About
Hi, I am Alex Shabetayev.
I was born in the former Soviet Union (specifically Uzbekistan). In 1990 we left the USSR and the next 20 years of my life we bounced around between Israel and New York. Although the moves were challenging these life experiences shaped me to be the man I am today.
I was always a creative and a curious kid, whether it was drawing or creating treasure maps of my neighborhood, creativity has always been a part of my nature. When I got my first computer, circa 1991, I knew I wanted my future would be involved with computers. Early on I mostly played games, but also did some art with graphics programs. In my late teens I began to be interested in 3D graphics and wanted to figure out how to do it. I got my hands on Bryce 4 and started creating environments in Bryce, I loved it. I was also interested in programming and how computers worked in general. I took BASIC classes in high school and bought a book on Visual Basic without even owning a computer at the time, I still read it.
In my early 20s I decided to delve deeper and got my hands on Maya 4.5, I created my first ever 3d animation of the solar system, and I got hooked even more. I decided to pursue computer animation as a career.
I enrolled in the computer animation program at the Miami International University of Art & Design. In the program we were taught traditional art first and then computer animation. I knew that what we were learning was only a drop in the ocean, but it gave me a great foundation.
After graduation I started working in a small studio where I was the 2nd in-house employee. Initially I started as a freelance character animator, I then got hired full time and spent 10 years with them building the studio along the way. During my time at Zerofractal I expanded on numerous skills as 3d generalist, a manager, a programmer and as a business person. At Zerofractal we always tried to break boundaries and work with emerging technologies, it was always exciting and challenging to figure things out. I learned how to think through and tackle complex problems, how to deal with clients and how to work efficiently.
Today, I reside in South Florida with my wife and two kids. I currently work at Magic Leap where we are breaking boundaries in a whole new computing medium. I still love CG and practice sometimes when there is a creative urge. I love in depth conversations about technology, space exploration, human psychology and most of all I love history.
Theres is a lot more to my story…
Feel free to reach out to me via email at alexander.shabetayev@gmail.com.
Thank you for visiting.