Sarah Weizhen Xu is an ambitious visual artist in the direction of 3D&2D concept design. She grew up in China and initially majored in finance during her undergraduate study. However, in her mid-20s, she decided to move to the US and pursue her dream of being an artist. Before she got into CG art, Sarah had many years of experience as a traditional realism fine artist. She believes that the solid foundation of academic fine art training gave her superb craftsmanship in oil painting and the ability to observe: it gave her a pair of eyes that knows what to see and how to see it and a mind that can excavate beauty from chaos.
However, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic became a significant turning point in Sarah's career direction, the lockdown interrupted her career as a studio artist, but she seized this as an opportunity to learn digital art technologies, including digital painting and 3D modeling and rendering. Sarah felt that the digital media freed her from the low efficiency of traditional mediums and inspired her to pursue a career as a concept artist.
With a firm understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of art, Sarah is ready to commence the next leg of her professional development, which is pursuing a Master of Digital Media (MDM) degree. At the Centre for Digital media, Sarah mainly functions as a concept artist and a 3D modeler on teams. She plans to sharpen her skills in various trending 3D software (such as Maya, Blender, Zbrush, and UE5) and familiarize herself with the standard industrial pipeline. She also wants to acquire knowledge and skills in building, managing, and leading digital media projects through the CDM team projects.