What’s in Store for 2022
The new year! A chance to start fresh and make goals that we inevitability drop halfway through February. While traditional goals are usually to drink less or make it to the gym, I’ve set my sights on growing my technologist toolkit. Aka, exploring technology that I see potential in. Here is where I’m planning to spend my time in 2022.
Low Level: Rust
First on the list, Rust.
Maybe it’s just the circles I run in, but for the past month, I’ve seen Rust come up enough that it finally caught my eye. To the point that during the holiday I spent some time reading into what it actually is and the fundamentals. So far, I’ve loved everything I’ve read. Extremely fast, made for safe code, and on top of that a healthy community.
I know there are a ton of different facets to Rust, so I’ve decided to spend my time mainly around the crypto and WASM side of things.
Time to Make a Switch: React
Okay, a switch is pretty dramatic, more a baseline understanding of the React framework. I’ve been using Vue for a long time and am a huge fan; I, however, also believe in looking over the walled garden at other options. And this year, I’ve decided to enter the world of React.
React has been the most popular framework for a long time, and the ecosystem is thriving! I feel like I owe it to myself to look into it further and understand at least the basics.
Enter the Meta: Unreal Engine 5
Throughout the past year, I have grown to love Unreal Engine. And while I’ve spent hundreds of hours within the platform, I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface. Unreal Engine 5 is full of amazing new features that I’ve been dying to try. Things that are going to make creating photorealistic scenes more accessible than ever. In 2022 I want to level up and started creating with the new engine.
A New Way to Model: Photogrammetry
At this point, I’ve had a bit of experience going photo to model but I still want to play more. Most of my models and experience has come from Polycam. They’ve made photogrammetry incredibly easy. To the point where you can get really decent models all from your iPhone, but it has its limits.
This year, I’m going to get serious with Reality Capture and start converting everything to the meta space.
Procedural Everything
Last on the list, is less a peice of software, but more a concept. The concept of doing everything procedural and non destructive. Last year Blender announced the Everything Nodes project and released the first version of geometery nodes. Having just a little bit of experience with these systems is enough for me to be a believer.
I truly think this is the beginning of an entirely new way to create. One in which making updates to your creation is changing a value rather than starting from scratch.
Let’s Get Started!
The realist in me knows that this is a lot. People make entire careers out of each of these things so the likelihood that I will end the year as an expert in even one of these is slim to none. I hope this post mainly serves as something I’ll be able to reflect on at the end of 2022. Oh and one more thing:
Typing up a Storm: Medium
This year I want to document my progress across Medium. If you are interested in the mind of a creative technologist throw a follow my way!
