Tomas Wittelsbach
Founder - Instructor / Lead Designer
Hello my name is Tomas and I am a zbrushoholic. I sit for 16+ hours a day thinking, working, and scrubbing on my Cintiq. I was a traditional sculptor for 30+ years before I went digital. Now I try to navigate a middle way between art and technology. I learn something new every day...mostly because I forget everything I learned last week.
Starting ZBrush Jewelry Workshop has been a dream of mine for a very long time. I truly believe we are going to create a community and education hub like no other. It took a long time to get the right team together to make it reality. We're here now and I'm so proud and excited to get started.
Eric Keller
Founder - Instructor / Render Guru
Hi I'm Eric Keller. I’m one of the instructors here at ZBJW. I have been a visual effects artist for 22 years, been using ZBrush since 2004. I've written and edited numerous books on ZBrush and Maya. I taught ZBrush and Maya at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood for about ten years and I regularly author videos for the Gnomon Workshop. I also created some of the videos on Pixologic's ZClassroom, Lynda.com, and 3D World and 3D Artist magazines. I've been a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, SIGGRAPH, and the Smithsonian. I started out doing scientific visualization at the Howard Hughes medical institute. Moved to Los Angeles from DC in 2005. I've done work for feature film, commercial work, science communication, planetarium shows, Ar and VR. I'm passionate about entomology, cell biology, and biodiversity. I worked on a project for E O Wilson a few years ago and ever since then I've been using my art to promote biodiversity.
Tony Rodrigues
Founder - The one who knows everything/everyone
Tony Rodrigues began his work in jewelry in the ‘80s after realizing he could make a living creating beautiful things. He enrolled in a jewelry program at a community college and was soon selling his creations. He then did a five-year apprenticeship at Fey and Co., a family-owned, two-store manufacturing jeweler. This experience led him to Nordstrom, where he was Midwest Regional Manager of jewelry repair and design and created lines and custom pieces for the fashion and fine jewelry departments.
In 2000, Tony opened his own jewelry design gallery, The Hidden Gem. With rapid success, he was faced with the challenge of producing enough work to support demand. His solution was to become an early adopter of CAD/CAM. In 2008, during challenging economic times, Tony shifted his focus to gain higher proficiency with CAD and took a job as design director of Paragon Lake / Gemvara, a venture capital-funded company that designs, builds and sells jewelry that has been customized by the customer.
In 2013, Tony moved to William Henry, LLC in Oregon to create a men’s jewelry division to complement the already thriving knife and pen divisions. As Vice President of Jewelry Production, he co-designs, prototypes and oversees production.
Henry Williams
Founder - Developer / Customer Support
I'm Henry! I'm the head nerd at ZBJW. I spent my undergrad and masters degrees focusing on computer science and electrical engineering. I have always had an impractical desire to become an artist and a fascination with the idea of making robots do all of my work for me. This lead to my passion for robot design, 3D printing, CNC lasers/routers/lathes, etc. Some years ago I started using my experience with those technologies to design and create my own jewelry. Mostly as a hobby, while my computer science experience pays the actual bills.
Finally my two worlds collided as I became the developer for ZBJW. I get to build the website for these three awesome guys, learn from their every move, and chat with our fantastic members!
... Now to start designing my own jewelry professionally... 🧐
