Stacey Dunten

Stacey Dunten is a 3D artist and teaching faculty member specializing in lighting, texturing, shading, and rendering for animation, visual effects, and real-time filmmaking. Her teaching focuses on the relationship between lighting, materials, visual storytelling, and the technical workflows used to create compelling 3D imagery.

Prior to joining the faculty at Florida State University, Stacey worked as a 3D artist and generalist in Los Angeles. Her professional experience includes Nickelodeon Animation, Onyx VFX, Crafty Apes VFX, and Halon Entertainment. At Nickelodeon Animation, she created master lighting setups and compositing templates for Rugrats, developing lighting approaches for realistic and fantastical environments. At Crafty Apes VFX, she worked in modeling, lighting, texturing, rendering, and set extension on projects including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Orville, Shadow and Bone, Perry Mason, The Continental, and 1923. She has also worked extensively in Unreal Engine on animation and virtual production projects such as Disney’s live action Pinocchio.

Stacey’s interests include 3D lighting and look development, physically based and stylized rendering, materials and texturing, virtual production, and real-time filmmaking. Her approach emphasizes lighting as a storytelling tool while balancing artistic intent with the technical demands of contemporary production pipelines.

Stacey earned an M.F.A. in Digital Art and Interactive Media, specializing in 3D lighting and texturing, from The Ohio State University. She earned a B.F.A. in Digital Arts and Animation, specializing in lighting and texturing, graduating cum laude from Bowling Green State University.