I’m Houmahani Kane, a Artistic Developer based mostly in Paris.
I construct interactive net experiences for studios, companies, and types, serving to them discover and talk concepts, merchandise, and experiences.
Due to Codrops for the chance to share a little bit of my journey with the group, together with just a few key initiatives and the way I strategy my work.
Chosen Work
Throughout my years as a Artistic Developer at a Paris-based company, I had the prospect to work on a number of WebGL initiatives for main shoppers.
Exploring Firm Construction in 3D
One among my greatest challenges as a Artistic Developer was a two-year collaboration with Renault Group. The aim was to construct an inner platform serving to workers navigate the group’s complicated construction and discover data in just some interactions.
The expertise was constructed round a 3D planet, the place every continent represented a model of the group. It made the construction of the group instantly seen and gave customers a spatial technique to discover it.
I labored on the front-end and 3D components and helped outline how customers transfer by the expertise. As the one WebGL developer on the company, each technical drawback was mine to unravel, and a few of them I’d by no means confronted earlier than.
The undertaking grew over time, and I stayed concerned from begin to end. The shopper particularly requested for me to remain on the undertaking, which confirmed the belief that got here from working collectively over two years.
Because of confidentiality, I can’t share visuals, however this outlines the core interplay system and challenges.
Exploring Concepts Via Interactive Programs
In parallel, on the similar company, I labored on an immersive AI-augmented moodboard designed for a French luxurious home. The aim was to discover and construction visible concepts in a extra interactive manner.
As an alternative of looking static references, customers transfer by a 3D house of photographs and key phrases. Clicking on a key phrase generates new associated content material, so customers can transfer from one concept to a different in a short time.
I dealt with the front-end and 3D layer and led two different builders. The actual problem right here was time. I had 20 days to ship a working POC whereas nonetheless engaged on the Renault undertaking.
Interplay underneath Actual-World Constraints
I additionally labored on an interactive expertise for a Paris Aéroport loyalty marketing campaign. I dealt with the 3D and interplay layer from feasibility to manufacturing. The main target was on making the interplay responsive and constant underneath real-world situations with simplified property and fallback behaviors when wanted.
A Reactive Model System
An inner POC the place we explored a model message by a reactive visible system. Customers might immediately affect form and materials in actual time, turning an summary concept into one thing tangible and dynamic.
Quick, experimental, and artistic train between initiatives.
A 3D Product Showcase
Over the previous few months, I labored this time as a freelancer with the identical company on a undertaking for a financial institution, constructing a 3D product showcase to help gross sales groups. The aim was to make bodily units accessible digitally, permitting them to be explored by easy interactions like zooming, rotating, and specializing in key components. I hope I’ll have the ability to share this undertaking publicly quickly.
Constructing My Path
I’ve been drawn to the online since my teenage years, messing round with WordPress themes, bits of HTML and CSS, however I by no means noticed it as an actual profession path. So I did what felt extra “critical” and studied advertising and marketing. Didn’t get pleasure from it a lot.
Throughout my research, a trainer confirmed us a Codrops demo: rain falling on a webpage. I bear in mind considering, “That’s insane.” From there, I fell down the rabbit gap and found studios like Immersive Backyard and Merci Michel, and realized that what I’d been doing as a interest was truly a craft. We additionally had an HTML/CSS module. I already knew all of it. That’s when every little thing clicked.
In 2017, I began instructing myself HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, principally by free on-line assets. Being comfy in English was key. The perfect assets merely weren’t in French. I received rejected from a free coding program, discovered a technique to finance a bootcamp—not apparent the place I come from, however I made it work—and shortly after, I landed my first front-end position in a Paris company the place I used to be the one lady on the tech workforce.
After 4 years, I wanted extra. Identical initiatives, similar patterns, no new challenges. So I left, went freelance for the primary time, and spent that interval doing what I’d been desirous to do: studying Three.js Journey by Bruno Simon and Blender by Roman Klčo’s Polygon Runway. Truthfully, essentially the most enjoyable I’d had in years.
I then joined a Paris-based artistic company as a Artistic Developer, spending two years constructing WebGL experiences for main shoppers and dealing carefully with design groups. The folks I met there I nonetheless work with right this moment. Some have grow to be shut mates, and that made an actual distinction once I moved into freelance.
