Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews, five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Thank you to Moran for being today’s interviewee.
Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.
My name is Moran Goldstein, I’m a designer/developer from Israel. Over the past 15 years I’ve worked on physical product design, product/process visualizations, digital art, and pretty much anything that relates to 3D. These days I mostly work as a freelancer.
What are you working on?
Lately I’ve been fortunate to work on projects which combine design and development, like engineering animations and data-driven visualizations.
I have an ongoing “project” (loosely speaking) to develop methodologies and tools which allow taking engineering content (from software like SolidWorks, AutoCAD, and Inventor) and easily port it into 3D graphics software for animated visualizations and infographics. I find that many seemingly-complex processes and mechanisms can be easily understood if they are just presented correctly.
Recently I’ve also had the chance to work on sci-fi-related game content, which is enormously creative and freeing (since I’m designing gadgets that don’t actually have to work…).
Choose a favorite shot of yours. Why is it a favorite?
Probably Clockwork, in part because it’s fun to see people’s initial reaction to it. When I personally show it to someone they often ask if it’s an optical illusion — it’s not, the helical gears really do mesh and connect in a working fashion. If someone were to construct it, moving any one of the gears would make the other two rotate like in the animation.
Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch)?
I’m a PC user, always have been. I like selecting the specific hardware that suites the job, and tweaking/optimizing my computers to get the most out of them. I use a very wide range of software. On the engineering side, I use Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, and SolidWorks. For 2D I use Inkscape, Illustrator, Gimp, and PaintShop Pro. Lately I create most non-precision 3D content in Blender, and render in Cycles. I also use KeyShot for some product rendering.
I actually have a couple of blowtorches. I love making things and working with metal. I also dabble in chemistry, so blowtorches come in handy.
Choose a favorite shot from another Player. Why do you dig it?
This one’s practically impossible, but I can mention one that stuck with me: Game of thrones. Blood and fire, by Sasha Vinogradova. Really his entire implementation of the house seals from Game of Thrones — he outdid the originals, by a significant margin.
Find Moran at Dribbble and at www.rapidflux.com.
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