1) Please tell us a little something about yourself. For example: where are you from, where do you live, do you have any formal education or are you self-taught, etc.
Hi my name is Joe Diaz, I was born in El Paso, Texas, USA, but I grew up in Mexico. Currently I live in Juarez, the border city with El Paso, Tx. I went to school in Mexico, Middle, High, and College in the U.S. I studied Computer Animation in Orlando, Florida, USA, and I am a certified personal trainer too. I am a videogame geek, comic book geek, and exercise geek.

2) What software or tools do you use?
I use Autodesk Maya as my 3D Modeling tool, I use Photoshop to draw my textures and edit photos. I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit videos, and Nuke to compose them.

3) How did you get started making digital models?
I graduated in 2010, and almost immediately found Mr. John Hoagland and his Vanishing Point company, and started working with him since 2010, he's shown to be a great guy to work with, and it's been the best job I've had.

4) What experiences influenced your models or products? Where do you get your ideas for your products? Did you do any market analysis or did you make something that you thought people would enjoy?
My personal interests would be the first thing that influence my works, if they are for fun I don't worry about buyers as much, but I would look at the market to add some variety to my models since everyone has a different taste.

5) What kind of challenges have you faced in your career?
Finding a job mostly, I was lucky to find Vanishing Point as a freelancer, but I was also looking for a steady job back on 2010-2011, it's hard to get one when you have no experience.

6) You've been involved in the digital artist community for a while now. Do you have any thoughts or opinions about how the community has changed?
Technology improves every day, there are new tools that make this job easier every time, for instance the 3D printers, those things are gonna be big I believe, and fun to have as you can make anything real now.

7) What advice do you have for new merchants who want to improve their artwork?
Stay updated, keep working always, watch videos, watch tutorials, learn from the mistakes and experiences of others.

8) Is there anything else you'd like to share with the readers? Do you have any thoughts or ideas about models or products or anything else in the digital world?
The 3D world is your own, anything can happen in your movie, and it becomes real, and you can tweak it however many times as necessary.