This work is a tribute to Sam Berns, a great boy who was born with a very rare condition called “Progeria”.
I said in the past that I like portraying good people. People who help and inspire others, instead of mindlessly spending my time modeling the latest character of the latest movie.
As a father, Sam’s story touches me deeply. The life expectancy of those born with progeria is just 13 years. Still, those boys and girls are incredibly positive and resilient individuals.
They know they will live short lives and do the best they can to impact those around them positively.
My father died of age of 32 and that’s something hard to comprehend for someone like me, at age of 48, two kids and still so many plans.
Sam died of age of 17 and his life helps to put my own life in perspective. In a world that seems to be developing into chaos, hate and division everywhere you look, the value of the human spirit should be measured by the content of their characters and how positively they impact the ones who come in contact with them. Sam was a public speaker and an inspiring individual. He made an impact on many and still does.
The biggest challenge for me was to represent his young spirit trapped in a fast aging body. References were not many and were most in low resolution found on the net. So this is an idealization, not a one to one copy. All details, except for a few landmarks I could see in the pictures, are absolutely idealized.
So in a way, that’s how I perceived Sam in my own particular way. The work can definitely be improved and I hope to get back to it at some point, but that’s what I have to offer for now.
This was sculpted in ZBrush and rendered in Maya/Arnold, with Photoshop for a few color tweaks on the final post.
It was started while I was teaching my latest online class, which ended 2 weeks ago.
RIP Sam. I hope your struggle and positive outlook towards life continue to inspire us all to pay more attention to what really matters.
Love it!!
