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Interview with Jan Sladecko: a C4D Motion Designer and Our Beloved Client with Contentful Portfolio

Before we start our passage, Fox Renderfarm, as your powerful render farm service provider, would like to invite you to see a well-made compilation of the animated shorts. Space Struggle (Ep. 1 - Ep.4) © Jan Sladecko Space Struggle is a short CGI animated series and also an excellent integration of character design, motion design and a bit of humorous storytelling. Fox Renderfarm is so honored to have a talk with the creator - Mr. Jan Sladecko. He used to work in famous studios like The Mill, Elastic.tv and Trizz Productions, SL, and now he is a freelance creative director and mainly working on personal projects. - Jan Sladecko - Creative Director / Motion Designer - From: Czech Republic 2019 Showreel © Jan Sladecko Jan’s love for CG can date back to the age of 12 and after the efforts and dedication in the CG industry for more than one decade, he gained audiences and success in multiple areas, such as, animation, movies, series, music videos, commercials and so forth. Transformers IMAX: The Last Knight The Americans - Teaser Nike Techfleece J. Balvin - Azul (Official Animated Video) His excellence in production has earned him a reputation in the industry, so he has been invited to share his experience by multiple famous conferences, brands and competitions, like IBC Conference, Adobe, Maxon, SIGGRAPH, Motion Design Awards (MDA). （From left to right）IBC 2016, Interview with Adobe, SIGGRAPH 2017, SIGGRAPH 2019 (Invited by Maxon), Interview with MDA Here comes the interview with Jan who shared his working experience throughout his career, more information about getting inspired and his unique creative vision. Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Jan, thank you so much for accepting our interview! Would you please introduce yourself? Jan: Hi, thank you for inviting me, my name is Jan Sladecko, I’m a creative director currently based in LA with roughly 10 years of experience in the industry. I’m lucky that I could work in many different leading studios around the world. Currently I’m freelancing and trying to focus more on personal projects. GUIDED BREATHING © Jan Sladecko Fox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG and get started in the CG industry? Jan: I started with Flash animations when I was around 12, then learnt After Effects during highschool and gradually found the way to 3D world. Luckily I had a chance to join a VFX company right after school which taught me a lot. ARXIV | OFFF Barcelona 2019 Design, Animation, Matchmoving, 2D Comp © Jan Sladecko Fox Renderfarm: From 2D to 3D art, do you find 2D play an important role in developing your 3D art? Jan: I worked many years in Flash and then After Effects where I was doing 2D compositions and motion graphics before I started learning 3D software. Nowadays I combine both and choose what is more fitting for each project and getting inspiration from both worlds. But I rarely start 3D art from 2D design, unless it is a client's reference. Fox Renderfarm: Could you introduce your best commercial and TV works to us? Jan: Hard to decide which one is my favorite one. I really enjoyed my older work with studio Oficina, but I’ll say IMAX: Transformers which I enjoyed to animate and design, it was a project I worked at the Mill. Transformers IMAX Fox Renderfarm: What’s your pipeline of 3D art? Jan: Before I dive into 3D I sketch often on paper, even though my drawing skills are really limited :) Most of the time I work on animations so as I start developing the 3D scene I’m already planning how things will be animated. When animation has many I always do a previz to get the overall timing and dynamics and from there, I start developing the shots. When it is more complex 3D which needs more people, then I develop basic scenes and then give the rest of the team necessary data for their input and put everything back together later on. When I do styleframes, I focus on getting the composition and mood first and then add all the details. ROBOT © Jan Sladecko Fox Renderfarm: What projects have you worked on at The Mill? Is there any unforgettable work and experience to share? Jan: I worked on many projects at the Mill. In some of them I was mainly an animator, in others designer as well. One of my favorite ones were Americans, Imax, Audi, Arxiv and Nissan (all can be seen on my Behance ) The Americans Teaser Audi E-Tron Range ARXIV: A Mere Cipher "Nissan Next" Brand Film Favorite one was probably IMAX as it was my first job when I got a lot of responsibility for the entire spot and led other artists. Audi was also really interesting where I worked with a big VFX team which was doing realistic renders and high quality 2D comp and I was supplying them with all motion