Surfin' USA

This was a collaboration with Alyssa Minko (https://www.artstation.com/alyssaminko)! I was responsible for staging, lighting, rendering, and compositing. This project was born out of our mutual love of California and going to the beach. This project pushed both of our skillsets in the best possible way, added to our professional portfolios, and the feedback we received from fellow industry pros definitely changed the project for the better.

While lighting this project, I found myself inspired by my time in Santa Monica and San Francisco, and really tried to soak up that vibe for this scene in particular. Lighting was challenge at first, particularly balancing the contribution of the hdri (from https://hdrihaven.com/) with the sunlight and getting the rim light to be angled properly. I especially challenged myself to create a shot with good depth and shadow definition. When the tree gobo was added, it felt like everything finally fit together in the best way possible.