Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

I’m Jozef, and I do 3D modelling, animation, rendering, and everything in between.

I used to be an artist/animator for Pixel Federation, a Bratislava-based mobile game company, which I then swapped for a mobile game startup (as you do). There, I got to experience more involvement by being an art director, but ultimately even more ideological dissonance. I’m not a huge fan of predatory sales tactics, crypto, and similar “innovations,” which unfortunately often plague this market.

Nowadays I mostly freelance, which allows me to find a much better balance of developing and deploying my skill set, together with feeling less cross about the outcomes.

Other than work, I can’t get enough of gizmos, thingies, and niche interests, which all extremely neatly fit into the world of custom mechanical keyboards. I also enjoy good audio, books, games, and sometimes, against all odds, my girlfriend even manages to pull me outside.

What hardware do you use?

The unfortunate reality of doing 3D is the need for as much computer as is monetarily viable, which currently means this 12900K, 64GB RAM, and a 3080 Ti in a Torrent case I built a couple of years back. Even though it’s far from a slouch, I’m constantly reminded of its limitations.

I have a work mouse, the G502 X (the extra buttons come in clutch), and an everything-else mouse, the DeathAdder. The Noctua desk mat dampens vibrations, fits well, and makes for a complementary color contrast with the surrounding plants. The RE320 and the Yamaha HS5 studio monitors are plugged into a Steinberg UR22 DAC, paired with an iFi Zen CAN amplifier to provide juice for the Takstar HF 580 planar magnetic headphones. For those gaming sessions, I lately enjoy the GuliKit KK3 MAX controller, which seems to be holding up much better than the few previously owned Xbox ones.

The pen tablet doubles as a massive touchpad for smooth scrolling and gesture control. I previously tried running a Cintiq pen display, which taught me how sometimes less really is more. The vast majority of usage still went through my primary display, and due to its positioning, it wasn’t long until I felt my neck or my arm (or both) straining during the rare occasions I really used it. So I rolled back to the good old Intuos Pro M. Similarly, as someone easily distracted, I found that after giving a dual-screen setup a thorough go, having just a single monitor, with ideally one thing open at a time, seems to work best.

And what software?

Blender is love, Blender is life. I got my start and consequently spent over a decade in Maya. After so long, coming over to such a capable, free, and open-source project, with such a dedicated community, both reignited the spark and felt like a great weight had been lifted off my chest by finally being able to fully ditch Autodesk.

By that same token, I recently yeeted Adobe Suite off of my system and replaced it with DaVinci Resolve, Affinity Photo, and the Affinity Designer. Any remnants of said weight lifted yet again. And for the real-time stuff I use Unreal Engine.

Honorable mentions: PureRef is, of course, a must for any artsy person, and EmberGen almost feels like cheating for any volumetric simulations. Though not exactly software—just a website—as an avid reader, typing enjoyer, and concentration lacker, TypeLit is where I’ve spent more hours retyping books than I’m willing to admit.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

I have a white Voyager. I started with the Kailh Choc Reds (50g), which felt a bit heavy for the whole low-profile/comfort concept, so I later landed at Ambients Nocturnal (20g) switches. On other occasions, these lighter types of switches don’t usually tickle my fancy, but it somehow fits the Voyager.

I was successfully using Colemak DH for about five years, with a somewhat respectable WPM (~120), and only a few days ago switched to a completely new layout, thanks to this wonderful video by Ben Vallack (don’t watch).

I’m now flying through these lines with the Graphite layout (by StronglyTyped) at the blistering speeds of 18 WPM. Good training, though.

Other than the alphas and the usual navigation/symbol layers, I really enjoy having one which horizontally flips the layout. This, in combination with a symmetrical keyboard, enables immediate one-handed access to all the keys, with the ability to replace the other side with a mouse/tablet. Perfect for doing art and 3D.

I also have a Keychron Q10, which was my first step on the journey from the world of custom mechanical keyboards towards ergonomics, and a Preonic, which quenches my thirst for evil experiments. It’s visible in the earlier pictures—in a state which conveys more than mere words.

What would be your dream setup?

There’s simply never enough VRAM for GPU rendering. An RTX 4090 would be a great start, but I also need it to have a yottabyte of VRAM. Modern OLED monitors seem to be living through leaps and strides in improvement this year, so I wouldn’t mind one of those. A better/healthier chair would be nice (but those cost a fortune, which I’d much rather throw at the GPU), and of course one of those adjustable standing desks with presets.

In terms of keyboards, listen up, ZSA. Real talk. I need something like the Voyager, but with a creamy thock. I’m talking gasket mounts, weights, foams, deliberate plate material choices, flex cuts… Something like the Lofree Flow, which is both very low-profile and also marvelous-sounding—but in a Voyager form, with the ease and elegance of Oryx config. This is what’s holding society back.

Imagine what we could achieve with creamy thock.