Paolo Ciccone is a software engineer and photographer who lives in Santa Cruz, California. He has been developing software for more than 20 years in a large series of disciplines, including IDEs (JBuilder) and 3D modeling and rendering. His fi eld of expertise is developing multiplatform applications (Mac OS and Windows) that help computer graphics artists achieve photorealistic results. In 2010, he founded Pret-a-3D (www.preta3d.com), a company dedicated to bringing high-end computer graphics tools to the masses. His Reality software for Poser and DAZ Studio has been used for video game illustration and for the preproduction of Hollywood large budget movies such as Jurassic Park IV and Hunger Games: Catching Fire. For more than two decades, Paolo has taught all kinds of classes, from training for large corporations to live workshops about 3D graphics. Paolo's experience with 3D software started in 1999, with the fi rst public version of Blender, and then evolved to include other programs, including DAZ Studio, which he has used since version 1.0. Paolo is very active in the online community and he publishes a weekly blog covering topics about 3D graphics.