MATERIALS // TEXTURING // WORKFLOW DEVELOPMENT // 3D // BLENDER // SUBSTANCE DESIGNER & PAINTER // UE
** Please note: Due to NDAs, various fashion, garment, and specific environment work completed for The Modern Mirror cannot be displayed publicly. However, I’d be happy to discuss my contributions and experience in detail during interviews. **
While working at Modern Mirror, our team began to experience friction in managing 3D visualizations for smaller tailoring clients. These projects were pulling bandwidth away from enterprise-level accounts—especially during peak development windows for virtual fit testing and marketing output.
I recognized an opportunity to create a centralized, reusable asset system to reduce production time for redundant or similar renders. My goal was to develop a modular material library that could be quickly deployed for internal previews, client meetings, or placeholder renders—without retexturing from scratch each time.
Key takeaways:
The library drastically reduced turnaround time for onboarding new clients while maintaining visual quality and brand alignment. It became a foundational asset in our internal pipeline—used across fitting demos, internal training, and pre-visualization efforts. My initiative directly supported our ability to scale without sacrificing quality or overextending resources, and established a best practice now embedded in the team’s broader 3D workflow strategy.
As Head of 3D Environments at Modern Mirror, I was tasked with building an entirely new pipeline to meet the growing demand from clients who wanted their digital garments and humans presented in immersive, branded virtual spaces. Our team was still small, and I was simultaneously handling garment work. To scale this area, I onboarded two new hires and needed a way to set clear technical standards, improve productivity, and ensure visual consistency across deliverables.
I needed to create a centralized environment texture library to standardize quality, reduce redundant texturing tasks, and give my team the freedom to focus on their individual strengths—particularly since one team member was struggling with layout and composition. The library had to be flexible enough for various projects, from retail displays to cityscapes, and support a wide range of use cases, render pipelines, and resolutions.
Key takeaways:
The library cut our average R&D time for mid-to-large virtual environments from 4 weeks to under 2.5, significantly increasing creative output and client satisfaction. It also gave my team a trusted foundation for developing layouts, refining lighting, and presenting higher-fidelity environments faster.
As part of the larger Zach’s Digital Closet project, I wanted to challenge myself with recreating a heavyweight knit garment—a texture I hadn’t tackled before. The piece included multiple color transitions and frayed yarn details, requiring an advanced custom texturing workflow to produce a realistic and production-ready result.
My goal was to recreate this specific ACW cardigan with complete control over material fidelity—starting from scratch. I wanted to simulate yarn structure, color transitions, fray effects, and garment wear without relying on scanned inputs, building the textures fully in a digital environment.
Key takeaways:
This project not only pushed my technical capabilities—it became a blueprint for my texturing workflow when handling complex materials. I developed a scalable, modular pipeline that balances realism with efficiency, and the results speak to my deep understanding of material behavior, shader construction, and garment integrity across platforms.
As part of my Zach’s Digital Closet series, I selected this hoodie as a way to deepen my understanding of garment aging, surface wear, and procedural material control—specifically through custom texture map generation and weight painting for element placement.
My goal was to build the garment from scratch and simulate both realistic wear patterns and precise rhinestone placement using custom maps. I wanted to test how far I could push Substance Painter and Blender’s particle systems together by treating maps not just as surfaces, but as functional tools for object control and material fidelity.
Key takeaways:
This project became a benchmark for my ability to control both surface detail and object placement through map-driven workflows. It reflects my deep understanding of how to merge visual polish with functional logic, and showcases my ability to solve complex problems in a multi-software pipeline.
As part of Zach’s Digital Closet, I recreated a Prada shirt from my personal wardrobe—one I wear frequently and know intimately. Because of its simple construction and bold custom print, any small deviation in texture, fold, or color treatment would be immediately noticeable, making fidelity critical.
My objective was to recreate this cotton twill shirt from scratch with a focus on realism, especially the feel of the fabric's weight, drape, and the precise tiling of a complex custom print I manually rebuilt in Illustrator. This project needed to reflect how the shirt feels in real life—not just how it looks on screen.
Key takeaways:
This project showed that I could replicate not only complex prints and textiles but also the emotional realism of a worn garment—conveying its weight, wear, and structure accurately. It deepened my understanding of how subtle surface effects and behavioral fabric logic influence perception.
For this piece in Zach’s Digital Closet, I recreated a complex Prada shirt featuring an oversized, placement-specific all-over print. Unlike tiled patterns, this print had to match exact positions across panels, and because the garment itself is so simple, any detail misalignment or texture flaw would be immediately visible.
My challenge was to replicate the visual and physical accuracy of this shirt, particularly its artwork placement, edge wear, and the feel of the light-weight cotton fabric. Getting it “just right” meant developing a hybrid workflow for print alignment, color balance, and fine edge variation.
Key takeaways:
This project pushed my pipeline precision and demonstrated my ability to problem-solve highly sensitive material placement issues. The final render not only achieved visual fidelity but also tactile believability—successfully simulating how weight, wear, and print interact on a real-world garment. It’s a great example of my attention to detail and readiness to deliver quality work where accuracy and realism aren’t just aesthetic—but functional requirements.
As part of Zach’s Digital Closet, I selected this jacket for its unique structural challenges. Unlike simpler silhouettes, this piece featured overlapping elements over the zipper, custom hardware, and seam taping throughout—making it a strong test of my ability to balance complex pattern logic and nuanced material behavior.
My goal was to digitally recreate the jacket from scratch with a strong emphasis on construction logic, surface interaction, and material realism, particularly the way seam taping subtly altered the seam normal and displacement. I also had to handle accessory modeling and patterning deviations that couldn’t be approached in a standard CLO3D setup.
Key takeaways:
This project validated my ability to recreate architecturally constructed garments that go beyond simple simulation. The interplay between material behavior, stitching, and seam structure was rendered with precision—highlighting my understanding of both fashion design and digital translation.
Building on my earlier personal style development project, I chose to expand one of my favorite looks into a fully styled, technically refined presentation. This included the addition of accessories, a posed avatar, and deeper surface detailing across each garment. The centerpiece was a matte nylon puffer jacket modeled after one I personally own.
I aimed to test the maturity of my workflow—specifically how quickly and cleanly I could deliver a multi-garment, highly textured look with accessories. This project needed to reflect both my evolving design language and the robust texture pipeline I had built over months of technical experimentation.
Key takeaways:
The project was completed faster than expected due to the efficiency and scalability of my texturing workflow. It stands as one of my strongest style-tech hybrids—merging form and surface detail into a cohesive presentation. This look proves my ability to art direct, texture, style, and deliver photoreal visuals independently.