In-House Tourism, Pt.2

I know, I know! It's been a month. And what a month!

Social distancing, lockdown, R0 as the new Holy Grail, bla, bla, bla. Boring, right? I mean, the Coronavirus part. It gets overwhelming so fast if you waste hours everyday scrolling Twitter, listening to new self-declared doctors and scientists. Exactly what I decided I didn't want to do, after a few shitty weeks.

I should try social distancing by doing parkour on NYC roofs

And I stopped writing! Yes, I know, don't cry buddy, I won't get back on my decision. I mean, I don't have any other picture to show you. You saw my rooftop 50 times now! I'll rather focus on becoming a workaholic, starting a lot of projects, spending time with people who matter to me. Wait, I'm writing, right? And I did share another picture of my rooftop? Two other pictures? Okay, maybe, but try to be comprehensive, I gave you a nocturne and a panoramic one!

I'm feeling more and more at home in NYC. You may say and think that I don't know the city, and who am I to say otherwise considering the fact that I've been barricaded for 2 months now. Okay, you have a point. But as I interact more and more with New Yorkers, Americans and a lot of foreign people, I slowly discover what makes everyone loves New York City. The number of different cultures is stunning. In my apartment alone, we have 5 different nationalities: Chinese, Brazilian, Middle Eastern, American and French. That makes every conversation exciting and enriching. As a student living in my personal apartment in Paris, I never had that kind of experience, and I'm thrilled about living that!

Always amazed with the night view

On the working side, it's been a challenging month. I've had a couple of big projects, both as a developer and a designer with very short deadline. I also learn a lot about product imagination and the process of creating a product. I hope that I'll be able to get to the office before the end of my internship to work on physical prototypes. But so far, I'm really enjoying every day, and I am trying to take the most of this opportunity!

On a more personal side, I work on two projects at the moment. I'm working on a friend's portfolio, full of 3D and cool WebGL effects. I'm working on all the 3D Models of the project, so I'm taking this opportunity to improve my modeling and texturing skills. Here's a quick preview of what I'm working on, enjoy! (I know you're as attracted to beautifully shaped electrical outlets and switches as I am, don't lie!).

Watch out for these teasing letters, they could be flying everywhere soon...

I'm not gonna spoil everything, but the idea is to make a fully immersive experience more than a portfolio. We're having fun and headaches at the same time, as we're trying to be as creative as possible while keeping in mind the necessity a good UX experience.

A wonderful Ikea styled bookshelf

As you may have seen, I'm currently working on the modeling of every asset. I'll then go through texturing, which will be quite a challenge, as we want to create a realistic atmosphere. It's gonna be fun for sure, and it will be really useful for my other project!

Because nothing is more powerful than the union of two chopped off hands in love

The other project is one that I've dreamed of for a long time and kind of realized it a few times, it's the development of a game. We're still doing benchmark and working on the definition and specification of the main game mechanics, but I'm really looking forward to it! We should start the development next week, and we'll try to have an MVP by September. I will keep you tuned if it goes well and pretend it never happened if we screw up. Instagram's style, always show the bright side, because as we all know, those who are new successful never failed, they just got lucky the first time!

Stay safe and don't waste your time, create your opportunities!