San Diego High Schooler Yuanshou Chang won the Silver Key award

3D modeling, creating and changing objects on a computer. And Yuanshou Chang, nicknamed King, is a high schooler that attends the San Diego Jewish Academy that has recently won the Silver Key award, the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, using his renderings of one of his many 3D modeling projects. This competition had about 350,000 people contesting nationwide.

According to King, he started 3D modeling in sixth grade, 3 years ago, using a computer software called Maya. “I fell in love with 3D modeling after I realised what potential it will have, on creating models, like artificial organs or prosthetics, that could possibly save lives,” he said, “I hope I can keep following this path in the future.” After 3 years of using Maya, he then switched to a newer 3D modeling software called Fusion 360. Although the transition from one software to another was difficult, he still managed to adjust to this new software.

With the new software, King felt like he could “do anything”, as he had said in an interview. With the mastery of the new software, King decided to join a competition because he wanted to determine his skill level. He decided the project for entry is something related to the Star Wars movie that was out at that time. So he designed and created his own lightsaber. “I have spent at least 20 hours working on this project,” King said, satisfied “but with the help and guidance of my teacher, I was able to finish the project.”

These are the images of his entry.

 “King is very skilled and definitely has talent in the industry,” remarked his teacher, “he can create small gadgets to help everyday life, which is very important as it comes down to these small and simple ideas that give designers inspiration.”

Since King is a golfer, who spends a plethora of time playing golf, he created a gadget that allows the user to carry golf balls and tees on a belt, so it makes the golfing experience easier.