Life & Work with Kat Yu of Los Angeles, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kat Yu.

Hi Kat, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m Kat – an Art Director and 3D artist in tech, and my career has been about building virtual worlds. I started at AltspaceVR when social virtual reality was brand new, helping forge what social virtual experiences could be. Then I spent 9+ years at Meta’s Reality Labs, leading art direction across avatars, virtual fashion, AR shopping experiences, and immersive social worlds and live events – work that also helped everyday creators make hundreds of thousands of their own 3D assets. Today I’m an Art Director focused on AI systems and agentic game creation.

Nestcraft Studios is my way of doing that same kind of work in the real world. Building worlds and environments on a screen translated naturally to building physical spaces – coming up with spatial designs that are aesthetically pleasing while also practical to actually live in. I’m now growing Nestcraft into a business I can share with other creatives, explorers, and makers who want that same sense of empowerment in their own spaces. I bring the tools from my career with me: AI visualization tools and my 3D modeling background let me show people their finished space and work out the technical specs before anyone picks up a tool, and my experience managing projects and teams lets me consult on broader projects – helping plan an entire project from first idea to final result.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge has been the jump itself. Nestcraft is my first business and my first time offering this kind of service. It connects to what I studied and what I do in my day job, but it is still a new field, and starting something of my own has felt daunting.

I am also not traditionally trained as a contractor. I have learned almost everything through tutorials — many, many tutorials — and that can make the question of validity feel like an uphill battle. But I also think there is value in being a fellow student: a beginner-to-intermediate DIYer showing that the information is out there, it is attainable, and other people can do this too.

The last piece was learning how to translate my existing strengths into a service: 2D visualization, a designer’s eye for aesthetics, 3D rendering and visualization, and thinking through a project as a whole. Imagining how those skills could fit this business was challenging at first, but eventually they came together.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
At the core of my work is building worlds and the characters that live in them, not just imagining places, but creating the spaces, characters, and experiences that make those places feel alive.

What I specialize in is the combination of craft and systems. On the craft side, it is visual direction and 3D – taking an idea for a space, experience, or character design and figuring out how it should look, feel, and actually work. On the systems side, it is prioritizing, planning, and managing projects so an idea can become something real, repeatable, and something other people can build on too. That is also what I am most proud of: the work that lets other people create, not just the work I create myself.

Nestcraft Studios is that same instinct in the physical world, and it is what, I think, sets me apart. I am both the designer and the DIYer. I do the work myself in my own home or for folks who have been interested in design help, I learn the same frustrations other homeowners face, and I bring professional tools with me – AI visualization, 3D modeling, and whole-project planning – so people can see their finished space and understand the path before anyone picks up a tool.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
My first professional passion was actually fashion design. I started my college journey at Parsons School of Design in New York, with hopes of becoming a fashion designer in the big city. I was enamored with designing clothing and wearables for the human form, and art that could be expressive, powerful, and made to move in. Life eventually pulled me to Chicago, where I transferred and discovered the world of digital art. I had no idea that many years later, those same skills would translate to my work in the games and tech industry, designing and creating digital wearables for avatars of all kinds. In a way, it has all been very serendipitous – and now, with Nestcraft, back to making things in the physical world again. Things have truly come full circle.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nestcraftstudios.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katyu/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZNjWTTolZPSNrEU6WeluUw
• Other: https://www.kat-yu.com