Wolfgang

I live in my van, take pictures, and tell stories. I have a pet tortoise, cat, and dog. https://linktr.ee/renderwolf

[renderwolf]

Hey! I'm Wolfgang.

I live in a van with my little fuzzy family. Life is a little unconventional around here, but that's kind of the point.

This blog is mostly going to be a mix of whatever happens to catch my attention: van life, animals, photography, art, animation, nature, road trips, weird observations, bad jokes, good food, and the occasional life update.

I'm a visual effects artist, writer, professional collector of random hobbies, and enthusiastic appreciator of cool rocks, strange creatures, and pretty sunsets.

There's no real theme here. Just me, my pets, and whatever nonsense we're getting into this week.

P.S. I put together a little thing called Wolfie's Guest Book. If you stop by and feel like saying hello, sharing where you're from, talking about your pets, recommending a cool place to visit, or just leaving a random note for future me, I'd love to read it.

[renderwolf]

The Man in Bonaventure Cemetery: Ghost, Angel, or Illusion?

I’ve gone back and forth on this story for years. When it happened, I was convinced I’d met an angel. Today, I honestly don’t know what happened. Memory is funny, and I know my brain has interpreted things differently at different points in my life. Maybe it was exactly as I remember it. Maybe it wasn’t. What I do know is this. When I was attending SCAD in Savannah, I used to do my homework…

The Man in Bonaventure Cemetery: Ghost, Angel, or Illusion?

[renderwolf]

You're Talented. You Just Suck at Finding It.

I have a theory. Actually, I have a lot of theories, but this is one I’ve believed for years: I don’t think untalented people exist. Seriously. I think every single person on Earth has at least one educational skill and one creative skill. The problem is that most people try three things, decide they suck, and give up before they ever stumble across the thing they were actually meant to be…

You're Talented. You Just Suck at Finding It.

[renderwolf]

When Making Art Isn't Enough

I don’t really know how to write something like this. If you’ve followed my work for a while, you probably know me as the guy making weird art out of junkyard finds, photographing bugs, building procedural flowers in Houdini, or talking way too much about carousel horses. I usually like being the one making things, not asking people for anything. The truth is that life has become really…

When Making Art Isn't Enough

[renderwolf]

Find Your Professor

When people talk about starting college, they usually focus on picking the right major, buying textbooks, or figuring out how not to get lost on campus. I think they’re missing one of the most important parts. Find your professor. Not a professor. The professor. The one whose passion is contagious. The one whose office door is always open and who challenges you because they know you’re capable…

Find Your Professor

[renderwolf]

I Opened My 2009 Laptop & Accidentally Found My Childhood

Tonight I booted up my very first laptop. A purple Dell Inspiron from 2009. She runs Windows Vista Home Premium, sounds like a jet engine every time she boots, refuses to acknowledge USB drives exist, and has approximately 37 heart attacks before she’ll let you open a folder. I love her. The original plan was simple: find some old books I wrote, maybe a few drawings, maybe a storyboard or an…

I Opened My 2009 Laptop & Accidentally Found My Childhood

[renderwolf]

The Best Books Never Really End

When people ask what piece of media changed how I see the world, my first answer is almost always 1984 by George Orwell. (Although for some reason I always accidentally call it 1987.) I’m not a particularly political person, but 1984 wasn’t really about politics to me. It was about how easily information can be manipulated, how fear changes people, and how powerful it is to control what people…

The Best Books Never Really End

[renderwolf]

The First 100 That Mattered

I’ve had my first hundred views before. Actually, I’ve had them many times. When I was younger, one of my websites reached nearly a million views. Numbers aren’t new to me. But this hundred feels different. This is the first hundred people who’ve seen something I built because I wanted to build it. Not because I was chasing numbers, but because I finally had something I was proud to…

The First 100 That Mattered

[renderwolf]

From Anime to Language: My Journey with Japanese

I speak English and Japanese. Oddly enough, I didn’t learn Japanese because of anime. That’s probably the reason most Americans start learning it, but my story is a little different. When I was around nine years old, I got heavily involved in the MikuMikuDance community and spent a lot of time browsing NicoNicoDouga, a Japanese video-sharing website. At first, I had no idea what anything said. I…

From Anime to Language: My Journey with Japanese

[renderwolf]

Bigfoot Goes Cottagecore (Order Today)

Every now and then, an idea comes along that is so ridiculous you simply have to see it through. This floral Sasquatch design was created for my mom’s adventures and my own business here at Wolfgang’s Junkyard. We wanted something fun, outdoorsy, and a little whimsical—something that would appeal to nature lovers, campers, hikers, van life enthusiasts, cryptid lovers, Bigfoot fans, and anyone…

View On WordPress

[renderwolf]

Socialization and Happiness: Creating a Discord for Creatives

One thing most people don’t know about me is that, years ago, I actually ran a fairly large animation YouTube channel. I don’t really talk about it much anymore, and I keep that username private because it belongs to a different chapter of my life, but I loved it. Not because of the views, subscriber count, not because of any of that. I loved the people. I loved opening my computer and seeing…

Socialization and Happiness: Creating a Discord for Creatives

[renderwolf]

The Importance of Resilience in Life’s Journey

If I could give one piece of advice to someone younger than me, it’d be this: quit beating yourself up every time something doesn’t go according to plan. Life isn’t really a straight road. It’s more like a river. Sometimes it’s calm, sometimes it throws you into the rapids, and sometimes it drags you somewhere you never expected to go. The thing is, life just happens. It doesn’t stop and ask if…

The Importance of Resilience in Life’s Journey

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Today I was officially diagnosed with schizophrenia and chronic social anxiety.

Breaking the Stigma of Mental Illness: My Diagnosis Story

[renderwolf]

Creating a Procedural Gerbera Daisy in Houdini FX (WIP)

SoftwareHardwareClassHoudini FX 21.0.729MacBook ProProfessor Timothy SteeleSavannah College of Art & DesignJune 2026 This is my process for creating a procedural gerbera daisy in Houdini FX. I started this project by finding a reference image of a daisy. I love daisies, but I chose a gerbera daisy for a few specific reasons. First of all, the petals are pretty uniform and radial around the…

Creating a Procedural Gerbera Daisy in Houdini FX (WIP)

[renderwolf]

I think one of the biggest misconceptions people have about happiness is that it’s waiting for them…

[renderwolf]

Why Setting Boundaries Matters in Relationships

Healthy boundaries are strange things. Most people learn them young. I simply didn’t. For a long time, I was the awkward, severely overweight kid, the one who wasn’t really noticed unless someone needed a joke or a target. Friendship was really rare. Attention and being wanted felt rare, too. Then my life changed all at once. I lost hundreds of pounds and gained some muscle. I grew into…

Why Setting Boundaries Matters in Relationships

[renderwolf]

Rest in Peace. Oliver helped me through a lot during some dark days in my life.

Oliver Tree & Finding Solace in Music: Mourning Artists We Love