Whiskey Glass Animation

Who is Jerry?

What do Jerry and I have in common? A deep appreciation for whiskey and glass. Jerry Lin-Hsien Kung is a glass blower and tool maker living in Northern California. I came to know Jerry though a mutual friend. Learn more about his craft, ideas and passion for his work on his Instagram profile.

Collaboration

At some point, Jerry and I decided to collaborate. He sent me a 3D model of the whiskey glass he designed and produces. At the time, I’d been exploring dispersion, caustics and animation in KeyShot, a rendering software I use.

Process

The project is pretty simple. I wanted to create a looping animation and one that would rely on light and materials. In my mind, this could exist in a gallery as an installation. Using the 3D tools I had at my disposal, the experience remained digital.

I created a dispersive glass material to apply to the 3D model. Used a carefully placed light and lighting environment to illuminate the glass. Then, I used a special material on the floor to capture the caustic patterns.

KeyShot handled the materials, lighting and rendering. DaVinci Resolve allowed for post processing and final rendering.

While short and simple, this was a very gratifying project and I’m very pleased with the results. It was fun to show how I interpret someone else’s piece of art. 

Print

What about a print? While the print below is not available for purchase, it is a fun exercise to see how such a small object in real life can be experienced in such a different way at a larger scale.

Joy

Being able to put a different spin on someone else’s work is a really special privilege. As a creative myself, I know it can be hard to see one of your ideas or designs executed or interpreted differently than you intended. So, a big thanks to Jerry for allowing me to visualize his beautiful whiskey glass.

You can support Jerry by purchasing a glass (or more) from here.

Will Gibbons is an industrial designer-turned rendering specialist. He's trained and worked with some of today's most recognizable brands and now is focused on creating the best product visualization content on the internet.