My Journey to the SAE Awards - Top 3 Best VFX & 3D production

Hello everyone !
I have the immense honour to tell you that I have been selected as one of the the top three finalists of the #SAEAwards2023 in the Alumni category - "Best VFX and 3D production" for my Project "Spider and Web"
Full project Link :
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/14ZAeK
Breakdown Link :
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NGz3w1

This is once again a huge step for me !
None if this would have been possible without all the support from my family, friends, colleagues, teachers, mentors and other professionals who helped me in the learning process and encouraged me in my everyday work.
So let me explain my journey and how I got here with this project.

So the beginning of this story could very well feel like a bad joke but everything started when I was working on 3D projects for the Cryptomarket.
At that time I was working for clients on the crypto markets like OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation and so on.. and through the process to get some references I went to look at Pablo's work. What you have to understand here is that I already knew Pablo Munoz Gomez because throughout all my training and Bachelor degree I was regularily learning new stuff everytime Pablo shared something somewhere.
While looking at his Foundation portfolio I had like an itch to try and reproduce one of his projects (GreenMantis).
From that day on all I wanted was to reproduce something even just close to what he was doing, so I started to go back to basics and went through all Pablo's Youtube (FREE) videos to get the maximum of knowledge I could from him.
From modelings to Fibers, from basic to advanced, I did everything I could to reproduce Pablo's techniques while still keeping my own touch to the projects I was doing.
After a while studying, I was starting to feel confident and with some techniques Pablo gave me I was able to do this project "Spider and Web" and get a really nice render out of it.
Finally this Project led me to 2 Rookie Awards and an SAE International Award.
Thanks to Pablo and other great teachers out there I have a way of working that makes me happy about what I am doing.
I can not stress enough that Pablo is one of the greatest teachers and mentors out there : he really has been key to my success.
If I had more time or more holidays I would definitely book a yearly seat at TEM, but thanks to him I am on the market today and doing quite well.
So once again, thank you Pablo Munoz Gomez.
https://www.artstation.com/pablander
You made me a better artist and a better professional.

I have so much love, respect and gratefulness for all my mentors and not enough time and words to talk about all of them and how great they are and how they have contributed to my professional life.
But know one thing, when you see greatness always look around because greatness never comes alone.

For this Award nomination I want to also give special thanks to :
- Nicolas Vallée, https://www.artstation.com/ico
- Thierry Avelange, https://www.artstation.com/thierryavelange
- Philippe Métral, https://www.artstation.com/phmetral
- Kylian Zannettacci, https://www.artstation.com/kylian
- Nicolas Siorak and all the SAE Institute Geneva for the hard work and constant support throughout all my journey at SAE and for staying around even after.
I am humbled and flattered to recieve such prestigious recognition from SAE Institute 🙏

I can't wait to see what tomorrow is made of, but you can be sure that my journey is only starting, so stay tuned 😉

You can have a quick sneak peek at the work I did for the SAE Awards on the live right here :
https://youtu.be/2orphe2gry4?list=PLCZHejVKlxp2C0aqhFlK9Q-8kR4WiYCEw&t=3180