Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Gibbons
Hi Will, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Michigan and was drawn to creative endeavors as a kid. I spent a lot of time drawing, painting and making things with my hands. My father spent his career as an engineer and my mother as a writing professor. As a kid, I wanted to be self-employed and get paid to do something creative. I also was influenced by my grandfather who ran a screen printing and trophy business in Indiana.
I attended CCS, an arts college in Detroit, Michigan where I earned a B.F.A. in Industrial Design. For those unfamiliar, industrial design sits at the intersection of invention, art and engineering. We focus on the aesthetics, usability and function of physical products we use daily.
My first job after college was creating technical documents and marketing material for a bicycle company in Irvine, California. This leveraged my technical design skills with the writing chops I picked up thanks to mom. In 2016, I became the Global Training Specialist for a KeyShot, a company that produces 3D rendering and animation software used by industrial designers.
Since 2012, alongside all these life events, I’d been freelancing on the side and building an online presence through sharing my design work, writing and teaching.
In 2021, I shared my product visualization knowledge in the form of a paid KeyShot rendering course. Since then, I’ve focused solely on teaching product visualization, which encompasses 3D rendering and animation for the promotion of physical goods.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Some of the most difficult times were when I was new to freelancing and wasn’t able to earn as much as I needed to. When my (then girlfriend, now wife) was accepted into medical school, we moved from California to Pennsylvania. There were months when we were paying rent with her student loan money and we were only able to buy groceries thanks to government assisted food stamps.
There’s been many hard-learned lessons, but the most vivid memories are from those earlier years when we had nothing.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I use 3D software to create photo-realistic images and videos of products. These are the kind of visuals used in marketing campaigns, product releases, ecommerce stores, packaging and more.
CGI is commonplace today, but the CGI I focus on centers around products such as consumer goods rather than entertainment like video games or films. And my peers are engineers, industrial designers, marketers and graphic designers.
Lost of these creative professionals need to make product renderings, often as an alternative to photography. And I’m known as a domain expert in product visualization. I teach these creative professionals how to make appealing product renderings.
When I’m not teaching others through my library of online courses and free YouTube videos, I like to push my own skills. I’m frequently trying to learn new tools and concepts as well as creating my own personal projects, allowing me to bring my own ideas to life.
I’m most proud of the effect my teachings have had on thousands of others. The fact that I’ve been able to play a role in helping others get their first job, jump to freelancing, find new interest in a career pivot or help someone put food on the table for their family is immensely gratifying.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Being self-employed can be lonely and working at a computer for long hours isn’t great for overall healthy. My favorite apps are those I use to track my workouts (Trainerize), my runs (Coros), and my nutrition (Cronometer) and body composition (Inbody).
As far as work goes, I spend a fair bit of time on Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. These are the main places my people hang out and it’s where I publish most of my work.
And I love audio books and podcasts. It helps to take my mind off work, which can be hard to do when self-employed. I enjoy listening to business podcasts, a few zombie-apocalypse audio dramas and crime thriller audio books. Libby is a great app for free access to audio books, so long as you have a library card.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://courses.willgibbons.com/keyshot-material-masterclass
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willgibbonsdesign
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willgibbons/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WillGibbons
