1970 Camaro
1970 Camaro Pro Touring. My first attempt at modifying a car - which I have no business doing, as I know nothing about cars. Inspired by the work of Carlos Pecino and Ash Thorp. There are some glaring holes and problem areas, but a fun thing to try out. Modeling in Cinema4d and rendered with Corona renderer.
Vectorworks Tutorials
I’ve started making tutorials again for Vectorworks. I imagine this will spill over into Cinema 4d tutorials eventually. Head over to the TRAINING page of this site or my YouTube channel for the content. Thanks for watching!
01.04.22 Cars
I drive a dying Subaru Impreza, and am not really a car guy, but I do love to light them in 3d. Working on lensing, composition and lighting with these shots. Ferarri Monza model from Saksham Kumar and the Alfa Romeo is from Turbosquid with textures by me.
Should we talk about the weather.....
Working to improve my sky/sun setups for better architectural renderings. It’s a never ending balancing act between angle, haze, and camera exposure. Corona renderer makes this a joy to work with. Here’s some tests.
More interior work
Still working away on getting better at rendering interiors. It really is the small details that make a difference.
Modeling work
Trying to really get comfortable with subdivision surface modeling in Cinema 4d. I decided to try and build a piece of furniture with details instead of a whole environment. It’s very satisfying to have something that you built all from scratch instead of just purchasing stock models. Hope to do more of this soon.
render weekly x Herman Miller Sayl Chair Gaming Edition reimagining
My entry into the render weekly x Herman Miller Sayl Chair Gaming Edition Reimagine Contest.
Skin
I’ve been working on a virtual lighting lab for my wife - a lighting designer and teacher. While she usually works in a lighting lab with the students to put lights onto people and objects to discuss angle, color, theory, composition, etc - the pandemic makes this impossible. We’ve been doing this virtually in 3d pretty successfully, but the quality of the people has been lacking. The skin, in particular, looks to opaque and video gamey. We bought some high quality scans from Ten24.info and I’ve been leaning how to set up proper skin shaders with SSS (Sub surface scatter - or lighting penetrating the skin). Here’s some early tests while I dial in the shaders and pretend that I know what I’m doing.
Update from the field
I haven’t posted here in forever. Since the pandemic, the ongoing Black Lives Matters mission, and the upcoming election - it seems the last thing the world needs is pictures of my sushi or weird artworks. I have taken a break from creative outlets for a few months and focused my energies inward on my family, my health, and social movements. That said, I have taken time to revamp and update this website - still working out some links and kinks, but the bulk of it is live now. Stay safe out there!
Searching for father
SEARCHING FOR FATHER. The machine didn't give us answers, it just connected points in space to make the picture clearer. Where are you?
I've been chipping away at this one for a few weeks in my spare time - time to move on. Based on architecture by Buro511. Modeled in Vectorworks and rendered with Corona for Cinema 4d.
Textures
Some texture work and R&D with Corona. I never feel like I have wood grain or rough concrete dialed in correctly, so, practice. I also need puddles for a current project, so trying to tune that in as well. As always, working on camera work, lighting and color grading in post production. Corona still seems a miracle to me everyday.
New Laptop
After working on large desktops machines for a decade, I finally got a laptop. I’ve been doing more teaching, training, and traveling and bringing a iMac around has proven to be too cumbersome. I narrowed it down to a Digital Storm Nova 15” laptop which has 6 cores, 32 Gb of RAM and a RTX 2070 GPU card. I’m still getting used to the idea of doing work on a smaller machine and curious to see how it goes. My studio towers are still my main workhorses, but this new machine will also be my home/after hours machine, as well as for teaching. Attached are the first images I’ve rendered on it - it performs very well, but the fans go crazy when rendering and sound like a train going by.
Car model from CG Trader
Product Design
Really enjoying doing some product design work. Quite different to production or set design. Here’s a wineglass design I’m working on. Modeled in Vectorworks and rendered with Corona for Cinema4D.
kettle
My entry for the renderweekly Season 04: Week 01 Challenge. Design and render a Kettle. I wanted to have a classic design that played with light and heavy forms together, but also take advantage of the modern convenience that electric kettles can offer. This unit would have wifi in the base so it can send you a text when the water has boiled. I don’t love smart home products, but I do often set a kettle or oven preheat, only to walk out of the kitchen and forget. Modeled in Vectorworks and rendered with Corona for Cinema4D. Nice to try some product design for a change.