I grew up building with LEGO® bricks, creating scenes and stories that existed in my imagination. My desire to build led me to a mode for storytelling when I discovered stop motion animation in middle school. These lifeless plastic bricks were now imbued with motion as dynamic storytelling devices. Wanting to achieve the effects I had seen in movies, I immersed myself in other techniques for video production, beyond stop motion.

That interest led to experimentation with various programs, most notably, Blender and Unity. Using these free, professional, 3D creation tools, I sculpted 3D models, rendered short animations (which I posted to YouTube), and developed a small parkour game as a final project for my Intro to Computer Science class during freshman year of high school.

Though I enjoyed these projects, I soon became frustrated that the quality of my work paled in comparison to the work of professionals. Some tutorials touted as “beginner-friendly” were often unintuitive, glossing over rudimentary details and showing broad techniques and concepts in isolation, rarely demonstrating their application in the context of a larger project. Initially, this dampened my enthusiasm in and around 3D, and I spent more time immersing myself in video editing and graphic design.

In the spring of my junior year, my Advanced Computer Science class participated in a pilot with CreateAccess that introduced some real-world applications of 3D creation. For the first time, I saw the effects of the technology beyond game design and animation. The pilot introduced me to photogrammetry, the 3D recreation of real-life objects using photos. My desire to digitally bring static objects to life was now being realized in an unexpected way, accompanied by a rekindling of my interest in exploring 3D tools. My prior experience with Blender enabled me to fully engage with the pilot. It culminated with a presentation of projects I had worked on, beyond the original scope of the pilot, including an animated music video of my 3D-scanned head. This experience led to an internship at CreateAccess, where I still work as an 3D Technical Content Creator Intern today.

Throughout CreateAccess’ first summer in existence, I developed Learning Guides for 3D creation, with a focus on releasing guides that were truly beginner-friendly, ones that would have benefited me at the beginning of my 3D creation journey. Not only do the Guides allow me to help and encourage new learners, but the research involved in producing them motivates me to improve my skills in 3D modeling, technical writing, video editing, animating, and teaching. Through pilots and community events, I have had the opportunity to introduce young students to 3D, and its applications in various fields, through photogrammetry. My passion for 3D creation began with a desire to bring my imagination to life, grew as I discovered innovative applications of the technology, and is now driven by my love of researching, teaching and sharing my talents with others.

Throughout CreateAccess’ first summer in existence, I developed Learning Guides for 3D creation, with a focus on releasing guides that were truly beginner-friendly, ones that would have benefited me at the beginning of my 3D creation journey.

My Journey from 3D Creator to Teacher