See the world through a new set of eyes

Hey there!
My name is Raimonds, I'm also known as StingrayZ over at Reddit, and SymmetricVision around various social media platforms.

I am here because for as long as I can remember, I've been obsessed with the concept of our perception. It fascinates me, how we perceive the world around us, and the many different ways we can tune our perception - hallucinogenic substances, meditation, dreaming, sleep deprivation, etc. I have become so captivated by this concept, that I have spent the past few years dedicating myself to creating replications of these altered states through the use of image and video editing.  These replications have attracted a considerable amount of attention and popularity throughout the internets various psychedelic communities and within the subreddit known as /r/replications .

If you would like to view my content you can check out the various links below:

-  Home page
- Instagram 
- Youtube channel 
- Facebook 
- Patreon 
- VICE Nederland interview 
- EffectIndex profile

Here's where I need your help:

So, if you've been following my journey for past years, you've probably noticed how my work has progressed over the years in terms of complexity, detail, accuracy and immersion, but sadly, I've hit a bottleneck - processing and rendering power. If you're an artist, you might know the feeling when you have a clear vision in your mind, but you're unable to make it a reality because of lack of tools.  

Since my work is slowly gaining objective value and the attention of different drug education and harm reduction projects, being accurate to the tiniest detail is now more critical than ever.

If you haven't seen my work and progression through the years, feel free to check out the links posted above, you should have an idea, what we are dealing with and if you looked closely, you probably noticed a small thing - blurred out details and rough 3D work. These two problems are both a result of the same fact - lack of rendering power.

I've tried to get the tools necessary for years now, but sadly I've failed, and that is why I'm asking for your help on this.

I want to make one thing clear - All of the funds raised in this campaign will be spent on transcending the quality of my work. It doesn't necessarily matter if the final goal is reached as any additional hardware will help.

So here's a shopping list:
- Aerocool Case Cruisestar Advance Black ATX case
- AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 16MB Processor
- Palit GeForce RTX 2070 Dual 8GB GDDR6  GPU
- AOC U2879VF Monitor (Cheapest 4K monitor I could find)
- Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING Motherboard
- Chieftec ATX 2.3 NAVITAS 650W GPM-650S Power Supply
- Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 240L MLW-D24M-A20PC-R1 water cooler
- G.SKILL Aegis 32GB 2666MHz CL19 DDR4 RAM
- Patriot Burst Series 480GB SATAIII 2.5" SSD drive
- Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATAIII 256MB HDD
- HTC Vive VR Headset (I've already built VR replications which I cannot currently test or render without the headset)
- 5€ Mouse and Keyboard

This is pretty much it, this list will be adjusted according to the result of this campaign and my financial capabilities. I'm really looking for an optimal balance between performance/price, so I'm also open to recommendations if there are cheaper options available. I don't want to rush with specific deadlines, and I want to trust the process to see where this can bring me.

Here's some ideas what will happen if the goal gets surpassed:
-I will try to focus on building even faster rig and currently it I'm looking at possible AMD Thread-ripper options, which means - a lot faster rendering times which for you mean - Higher quality content, more often and longer animations. This will greatly improve the quality of my work as well as creative-freedom aspect.
-For POV replications we need quality POV footage, so I'm looking into getting a decent GoPro camera, so I can finally use my own videos and make them specifically for replicating needs, instead of using CC0 License material.
-If we are even luckier, the funds will go to a decent 360 degree camera, to bring you guys way more immersive experiences. I've already worked on some 360 videos before, but stopped due to hardware restrictions. (360 footage rendered at 1080p looks very bad and that is my current limit).

I know, that I will spend the resources as soon as I can, I've been waiting for a chance to raise the quality of my work for years, so I probably won't hesitate. I know that a lot of you have been waiting for this as well. This is literally my current dream and lifes purpose, I have no other way of describing it, and if you participate in this and want something to be made specifically for you, please let me know - I would be more than happy to show my gratitude by creating something just for you. You truly deserve it. Please keep in mind that it might take some time since I have no idea how much people will participate in this.

I'm more than grateful for your time. Thank you so much for being here, it really means a lot to me!

Have a great day! 

Raimonds aka Symmetric Vision/StingrayZ