There are certainly a lot of young guns out there that love this stuff. Right now there seems to be somewhat of a division in the field .. there are people with great skills in 3D design on the graphics side but not much natural aptitude on the engineering side, and then Engineers without much natural aptitude on the creative side.
The Gaming industry sucks up a lot of the talent as most games these days are functionally just complex physics simulations with words and art added. The artistic guys end up having to develop a feel for the physics and realism so they can design game elements that work like real life.
Most everything starts with the 3D model ... then you make it "do stuff"
Yes sir I would have loved it. I was a "Nuke" in the Navy where I got my background in engineering, physics, chemistry, metallurgy and from moment one wanted to design my own devices and systems. But .. Que, sera, sera ... no looking back now
Still Nerd enough to appreciate the vote of confidence.