After saying their cut up on February 22, 2021, Daft Punk shocked followers as soon as once more by turning into the latest stars inside Fortnite. Fortnite is all the time exploring surprising creative collaborations, and on September 27, 2025, the enduring duo formally entered one of many world’s hottest video video games with the Daft Punk Expertise.
Behind the immersive worlds of this occasion is Xiangyi (Maggie) Zhu, a 3D Artist on the venture. Zhu elevated the visible high quality of the expertise, translating idea artwork and Daft Punk’s musical themes into absolutely explorable digital areas and interactive belongings.
She designed large-scale environments that balanced robust architectural rhythm with intuitive participant navigation. The 3D artist additionally supported the visible language of every musical “world,” shaping scale, silhouette, colour concord, and temper to construct immersive and expressive environments. Each asset was rigorously created to contribute narratively to the Daft Punk expertise by means of type, texture, and composition.
The outcome was successful, highlighting its immersive portals, world design, and remix rooms.
Born in China, Xiangyi (Maggie) Zhu later got here to Hollywood, the place her profession has continued to develop quickly. She has received a number of awards, together with Greatest First Time Feminine Director and Excellent Achievement (Honorable Point out) on the Indie Quick Fest 2023 in Los Angeles for her animated brief movie On the Highway.
In On the HighwayZhu blends the thrill of discovering new locations with a deep sense of non-public reminiscence. The movie follows a journey by means of unfamiliar and visually wealthy areas, whereas delicate reminders of house stay current and type the emotional expertise. This stability between exploring the world and staying related to 1’s roots has develop into central to her creative voice, in addition to her ongoing curiosity in cross-cultural and generational relationships. On the Highway provides an in-depth take a look at her artistic course of.
Zhu’s background in structure and pictures strongly influences how she tells visible tales, giving her work a transparent sense of construction, ambiance, and emotion. She has lived in cities world wide, together with Shanghai, Beijing, Barcelona, Chicago, and Los Angeles, giving her a broad, international perspective.
Amongst many different initiatives, Zhu has contributed to John Summit’s music video Shiver, collaborated on works by famend French modern artist Pierre Huyghe, and joined the immersive studio based by Oscar-winning visible results artists Ben Grossman and Alex Henning, Magnopus.
Most lately, Xiangyi (Maggie) Zhu labored on main tv initiatives, together with Season 2 of Amazon Prime Video’s critically acclaimed live-action adaptation of Fallout, which premiered in December 2025. Fallout Season 2 builds on the large success of Season 1 (2024), which attracted over 65 million viewers and earned nominations from the Emmy Awards, Artwork Administrators Guild, and VES Awards. Whereas Season 1 proved that online game diversifications may succeed by means of immersive worldbuilding, Season 2 expands the universe even additional, introducing irradiated deserts, vaults, settlements, and factions whereas sustaining the franchise’s retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic type.
One other main venture Zhu labored on in 2025 was The Wizard of OuncesExperience at Sphere in Las Vegas, an immersive reinterpretation of the basic 1939 movie. The expertise generated greater than $130 million in ticket gross sales as of October 2025. The principle characteristic recreates the movie on Sphere’s huge 160,000-square-foot 16K display screen, utilizing AI-enhanced visuals, spatial audio, and multi-sensory results like wind and fog to position audiences straight contained in the world of Oz.
Developed with Sphere Leisure, Warner Bros. Discovery, Google, and Magnopus, The Wizard of Ouncesat Sphere was nominated for a VES Award within the Excellent Visible Results in a Particular Venue Challenge class on the twenty fourth Annual Visible Results Society Awards.
Zhu continues to work throughout a variety of high-profile movie, tv and interactive initiatives, reflecting the trade’s ongoing shift towards immersive, cross-platform manufacturing.