AI Video Production Tools
An innovation division building AI for video and post-production — live rotoscoping, active object callouts, in-camera image masking — with the product strategy, architecture, and prototype direction behind them.
Zach Shallbetter — Product & Systems Engineer
Build the machine that builds the thing.
Engines, factories, platforms, and the products on top of them. Currently: Distance from Gray, the case that AI's next durable layer is guarantee, not generation.
Spokane, WA · Designer → Engineer → Founder
Open to new product & systems work · let’s make something real →
/now
What I'm working on right now.
A live snapshot of where the field is moving this month. The full picture — including what I'm open to — lives on the /now page →
Building
- fundamental-engine — the engine behind this site. Released alongside this rebuild.
- indesign-mcp-server — public Model Context Protocol server for Adobe InDesign. 135+ tools, actively maintained.
Thinking about
- How contract-driven discipline from a physical line translates to software at platform scale.
- The shape of AI interaction past the prompt box — interfaces that adapt around intent and trust.
The throughline
Build the machine that builds the thing.
A designer and illustrator who became an engineer, then a founder — and settled on the work I love most: making products real, and building the systems that produce them.
Where it starts Designer & illustrator Form, composition, the feel of a thing before it works. Then became an engineer Architecture, data, services — the structure that makes it real. Now and a founder The whole system — prototype to real users, running on its own.
Across two decades the throughline is consistent: build the machine that builds the thing, then engineer it to run without standing over it. I've done this in both software and physical manufacturing — a rare pairing, and the core of what I build now.
My range spans front-end and backend architecture, commerce and payments infrastructure, applied AI, design systems, and end-to-end production operations. I can define a product thesis, decompose a system into clean service boundaries, design the interaction model, and carry the result through to launch, fulfillment, and iteration.
I know the difference between a demo, a product, a platform, and a business — and I've shipped all four. That makes me effective where a company needs more than an idea: a product architecture, a technical narrative, a commercial path, and a system that survives real users.
Work & experiments
Things I've built.
Client-facing systems and the architecture beneath them, plus the smaller probes, AI tools, and prototypes I build to test ideas.
SWAIA — AI Commerce Platform
An Indigenous-art marketplace on Next.js, Supabase, and Stripe Connect — seller verification, customizable storefronts, product customization, and advanced search. Recommendation, semantic search, and conversational assist built directly into the shopping experience.
Cursed Crypt — Self-Running Factory
A tabletop-gaming hardware company taken from a Kickstarter at ~330% of goal through a ~$500K seed to an end-to-end, just-in-time facility that ran largely on its own — achieved by re-engineering machines, commissioning custom equipment, and inventing proprietary coatings and processes.
Uxiliary — Product & Design Studio
A digital product and design studio directing a team of ten-plus across design and engineering, for clients from startups to Fortune 500 — Amazon, MassMutual, Novo Nordisk — owning proposals, scope, and daily delivery cadence.
Enterprise Brand Systems
National-brand campaigns and web systems — GE, GM, Adobe, Gilead, Celebrity Cruises — built through agencies including AKQA and Mekanism. Earlier: led the OpenEye website and CMS rebuild that drove a 320% increase in leads.
Ascent
A native SwiftUI iOS exam-prep app, shipped to TestFlight with Sign in with Apple and in-app purchases. Adaptive SRS study plans, anonymous-first sync.
Systems made
Systems that build the thing.
The substantial systems — an engine, a commerce core, a motion library — built to be run by a team, not shipped once.
Engine · v0.1.0Live
Fundamental Engine — Reciprocal DOM-Physics
A framework-agnostic engine where every meaningful thing on a page — a word, a card, a link — is a body in a particle field. Elements bend the field; the field's density bends the elements back. 36 forces, zero runtime dependencies. This site runs on it.
InDesign MCP Server
A Model Context Protocol server that brings AI-driven design automation to Adobe InDesign — 135+ programmatic tools, active maintenance, public on GitHub.
SWAIA Storefront System
A themeable storefront and product-customization system for Indigenous-art sellers — branded components on one shared commerce core.
Interaction & Motion Library
Interface behavior as a system — state, feedback, transitions, and rhythm captured as reusable motion primitives that hold from brand to code.