designs for the spot. But there are many other projects I could talk about and especially amazing people who I met there. Fox Renderfarm: What’s the inspiration of your short CGI animated series, Space Struggle? How did you come up with the idea and style? Jan: I was experimenting while I came up with an idea of a flying car. At that same time Elon Musk sent a red car into space so I thought I could make a joke that astronauts trying to get into a flying car. Animation became really popular and I truly enjoyed storytelling so then I started working on new animations in that direction. Even now I have a lot of sketches for more and more episodes even though I’m taking a break from the series.. Space Struggle (Ep. 1 - Ep.4) Fox Renderfarm: What is the most enjoyable part and the most difficult part while creating the Space Struggle series? Jan: I enjoyed coming up with the ideas, when I was laughing in my head I knew that it is a good direction. Also I loved when I saw people reacting to the animations and laughing, that meant so much to me. The hardest part was definitely making character animations. It takes a lot of time, especially all interactions with ground and objects in the scene. I or my friends had to act these scenes for animation reference. Even though astronauts are a little bit easier to animate than normal characters as their movements are more restricted. Fox Renderfarm: The Silly Wheels series are really cute and funny. How did you make it? Jan: In that time there were really popular satisfying loop animations. I was trying to create some animation like that as well, but with more personality and humor. Initial idea of following the car I got from one pitch that I worked on at that time. And then through my imagination I started to think about things that could happen around it. For example melting Ice Cream track I thought it could be a nice moment of surprise for the audience. Silly Wheels (Ep.1 - Ep.3 ) Fox Renderfarm: As an Award-winning Art Director, you were invited by Maxon to do talks at IBC 2016, SIGGRAPH 2017 and Siggraph 2019. How do you feel about that? Jan: It was an amazing experience, it actually all started by speaking publicly in Czech TV and then conference Mouvo for about 400 people in 2016. I was really nervous, but excited and I was able to share my story in a funny way, entertain and educate people and that made me so joyful and happy. From that I got invited to IBC which was more technical, but it felt great to share know-how and tips, meet more people including the Maxon team and later on I got even a job offer for the J Balvin music video based on my SIGGRAPH talk. Worth mentioning that this project ended up being rendered on Fox Renderfarm :) IBC 2016 SIGGRAPH 2017 SIGGRAPH 2019 J Balvin - Azul (Breakdown) Fox Renderfarm: What movies/tv shows/ games are your favourites respectively? Jan: I watch and play way less than I used to (unfortunately). But one of my favorite movies was District 9, great visual effects and I loved the way the story telling was done. Miyazaki‘s movies are amazing and many other movies. From TV shows I like the cinematography of Game of Thrones, humor of What We Do in Shadows, metaphysical content of Midnight Gospel and the craziness of Love, Death & Robots. And my top games are Counter Strike, Age of Empires II, Company of Heroes and Ark: Survival Evolved. Fox Renderfarm: Any artists or artworks inspired you most? Jan: I don’t search much for inspiration in the 3D world, but I like the works of Ondrej Zunka, Taehoon Park, Gryun Kim, Woosung Kang, Maxim Goudin, Sasha Vinogradova, Alberto Mielgo and many more. © Ondrej Zunka 0110 © Taehoon Park “Hunters” Main Titles © Gryun Kim True Detective 3 Main Title © Woosung Kang 2020 showreel © Maxim Goudin Spells © Sasha Vinogradova THE WITNESS © Alberto Mielgo Fox Renderfarm: Any software or new methods you are learning right now? Jan: I was recently studying a lot outside of the motion design industry as well, but I’m interested in VR and interactive art. Sim Nebula - Process Reel Fox Renderfarm: Would you share with us your next step? Jan: Currently I’m finding new ways to effectively connect through my work with the audience and have a positive impact on their life either through humor or mental health. Thinking also about a shift from client work to creating a product in that direction. Flow of Love © Jan Sladecko Fox Renderfarm: How do you like Fox Renderfarm’s rendering services? Jan: I’m amazed, it works so smoothly, great user interface and amazing support. We were choosing between a few different render farms and Fox Renderfarm was a clear winner. Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts? Jan: Have fun, do what excites you and try to mix different inspirations with your own taste to achieve originality. Also don’t be afraid to reach out to your heroes.

