Image Credit: Xiangyi (Maggie) Zhu
After announcing their split on February 22, 2021, Daft Punk surprised fans once again by becoming the newest stars inside Fortnite. Fortnite is always exploring unexpected artistic collaborations, and on September 27, 2025, the iconic duo officially entered one of the world’s most popular video games with the Daft Punk Experience.
Behind the immersive worlds of this event is Xiangyi (Maggie) Zhu, a 3D Artist on the project. Zhu elevated the visual quality of the experience, translating concept art and Daft Punk’s musical themes into fully explorable digital spaces and interactive assets.
She designed large-scale environments that balanced strong architectural rhythm with intuitive player navigation. The 3D artist also supported the visual language of each musical “world,” shaping scale, silhouette, color harmony, and mood to build immersive and expressive environments. Every asset was carefully created to contribute narratively to the Daft Punk experience through form, texture, and composition.
The result was a success, highlighting its immersive portals, world design, and remix rooms.
Born in China, Xiangyi (Maggie) Zhu later came to Hollywood, where her career has continued to grow rapidly. She has won multiple awards, including Best First Time Female Director and Outstanding Achievement (Honorable Mention) at the Indie Short Fest 2023 in Los Angeles for her animated short film On the Road.
In On the Road, Zhu blends the excitement of discovering new places with a deep sense of personal memory. The film follows a journey through unfamiliar and visually rich spaces, while subtle reminders of home remain present and form the emotional experience. This balance between exploring the world and staying connected to one’s roots has become central to her artistic voice, as well as her ongoing interest in cross-cultural and generational relationships. On the Road offers an in-depth look at her creative process.
Zhu’s background in architecture and photography strongly influences how she tells visual stories, giving her work a clear sense of structure, atmosphere, and emotion. She has lived in cities around the world, including Shanghai, Beijing, Barcelona, Chicago, and Los Angeles, giving her a broad, global perspective.
Among many other projects, Zhu has contributed to John Summit’s music video Shiver, collaborated on works by renowned French contemporary artist Pierre Huyghe, and joined the immersive studio founded by Oscar-winning visual effects artists Ben Grossman and Alex Henning, Magnopus.
Most recently, Xiangyi (Maggie) Zhu worked on major television projects, including 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 huge success of Season 1 (2024), which attracted over 65 million viewers and earned nominations from the Emmy Awards, Art Directors Guild, and VES Awards. While Season 1 proved that video game adaptations could succeed through immersive worldbuilding, Season 2 expands the universe even further, introducing irradiated deserts, vaults, settlements, and factions while maintaining the franchise’s retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic style.
Another major project Zhu worked on in 2025 was The Wizard of Oz Experience at Sphere in Las Vegas, an immersive reinterpretation of the classic 1939 film. The experience generated more than $130 million in ticket sales as of October 2025. The main feature recreates the film on Sphere’s massive 160,000-square-foot 16K screen, using AI-enhanced visuals, spatial audio, and multi-sensory effects like wind and fog to place audiences directly inside the world of Oz.
Developed with Sphere Entertainment, Warner Bros. Discovery, Google, and Magnopus, The Wizard of Oz at Sphere was nominated for a VES Award in the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project category at the 24th Annual Visual Effects Society Awards.
Zhu continues to work across a range of high-profile film, television and interactive projects, reflecting the industry’s ongoing shift toward immersive, cross-platform production.