Habitat
A simulation game built on Fundamental: living ecology, species as data, runtime crossbreeding. The engine's live proof, running under its own roof.
The lab
Experiments & prototypes.
Creative-technology probes and AI tools, built to try an idea quickly and see what sticks.
Live · interactive
The Reciprocal Field
This page's engine — a conserved particle field DOM elements bend, and are bent by. Every word, link, and card is a body with mass.
View link npm
PixelHQ Bridge
Published npm package — a bridge server that watches Claude Code file events and broadcasts them via WebSocket. Real-time dev tooling for the AI-coding era.
View on GitHub In development
3D Floating Head
Research at the intersection of computer vision and 3D rendering: focusable 3D elements driven by a tracked head.
In development
Active Object Callouts
In-frame annotations that track objects through a moving shot.
Open source
CanDo
Photo a piece of gym equipment, get a workout built for it. Rust serverless backend, vision model, zero-config deployment.
View on GitHub Open source
chroma-gem
Deterministic, WebGL-accelerated procedural crystal generation. Brand-grade generative geometry rendered in real time.
View on GitHub Open source
Chromatic Audio Painter
A multi-mode audio visualizer — fractal spectrums, 3D chaos clouds, spectral wash curtains — all reacting to live audio input in real time.
View on GitHub In development
docs-rag
Standalone local RAG agent — point it at a folder of Markdown docs, it builds a vector index and answers questions with Ollama. No cloud, no API keys.
+21 more in the lab.
The full catalog — 40 projects, systems, and probes — with write-ups and links to examples.
The practice
A practice that spans the whole product.
Research is the sensing layer — how the field becomes visible. Before a system can be shaped, its forces have to be read: user behavior, business pressure, technical constraint, material limit, and the unstated assumption already moving through the work.
01 Product strategyAttract · gives directionVision · roadmaps · R&D · product logic · operating models 02 AI systemsJet · channels forceLLMs · semantic search · recommendations · context · trust 03 Software architectureTether · gives structurePlatforms · APIs · data · payments · deployment · performance 04 Experience designWall · the human surfaceFlows · IA · usability · accessibility · journeys · behavior 05 MotionStream · reveals motionState · feedback · transitions · rhythm · interface behavior 06 CommerceRepel · market pressureCatalogs · checkout · sellers · payments · fulfillment · trust 07 Physical productionViscosity · adds constraintMaterials · prototypes · packaging · manufacturing · delivery 08 Creative technologySwirl · spins it togetherAI · code · animation · 3D · prototypes · experiments
Every card here is a body in the field. Read the manual →
Density
What the work weighs.
Two decades resolved into the numbers that moved.
330%
of Kickstarter goal funded for Cursed Crypt
Hardware · 2018
$500K
seed capital raised after launch
Founder · CPO
25,000+
physical units manufactured and shipped
Cursed Crypt · fulfillment
20 yrs
across software, AI, commerce, and physical product
The throughline
Reach
Built for, and shipped through, brands and agencies including —
GEGMAdobeGileadAmazonCelebrity CruisesMassMutualNovo NordiskSlim JimClif Bar
Beyond the build
Leadership & recognition.
The work spreads past the product — into community, teaching, and the awards that marked the way.
Inland Northwest Technologists
A regional tech nonprofit (501c3): 50+ volunteers, 200+ community events, a municipal-broadband initiative carried to a unanimous council vote, and a merger that expanded its reach.
AAF Spokane
Chaired the interactive program for the regional American Advertising Federation chapter — connecting designers, developers, and the brands they build for.
North Idaho College
Built and taught an interdisciplinary web & UX curriculum, started a student-led consultancy, and established industry internship and placement pipelines.
Writing
Worth working out in writing.
Essays going back to 2016 — on product, systems, AI, leadership, and whatever else has been worth thinking through.
All 29 essays →
Distance from Gray
Why the next durable layer of AI value is a guarantee, not a generation — and why owning the transformation seam beats managing unreliability at the product layer.
Jun 2026Living Documentation
The input-side contract for generative work.
Jul 2026Versatility Is a Design Decision
How a game factory survived COVID by being built for range, not role.
Jul 2026The Material Is the Contract
What building a nano-ceramic game board taught me about parameters.
Jul 2026All 29 essays
Everything, going back to 2016 — essays on product, systems, AI, and leadership.