About me

Name: Dave Cox

DOB: May 1985

Location: Birmingham

Occupation: Design Engineer

Desired Occupation: CG Artist / 3D Visualiser

Short story:

I live and work in Birmingham. Working as a design engineer I don't feel very challenged in what I do, so I work - a bit too much - in my spare time on personal projects. I have a massive passion for everything 3D. Those who know me know that I have a hunger for knowledge. I am never satisfied with standing still, the grass is perpetually greener on the other side and I am focused on becoming thebest I can be best in the world! I am looking for a career change in the right direction...something along the lines of 3D Visualiser or CG Artist. If you are hiring and you have some how come across this page, please do get in contact. Don't be shy, I'm not.

Long story:

Lets start at the beginning back daan saff and then up to Birmingham where we are today. My Mum, in my youth, used to paint backdrops for plays and schools. She painted my bedroom walls with whatever characters I was into at the time (typically Thunderbirds or Transformers). I used to watch her and turn green with envy at her skill! I wanted to be able to do some of that! My Dad started his career as an apprentice in Engineering. I used to go into work with him and ogle all the machinery and designers; all working and scratching away. I loved the atmosphere, the smell and the “cutting edge” CAD packages they had. I wanted to be able to do that!

It doesn't take a genius to see that I, a design engineer, am a perfect mix of my parents! But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Through school and sixth form, I was good at maths and the sciences as well as resistant materials. I loved losing my head in Art class and I loved being able to make whatever I could put down on paper come out of the page in technology class. When I got onto my degree in Birmingham it didn't initially make that much sense, it was what I wanted to do but I seemed to lose myself along the way. I don't know if it was the student lifestyle or the fact that my interests had wandered. It wasn't until the final year of my degree that everything made sense. The spark was back, my motivation was back and my drive was stronger than ever! We, as students, were training to be Design Engineers at the time, which was fine until I stumbled upon one module that startled me. It was Product Visualisation.

In this module we had to make realistic renderings of products that we had designed. It was brilliant! I loved it and instantly became competitive with everyone in the class (in a friendly way of course) and even more so with myself. I would spend hours on a piece and wow everyone with it. Then I would go back and make it better. It may sound like torment to some people but to me it was all I wanted to do. After graduating from Birmingham City University with 2.1 in Engineering Product Design I continued with my insatiable love for 3D. A friend showed me Cinema 4D and with no-one to guide, me I jumped in with both feet - absorbing as many tutorials as I could find on the internet. I would make anything I could and then started making cars as I am huge car fan. It wasn't until mid 2009 that I took up 3DS Max. The jump wasn't so hard, if a little daunting, but when the results of rendering in VRay showed themselves I knew that the swap was worth it, I was hooked. Now I am trying to put what I have learnt and what I have a passion for into a full-time career.

So there you are, I hope you know me a little better now. Do ask if you need more.