Hey everyone, my name is Kevin Garcia (ItbeRufus). Just about 3 years ago I began a really incredible and very inspiring journey, and it was kind of an accident. First a little bit of a background story, and then I will dive into what is really important. I have been working in ZBrush for about 6 years now as a digital sculptor for product at LittleWonder Studio. I fell in love with the program, as so many of us do, and have always been striving to keep up with every new feature and find new ways to use it and share my knowledge.
Meanwhile, in another part of my brain, I had for a very long time wanted to volunteer at Braille Institute. The organization had a large impact on me when I was a child and visited one of the campuses. Long story short, I finally motivated myself enough to go in and look into what I could do to help. My initial intent was to assist in a sculpting class. I really wanted to share what I know as a visual artist with those that have a completely different perspective of creating and perceiving art.
During my interview the Director of Volunteers at the time, Michelle Sheridon, asked me what it was I did for a living. I explained it as best as I could and showed her some images I had on my phone of my work. She became incredibly excited and asked, “can you teach a class in this?” My response was, “I don’t know, can I?” Being new to the world of visual impairment, it had gone completely over my head that most have some level of vision and actually could learn how to use ZBrush. Now came the big question,
Not long after I started volunteering I started my hunt to get in contact with the folks at Pixologic. I found what we were trying to do interesting, so I thought maybe they would. Couldn’t hurt to ask right? I sent an email to Jaime Labelle (CEO) and kept my fingers crossed. About a week later I was surprised to hear back from one of their marketing reps saying that they would like to know more and if they could meet with me the following week to talk about their involvement. The meeting floored me. They were so excited to help in any way they could to make this happen, and in these past 2 and a half years that has never changed. I have learned through this process how much of a dedicated and generous company Pixologic is.
In those 5 weeks they learned how to navigate the software, interact with a 3D object, and most importantly, CREATING!!! The students loved it! Never did they think that they would be able to create in such a way in the computer. The skill and experience range varied a lot as well. Some students were still very new to the world of computers, while others were very uncertain about their skills in art. By the end they were all navigating comfortably and enjoying how easy it was to dive in.
Thank you all for you interest and I can’t wait to show you more of what the students here are doing. They are all now members of ZBrushCentral, so you can see their work and learn more of their experience with the software directly.
Thank you to the folks at Pixologic for coming by to visit and meet with the students!
All work seen is by students. These students have varying levels of visual impairment, and use various types of assistance in order to work in the software. I will be doing feature stories on each of them in the months ahead and they will soon be active members of the community here.
Meet the students and help them feel welcome!!
AileenBIA ashleyBIA catherineBIA RafaelBIA Cecil-BIA
Thanks for reading!
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