The person behind the screen.
Where it all began
Tragedy & Birth
I started my journey with CGI back in October 2024 after coming across a CGI product animation for CHANEL on Instagram by TooGallus creative agency.
Back then, I was working as a freelance video editor for a while, and I found the allure with CGI of "creating something from nothing" very attractive that I thought it might be worthwhile learning. But what convinced me to ultimately make the jump some time after was that I saw a bigger opportunity for me in this field in providing my late-cat Mallow the lush life I had dreamt of giving him.
However, Mallow suddenly passed away back in January 2025 at the emergency hospital at 2:00AM. What started as a journey meant to be walked with him, ended up with me alone. I made a single promise to him before I left the hospital, and since then I decided to focus all my attention and energy into CGI.
I write this as the beginning of this section since it's a truth that still holds its weight to this day. I won't pretend my story began with passion for the industry. It started as a vehicle for me to fulfill what I had promised him.
Core of every work
Emotion-first storytelling
Emotions & feelings as the core
A lot of my work thus far has centered around a core emotion or feeling that I wanted to convey. Having grown up heavily exposed and interested in photography and cinematography, at one point, and years spent journaling, I had a good sense of how to convey these things in both words and creative visuals. So, a lot of my current work centers around mood-film style works, which I'm currently enjoying most and feel is what resonates with the kind of work I want to do long term. And then you have the occasional works where I also explore different kinds of pace and vibes.
Specializing in niche-fragrance CGI
I had already been interested in designer and niche fragrances for nearly 5 years now, as of writing, so it was already something that I was very fond of prior to starting CGI, and so having a degree of knowledge and interest in the field made it clear to me that placing all my energy into specializing into this one specific kind of craft, in a very specific industry made the most sense to me. As for why niche-fragrance specifically, I chose it since it was a field I felt where much of my style of work would resonate best; where emotions, feelings, and storytelling are placed first.
Where we're headed
Building the wild & unexpected
It's still a fact right now that CGI does have its place in the product advertising world. Things will just be a little different moving forward. I do see that looking ahead, there's going to be a stronger emphasis on individual taste and just doing the wild, the unexpected, and just breaking stuff and finding things out.
I plan on working on bolder more unexpected twists in my works longer term as I get more experienced and skilled in the field and I also plan on centering a lot of the work I share on my socials on the process and craft behind it all.
Lastly, I like to remind myself that CGI has been and still is a form of art and a medium of storytelling that already has existed for a very long time. What's going to change moving forward is how we make this form of art something that is uniquely our own. Which is a part of the journey that I'm on right now; to build the wild & unexpected in my own craft.
Waleed Chavez
Niche-Fragrance 3D Artist