FGT3D Hunter Challenge Is Open for Submissions Now!

FGT3D Hunter Challenge, organized by the best cloud rendering services Fox Renderfarm, is now open for submissions! We would like to invite 3D artists around the world to submit their artworks, show their CG talents and win great prizes! Theme: Hunter Hunters appear in many movies and TV series, such as the monster hunter in “ Monster Hunter ”, the magic hunter in “ The Huntsman: Winter's War ” and the witch hunter in “ The Last Witch Hunter ”. In this render challenge, please use your imagination to create your own HUNTER, no matter what kind of hunter you create, we are looking forward to it! Prizes: 3 Professional artworks and 3 Student artworks will be selected and awarded this time! The prizes including render coupons provided by Fox Renderfarm, license of Corona and Corona Academy Online Courses (unlimited access for 2 years), Raysync's larger file transfer license (SMB version), textures.com's yearly subscription with credits per month, Friendly Shade's 32K resolution bundle, MultiScatter, MadCar, CityTraffic license provided by iCube R&D Group, Texturebox's legendary membership, Graswald's pro personal license, individual subscription for Toolbag 4 provided by Marmoset 12 and so on. Besides, the winning artworks will gain a great amount of exposure and publicity. Interview with Fox Renderfarm Advertisement and promotion on our official website, social media accounts, and newsletters. Moreover, each participant can get a free $50 render coupon! You will receive a confirmation email with the coupon code, after submitting the work that meets the demands (read more about the rules). How to submit: - Use this submission form to submit your entry before the deadline is over. - Also, you can join the community and enter the FGT3D Challenge! - The challenge ends on August 15th, 2021 (UTC+8) and the winners will be announced on August 26th, 2021 (UTC+8). Rules: - Your entry must relate to the challenge’s theme (we strongly encourage you to set your imagination free) - Your entry must be a 3D rendered image, video or 2D or concept art is not allowed - Your entry can be created by one artist or a group - There’s no limitation on styles and the choices of software and plugins - Your entry must be original art created specifically for the challenge - Minimal use of third party assets is allowed, as long as they are not the main focus of your scene (third party textures and materials are not included in this rule and can be used freely) - Feel free to enhance your rendering - Images that depict hate, racism, sexism or other discriminatory factors are not allowed - Works must be submitted before the deadline - If you have any problems please contact fgt3d@foxrenderfarm.com Partner: PIXL VISN Media Arts Academy Sponsors: The prizes are provided by our awesome sponsors, including: - Corona Renderer - Known for its ease of use, power, and affordability, Corona Renderer 6 is available for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D. - Raysync Larger File Transfer - Fast file transfer solutions with reliability and security. - Texturebox - Making great textures for free and premium at a low cost. - Friendly Shade - High-quality textures for 3D artists. - iCube R&D Group - iCube R&D Group develops and provides cutting edge and affordable tools for 3D visualisation industry. - Textures.com - A website that offers digital pictures of all sorts of materials. - Graswald - The best way to create nature in Blender. - Marmoset - 3D Real-time rendering, lookdev & texture barking tools. Judges: For this competition, we have invited professionals in the CG industry as our judges to ensure the fairness and professionalism of the competition. Here's the list of our jury: - Ben Cheung - Vice President of Fox Renderfarm - Kariem Saleh - Filmmaker and Character Animator - Miho Aoki - Associate Professor of Computer Art, University of Alaska Fairbanks - Julius Harling - Founder of Graswald - Frank WANG Yefeng - Media Artist / Assistant Professor of Digital Media Curriculum, Art Department, Rhode Island College - Cenay Oekmen - VFX Tutor of Pearson College London FAQ: 1.Do I need to pay any fees to participate in the competition? - No, the FGT3D Challenge is free for everyone. 2.Do I need to register a Fox Renderfarm account for participating in the competition? - No, you can participate with or without a Fox Renderfarm account, which will not affect the final result of the competition. 3.Does the entry need to be rendered by Fox Renderfarm? - No, you can use any 3D software, renderers, add-ons according to your need. 4.Can I submit multiple submissions for the competition? - No, you can only submit 1 final render for the competition. 5.Can I share my artwork and WIP online before the challenge is over? - Yes, of course, you can. We are looking forward to your participation. Come to shine your talent and great prizes are waiting for you! Let's celebrate a special Christmas!

