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Sage Herrera

Student Athlete, Artist Brings New Perspectives to Metaverse

When Sage Herrera sat down to apply to universities, she knew what she wanted: a deep network for connections, a diverse student population, good athletics and a great animation program. She felt that The University of Texas at Dallas was a perfect fit to accommodate all her needs.

Sage Herrera runs cross country during the fall semester and track in the spring.

Herrera, now a junior arts, technology and emerging communication student, joined both the track and field and cross country teams during her freshman year while balancing a full-time course load and fine-tuning her 3D modeling skills.

“What really drew me here was the animation program,” Herrera said. “I also liked that UTD is a D-III school, so I can run because I want to. Joining the cross country and track and field teams here was nice because I get access to the weight room, and we have a great team atmosphere.”

Herrera has utilized numerous opportunities within the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology to master her skills under her mentor Jeff Price, associate professor of game development. In his 3D Fashion in the Metaverse class, Herrera and her peers, along with students from the Texoversum School of Textiles in Reutlingen, Germany, created fictitious virtual environments for Nike, Gucci and Patagonia. The UTD students oversaw critiquing and assisting their German peers.

“It was a fantastic learning experience,” Herrera said. “It taught me how to effectively collaborate with teammates and international students as well as 3D model and texture high-quality assets in an incredibly short amount of time.”

Because of her success in the class, Price asked her to work part-time in the VAST Lab, which he leads with associate professor Bryon Caldwell. The multi-award-winning lab is a virtual reality research laboratory dedicated to creating immersive experiences.

One of Sage Herrera’s favorite 2D pieces, titled “My Mirror, Your Mirror” depicts feelings of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. She hopes people can project their ideas and interpretations onto it to get the catharsis they may need.

Herrera is currently working on several projects in the VAST Lab. One of her favorites is a Comanche language learning game. This is a passion project of one of her Comanche classmates that, in collaboration with the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center in Lawton, Oklahoma, aims to teach children aspects of Comanche culture, history and language. Another is a metaverse for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics river sports competitions, which will be held in Oklahoma. It is a recreation of the route Olympians will take during the canoeing competitions.

“Our project will allow people to go play in the metaverse while the Olympics is going on,” Herrera said. “Stuff like this gets people to be more connected with what is happening in the world. We’re doing that for the Comanche project. There are very few people left who speak fluent Comanche. The language game can be incredibly valuable if we can get it working.”

She is also working on mastering one of her favorite types of modeling, surface modeling, while working on creating a metaverse of the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building on campus.

Herrera is hopeful her experiences will help her find a job at a big animation studio.

“I would really like to keep doing 3D modeling and texturing,” Herrera said. “If I could work at a big studio like Disney where I could really specialize and focus on one specific aspect of modeling that would be great. I’m doing character modeling in a class later this semester, and I hope I really like it.”