We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Z Walz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
David Z, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
I’m always writing down ideas for things. I’ll write them in my notes app before I forget them and the list has been getting quite long. I never lack something to work on because I have this backlog.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
At the moment I work professionally as a 3D Character Artist in the video game industry, but I have past experience in film, TV, and advertising. I also used to work as a live caricature artist. In my personal work, I’m working on a few short films and animation experiments.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I’d say that you need to have a vested interest in what you’re choosing to focus on. For better or for worse I can’t focus on things that I don’t care about, which really propels me when I’m there working on what I do care about. I couldn’t be doing something else. For those that are early on in this journey, I suppose I’d say to trust that gut feeling you have that pulls you in the direction you want to go. If you can’t hear it at first, you will soon. It’s something undeniable inside you.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I’m an indecisive person and my interests often change with the wind, but I have some select things, like sculpture and drawing that I always come back to. This has never stopped me from exploring interests like animation or other adjacent, but not directly relevant, interests. I think it’s good to be well-rounded up to a point, because more knowledge can only give you perspective. It does reach a point of diminishing returns when you’re learning though and by then I think it’s a good time to start specializing. Professionally I would try to be really good at two or three things and competent at everything else. In my experience this has gotten me far enough.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.davidwalz3d.com/
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/david.v0029.obj
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-z-walz?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@bumpercarmcgee6981?si=VO5nILrjy8REY0ut
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