16 Jan Moving Forward, Back to my Roots
After two and a half years, I’m finally sitting down to update this blog. So much has happened during this time—life-changing decisions, new skills, and fresh opportunities—that it feels like an entirely new chapter. Here’s a glimpse into what’s been going on.
First, I left my home of 20 years in Canyon, where I built an art studio amidst nature from the ground up. It was a cherished space where I could create, explore, and grow, so leaving it behind was bittersweet. I also stepped away from my position as Director of 3D Printing at Model no, where I had the opportunity to guide the growth and development of an amazing company that helped to pioneer manufacturing on demand with sustainable materials. But I was pulled by the chance to be back where I came from, closer to family, water, and the thriving stop-motion animation industry in Portland. It was time for me to make a long planned shift from my career in digital fabrication towards one in digital storytelling. As a long time craftsperson and designer working with digital tools, it was time to up my game.
Once in Portland, I immersed myself in learning. For nine months, I dove deep into the Game Arts Program at Vertex School, focusing on becoming an environment artist. Through intensive training, I built expertise in industry-standard tools like Maya, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine. This experience not only honed my technical skills but also broadened my understanding of the creative and technical processes that bring environments to life in the digital space. I’m extremely proud of the work I did on my capstone projects, which feature some core elements of my personal photogrammetry collection, merged with modular architectual components that I also 3D scanned with photogrammetry. For your enjoyment, may I present, Museum of the High Seas: Island of Dubious Acquisitions as well as the Hall of Borrowed Artifacts.
These projects allowed me to explore emerging workflows for reality capture, PBR texturing, and photo-realistic environment art in UE5 while at the same time taking a playful look at ideas of cultural heritage, provenance, and digital rights. My greatest hope is to leverage the experience I’ve gained with digital tools, combined with my experience as a physically based artist and craftsperson, and to put these skills to use in the industry that best combines these tools. Portland is a world center for stop motion animation and I’m eager to be a part of it.
Since completing my studies, I’ve had the privilege of working with for the last year with BRAVE Design. This opportunity has allowed me to merge my artistic background with cutting-edge technology, collaborating on projects that span experiential and architectural design. At BRAVE, I’ve been able to explore everything from architectural modeling, rendering and archviz to 3D scanning and LLM-driven parametric modeling. It’s been rewarding to join forces with this focused creative team and expand my creative capacity. We are here for you, whether you are building a new home, public art installation, museum exhibit, or conceptual vision.
During this time, I also collaborated with my Oakland based artist friends to realize Naga and the Captainess, an immersive sculptural experience centered on Naga, a giant sea serpent, and the Aldrovanda, a sinking 16th century sailing vessel spilling treasure everywhere. Helmed by artist leads Cjay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman, and Jacquelyn Wrenne Scott, Naga debuted at Burning Man 2024. Given the largest honorarium grant, our project was also the largest on playa. After being constructed by over 100 artists over several months, our team spent a month on the ground installing, detailing, and eventually striking and removing what was acclaimed by many who experienced it to be truly a masterpiece of immersive artwork. Striking in its immensity and the the force of the visual design and craft, the scene held many intimate vignettes of engrossing detail. I was honored to be the 3D Visual Development lead on the Naga, modeling the serpent in 3D with Maya, texturing him in Substance, and rendering in Unreal Engine 5.
This period of transition and growth has been transformative. Moving to a new city, learning new tools, and stepping into a dynamic professional role have reshaped my perspective on what’s possible. Looking ahead, I’m excited to continue expanding my capabilities, supporting other artists, diving deeper into Unreal Engine, and exploring how technology can create immersive, interactive experiences.
I’m thrilled to share more about the projects I’ve been working on and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Going into this year, I’m especially eager to build new worlds in Unreal Engine, exploring advances in procedural content generation, lighting, animation, VFX, Virtual Production and user interactivity on what is by many standards the ultimate 3D platform. And yes–this is the year when 3D has a real reckoning with AI (it has come a ways since my last post). Be sure to check out my Portfolio while you are here and stay tuned to my blog for updates as I continue this journey of creativity, innovation, and discovery. Thank you for following along, and please don’t hesitate to reach out here or via socials and share your ideas. I’m here to aid you in envisioning and realizing your next impactful creation!
