Most Influential Books for My Career

“How did you become a VR artist?”
”Well, when I was 5 years old…..”

Umm! I mean, hello!!

There’s no way I would have known my path would lead me to be an internationally known and desired VR/AR artist! Most people in the world still have yet to put on a virtual reality headset, let alone fathom what an artist does in a face computer.

With a strong conviction to make the world a better place, a heck lot of education and training, and an incredible support in my corner, I’ve been very #blessed to carve my own unique path.

“Get hired for my brain,
not my hand, ”
I remember repeating to myself over and over again.

Welp! I better get my brain and mindset in order! Since then, I’ve been hungry to learn about others who successfully turned their ideas into reality, combining different genres of industries together, and - just - the FOUNDATIONS of “making it.”

Here are the key books that helped me on my journey! I hope it helps you, too <3

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Transparency note: I’m trying out Amazon Affiliate linking as a way of generating small passive income. I’ll make like a $0.20-$2 commission (LOL) if you purchase through the below links - no additional cost to you. I will only recommend products or services that I genuinely believe will add value to your creative entrepreneurial journey, too. :) Onward!

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15 books that helped me become a creative entrepreneur

1) Getting There: A Book of Mentors by Gillian Zoe Segal

Such a meaty book for inspiration, reading about people’s origin stories and how they got to their successes. Nine years later, I’m still slowly reading through the stories - each one is packed with so much inspo.

2) Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace

Early on in my XR career, I was hungry to learn from anyone who combined art + tech. Of course, I had to study the heck out of Ed Catmull and Pixar to understand how they were able to combine technologies with storytelling. Most pertinent in this book are the stories of resilience, “failing fast,” and getting back up again.

3) Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown

A book that changed my life. I have a quote that sits boldly near my desk:
”Success, recognition, and approval are not the values that drive me.
My value is Courage.”

It’s not about the accolades, the likes, the awards - it’s the courage to DARE to be ME.

I’ve read this book 3 or 4 times, each time with new wisdom gained.

4) Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek

Like many others, Simon Sinek’s “Start with WHY” TED Talk shifted my life, too. I know I’m a good leader, but how or why? This helped me fine-tune and better understand that it’s my authenticity, integrity, and my aligned actions that make me a good leader.

5) Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Her story about Ideas trying to find people to collaborate with helped lessen the pressures for me. The concept of collaborating with a muse helped, too. This book really did ignite magic and inspiration for me.

6) How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb

Did you know Da Vinci had less than 20 paintings? He was a polymath: artist, inventor, engineer. He became a role model for me when I first investigating art + tech innovation. There are lessons in this book I think about every day, especially Curiosita.

7) Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles

Helped me feel less alone in my creative journey. It’s SCARY to do art fully. There’s so many unknowns. And if often feels like there’s so little in our control, too. This was a core read for me when I started my creative professional journey.

8) Do Story by Bobette Buster

Recommended by one of my mentors, Bobette Buster would be brought into Disney to help solve issues with their stories. This small but mighty book teaches how to tell stories in a meaningful, compelling, and impactful way. This one really changed my life - especially as it pertains to public speaking and talking engagements.

9) The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho

Such good inspo for following one’s dreams and calling.

10) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Finding fulfillment and peace thru the simple things in life, in nature, and - in turn - connection. Another short but mighty book packed with inspiration.

11) Your Illustrated Guide To Becoming One With The Universe by Yumi Sakugawa

I love and have recommended this book so much! My favorite take-away from Sakugawa’s book is regularly sitting with one’s demons, inviting them to tea, letting the demon speak and express itself. Our inner voices often just want to be heard, validated, and acknowledged. This really aligns way I express myself and thoughts in my own therapy and journaling. Sakugawa does it in such a beautiful way.

12) Feck Perfuction: Dangerous Ideas on the Business of Life by James Victore

Oh I just love Victore’s brash tone! It’s so refreshing and wholehearted, imo! LOL They speak to the creative and mental challenges of being a professional creative - distractions, perfectionism, external factors. This is a good reminder to just shut the noise and stay true to our own paths.

13) The Simple Path: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life to Wealth by J L Collins

I needed to start learning about money! This is a good, easy read on the concept of how wealth works. Basically, it’s about compounding - letting things build upon itself. I’ve taken this concept and think about this, not just for my money, but also wellness and health in my life, too. Having a strong, secure, stable foundation means “add-ons” and shifts/changes are easier managed.

I particularly love the bit where he talks about guessing where we might be with money in 5, 10, 20+ years. “Guessing” takes a lot of pressure off of being… wrong? inaccurate? failing? Nonetheless, a great book at the start of my financial literacy journey.

