Today we’d like to introduce you to Joyce (Jiao) Jiao.
Joyce (Jiao), we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hello there! My name is Jiao Jiao, or you can simply just call me Joyce. I’m a freelance 3D artist here in the city of Los Angeles and a current graduate student of Gnomon – School of VFX, Games & Animation with a concentration in real-time environment art and game art. two years ago, I moved from Chicago to LA after I finished my undergraduate education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as an International Student. Back then, I was dreaming of becoming a hand-drawn 2D animator, just like what most anime fans and lovers planned for when they were going to art schools. Yet I soon changed my mind, when I got to learn how broad this industry actually is during the time of my gap year.
At the time, I was lucky enough to sign up for this local VFX studio open house tour organized by ACCESS:VFX Chicago. It was a great opportunity, and it completely opened my mind when I got to know how those fantastic and booming new technologies are applied to create those fascinating CG images we see in movies and video games. It made me believe that it is important for artists to keep an open mind, and always stay on the front line and the pioneering industry, so that one can able continuously create meaningful art. And by today’s standard, learning 3D is one of the many ways.
So, I decided to further pursue my study at Gnomon, a great place that exists for people who would like to study advanced 3D knowledge, also called “the MIT of visual effects”. In Gnomon, I developed a strong passion for creating environment art for games. It has become an indispensable hobby in my daily life. Coming from a fine art background, it has been an amazing 2-year journey for me to gain the capability of realizing imagination into 3D from “0” to “1”. It was also during that time I came up with the idea of making my world award-winning piece: Se Son Rose Fioriranno.
“Se son rose, fioriranno, if they are roses, they will bloom” It’s a beautiful quote I accidentally read a long time ago. I chose this quote to be the title of my favorite piece as I hope this piece can become an inspiration to empower other young artists and dream chasers who may or may not like me in the way just like how I gained power through other avant-garde artists in this industry to chase my dream of roses.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The truth is a path like this might not always be a smooth road. Taking myself as an example, it took me a while to determine whether should I choose to do things I like/am passionate about but might not be so good at it or to do things I’m good at that potentially can actually get me a paid-good job to support myself. Turns out you can actually do both. For the fact that everything you’ve been through in your life made you the person you are today. Whatever you decide to do can eventually become a true passion of yours as long as you can dive in and keep on practicing it. And you can really make a career out of the things you love, as that’s what finding your passion is all about.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a 3D artist with a focus on doing environment art for video games. Creating and “set-dressing” 3D models, like architectures, plants, landscapes, and props into appealing 3D environments inside real-time game engines are my duties and my passion. I believe one thing that made me stand out from my peer artists is my sharp insights when it comes to analyzing what a production demands to make a project or a final product successful. Coming back to a fine art background, I’m always open-minded and love to explore knowledge and techniques, or anything that can potentially help me on my projects, personally and professionally.
How do you define success?
For this question, I would say being successful depends on whether you feel that you are at a place you are happy with or not. It can be super subjective. To me, the success it’s to do things properly and well, which are pretty much key elements that you need to succeed in something. We as individuals all have our eagers and desires. In other words, it is undeniable that deep inside our hearts subconsciously, we all want to be successful person. And to reach that goal, we need to work to the right direction. Be competitive but be kind. You might not always need to compete with others or even “the old you” but be mindful that always try to horn your skills so that you can keep marching forward.
Therefore, I would love to end this interview with a quote from Orson Welles: “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artstation.com/joycejiao
- Instagram: @bluebirdieball
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyce-jiao-004711183/
- Other: https://www.bluebirdieball.club/
