Meet Kristina Giang | 3D Modeler, Asset Builder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kristina Giang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristina, how do you think about risk?
I always believe that taking a risk is better than being too scared to do anything. Time is too precious to keep waiting for a miracle to happen. Taking risks is a part of life. I know I often have intrusive thoughts telling me that I’m not good enough or I probably won’t make it because there are way more talented people ahead of me. However, at times, I have to remind myself to put those thoughts aside and to think about myself. It isn’t fair to me to compare myself to others. Instead of thinking “I’m not good enough. I will probably fail.”, I tell myself “I will give my best, and that is what matters.” If I didn’t take risks, I probably would have never gone to art school and I would not be where I am today in my career. It’s easy to think that things will fail and not go the way you imagined, but at least taking that risk will bring you a step forward. You never know what lies ahead.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a 3D modeler, Asset Builder with a focus on environments and props for TV Shows, Films and Advertisements. Being able to make assets for production feels like a dream to me. I’m extremely proud of myself for being where I am in my career as an artist/creator. It was definitely a challenge to get to where I am today, considering the lack of experience I had when I was first starting out. It was a struggle to get used to the production terminology, pipeline and simply figuring out how things worked. It’s hard to not put myself down for my lack of experience and feel bad for not knowing certain things. For example, my very first previs task was a simple clean up of an asset to cover up holes. In my head, I thought I had to make the asset look as neat as possible and spent way more time on it than needed. I didn’t know that assets are meant to still be in their rough phases in previs! In fact, I didn’t know what previs entailed at the time. Now I understand that previs literally means, pre-visualization. Meaning, things don’t need to look perfect, just good enough to be used for testing shots. As the saying goes, “We all start from somewhere.”, right? Learning is a part of the experience and the main reason why I was able to overcome it was because I had people who believed in me, and in turn, I believed in myself. I may be inexperienced, but I am always willing to learn. Having that open mind and accepting help from others always helps me move forward and become a stronger individual. If there is one thing I learned from working in production, it is that everyone is there to help each other. We are working as a team. If you struggle with something for more than 10 minutes, ask for help! Learn from your mistakes. There is no pressure for you to know everything. The fruits of your labor will shine.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Depending on the time of year, there are many places that we could visit! Say it is late May/April. I would probably take my friends to the see the poppy fields. Who doesn’t love a bit of nature? Plus it would be a nice time to walk and talk to catch up with your friends. Afterwards, we would probably have something soupy. Maybe it’s just me, but soup is always a great way to wrap up the day. I would probably suggest something like Korean army stew. For that, there is a place called Matjip Chigae in Koreatown. I love exploring places to eat, especially with friends, so the majority of my hang out suggestions would be at food places. Other places I would suggest we check out is Smorgasburg in LA, which is an open-air food market and a great place to catch some fresh air. And if your friensd are picky eaters, no problem! There is a large variety of foods at Smorgasburg which allows for flexibility. For another one of the days, I would suggest going to Little Tokyo. There’s a lot to do there and many places to eat and grab desserts. Kura Revolving Sushi bar is unique because it has a lovely conveyer belt system, allowing customers to grab and take as they please. Not only that, but they also have a fun gachapon game where you get a prize for consuming a certain amount of sushi, counted by the plates. Afterwards, there is a cute little cafe called Mitsuru cafe that makes imagawayaki (red bean cake), dango, and quite a few other snacks and desserts! It’s a nice grab and go type of place. Alright, enough with the food. Other places I would take my friends is Universal Studios Hollywood. One of the most exciting additions to the park has got to be Hogsmeade. Even if you don’t know much about Harry Potter, it’s still a wonderful and beautiful place to see and take pictures. Oh, and try some butterbeer! There are plenty of things to do at the park whether it be rides, interacting with your favorite characters, sightseeing, you name it. The list goes on, but I definitely enjoy relaxing, walking and eating the most as opposed to doing hard activities every single day. What matters most is the company, after all.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Of course. I would love to dedicate my shoutout to Paul Taylor and Dirk Valk who have been so supportive and helped me tremendously at the start of my career. Paul Taylor was my professor and mentor at Art Center College of Design. I graduated during the beginning of the pandemic, just as lockdowns were set into place. It was hard for many of our graduating students, as we missed out on important networking opportunities. Many of us worried.. How will we form connections? How will we find work? What should we do now that we’re graduated? What are the next steps? Fortunately, Art Center offered a mentorship program that would allow us to keep in touch with a professor after graduation. For me, that person was Paul Taylor. I’m thankful towards him, for being there whenever I had questions, for all the advice, and always thinking of me when it came to opportunities. It was because of him that I was able to get my foot in the door and work on my first ever project with Legendary Entertainment on Lost in Space: Season 3. From there, I met Dirk Valk, who took me under his wing and taught me so much about working in production. To me, I was someone with zero working experience in production. All I knew how to do was make 3D models. I had no experience working in live action, no idea what previs and postvis was, how the production pipeline worked in a real working environment, and absolutely no idea what a Lidar was! I felt so lost and so nervous, but I knew I was not alone. Whenever I didn’t know how to do something, Dirk Valk was always there, patient and willing to teach me. Words cannot begin to express how thankful I am for having someone believing in me and trusting in me in my first big project. These two play such an important role in my story. Thinking of them always urges me to be confident in myself, work harder and strive for more. So, shoutout to both of you Paul Taylor and DIrk Valk for being such amazing people in my life! Thank you!

Website: https://www.kristinagiang.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krisgiang/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisgiang/

Image Credits
Netflix, Venus et Fleur. Stéphane Baton, Tyler Carter