanded multi-platform compatibility of MAIA for Web, VR, and tablet environments, ensuring seamless cross-platform user experiences
- Supported production as a set runner during shoots, ensuring smooth operations.
- Motion captured and edited my own short animation.
Motion Design and Animation Working Student @ STABL Energy GmbH
03.2024 — 08.2024 (Remote) Munich - Germany
- Designed visually engaging documents and social media graphics aligned with company branding.
- Prepared high-quality 3D renders of company products.
- Edited and refined user interface (UI) elements for the company website.
User Interface Intern @ BMW Group
03.2022 — 12.2022 Munich - Germany
- Developed an Augmented Reality application exploring the use of robots in the workplace for my Bachelor Thesis, utilizing HoloLens 2 and Unity.
- Designed and implemented UI features for assembly-line robots using React (JavaScript, HTML, CSS)
Character Design Freelancing
06.2021 — 08.2021 (Remote) Beirut - Lebanon
- Created and designed characters based on script requirements.
- Modeled detailed 3D characters, incorporating feedback to meet client and project expectations.
Computer Graphics @ Hedgehog Post-Production
02.2021 — 07.2021 Beirut - Lebanon
- Designed TV show graphics, advertisements, and short animations, bringing creative concepts to life.
- Produced short doodle animations for various media platforms.
- Worked iteratively with clients, refining designs to align with their creative visions.
Visual Effects @ Post-Office Animation and Post-Production
06.2019 — 09.2019 Beirut - Lebanon
- Developed animatics for advertisement drafts to support pre-production processes.
- Conducted research on the fundamentals of digital compositing, applying knowledge to visual projects.
- Designed digital graphics for documentaries, delivering visually impactful storytelling elements.

Portfolio

"Dreamy Nightmare" | Motion Capture Animation

During my internship at Metricminds, I was given the chance to create a mocap project from beginning to end. I decided to work on this passion project named "Dreamy Nightmare", or "Fleeting" which resonated with me deeply. It was a pleasure to lay every one of its bricks and learn each step properly: from concept development and storyboarding, to acting on roller skates and cleaning mocap data, to finally rendering it out in UE5.
- Motive
- Vicon Blade
- Motion Builder
- Unreal Engine 5.3.2
Zenith Realms | Environment Puzzle Game

In the second semester of my Master's program, I was assigned as director to 5th semester Bachelor students Viola Huber, Emilia Mehlig, Josianne Pos, and Gina Marie Luethner to develop our calm environmental puzzle. The game is about a sole survivor called Ninami in a world undergoing a planetary split. We focused on puzzle elements, beautiful environemnts, and deep character and world stories. As Director, it was my priority to maintain the vision and ensure it comes to life while pointing the team members in the right direction and calling the difficult shots. I also created the beginning and end cutsenes and some 3D assets. Find the game on Steam!

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- Unity
- C#
- Houdini
- AfterEffects
- Blender
- Krita
Sortbot Experience | Augmented Reality Training Application

I developed this project during my internship with BMW in 2022 and submitted it as my Bachelor Thesis project. The main goal is to facilitate plant workers' training process and decrease the intimidation of introducing a new robot in factories.
- Unity
- Unity AR Foundation
- C#
- Hololens 2
- Mixted Reality Toolkit
The Little Prince | 3D animation

This project was undertaken as part of a stylized modeling and animation course in university. The assignment asked us to choose a memory that was dear to us and make it into a stylized scene. Given that the little prince book was an integral part of my childhood, and has resonated with me ever since, I chose to represent it.
- Maya
- Arnold
Vacuums Ad | Blender

I created a mythical creature by combining prominent features of some of my favorite animals and sculpted them in Zbrush.
- Blender
Old Lebanese House

As part of my work with Yugilo in 2020, I designed and developed the core interaction mechanics for 'Zarzura' an engaging Arabic word puzzle game.
- Maya
- Arnold
- Krita
Chester the Mythical Beast | Character Design and 3D Sculpting

I created a mythical creature by combining prominent features of some of my favorite animals and sculpted them in Zbrush.
- Zbrush
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Jester | Zbrush Character Design

Inspired by the theater and history of clowns, I sculpted a double-faced jester character.

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- ZBrush
Ramadan Commercial | Liquid Simulation

Developed a training application prototype for BMW Group in 2022, enabling users to grasp virtual car parts using a haptic feedback glove. The application allows users to manipulate car parts and position them into a highlighted area where the part should be placed. The prototype, streamed using Cloud XR software (ISAR Streaming) and explored Microsoft Holographics Streaming. This project was used in a study to compare the impact of haptic feedback versus no feedback on user performance, specifically measuring the time taken to complete the training tasks.
- 3ds Max
- Vray
- Realflow
Desert Duel | Turn-Based Unity Game

While delving deeper into Unity development, I liked the idea of incorporating an Arabian Desert setting with a turn based, fun, chaotic gameplay.
- Unity
- C#
Light & Darkness | PC Game

As part of a Unity game development course, we were asked to create a game with the theme of Light and Darkness. I was inspired by the Harry Potter series, specifically "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".
- Unity
- C#
- 3ds Max
Playing Cards | Illustration

I designed a custom deck for a friend with the suits inspired by their interests and shared memories.

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- Krita
1950s Livingroom | Maya Environment

Inspired by the theater and history of clowns, I sculpted a double-faced jester character.

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- Maya
- Arnorld