Reviving the Boyd Hotel: A 3D & VFX Tribute to Dallas Freedman’s Towns for Black History Month
For this video project, I composited a greenscreen performance with a fully custom 3D set inspired by the visual style of Kendrick Lamar’s Squabble Up, as well as The Roots and Kaytranada. Using Blender, I hand-modeled every sign and structure based on reference photos I captured around Dallas, Texas—specifically from historic Black Freedman’s Towns—to honor their legacy for Black History Month. The final composite was created in After Effects, where I keyed the greenscreen and integrated the live footage with the digital environment. This project taught me a lot about blending real and virtual elements, and moving forward, I would shoot in a space where only the walls are green, leaving the floor real to better capture natural shadows and ground the scene in reality.