How to Build the Garden of Damocles in 3ds Max

John F. Kennedy once said that "Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness." Garden of Damocles, the artwork nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, made with 3ds Max, V-Ray, Marvelous Designer and Photoshop, depicts what Kennedy said in an imaginative way. Garden of Damocles © Csaba Banati The author of the work, Csaba Banati, is an architectural illustrator who always focuses on illustrating his thoughts in an immersive way. Fox Renderfarm, the best render farm, is honoured to interview with Csaba, who shared how he built the Garden of Damocles in 3ds Max. Csaba Banati - Freelance Illustrator - From: Austria Fox Renderfarm: Hi Csaba, could you give us a brief introduction about yourself? Csaba: Hi all, I'm Csaba Banati - working as a freelance illustrator currently from the city of Vienna, Austria. I've been working in the industry for about 8-9 years now. Originally I have a degree in architecture but never worked as an architect. Instead I focused on architectural illustrations and jumped right into it after getting my diploma. Save Energy! © Csaba Banati Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on being nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, how do you feel about it? Csaba: I'm feeling proud and lucky! I got nominated despite the fact that the non-commissioned category is super-duper tough every single year. People are getting better and better so it's a tough competition. Also I'm super proud of the fact that this was my 3rd nomination in a row. I hope one day I'll win :) Fox Renderfarm: What's your inspiration for the amazing work “Garden of Damocles”? Why did you select this artwork to participate in the competition? Csaba: Everything started with a simple idea to investigate my feelings about courtyards. I've always found these spaces intriguing but I never really figured out why. During the process, I contemplated this idea and one thing led to another and this happened. For me, it was obvious to choose this image. It's a bit special to me for the above-mentioned reason and also I pushed myself hard on this project. Was curious how it would end up against this tough competition. Fox Renderfarm: The work shows like an allegory of the future world, what do you want to express through the work? Csaba: For me, it is always just mildly interesting what the artist wants to say. The beauty of art is that it can and will mean different things to different people based on their past experiences. I truly believe that as soon as an art piece is out it's not up to the artist to decide what it is about. People will judge and interpret before you could even say a word. But that's the beauty of it and I find it amazing. Fox Renderfarm: The sculptures and nuclear bombs in the picture are very realistic and attractive. Could you tell me how you made them (including the model and textures)? Csaba: This is probably disappointing but it's basic box modelling. :) I looked up real-life references to model them from scratch and in some cases used free 3D models as a base to further modify them. For texturing I'm really lazy so I usually try to avoid unwrapping at any cost. :) So every model got procedural or simple plane projected material. Final scene and bomb model Empty courtyard model Final iteration of cover model Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the project? Did you meet any difficulties? Csaba: I believe it was about 2 months but to be fair I didn't work on it every single day. At times I didn't even touch it for days. I like to let projects mature a bit so that I can have a bit more objective view on them. The main difficulty was that I tried to push my boundaries in terms of 3D details. To embrace this fact I wanted to finish it in super high resolution but my PC was not really happy with it, so I had to settle at 7000x5600. Fox Renderfarm: How long have you been in the visualization field? Who inspires you most in this industry? Csaba: About 8-9 years now. There are a few companies that I can truly appreciate for their high rate of good consistency they can produce. But for inspiration I like to look outside from the ArchViz box and keep an eye on other creative fields. Such as photography, cinematography, music industry, etc. Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding CG artist and Illustrator, what do you do to enhance your professional skills? Csaba: For me, it's extremely important to do various things outside of ArchViz. It's easy to immerse yourself in the awesome world of 3D and architecture but the circle closes fast and you can find yourself running the same lap over and over again. It's good to step back a bit and learn new skills in other areas then go back to ArchViz and try to apply them there. It's also useful to prevent burnout and stay fresh and motivated. Echo Lake © Csaba Banati Windy Meadows © Csaba Banati Artstation LinkedIn