14) I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

I can’t recommend this enough! Sethi’s book is SO easy to understand, provides fantastic structures and practices to automate contributions. He’s all about creating a SYSTEM — which I LOVE! Let the money serve YOU — even if you only get paid $12/hr!! I actually implemented my systems when I was working retail making about that much! It’s still doable and I could still see my money grow.

15) Freelance, and Business, and Stuff by Amy Hood and Jennifer Hood

A life-changing book for my business! This is packed with so much information on how to be your own creative business, for all the nitty gritty things! LLCs, accounting, contracts, etc. This book

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All of these books tap on a variety of focuses — all quite integral to my holistic journey. I hope these might help and serve you, too!

Have any of these helped you, too? Are there any you’d add to this list? I want to hear what has inspired you on your path!

How to Make a Black Rose Crown Filter with Spark AR

How do we use our existing skills and knowledge to support the Black Lives Matter movement? In addition to using my social media voice, I want to inspire ppl to use their creativity and skills to make tangible change.

I know how to make cool stuff with new technology.
I professionally create 3D models for a living.

I created a beautiful black rose with Gravity Sketch, made fully in VR. It is available on Sketchfab for $10. 100% of the proceeds will go to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Half will go to Black Girls Code (structural change), and the other half to Color of Change (local action).

Use this asset for your VR/AR projects. Use it to populate your VR environments (if you want, the rose’s color/shader can be easily edited). Put it into a vase in your VR office environments. Place it into your virtual Animal Crossing island and water these black roses with your golden watering can. Either way, you’ll be showing your support to Black Lives Matter by donating $10 for the asset, and it’ll be free for you to use.

I believe there needs to be more accessibility to young black creators, especially those who want to use tech and make cool things with new tech. Below is a free tutorial for making an Augmented Reality filter using the black rose asset.

To young black creators: I’ll give you the file for free. DM me on IG, Twitter, or FB. :) I’d love to see your creations!

1. Download the 3D Model from Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/6SUQY

2. Download SparkAR: https://sparkar.facebook.com/ar-studio/download/

3. In SparkAR, create a New Project with the Head Decoration template

You’ll see the new project open and a demo of a man with a AR hat.

In the left side menu, look for the PAUSE button to stop the demo animation. This will help with the next steps.

4. At the bottom of the left menu, click on + Add Asset. Then select Import from Computer…

Choose the Sketchfab downloaded file.

5. Drag “blackrose” from the Assets window, and drop it to the Scene window where it says “dragHere”. This creates it as a ‘prefab’ in the Scene.

Delete the thing that says “deleteMe” :)

6. In the Assets menu, select the thing that says “Standard000000”. (This is called a Shader btw, and is what gives the rose a black color).

On the right hand menu, you can click on the Color box and adjust the color to be a little bit lighter so you can see all the details on the model. Also click on the box that says “Double Sided [x]” so it is selected. This will make sure the model will appear correctly for the filter!

7. Right Click on “blackrose” prefab. Select Duplicate. Do this so then there are 3 “blackrose” prefabs total.

It should look something like this. Double-check and make sure your blackrose prefabs are in the same structure as mine on the left menu. :)

8. Positioning and Rotation of roses. Choose one of the blackrose prefabs, then at the top of the menu, look for the POSITION and ROTATION buttons. These are the tools you’ll use to position your roses

Edit the position and rotation of the roses to your liking! Press the “PLAY” button on the left bar (where “PAUSE” button was before) to see if the roses look good at all angles.

9. Activate your computer’s camera to see how you look with your creation! Above the Play/Pause button, click on the CAMERA button. Choose your camera (mine is called “FaceTime HD Camera”) and click PLAY! Make any edits for the rose positions if you need.

10. Look super cute~

Congratulations on making your SparkAR project!

Do you want to share your creation on Instagram? Read about submitting it to the Spark AR Hub here.

Thanks for following alone, and thanks for supporting BLM by purchasing the black rose 3D model on Sketchfab!

VR Painting 101: How Do I Become a VR Artist?

This is the question I get asked the most by fellow artists. I know being a VR painter can sound scary because it involves a PC, hardware you're not familiar with, and hella wires. But it's not that hard! This post is for artists who are not as tech savvy but want to learn more about painting and creating in VR!

I'll walk you through the things you need to know:
- the terminology so you can understand what people are saying,
- the tech involved,
- the creativity apps for VR, and
- my favorite  VR artists you must follow! 

To answer your question: you just jump in and get painting! 

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How Did You Get Started? 

I was exploring VR in early 2016, going to tech conventions and conferences, trying out every demo I could. Every person who worked in the VR industry, I spoke extensively to them, asked their advice. I didn't know of anyone else painting in VR professionally at that time (the Vive and Tilt Brush didn't officially release until Apr 2016). I knew I was made for this field. I dished out the money to build a new computer and got my hands on an HTC Vive! From there, I spent hours and hours in Tilt Brush, painting my days away. The rest is history! 

