My Hobbies
Playing Guitar
I love playing guitar, especially classic rock from the 70s and 80s. I started taking lessons when I was 5 years old, and continued to take them 1-2 times per week for over a decade. Since, I have been part of 6 different bands, performed for hundreds of people, and starred in a professional teaser video. A guitar is my desert-island item. I'd honestly rather have the guitar than food on that island. I can figure out how to fish or something, but mentally, the guitar is what would help me survive.
Playing guitar helps me to relax (even though I end up sweating through my shirt), and to express my creativity. I'm also an avid guitar gearhead. I have a deep fascination for golden-age guitars and amplifiers, like the highly sought-after 1959 Gibson Les Paul which tend to sell for roughly $300,000. Most people attribute success to having a Rolex watch, or a Porsche, but after I had the opportunity to actually play one of those 59's, that's my success item.
Digital 3D Art & Rendering
Blender is my 3D art software of choice. I'm self-taught and have been practicing for roughly 5 years now. In fact, the majority of my IYA portoflio was created in Blender, and I even used it to create VFX for my 1-minute video submission. My primary focus is on photorealism, always striving to create art that tricks people into thinking it's a photo. And then the look on their faces when I show them the behind-the-scenes as evidence, is what tells me I've done something right.
The image below is one of my most recent work, which combines my love of music and my passion for 3D to create a new rendition of the famous Pink Floyd album cover. When creating something like this, I start by breaking down the project into smaller aspects, and design a workflow around each. For example with the central crystal, I first create a cube, and merge the top edges to create a triangular prism. I then subdivide the mesh to have more geometry. I use Blender's advanced simulation tools to fracture the object into many pieces to achieve the desired effect.
The hardest, but also my favorite part is the materials. The glass shader for this render was especially challenging, as I wanted the light to refract and bounce as accurately as possible. I took extra care to create detail such as procedural scratches and using physically-accurate IOR values. The result was a beautiful piece of portfolio-worthy art that I'm proud of!
