How It Began

With last year’s end-of-year video, I had planned to give a mini-bio about me, how it all started. But I felt that was a little long-winded and uninteresting for most viewers. And it would translate just as well in text anyway. I swapped to just a year wrap-up and sharing some of my art instead.

But I decided, to celebrate my 1000 subscribers on YouTube, to share my story as a Blender enthusiast, and all the stops along the way.

How it All Began

I loved programming. My dad was a programmer, so definitely a bias there. But the application of my interests went a different direction: video games.

Unity was free at the time (at least, it had a free version). With a little convincing, my parents let me download it.

But I also needed an app to make the 3D models. I had used Google Sketchup at school, but it’s not well suited to objects that aren’t architecture or CAD-like.

That’s when I found Blender.

Being also free, Blender got my parents’ approval. The version was 2.49. I remember watching Sintel. As an insecure teen, it definitely made me emotional.

I don’t remember the first thing I modeled. I know there was a snowman in there somewhere. The game needed fighter jets, so I made one of those.

Then I kinda gave up on it. Blender, and the game. I remember taking a long break, doing other forms of creativity. Writing, programming, drawing. But I did follow the versions as they got released.

2.5 was promising. The user interface is a lot more bearable, honestly pretty recognizable by today’s interface. I tried it some more, made a few renders.

But the game changer was Blender 2.6.

Visual Effects (VFX)

You see, 2.6 was all about VFX: motion tracking, 3D reconstruction, and more advanced compositing. Ian Hubert’s Tears of Steel showcased these changes.

So I experimented making home films with friends. One was Taken-esque (the interrogation lasted about ten seconds). Another was a murder mystery, involving twins (the other twin, the only other character, was the murderer).

And I had an idea for a sorcerer knight with a helmet. I didn’t want to physically make the helmet, so I figured I could make one in Blender. This was also the Iron Man era, where helmet VFX became quite popular in the Blender community. So it’s no surprise that there were many Blender tutorials of the sort.

So, with the help of a piece of cardboard, a string, and green circle stickers from Staples, I had a way of tracking my head for the helmet. Apart from some jitter, it worked quite well.

That was Red Knight, my first “finished” Blender project.

I remember following tutorials in between projects: Andrew Price’s rendering hair in Cycles, CG Cookie’s car shading + compositing tutorial, BlenderHD’s on smoke sims (who I later learned is Jonathan Lampel!). But they were either intentionally pointless doodles and experimentation, or intentionally building towards a specific project.

A year or so later, I made Red Knight 2, which extended the VFX to (cringey) magic spells, moving a car through the air (I didn’t make the car), and breaking the CG helmet (okay, I’m a bit proud of that one). And with the help of simple compositing, I could fake lighting on myself from the CG car headlights.

Yes, there were many many frustrations along the way. But I wasn’t trying to make Tears of Steel. I just wanted to tell stories accessible to me.

College

A few months later, I made it to Brigham Young University, well renowned for their animation program.

But I had to apply for the major with a portfolio. Surprisingly, Red Knight made it into that portfolio (and promptly removed as soon as I had better material), along with artworks made during those first two semesters.

For those who noticed my saying “Brigham Young,” yes, I’m a Latter-Day Saint. “Mormon” is the more colloquial and familiar term to most, but few of us call ourselves that anymore. I say this because, right after I applied to the animation program, I left to serve as a missionary for two years.

I only found out I got into the animation program a month after leaving.

It did worry me, to be out of practice with Blender and art and VFX for two years. But I feel that by investing time with God, I’ve received dividends in return. I’m very grateful for that time in my life; it gave me life experiences I would have never otherwise.

After two years, I was back at college, and officially started the animation program. Technically, the “Computer Science (C.S.) with Animation Emphasis,” which is really just a C.S. degree with animation- and film-related electives.

I absolutely loved it. But it put me in this weird position: I wasn’t really an animation major. I wasn’t really a C.S. major.

I felt like I couldn’t fully relate to most of my peers, because we wouldn’t have all the same classes together. And the animation students were very tightly-knit socially. That small group goes through the entire program together. Then here comes us few “emphasis kids” every once in a while, if the class is important enough.

The point is, I felt like I didn’t really fit in. But I did gain many opportunities.

I connected with the college’s film department and got gigs for VFX on some capstone short films. Yes, I worked for free. But sometimes that can open up to bigger paid opportunities. Filmmakers lean really hard into their networking, so doing one short film opened up to about half a dozen after that.

I helped on the animation capstone film, Salt, as a pipeline engineer. My first exposure to that job title.

In my free time, I made Blender add-ons, sold on Blender Market (now Superhive Market).

All this opened up a job at the little TV network, BYUtv. First as a website developer, then a VFX artist and compositor for one of their shows (perhaps you’ve seen clips of Studio C online, a family-friendly SNL wannabe?).

Leaving College

I had a full-time job lined up, graduation date set, and engaged to my (future) wife. However, I had a problem: I missed a single class to graduate. I would have to wait an entire year just to take it.

I didn’t want to wait. I had things setup for graduating in a month.

After calling universities and professors, my only option was to drop the animation emphasis, take a few other classes, and graduate eight months later.

So I only graduated in Computer Science. No animation emphasis.

I remember crying for a long time. It bogs me down every once in a while. But I’m grateful my career path has continued regardless. And I still got to marry my beautiful wife.

As a fresh newlywed, I moved down to Georgia with her. I worked at General Motors (GM) for a couple years as a web developer, particularly DevOps (meaning, I helped code, build and release the websites) as she finished her schooling and worked.

Really loved my team and manager at GM, couldn’t have asked for better. I liked a lot about General Motors. If you’re interested in working there, I highly recommend it.

Path to DreamWorks

So what got me to DreamWorks? I’ve mentioned things I’ve learned from the DreamWorks recruiter before, but as to what led me to seek a new job in the first place:

Firstly, around this time, General Motors started following the “return to the office” movement. Thankfully, I only had to go in one day a month then. But that could change anytime. My wife was working hybrid, we were planning for a baby, and we only had one car.

But the big reason was to have a job more art-oriented, focused on all the film and animation I learned and love. At GM, my final product is internal websites used by company directors. Very important, but less compelling to me, and not utilizing everything else I learned.

I looked for openings within the company. Always check that first; lateral moves, even across departments, can be far easier for you and your current company than going somewhere else.

I only partially qualified for a few jobs, all in-person. In Michigan.

So I marked myself as “Open to Work” on LinkedIn. I wish I could say I had more helpful tips to have recruiters find me, but honestly, some just showed up in my DMs. Including DreamWorks.

While the job is mainly for programming, it is artist-facing and I get to meet their needs pretty directly. And I get to enjoy the end product: movies.

What’s Next?

Some of you may wonder what my next steps are.

Currently, I don’t have plans to change anything. With a family and new house, stability is the name of the game. I know that’s less interesting than “chasing after any and every dream,” but I don’t live in a black box. There’s more to my life than how things affect me.

Many of my personal goals revolve around telling stories and solving problems. But I also want to make sure I’m not sacrificing my family or other priorities just to do that.

I’ve decided that I want my family and my faith to be there waiting for me, even if that means not getting to everything I want.

Achievement is certainly something worth striving for. But there’s more to life than just achievement.

Thanks for reading.