In short, I had the painting + comfort in tech to get started at the time that I did. I consider myself incredibly lucky with the timing of opportunities. 

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VR Terminology, Part 1

• Virtual Reality
  This is when you are completely immersed in VR.
  Think: 0% opacity of the real world.
  High-end headsets: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Playstation VR

Job Simulator, an example of a virtual reality experience. One of my personal favorites! Notice how you don't see any of the real world. You are fully immersed.

• Augmented Reality (sometimes called "Mixed Reality")
  This is when some aspect of the real world is visible (like Pokemon Go!).
  The AR content may or may not be integrated with the real world.
  Popular AR devices: Microsoft Hololens, Meta Glasses, your smart phones/tablets!
  
  NOTE: This is sometimes called 'Mixed Reality'. The nature of emerging fields is that the terminology isn't set in stone yet so things will be in flux in the coming years.

An example of augmented reality, Holodog, a weekend Hackathon project I created with two other designers/developers. Left is my view using the Hololens — notice the digital dog is overlaid on top of the real life world (and doesn't exist IRL). Only I can see him in this scenario, using the Hololens. (Read more about our hackathon experience here.)

• Errr..... Mixed Reality
  Combination of both real world + VR/AR
  Often used for film shoots or demo videos; videos to showcase content or use of immersive media.
  
  NOTE: This is sometimes used synonymously with 'Augmented Reality' but means different things. The nature of emerging fields is that the terminology isn't set in stone yet so things will be in flux in the coming years.

This is an example of what a "Mixed Reality" shoot looks like. On the LEFT: This is what I look like during the shoot. I'm in a green screen room, I have a VR headset on. There is a 3rd-person camera recording me. On the RIGHT: there are apps that take the 3rd-person camera content + my VR content and outputs this view of me & my VR creation. (These photos are from the Google Research blog in the 'Headset Removal' experiment.)

• "XR" or "xR"
  This is often used to categorize all the "R"s — virtual, augmented, mixed, etc. Some people are using this as an umbrella term for all the immersive techs.

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Equipment You'll Need

• Headset ("HMD" Head Mount Display)
  For the creative apps, you'll have to get either the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. You can do a search online to see what the differences between the Rift and Vive are.
  
  I have both and switch back and forth. I like the ease of tracking for the Vive. I like the ergonomics of the Rift. Both are not perfect, as early tech goes.
  

• A VR-ready PC Computer
  The computer has to have a top-notch video card. This is imperative! The best one on the market right now is the GTX 1080 Ti. I tend to invest in the best computer parts in the moment in order to keep it as long as possible from this point forward. You can always upgrade parts as you go, too. Your videocard must be able to run at 90 frames per second. If it doesn't, you will get lag while in VR and you will likely get nauseous!
  
  TIP: You can find already-built computers that will say it is "VR Ready." Do a search on its video card and make sure it's all good.
  

• Physical space in your studio or room to do some VR!

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VR Terminology, Part 2

Tech Key Words

• Frames per second
  I mentioned this in the HMD notes above. How many fps does your video card have to run?
  

• 3dof vs 6dof ("Degrees of Freedom")
  This pertains to how much of your movement gets tracked. In 360 videos, you can look up, tilt, and look around you — this is 3dof and you are limited to standing in one place for this.
  
  In 6dof, you can do those things PLUS you can move forward/backwards, left/right, diagonally in space.
  

• Haptics
  This is when your other sense are engaged: touch, taste, smell!

Content Vocabulary

• Agency
  How much control the user has in the experience
  
  

• Presence
  The feeling of "this is sooo real!!!", like you are actually there in that VR world
  

• "Experiences"
  A lot of people call VR experiences as 'games'. This is not always the case. It's often a hybrid between an interactive game or a film or something else. I've found that "experience" can be a broad, encompassing word.

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Creative VR Apps

There are a few out there but I'm mostly going to mention the four popular ones:

Google Apps

• Tilt Brush — This is the one you probably saw Glen Keane using! It's a lot of people's first VR experience, and it's one I often use to introduce new people to, too. It's the most intuitive, quickest way to prototype / ideate / play and doodle in VR! 

• Blocks — This is used to create low-poly 3D models within VR. With a few primitive shapes to build from, you can modify vertices, extrude faces, scale things huge or tiny. This is a superb app to use to quickly create assets for VR because it is low-poly.
  (Being mindful of poly count is super important for extensive VR creations that will be turned into films/interactive experiences/games/etc.)

Oculus Apps

• Quill — You might have heard of or seen clips from Dear Angelica. A lot of illustrators prefer Quill's brushes and functionalities. You probably have also seen a lot of amazing videos by the great Goro Fujita! New for early-2018: there's an animation feature now! 