Not from a design faculty, not from an engineering faculty. I constructed my path by follow, actual initiatives, and lots of figuring issues out alone.
How I Work
I usually become involved early in a undertaking, typically when there’s simply an concept, typically with a full design. It will possibly begin from references, moodboards, or a Figma file.
I attempt to perceive what issues rapidly, preserve issues targeted, and work out how you can make it work with out dropping what makes it fascinating. Quite a lot of the work occurs there, earlier than I write any code.
I don’t depend on a set stack. I primarily work with JavaScript, Three.js for real-time 3D, and both vanilla or React, relying on the context. I adapt to the undertaking and the workforce. The precedence is all the time readability, efficiency, and maintaining the system straightforward to work with.
For me, the most effective half is when every little thing continues to be open. When the web page is clean and we begin constructing one thing from nothing.
Private Explorations
Alongside shopper work, I discover private initiatives, principally round storytelling.
I’ve all the time been fascinated by previous images of Paris and acquire books that present how locations regarded then and now. Two initiatives got here out of that. One focuses on Rue de Chazelles, the place the Statue of Liberty was constructed, recreating that historic second so customers can transfer by it as if stepping right into a portray. The opposite is about my childhood neighborhood, at present going by main transformations. The aim is to recreate it throughout totally different many years and embrace residents’ recollections.
Each are nonetheless in progress.
I additionally share smaller experiments as I am going. Shaders, interactions, little POCs that don’t all the time have a closing vacation spot. Simply constructing issues to be taught and see what occurs.
I additionally had the chance to share a part of my work with the group by a Codrops demo, the place I explored a scroll-reactive 3D gallery and the way interplay can form environment and notion.
Challenges of Going Freelance
This isn’t my first time freelancing, so I knew what I used to be stepping into. Independence is every little thing to me: monetary independence, particularly as a girl, and independence over my time. I’m not afraid of challenges, and I ready: I constructed financial savings, maintained relationships with my earlier company, and saved placing work on the market.
That stated, ten months in, day-after-day nonetheless brings its share of doubt. Quotes that go nowhere, shoppers that ghost, initiatives that don’t convert. Making choices alone feels unsure, and I don’t all the time know if I’m making the suitable name. It will possibly really feel isolating, which pushed me to get out, attend occasions in Paris, and construct connections.
After which there’s AI. CEOs saying our jobs are disappearing. I’m utilizing it each day and never seeing the way it replaces what I do. It helps with complicated math, it speeds issues up, however the second I let it drive, the end result doesn’t appear to be something I meant. I desire to remain in management. That’s the way it works for me. So the toughest half is ignoring the noise.
Social media is its personal problem. I don’t use it personally, just for my work. The foundations are dictated by the algorithm, not by folks. I haven’t discovered the suitable reply but, however sharing work publicly is what truly opens doorways. The Codrops demo and this developer highlight each got here from simply placing issues on the market.
Most of my greatest initiatives are underneath NDA, which makes visibility more durable, and constructing my portfolio has been its personal problem. The laborious half is determining what I would like it to say. I don’t need WebGL for the sake of WebGL: results that look spectacular however don’t serve something. I crave authenticity and significant interactions, particularly in an period the place any impact will be replicated by AI in seconds. However that’s additionally what buzzes. So I’m nonetheless figuring it out. My technique for now: construct one thing robust and submit it to awards platforms. Get seen by the work itself.
Remaining Ideas
I’m persevering with to develop work that makes use of interplay to make concepts clear and significant in shopper initiatives and in my private explorations.
I’m grateful to the individuals who supported my path: the workforce I labored with on the company, and Codrops for giving me this house. Early in my freelance journey, I had the prospect to talk with a senior Artistic Developer who gave me his time, recommendation, and connections freely. That type of generosity is uncommon, and it meant loads.
To anybody beginning out, begin with the fundamentals. Don’t let AI do it for you. Continue learning and grasp your craft. I can’t advocate Three.js Journey by Bruno Simon sufficient. With out it, I wouldn’t be doing what I really like. He additionally constructed a group round it, which makes the journey really feel much less lonely.
And to the ladies, I want there have been extra of us in tech. For me, this path got here from nothing. It gave me independence I by no means thought I’d have. Meaning every little thing.
Houmahani
