Shawn Olson Creative Arts

Art, Poetry, Photography, Writing and 3D

Greetings Earthling. Welcome to my creative portal. My name is Shawn Olson. I'm a creative jack-of-all trades who has years of experience in 3ds Max, game development, web development, journalism, photography, graphics and parenting. You may know me as a technical artist for Black Mesa or as the developer of Wall Worm if you came here as a game developer. I now also work on USD workflows and capabilities in 3ds Max and Maya at Autodesk. All opinions here are my own.

If you need help with any of these things, then I'm your guy:

Problem Solving
3D Environments
3D Assets
3ds Max pipelines
Game Design
Documentation
Journalistic Coverage
Application Education
Web Application Development

If you must know more about me, feel free to read A Short Biography. But more importantly, enjoy the various photos, poems, editorials and scripts across the site.

I always enjoy feedback from visitors. Feel free to send me an email with any comments, ideas, praise, criticism or corrections. Of course you can always interact with me on the Wall Worm forums or other 3D forums where I haunt.

Latest Articles

Infinity, for the Mind and Body

Posted by Shawn Olson on Feb 6, 2014 | Last Updated Mar 26, 2020

A short discussion on infinities.

infinite, infinity

A Balogna Syndrome

Posted by Shawn Olson on Jan 4, 2014 | Last Updated Jan 4, 2014

A cartoon of a bull chronically depressed due to an unfortunate pun in his name.

bull, onee, balogna, cartoon

Boycott Adobe

It's Time for Artists to Send a Message

Posted by Shawn Olson on Nov 5, 2013 | Last Updated Mar 31, 2015

Critical discussion on software companies fleecing artists and consumers.

software, fleecing, boycott, rental, lease, buy

Wall Worm Auto Material

Posted by Shawn Olson on Aug 27, 2013 | Last Updated Oct 23, 2020

Wall Worm Auto Material is a 3ds Max script that automatically applies materials to newly created objects in 3ds Max.

3ds max, maxscript, material

PHP Traits for Implementing Interfaces

Posted by Andrew Penry on Aug 13, 2013 | Last Updated Aug 13, 2013

PHP 5.4 introduced traits. Traits are in many ways like code-assisted copy and paste. They are ways to mix code into a class without inheritance. But what are they good for? When should they be used?

PHP 5.4, trait, interface, abstract, oop

Colorful Insect Photos

Posted by Shawn Olson on Jul 30, 2013 | Last Updated Jul 30, 2013

Some colorful insect photos.

insects

Saying Goodbye to Dad

Newsletter, July 27, 2013

Posted by Shawn Olson on Jul 27, 2013 | Last Updated Jul 27, 2013

Shawn Olson's Newsletter, July 27, 2013. News about my father's death.

newsletter, don, olson, death, family

This Art is Alive

Posted by Shawn Olson on Apr 24, 2013 | Last Updated Apr 24, 2013

Poem about the nature of human interactions. We all want to impose ourselves, visions and beliefs onto others. But it is always a give-and-take adventure.

communication, interaction, human, relations, relationship, paradigm, control