Hands.fbx
Hands.fbx is an experiment in digital hand-holding over a period of quarantine. I asked 6 friends to send me a selfie of their hands, along with a word they were resonating with at the time. Created in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hands.fbx was dreamed up as a response to being unable to hand hold in real time, in person.
Role: 3D Artist, Animator, Conceptual Design
Tools used: Zbrush, Blender, Ableton, Wavetable
Description: I prompted my friends to send me front facing, side profile, and top view images of their hands along with a word that describes what they’ve been feeling lately. I wanted to challenge myself to create a realistic sculpture from scratch (the base model being a sphere). I would eyeball the features and characteristics of my friends hands - the veins, wrinkles, pores, joints - and attempt to have my interpretation be as true to the form as possible. I sculpted each hand in Zbrush, did the texture painting with the native paint tool, and rendered the composition in Blender. I created sound design to ground a couple of the scenes with Ableton’s Wavetable feature.
Some questions I wanted to answer through this project :
- What is the difference between an identifier and identity?
- If I create virtual assets, who should own them? With no legislative precedent for virtual copyrights and likeness beyond intellectual property law, where do we draw the line between what constitutes “me” and “not me” in digital representation?
- How do we navigate our relationship with virtual objects that hold material value tied to likeness and identity?
Through this project, painstakingly sculpting every pore, wrinkle, freckle, and tattoo of my friends, I’ve realized the intimacy that exists in the transition between physical and virtual realities. We are constantly co-creating our shared experience of virtuality, and we have the power to define these spaces and what they hold. It’s crucial to recognize that virtuality has always been part of our reality—as the mental image-making of our environment and the people in it. Beyond object permanence, virtual remnants take on a life of their own.