Craft

Hillary has a passion for creating.

From code and mixed reality, to 3D modeling and animation, to fiber arts and gardening: Hillary loves making something out of nothing.

It's important to them to leverage their abilities for something meaningful. Whether it's doing a site-rebuild for their local garden club or trying to find new ways to support citizen science for climate action, Hillary is always looking to use their knowledge for art, for science, and for fun.

AR/VR/Mixed Reality

There is much to explore in the early frontiers of human-computer-interaction with Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality. Hillary's fascination with the mechanics and psychological impact of mixed reality experiences has led to lots of experiments, adding custom hand-tracking to VR devices before it was natively supported, and an augmented reality Magic the Gathering deck builder.

A demo of custom hand tracking in Unreal Engine 5 using an HTC Vive with a Leap Motion Stereo IR 170 evaluation kit attached to the front.
Hillary was pushing Unreal Engine 5's Lumen and Nanite features in VR before they were technically ready to play together (hence the lag). Despite the glitchiness, Hillary was delighted to stand "inside" a structure they made themselves for the first time.
An HTC Vive with a Leap Motion Stereo IR 170 attached to the front.
Hillary's HTC Vive with their Leap Motion Stereo IR 170 attached to the front.
An Oculus Rift with a Leap Motion Controller attached to the front.
Hillary's Oculus Rift with their Leap Motion Controller attached to the front (their first foray into VR tracking)
An HTC Vive with a Leap Motion Stereo IR 170 attached to the front.
An Oculus Rift with a Leap Motion Controller attached to the front.

3D modeling

Hillary has a soft-spot for making awful little weirdo creatures. If you'd asked them what they would create before they started, they would've said something cute or beautiful. But every time they sit down to model they end up with something like this. What can you do.

A blender model of a creature gazing into a broken mirror.
A blender model of a glowing green bulbous creature.
A blender model of jackal creature suspended by mechanical spider legs.
A blender model of a sinewy dragon.
A blender model of a crab-like creature with a dog's eager face.
A blender model of a very rough dog-ish creature.
A blender model of a creature gazing into a broken mirror.
A blender model of a glowing green bulbous creature.
A blender model of jackal creature suspended by mechanical spider legs.
A blender model of a sinewy dragon.
A blender model of a crab-like creature with a dog's eager face.
A blender model of a very rough dog-ish creature.

Felt and Cloudia

It's not all coding for Hillary. They also have a love for fiber arts, especially felting. On a lark they decided to felt a version of their company's unofficial mascot (Cloudia), and used Cloudia as a muse for creating engagement content when they facilitated company hackathons.

A felted Cloudia hugging a scone
A stop-motion animation of Cloudia writing CBX.
A felted, frustrated Cloudia with her head on a keyboard.
A felted Cloudia climbing a tree.
A felted Cloudia hugging a mug of coffee as tall as she is.
A felted Cloudia holding a sign reading "consider your mindset".
A felted Cloudia holding a tiny whisk and bowl.
A felted Cloudia being chummy with a stick that looks like a forest wizard.
A felted Cloudia lounging in a hammock.
A felted Cloudia chilling next to a mushroom.
A felted Cloudia hanging out in an abandoned bird nest.
A felted Cloudia basking in the sun with Kombucha
A felted Cloudia doing yoga on a rainbow mat.
A felted Cloudia hugging a scone
A stop-motion animation of Cloudia writing CBX.
A felted, frustrated Cloudia with her head on a keyboard.
A felted Cloudia climbing a tree.
A felted Cloudia hugging a mug of coffee as tall as she is.
A felted Cloudia holding a sign reading "consider your mindset".
A felted Cloudia holding a tiny whisk and bowl.
A felted Cloudia being chummy with a stick that looks like a forest wizard.
A felted Cloudia lounging in a hammock.
A felted Cloudia chilling next to a mushroom.
A felted Cloudia hanging out in an abandoned bird nest.
A felted Cloudia basking in the sun with Kombucha
A felted Cloudia doing yoga on a rainbow mat.

Web Experiments

  • Garden Club Website

    WordPress

    Purpose:

    To modernize the website for a local garden club. The focus was to improve on what they already had (to maximize their ability to contribute and maintain moving forward), and to add no additional cost of service. This work also included connecting the club with a free Google Workspace account for nonprofits.

  • Cookbook

    Supabase | PostgreSQL | TypeScript | FlutterFlow

    Purpose:

    To create a recipe application and explore FlutterFlow. Included novel recommendation features such as 'recipe recommendations based on season and today's temp'. This initial exploration was in part a way to determine the feasibility of using FlutterFlow as a low(ish) code option for non-engineers wanting to build a product.

  • Technically Nature

    Supabase | PostgreSQL | TypeScript | PostGIS

    Purpose:

    To create an Open API for plant information with a special focus on native, edible and keystone plants in Minnesota. Utilized PostGIS for zone lookup and recommendations, early exploration of combining Supabase and Fly.io.

  • Ome

    Supabase | WebRTC | Canvas

    Purpose:

    To explore Supabase real-time Broadcast and Presence, webRTC and canvas audio visualization by creating a Cozy Room clone.

    Hillary likes to keep their demos as interesting as possible: Ome presented a lot of fun opportunities for mini music videos. This demo is an example of audio visualization and Supabase real-time broadcast and presence (two distinct users signed in with their location represented on a shared canvas).