Weta Internship Entry 2021

Bulkhead Vault Door

My most recent project was an attempt to create a Sci-Fi vault door with a sense of believable functionality. This project was heavily inspired from the late Paul Pepera.

Having a slight background as an Industrial Designer, I have come to really appreciate the design elements that sell an object's role within a story or world. When I was looking for reference for doors and vaults and came across Paul Pepera's work, it stirred up a determination to create something similar. 

I loved seeing all the believable detail of his cutaways/section views within his work. It shows he always had a sense of an object's functionality to help ground his ideas and concepts.

My challenge for this project was to apply the modelling techniques I had learnt over the past few months into one small project. 

Whilst creating the vault I tried to mostly use a boolean workflow to get my desired shapes and forms. This forced me to think a few steps ahead before jumping to the finer details. I also was able to get some retopology practice in which was nice.

Spending time on this project definitely solidified some modelling techniques and fundamentals that I had been working on. 

If I were to do this again I would definitely slow it down in the beginning and create rougher blockout meshes to explore different forms and compositions. A contributor to my slightly rushed approach to modelling was the lack of appropriate reference images. I found myself lacking in some of the simpler details such as the pipes and interlocking mechanisms. 

Qantas Dreamliner Interior

A friend of mine took some photos of a Qantas Dreamliner and I decided to model a specific section of the plane's interior. The goal for this small project was to get as close as I could to the original reference image.

Reference Photo: Left

Render/3D Model: Right

Product Renderings

These are some product visualisations I did for my family's business.

Models and renders are created by me.

Other Skills

Apart from just 3D modelling I also enjoy creating product animations. In 2020 I had the privilege to work for BMW in Munich, Germany, where I was a digital design intern. I had to perform tasks outside of my regular skillset from product animation to level building for training smart logistics AI modules - utilising tools such as Unreal Engine 4 and NVIDIA Omniverse. It was during this time where I fell in love with almost everything 3D, which prompted me to pursue this as a career.

Here are some of the imagery I created for one of the latest BMW Subsidiaries, idealworks. The model and the textures were not created by me. I was responsible for the animation and lighting. The animation can be found on the idealworks website.

I have also created some personal animation projects. This animation was created using a tablet and pen I had modelled from a 3D modelling course. 

Final Word

I still have lots to learn still and am extremely excited to start my journey as a 3D artist. I am always looking for criticism and feedback to see where and what I can improve on. Please feel free to let me know where and how I can improve my skills - I will greatly appreciate this.

Thank you for getting to the end! 

Stay safe,

- Tim.