Grant Diffendaffer
Art
Design · Fabrication · Technology · Ideas
Environment Art
Worlds you can stand inside.
Unreal Engine · Photogrammetry
Reality Capture & 3D Scanning
From the physical to the digital.
Photogrammetry
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Design
Virtual & physical. Human-centered.
Fabrication
Functional. Ornamental. Multi-material.
Technology
The right tool for the job.
Ideas
Creative solutions to creative problems.
AI Platform Orchestration
Grant Diffendaffer
Art · Design · Fabrication · Technology · Ideas
Recent work
EDC Las Vegas 2026 · Engineered Artworks
Daisy Lane Portal
Scenic 3D modeling. 204 CNC foam parts delivered with documentation.
Structural modeling by Fritz Friedensohn.
An estimated 500,000 people attended.
Install photography + lighting design by Phil Spitler
Watch the reel · 2:55
AI History Reel
Same eye, three toolchain generations — Pikazo (2017), Disco Diffusion (2022), and the integrated pipeline I build on today. Trained on clay since the 1990s.
Extended Installation · Golden Gate Park
Naga at Golden Gate Park
3D Visual Development Lead.
Artist leads: CJay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman, Jacquelyn Wrenne Scott.
Photo by Zach Bruce.
The throughline
An artistic eye, built layer by layer.
Technical chops, built the same way.
The platform I work on today is the top of a stack. AI augmentation and state-of-the-art technology atop a strong base of practical experience.
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Now
2024 – present
The Diffendaffer Design Platform.
An integrated pipeline tying ComfyUI, TRELLIS, FLUX Klein, Substance Painter, Rhino, and Unreal Engine 5 — orchestrated through thirty-plus MCP servers I integrate and maintain (one of them, the Substance Painter MCP, I built from scratch and shipped open-source). Current centerpiece: Mars Attacks Coachella — concept image to AI-generated mesh to parametric build to photoreal UE5 render to generative finish pass. One operator, end to end.
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02
2023 – present · partner to artists
Conceptual development and production design for other people’s visions.
Daisy Lane Portal for EDC Las Vegas 2026 — 204 CNC-cut parts plus parametric flower centers from a single Rhino model. Public-art commissions through partner studios as senior designer and technical lead. My job: take an artist’s intent and hand back something a fabricator can build.
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03
2015 – present · my own work
Worlds of my own.
Museum of the High Seas — a UE5 environment built from architecture and artifacts I scanned in museums, then reassembled in engine. Storied Haven — a full-scale industrial artwork by Bree Hylkema and Five Ton Crane, modeled via photogrammetry and rendered into a cinematic in Twinmotion.
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04
2015 – present · reality capture
The eye behind the camera.
Photogrammetry as a deliberate field practice. The Phoebe Hearst Museum sarcophagus, plus the interiors and sculptures that became my Museum of the High Seas. Object scans for the Mitchell Gate at the Culinary Institute of America through Gordon Huether Studio — asparagus and an artichoke, reproduced at architectural scale. A scan is only as good as the photographer who shot it.
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05
2009 – present · digital fabrication
Bits become objects again.
CNC milling, laser cutting, FDM and SLA 3D printing, large-format FGF printing. Years running production at Model No. as Director of 3D Printing taught me what tolerance a shop needs, what a file must contain, and which shortcuts always come back to bite you.
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Root
1990s – present · studio practice
Studio artist. Craftsperson. The hands.
Polymer clay and ceramic studio practice. Published author on advanced clay technique. International workshop instructor — US, Canada, Spain, France, Liechtenstein. Galleries and museums across the country. Decades of making things by hand: learning what materials want, where forms break, how light reads on a real surface. The eye was trained by material before software.
Concept down to fabrication. Material up to concept. I work the full pipeline in both directions.
Offerings
How I can help.
Most engagements span more than one. What they share is bridging the digital and the physical.
01
Concept to fabrication for public art
From concept renderings to shop-ready files.
02
Worldbuilding, env art, & visualization
Photoreal UE5 environments for animation, experiential, pre-viz, and stakeholder pitches.
Example: Museum of the High Seas — Island of Dubious Acquisitions →
03
Photogrammetry & 3D scanning
Field shoot through cleaned, retopologized mesh ready for game engines or fabrication.
Example: Museum of the High Seas — Hall of Borrowed Artifacts →
04
Custom AI-augmented design pipelines
ComfyUI, TRELLIS, multi-view texturing, and MCP bridges into your existing stack.
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Professional storytelling — websites, decks, video
For grant applications, gallery proposals, and project pitches where the framing decides whether the work gets read.
Ways I work
How to bring me on.
From a single fabrication-package handoff to a full production-design partnership.
Production design partnerships
Embedded on your team, concept through delivery.
Contract technical art & modeling
Modeling, retopology, look-dev, scene assembly — handed off in your studio’s format.
AI workflow consulting
Custom ComfyUI, TRELLIS, and MCP integrations. Architecture, build, training.
Fabrication documentation
CAD packages, CNC-ready files, assembly drawings — the docs a shop needs to build it.
Photogrammetry & scan cleanup
Field shoot through cleaned mesh, ready for game engines or fabrication.
Unreal environment development
Photoreal scenes for animation, experiential, pre-viz, and stakeholder pitches.
Not sure which fits? Describe what you’re trying to make in a short note.
A creative designer with an artistic eye and the technical chops to back it up. Thirty years of craft — ceramic, polymer, and metal clays, then CNC: Embroidery, Milling, Wire-bender, Laser, Zund Multi-Tool, 3D printing, then photography, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, Unreal Engine, rendering, cinematics, video production, and AI integrations. The throughline is my pipeline bringing ideas into the world.
Have a project in mind?
Tell me what you’re trying to make. I’ll let you know whether I can help and what it would take.
Start a conversation