• Medium — This is a 3D modeling tool in VR. Think: sculpting with clay in VR! The extent of how you can model with Medium is incredibly impressive. I've seen very intricate and complex models molded in Medium and then 3D printed out. So beautiful!

If you'd like to explore more VR creative apps, 3Donimus compiled a really comprehensive list! 

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My Favorite VR Artists!

Liz Edwards
@lizaledwards
https://lizedwards.artstation.com/

Danny Bittman
@DannyBittman
http://dannybittman.com/

Micah404
@micahnotfound
http://www.art404.com/

Sutu
@thenawlz
http://www.sutueatsflies.com/

Anna "Anna Dream Brush" Zhilyaeva 
@AnnaDreamBrush
https://www.annadreambrush.com/

3Dominus
@3Donimus
https://www.youtube.com/3donimus

Steve Teeps
@Steveteeps
http://www.steveteeps.com/

Naam
@_naam
http://sketchfab.com/naam

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Final thoughts...

I know there's a lot and can be intimidating! Hopefully this helped ease some of your anxieties. It might seem like we know what we're doing in this space, but it is honestly very experimental and hands-on.

So get a VR rig, grab your controllers, and start swinging some VR paint! I can't wait to see what you make!

Contact Form 7 + Bluehost + Google Apps

When the webdev gods are especially tougher on you more than usual

In rebuilding my site, I ran into some issues with Contact Form 7 and not receiving test emails. It was one of those lovely moments at the end of my deving day when I thought to myself, "Ooh, I'll just finish up by testing the contact form so I can cross the 'Contact' Page off as 'done' — that will be an easy gimme."

Not. :(

Identifying the Problem

I've used Contact Form 7 for many years and never had issues. This time, I wasn't receiving several test emails. I've been out of the game for a while so I was thinking it might have been conflicting with the theme? Jetpack's contact form? funky variable issues with the form settings?

First step, I figured it was something wrong with the configuration of CF7. There are often server-side issues with the "FROM" address coming from outside/non-local email addresses, that is, your server may believe that a sender's @yahoo.com address is spam and will filter it out. Additional headers should be entered, etc. — instructions below. I tried tweaking several settings to no avail.

One of the things I did right off the bat was change the "FROM" values from [senders-email] to a real, existing email address I have for @estellatse.com. This way, my server will not flag visitors' emails as 'stranger danger.' (Contact Form 7 "Your message was sent successfully." but not receiving emails)

I kept refreshing my @estellatse.com Gmail, checked my spam folders, anywhere else the emails could have gotten lost. No avail after several tests, changing one CF7 variable per test. I was still successfully receiving emails sent manually, just not from CF7. Wtf.

Logging onto Bluehost cPanel, I check to see how the email account was configured and checked the webmail just in case. HA! FOUND YA!

Gaiz. Where are we? (LOST s02e23)

Turns out my test emails were sending just fine (if CF7 says that the message was sent successfully, then it is indeed sending properly.) All 17 (lol) of my test emails were sitting in my webmail box. There was a problem with the hosting --> Gmail/Google apps portion.

I have my domain email setup with Google apps, which involves how my webmail uses Gmail MX Entry configurations.

Because I set the "FROM" to my own @estellatse.com email, the server believed that it is sending an email to itself and the webmail will then send the mail locally. That's the reason my test emails were stuck in the webmailbox (Can't receive mail from a web form). I had to configure it so that my email would process these emails remotely rather than locally.

How to Fix Contact Form 7 --> Bluehost --> Google Apps

This is how I configured the Contact Form 7 settings:

contact form 7 settings

Then, on the cPanel/Bluehost end:

• Go to cPanel
• Click on MX Entry
• Select your domain
• Go down to MX Mail Exchanger
• Select Remote Mail Exchanger

After I did this, I was able to successfully receive my test messages in my Gmail/Google apps inbox. w00t! (They no longer appeared in my webmailbox because they were successfully sent out! No more stuckness, yay!)

These articles were extremely helpful for problem-solving this issue:

• Best Practice to Set Up Mail (Contact Form 7)
• Setting up Mail Issues (Contact Form 7)
• Contact Form 7 Email Issues (CF7 Skins) — this is pretty comprehensive

Crazy Good Resource for Storytelling

Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 2.07.00 PM

The Periodic Table of Storytelling

This site provides links to the breakdowns of various storytelling tropes: story structures, plot devices, character types, etc. On each of the character trope wiki articles, there's very descriptive breakdowns of the rules/expectations of those characters. It also comes complete with examples in film, literature, manga, animation, etc. It's a very comprehensive wiki.

I'll definitely be using this moving forward for characterizations! Looking forward to this!