Max Gaydos

Straight Shooter takes a satirical look at gender stereotypes through the lens of a “men’s hunting magazine”. While the magazine specifically focuses on cis men, the visuals and commentary highlights both feminine and masculine gender constructs that are still prevalent today. The images shown represent men in effeminate poses (which often suggest submission, flirtation, and/or objectification) or engaging in scenes that look homoerotic. These images are intended to poke fun at the boundaries in many male relationships as well as the common homophobia that exists in traditional male friend groups. By using 3D computer graphics to create these scenes, it enhances the satirical nature of discussing gender stereotypes in environments that are deceivingly real. Through humor, Straight Shooter encourages an examination of male ideology while having the reader reflect on their experiences and the ridiculousness of the gender binary. "Straight Shooter" was created using Maya, Unreal Engine, Marvelous Designer, Substance 3D Painter, and InDesign. Magazine were printed and presented as an 8.5 x 11 inch booklet.

My goal for this project was to combine a few skills I’ve picked up over the last couple of years, into creating a sci-fi futuristic nightclub. I based this environment on the layout of the Printworks nightclub in London. I was interested in what performance could look like in the future and how current physical spaces would evolve over time. This project was created using Maya, Unreal Engine, Substance 3D Painter, Touch Designer, and After Effects.

I created this 3 part cinematic to showcase what I had learned about motion capture over the course of a semester. The environment was based on the “Throne Room” in the show, The Sandman. I modeled this environment in Maya and rendered it in Unreal Engine. My main goal for the mocap was to achieve a good capture of a character walking up a flight of stairs, to show them ascending the throne. I used a character made by Epic Games, and attached the mocap to its skeleton. From there I cleaned up the movement and set up 3 shots to compile into one final cinematic. This project was created using the Rokoko Smartsuit Pro II, Rokoko Studio, Maya, and Unreal Engine.

This project was the final piece I made during my internship at Pluto Creative Agency in Troy, MI. Over the summer, I spent time working alongside Pluto’s CG team, and learned how to use 3dsMax. My goal was to take what I had learned about modeling in 3ds, and create a car based on photo references. Once it was completed, I used Craft Director Studio to rig and animate it. I then took it to Unreal Engine, and used a premade environment from Epic Games to render the cinematic at three different times of day. I took these renders to After Effects and combined them into a cinematic. This project was created using 3dsMax, Craft Director Studio, and Unreal Engine.

MASH is a short film about how three confused, anxious, curious, and horny teenagers explore what it means to grow up as young women navigating the liminal space of puberty. Through a series of short vignettes, each will have different experiences with relationships, their body, the internet, the love of one another, and most of all, the absolute horrors of the middle school. Directed by Jay Fazio. I was the VFX and Motion Capture Artist for the production of MASH. I was tasked with creating a 3D version of the "Jordan's Bedroom" set, which we used to create a 3D animated scene between two actors using motion capture. This scene references early 3D computer graphics and is used to visualize the online interaction between two teenagers through social media. This project was created using Maya, Unreal Engine, and Photoshop.