I'm a freelance computer graphics artists, who is spreading out to 3D art and animations. You can see more of my work at: www.RoySorenson.com.
BIO
Well, let's start with my name; Roy R. Sorenson. I was born and raised in a small town about 20 minutes across the bay from San Francisco were I've lived most of my life. I did spend about three years of my life in Los Angeles, which gave me a greater appreciation for my small town. Northern California is a great place to live, with mountains on one side of you, and ocean on the other side. Then there's the fantastic Bay Area with a 1,000 things to do and places to see. San Francisco is truly one of the most beautiful cities in the country. After getting out of High School I attended Chabot College where I studied Automotive Technology. You see, I'm a big "Gear Head", a person who loves cars. I love to build custom cars, I love to race cars, I go to every car show, I love attending car races of any kind, I love cars! So the first half of my life I was an auto mechanic, brake and front end specialist. But a bad back and wanting more of a challenge in my life changed all that. While I was working as a mechanic I was also publishing a model car newsletter for a Northern California model car club. Well, what with all the great talent to draw on here in Northern California, the newsletter became so popular that people all over the country were reading it. The newsletter soon turned into a full pledge magazine. I published PLASTIC FANATIC magazine for nearly twelve years. It was a great opportunity for me to travel all over the country and meet some unbelievably great people. Model car builders are some of the most friendly and generous people you'll ever meet. If I traveled to a new city I didn't know, I'd just call a modeler there and ask if he could show me around. One year I attended a huge convention in Indianapolis by myself, since I had no one to help me man my booth, I would have to close the both to go photograph the event. The local model car club there stepped in and ran my booth while I photographed the show. At the same time I was doing Plastic Fanatic I owned a mail order business called "Garage Scenes". It was a catalog filled with all the latest aftermarket detail parts for model builders. Just like the real car builders, the model car builders wanted custom parts for their projects. The catalog featured machine aluminum wheels, braided line, custom spark plug wires, A/N fittings, custom valve covers, etc. The service proved to be very popular with the modelers. My catalog started as a two page Xerox, and ended up being a 36 page catalog at the end. During this time I was also involved with helping run model car contests and shows. Our local club helped run the contests at many of the local car shows, including the world famous Grand National Roadster Show. But a new kind of show was evolving, a noncompetitive show called NNLs. So I decided to start an NNL here in the bay area. I held the first one 18 or 19 years ago in a small, dark, local community center, but now it has grown into one of the BIGGEST model car shows in the country, held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in San Jose, California, the NNL Western Nationals is one of the most fun shows to attend. The next show is March 3rd, 2008 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, for more info go to: NNLWest.org (a web site I built and maintain). For the last 20+ years I've been doing freelance work for both the model car magazines and real car magazines. My works have been featured in Scale Auto Enthusiast Street Rodder, FineScale Modeler, Popular HotRodding, American Rodder and more (see my resume for a complete list). I've also had work featured overseas magazines in Japan, and Australia. There's a great joy in photographing and sharing events, information, etc. with other people and I suspect that I'll be a freelance photo journalist/writer all my life. Several years ago though I sold both the magazine and mail order business', and began looking around for something new to accomplish in my life. A friend hired me to be a cyber magazine editor for eScaleCars.com and that kind of got me interested in the whole Internet thing. I decided to go back to school and learn web design. But then, the bottom fell out of the Internet and I began to look for a different major. I found 3D modeling and fell in love with it ! It encompass' everything I love; art, photograph, and model building. I attended Silicon Valley college in Fremont, CA where I learned a lot. I also attended 3D Exchange in Alameda, CA as an extension out of SVC. I graduated in 2004 with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Visual Design (Graphic Arts) and hope to pursue a career in 3D animation and special effects for the movies. Although most of my work presented at Renderosity is "car related", I also enjoy building sets and environments of many kinds. Would love to land a job where I could be both a texture artist & model builder.
Currently, I'm working in one of the West Coast's largest Auto Auction yards as an Internet Sales Coordinator, I married a wonderful woman a few years ago (who understands my love for cars), and I drive a bright yellow, limited edition, Monte Carlo SS while rebuilding my 1967 GTO that I drove in High School.
I've meet a lot of great friends here at Renderosity who have helped me to become a better 3D artist.
Comments (2)
oooZENOooo
You are the only one I can think of, who goes to extraordinary lengths to model the engine and its components. Hats off to you buddy! v
RoyRSorenson
Zeno, my hobby for 40plus years was scale model cars, and building real hot rods, so it just comes naturally. I enjoy doing this stuff a lot more then I do the bodies!