Imagine having the opportunity to virtually explore a building from top to bottom before it is even built.

Cool, right? If Derrick Nau's vision is correct, that's exactly what might be possible in Northeast Ohio. Nau is a computer generated image specialist at TRG Reality, a 30-year-old visual arts studio in Cleveland with about 30 employees. And, he's “obsessed” (his word, not ours) with his work and craft, and the technology behind it. So it should be no surprise that Nau recently was the one who pitched the possibility of his studio further taking advantage of advances in virtual reality technology. It's the kind of sci-fi stuff that allows a user to fully experience a situation or setting through the use of special goggles. “He's really a driving force in bringing us into the future,” said Adam Wilde, studio manager and senior photographer at TRG, which works with clients as diverse as Nestle, Moen, Things Remembered and Swagelok. “He thinks big picture.” The 28-year-old Nau is originally from Athens, Ohio, and is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, having specialized in biomedical art. He started at TRG as a freelancer, and has worked full-time at the studio for about three years, currently focusing his efforts on the texturing, surfacing, lighting and rendering of virtual 3-D objects. Nau's also active in an organization called SIGGRAPH, or the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. While certainly not a household name, according to Nau and Wilde, SIGGRAPH is the premiere organization for professionals specializing in any type of computer graphics. Indeed, according to information submitted by Wilde, a number of developments have been exhibited at SIGGRAPH, such as Pixar's “Toy Story,” the visual effects of “Jurassic Park,” projection mapping such as that used in the Sochi Olympics opening ceremony, 3-D scanning and printing, holograms and, of course, the virtual reality that caught Nau's eye. Nau is a staunch believer that Cleveland can become a hotbed for computer graphics work. In his free time — hence, the earlier use of the word “obsessed”— he also has put together what he calls a “animated short film creative collective group” called Magic City Animation & VFX. The group is producing an animated short film that is a romantic comedy titled “Love is Sweet.” Release is expected in mid-2016.