07 Oct This Otter is the Cuddliest Car You’ve Ever Seen

I’m proud to have been asked by Engineered Artworks to serve as the Lead 3D Modeler for the Otter Car. This was a four month project that debuted at Burning Man 2025.

Starting with a conceptual drawing by our Art Director, Haley Who, I created a conceptual 3D model that I textured in Substance Painter and rendered in Unreal Engine. These renders, with both a night and day scene, were required to enable the team to gain a registration from the Black Rock City DMV (Department of Mutant Vehicles). After approval by the DMV and our client, we initiated the design development phase, which required revisions to the sculptural form (lead by Haley and our character sculpting team), as well as an additional round of texturing (for more realistic fur) and further renders.

After the client signed off on our visual development, I did all of the design for fabrication work, which included precision modeling of the steel tube frame to perfectly match the reality reflected in our 3D scan of the Kubota base vehicle. Once the framing was settled, I created a plywood shell and subsequent cut files for the wood parts. I also transformed the sculptural 3D model into cut files for individual carved foam sections, which were CNC milled. Additionally, I created fabrication documentation such as shop drawings, cut lists, and BOM.

It was truly an honor to work on the project and I”m proud to say that our clients were exceedingly happy with our work, and that we delighted crowds of onlookers as well.