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A 22 second motion graphic. Hi, I'm Don Allen III. I build tools for creators: FormWright 3D is my 3D modeling app for iPad. I research what's next: I lead the A.R.T. Department at Asteria and ship open-source tools for 3D capture and Gaussian splats. Then I teach it to everyone: MasterClass instructor, former DreamWorks Animation trainer, author of Make a Seat, and a 245K+ community online. And I help teams put it to work, as an advisor and collaborator to Meta, WhatsApp, Adobe, OpenAI, Apple, MasterClass, TED, and Snap. Build. Research. Teach. Don Allen III, creative technologist.

I build what's next, then teach everyone how to use it.

I'm Don Allen III, a creative technologist. I make 3D and AI tools like FormWright 3D, lead the A.R.T. Department at Asteria, teach generative AI on MasterClass, and advise Meta, WhatsApp, and Adobe on where creative technology goes next.

Advisor and collaborator
MetaWhatsAppAdobeAppleOpenAINVIDIAMasterClassTEDSnap Inc.DreamWorksUniversalAsteria
Build

I build the tools I wish already existed.

Every project here started as a problem in my own work. Most of them you can try today, and the newest one is on the App Store.

Modeled and painted in FormWright. Drag to orbit.

FormWright 3D

3D modeling that belongs on iPad

One app to model a form, adjust its points, stack modifiers you can always undo, paint right on the surface, and export a file the rest of the world can open. Built for finger and Apple Pencil.

  • Polygon modeling with point, edge, and face editing
  • Texture painting, fills, and gradient maps on the model
  • USDZ, GLB, and STL export for AR, game engines, and 3D printing

Latest update: a bigger creative toolkit for your iPad. Requires iPadOS 18 or later.

More things I've built

Research

I research what's next, and share it in the open.

Some of it happens inside a film studio. Some of it happens on my own laptop. The useful parts end up as tools other people can run.

Beyond Our Reality

An AI nature documentary about creatures that can't exist, and one of the first films made with OpenAI's Sora. Read OpenAI's write-up

Open-source tools and experiments

Teach

Then I teach it to everyone.

Before AI, I trained artists at DreamWorks Animation. The job hasn't really changed. New tools show up, and I help people get good at them, fast and without the jargon.

Speaking

I don't give talks about AI. I show it working.

Live demos of what changes when AI is part of the workflow, and what your team can actually try the next morning.

Meta Connect, on stage with Mark Zuckerberg

For six months I worked with Meta's teams on the behavioral models behind AI Studio. That work ended in a live keynote with Mark Zuckerberg unveiling the first AI video calling feature.

SXSW 2025, Unlock Your Creative Superpowers

A session with MasterClass on using lateral thinking to turn generative AI into your own purple crayon.

Other stages

  • EmTech MITMIT Technology Review, 2022 speaker
  • TIFF 2025Moderated the festival's first AI panel
  • Adobe 99ULive vibe-coding session with Karen X Cheng
  • Korea Metaverse Festival 2026AI and XR convergence, COEX Seoul
"Don Allen Stevenson... this great creator who built one of the first Creator AIs."
Mark ZuckerbergMeta Connect
"Spectacular AI-generated graphics thanks to Don Allen and the team at Asteria."
Chris AndersonTED
"We've got a Jackie Robinson of Technology about to come to the stage."
Van JonesMake Wakanda Real
"Don is known for sharing his futuristic visions with a creative community of more than 100,000 people."
MIT Technology ReviewEditorial team
Work with me

What happens when I join a team.

I once asked an AI to describe me as a protein in the human body, based on everything it knew about how I work. It said I'm a growth factor. Not the protein that maintains the system. The one that shows up and makes everything around it grow faster.

Most AI adoption stalls the same way. Teams buy the tools, run a few experiments, and go right back to how they always worked. I sit down next to people and we build something together, until someone says "wait, I just cut my review cycle in half."

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I push past the status quo. If a workflow has existed for five years and nobody has questioned it, I'm questioning it. If there's a faster, smarter, more creative way to move, I'm prototyping it before the meeting ends.

And I never advise on something I'm not also doing myself. I ship my own apps, like FormWright 3D. I run new pipelines inside real productions at Asteria. I test everything on my own content, my own audience, and my own workflows first. This isn't theoretical for me. I genuinely love this stuff.

I spent years at DreamWorks Animation training artists. After that I went deep into AR, XR, and AI before most of the industry showed up. Underneath all of it, I'm a dad, a curious builder, and someone who believes we can make this future feel human.

Advisory

Ongoing partnership for teams adopting AI and spatial computing. What to build, what to buy, and what to ignore, based on what I'm building and seeing across the industry.

Book a consultation

Working prototypes

I look at how your team actually works, then build the better version of the slow parts. You get something that runs, not a deck.

Start a project

Workshops and keynotes

Hands-on sessions like Camp Future Proof that take a team from "I've heard of ChatGPT" to "I just rebuilt our review pipeline."

Book a workshop

Tell me what you're working on.

Advisory, prototypes, workshops, keynotes, or something that doesn't have a name yet.