Grant Diffendaffer
From the big picture to the small details.
Creative designer with an artistic eye and the technical chops to back it up.
The thirty-second version
I’m a designer working at the intersection of physical craft, generative AI, and real-time 3D. Background is studio art and digital fabrication; current practice is an integrated AI pipeline I built on top of thirty-plus Model Context Protocol servers, with persistent memory, a scheduled job queue, and a Mars Attacks style invasion as the latest exhibit. I take projects end-to-end — concept image to UE5 render to fabrication-ready files — solo, often with a team, with a system that remembers what I taught it last week.
How I work
Specification-driven design.
The project document is the source of truth. Geometry, renders, and fabrication files derive from it. Change the document and the build updates from it. The spec is the asset; the build follows.
In practice that means thirty-plus MCP servers I orchestrate, persistent memory across sessions, and brand-compliant artifacts produced as a byproduct of the work rather than as a separate documentation chore. Audit trails are automatic. Shots are re-renderable across revisions without manual rework.
Selected collaborators
The work and the people behind it.
- Engineered Artworks
- Bay Area art fabrication studio founded and led by Sean Orlando, operating from Seaport Studios in Richmond, CA — large-scale sculpture, public art, and kinetic installations built by a full team of artists, designers, engineers, and fabricators. Lead 3D Modeler on Otter Art Car (Burning Man 2024); parametric scenic modeling on Daisy Lane Portal (EDC Las Vegas 2026).
- BRAVE Design
- Contract Senior Designer & Project Manager (2024). Public-art commissions for Gordon Huether Studio — parametric Python on Swallows in Flight (SLC International Airport); photogrammetry on the Mitchell Gate at CIA Hyde Park.
- Five Ton Crane
- Contributing member since 2007. Steampunk Treehouse · Raygun Gothic Rocketship · Storied Haven · Capitol Theater (Smithsonian Renwick).
- Naga & the Captainess
- Artist leads: CJay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman, Jacquelyn Wrenne Scott. 2D concept art by Imogen Speer. 3D Visual Development Lead — modeled and rigged Naga in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, rendered in UE5. The construction model evolved directly out of my 3D.
- Model No.
- Director of 3D Printing (2019–22). Scaled the department; sustainable on-demand manufacturing R&D.
- Vertex School
- Game Arts Program (2023–24). Maya · Substance Painter · Unreal Engine 5 environment-art capstones.
- Mt Hood Meadows
- Where I learned to ski at age 4. Ski instructor since 2022. The same Oregon mountain that anchors the portfolio’s Ski Cinema section.
- Studio practice
- 1990s–present. Polymer, ceramic, and metal clays — plus 3D printing, CNC embroidery, and photogrammetry. Published author on advanced clay technique. International workshop instructor — workshops taught in five countries.
More work on the portfolio.
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