First blog post ever, wooo! Since graduating from BGSU I’ve been working on my compositing reel and this website. I’ve always had a long-standing desire to launch my own website but I’ve perpetually postponed it. I was convinced with the idea that I needed to reach a lofty position in the vfx industry in order to have a meaningful website. I’ve always admired those artists online who share their creative journey irrespective of their career stage. That is exactly what I want this blog to be about regardless of what stage I’m at in my journey. My goal for this blog is to document my journey and wherever it may lead. I’ve always admired artists who write about their journeys, processes, techniques, tips, tricks, workflows, and everything in between. At first glance, this might come across as something trivial, akin to one of those blog assignments in high school. However, it holds a lot of value for individuals who are eager to learn or are seeking fresh perspectives. Some of the people that I like a lot who embody this are Josh Parks and James Gurney. I aim to write concise posts about tips and tricks I gather throughout my creative journey in hopes to cultivate a community of individuals who are generous in sharing their knowledge and insights. Also, there is a bit of selfishness involved because I’ll also use it to look back and remember a neat trick. That’s not to say I’m going to write about every little small thing because that would be absurd like, “I finally figured out what the hell the premult and unmult nodes do.” And just to clarify, those nodes don’t do anything. JK (not Rowling) they’re very important. Hugo’s Desk has a great Nuke course that dives deep into that topic. In this inaugural post, I’d like to take a moment to delve into my creative journey up to this point. After all, this blog is a reflection of my personal experiences.
The first time I dove into vfx was around 2014 when I was about 12 years old. I’d experiment in my Dad’s office with a video cam and a green screen to create these cheesy fx of me being superman, ironman, the flash–you name it.
I liked superheroes a lot. I started as a tutorial kid and would follow along with all sorts of After Effects (AE) tutorials to learn. My first introduction to 3D was Element 3D in AE. If you don’t know Video Copilot, shame on you. Just kidding–this is a judgment-free zone. For real, he’s got some awesome plugins that are free like FX Console and many more. Sorry! I’m getting sidetracked with tips already!
Next came Cinema 4D (C4D) after my failed attempt to learn Blender and its scary interface back in series 2.6.
What originally got me wanting to learn 3D for the first time was Big Buck Bunny, a classic animation short made with Blender. Eventually things started to make sense and the first C4D animation that I was proud of at the time was in 2016 which was a Happy Father’s Day animation where cannons shoot out confetti, my first particle sim!
I continued with art stuff throughout high school, eventually went to college for Digital Arts, and now we’re here in 2023 (with plenty happening in between). Whew, that was quite a mouthful, but now you know a little bit more about me, so keep an eye out for future posts! If you want to see more current work you can check out my new reel that focuses on junior compositing tasks here.