Hi Jeremy, thanks for taking the time for this interview. Could you introduce yourself to the community?

It's a pleasure, and thank you for the opportunity! I'm a CG artist from Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. I currently work as a software engineer at Micron/Intel, but art has always been my passion. I studied Computer Science at the University of Utah and was accepted into Pixar's Undergraduate Program (PUPs) where I was trained on their production pipeline. From there, I joined the Lighting team at DreamWorks Animation, where I worked on their proprietary lighting tools before joining the film Turbo. I’ve continued to explore CG ever since, constantly learning and experimenting with new ideas and technologies.

You recently won 1st place in Pixar’s Renderman Timeless Art Challenge! How do you feel, and did you expect this?

I was up in the mountains snowboarding when I received the email announcing the winners... I was in shock! I could hardly manage to focus on the ski slope for the rest of the day. I never expected to win, and I’m very humbled to have taken first place. There were so many talented artists participating that equally deserved the win. I’ve very happy with the way it turned out, it’s been a surreal experience for me.

Could you explain more about the concept of the challenge and why you decided to participate?

This year’s RenderMan challenge was very broad, which made it complex. They teamed up with Kitbash3D and SpeedTree to provide a set of assets for participants to use to create a scene. The theme was wide open; participants could create their own narrative to drive the shading and lighting of their work. The only guideline was that the submissions should be photo-real. I really enjoy creating environments so I knew this was up my alley. I’d also had a great experience with the previous RenderMan challenge, so there really wasn't any question about whether I'd participate. Regardless of the outcome, I saw it as an excellent opportunity to learn and push myself to try new things.