Caius Wong

Who is Caius Wong?

A Brief History of Caius Wong

Snoopy.  Garfield.  Bloom County.  Who knew emulating my favorite childhood art, as a youngin’, would ultimately direct my path to where I am now?  Some form of art has always been part of my life be it vocal/instrumental/oil/pen&pencil, but

cw_gettysburg_smit was the Disney film “Beauty and the Beast” (specifically the ballroom scene) that solidified my route to 3D.  Seeing how they integrated the 3D ballroom scene with 2D fascinated me.

Twists and turns come with life, but the key is learning how to roll with them. Brief synopsis: Coming from a large family, attending one of the high-standing art schools wasn’t in the cards for me financially so a state school it was.  My parents thought I’d literally become a starving artist!  It was time well spent, though, honing personal and traditional skills, but after graduating it took a while to find a job to get my career going.  I eventually hooked up with a startup company (character modeling), in Chicago, that led to a job at a game studio (character animation) before finding my way to a staff 3D web job, in NY.  This ultimately led to becoming a 3D freelancer where I live student loan free (thank you cheaper state school), with my wife and our chubby dog.cw_burgerking_sm

What I do:

Generalist” is the term tossed around.  I never wanted to be pigeon-holed with a single skill and work hard to keep developing my skill SETS.  Base application – I may do some lighting work in Maya once in a while to pay the bills, but 3D Studio Max has always been my choice app.  Besides the number of great modeling tools in Max, I enjoy using ZBrush

cw_timberland_smand Mudbox which take me back to the days of sculpting back in school.  3D modeling is what first received my attention, but my curiosity of other aspects is what challenged me to develop the rest.

Texture and Shader development/creation seemed to come naturally with modeling.  It’s pretty satisfying to create a great shader to help sell a well-built model.  But the sale isn’t complete without good lighting.  I’ve done a number of jobs where I either have to match the lighting of the backplate footage, or just to create the overall mood of a creative design.  Optimization is key for the quick turnarounds agencies/studios cw_parmalat_smdemand so it’s good to know the tricks.
The fun side of being a generalist is having a hand on many phases whether it be animating characters/objects, rigging characters to animate, blowing up objects to render management setting up shots for compositors.  I typically am asked to lead a 3D team/project, or to focus on one particular aspect.  At one moment I’m helping create a commercial, the next elements for a broadcast show to developing videos/elements for the web – it’s all part of the fun.  With the boutique studios you have to be a chameleon adapting very quickly.
cw_autotrader_sm
Despite all my hard work, I do feel I’ve been lucky to be in the position I am.  I’ve been able to work and learn simultaneously, with good people, who share ideas and know their craft well.  This industry is a constant education.  Keeping up with the latest advances while trying to maintain a family isn’t the easiest, but is very rewarding.  Stepping back and spending time each year to travel is my solution and recommendation to others for relaxation.  Next up – further developing my FX knowledge and Mari.

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Cache Media Inc®

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