Digital Art

Radiant Ensemble

I'm excited to share Radiant Ensemble, a MIDI-driven animation project I developed that combines my passions for music and 3D animation. Using my custom MIDIAnimator Blender add-on, I created a system that transforms MIDI data into fluid animations, bringing musical compositions to life in ways I've always imagined possible.

This project was brought to life during my time in Capital University's Summer Scholars program, where I collaborated with an incredible team of artists and musicians. Together, we not only created this animation but also developed tools that I'm now making freely available to the community. I'm proud to have built something that helps other creators bridge the gap between music and animation, and I can't wait to see what others create with these tools.

Pipe Dream Redux

Pipe Dream Redux was my first major venture into MIDI-driven animation, where I set out to recreate Animusic's iconic Pipe Dream with my own musical twist. Using Blender and Animation Nodes, I spent seven months meticulously crafting every detail, from sourcing authentic audio presets to fine-tuning the procedural animations.

While Animation Nodes allowed me to bring this vision to life, I quickly discovered its limitations. The node-based system calculated animations frame-by-frame during playback, leading to significant slowdowns of 30-40 milliseconds per frame. The inability to pre-calculate animations and inefficient keyframe handling meant hours of baking time and memory management issues. These challenges ultimately inspired me to develop MIDIAnimator, creating a more efficient and streamlined solution for MIDI-driven animation. Looking back, Pipe Dream Redux was both a passion project and a valuable learning experience that shaped my approach to procedural animation.

Quantum Nexus: Hype Poster

My key ambition with this fictional creative endeavor was to produce an engaging, futuristic movie poster that embodied the kineticism of a Tokyo city backdrop. I concentrated on encapsulating an alluring fusion of aesthetic styles—specifically future funk, synthwave, cyberpunk, and vaporwave—with a cohesive harmony. Vibrant neon signage, dynamic scene illumination, and an atmosphere of high-tech advancement took precedence in visualizing this fictional universe.

Centered within the composition is acclaimed actor Keanu Reeves, chosen for his unmatched capacity to compellingly blend action and emotional depth in science fiction storytelling. Underneath lies an imaginative movie title, "Quantum Nexus – The Infinite Odyssey," flanked by a custom graphic logo treatment intended to further capture the viewer's interest.

The entire background environment and 3D assets were originally modeled, textured, and rendered by me within Blender as a focus on meeting the project originality criteria. Targeted enhancements in post-processing were added using Photoshop to fully unify the aesthetic style vision and color atmosphere.

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper

For this creative project, I sought to reimagine the iconic 1932 photograph “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” by inserting mannequins in place of the workers. My initial idea was to simply photoshop the mannequins into the original photo. However, I soon realized this approach would not suffice due to the lack of sufficient background detail in the original and the complexity of blending the mannequins seamlessly. I pivoted to recreating the entire scene from scratch in Blender, which gave me full creative control. I started by modeling basic elements like the steel beam and rope. I then added 2D image planes of the mannequins, giving the illusion they were sitting atop the beam. After establishing the lighting and propor- tions, I created the ground using procedural geometry nodes for efficiency. Additional 2D planes simulated fog. Finally, I brought the render into Photoshop for minor tweaks like color grading and shadows to enhance realism.

TropiHeat: product packaging

For this creative branding and packaging project, I wanted to develop an eye-catching and non-traditional hot sauce product line that stood out on shelves. Diverging from standard industry aesthetic conventions which utilize predictable color palettes and flat, boring label designs, I conceived and executed a vaporwave-inspired tropical brand and bottle set dubbed "TropiHeat - Taste the Tropics."

I initiated the design process by researching current hot sauce branding trends, identifying an opportunity in the market for a flavor-focused line with vibrant, playful aesthetics. After strategizing an on-trend vaporwave conceptual direction paired with a tropical inspiration, I designed a retro sunset palm tree logo. For the typography and label layouts, I struck a balance between legibility for essential ingredients/details and artificially sun-faded whimsy, allowing the bottles to feel both nostalgic and cutting-edge.

Self Portrait

This self-portrait showcases my multifaceted creative and technical abilities across several domains including 3D art, graphic design, music, and software development. With an open-minded approach rather than a predefined plan, I sought to capture the essence of my diverse interests in a visually compelling self-portrait.

The conceptualization and composition process proved challenging, requiring experimentation to determine how best to fuse my likeness with abstract graphical representations of creative digital distortion. I settled on intricately slicing and recombining color channels of a photograph of me to produce an eye-catching glitch art effect. Some images were put into Subtract and Divide mode to provide the effects seen to the right.

Additional manipulated imagery helps situate my form within a stylized digital matrix, connecting my identity to the creative datascape. The mixture of grainy textures, distorted repetitions of self, and layered color adjustments creates a dynamic, cyberpunk aesthetic to convey my technical abilities through visual metaphor.

Alligator photoshop

This lighthearted digital art project showcases my skills in photo manipulation and compositing through a playful self-portrait scene. I placed myself in a seemingly perilous encounter with a leaping alligator, carefully composed to create a startling yet humorous visual narrative.

Through precise masking and blending techniques, I merged two distinct photographs - one of myself casually floating with a pool noodle, and another of an alligator in mid-launch - to craft a perfectly timed moment of apparent danger. The consistent lighting, water reflections, and natural color grading help sell the illusion while maintaining the whimsical nature of the concept.

The composition deliberately places me and the alligator at opposite ends of the frame to maximize dramatic tension, while the serene blue water and green foliage provide a deceptively peaceful backdrop. This project showcases my ability to create engaging visual stories through creative digital manipulation while maintaining photorealistic quality in the final image.