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At the beginning of 2020, the TPN-accredited January winners - Stefan Kang & Grace Hori Reaves!

Left: Stefan Kang, Right: Grace Hori Reaves

• Stefan Kang, FX/ CG Generalist, The Mill
• Grace Hori Reaves, Freelance Houdini Artist

The winning artwork - Jelly, is a 15-second short video filled with sophisticated details. Inspired by jellyfish, yet instead of making it a mere recreation of the jellyfish, Stefan and Grace did a lot of experiments on the technical and aesthetic aspects during production. Encountering some “happy accidents” and overcoming them, they rendered their artwork with Fox Renderfarm and achieved the stunning final result.

Jelly by Stefan Kang & Grace Hori Reaves

After seeing artwork, you must be curious about how they made it and who they are. Please enjoy the exclusive interview between Fox Renderfarm and our beloved winners, Stefan and Grace!

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Stefan and Grace! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please give a brief introduction to yourselves?

Stefan: I’m a Motion Designer/ VFX Generalist specializing in using Houdini for creative work, currently working as a fulltime Generalist at The Mill LA. I started working as a Motion Designer a couple of years ago, and after that, I immersed myself in furthering my skill set with Houdini which landed me my current full-time position at The Mill LA.

Artwork by Stefan Kang

Grace: I am a CG artist from Japan. I started out as a 2D motion graphic artist in Tokyo, focusing on concert visuals and online advertisements. I came to LA in 2018 to study 3DCG, and started freelancing as a Houdini artist in 2019.

Artwork by Grace Hori Reaves

Fox Renderfarm: Congrats on winning Fox’s Got Talent! How do you feel about getting the prize? Which part of the artwork were you in charge of respectively?

Stefan & Grace: We are very honored to receive the prize. Having our work recognized and appreciated leads to a stronger motivation for producing new artwork. The render credits are also going to help us a lot on the next personal collaboration project we are planning! More credit means more high-quality rendering!

In this project, we started out by discussing the concept and the overall feeling together. Once we both had a good understanding of the idea, we split the task so Grace was in charge of exploring the technical aspect of the project, doing R&D for the look and motion, while Stefan was in charge of the development of the look, shot execution and finalizing the shot through compositing.

Break-down of Jelly

Fox Renderfarm: Jelly has a technological and oceanic vibe, what’s the inspiration behind Jelly?

Stefan & Grace: It started out as a pure fascination towards jellyfish. Their shape and motion are so elegant and mesmerizing, so we decided to do a project with a jellyfish as a hero character. To make this project more than a mere recreation of a real jellyfish, we experimented with abstract shapes and motion inspired by the jellyfish itself.

Fox Renderfarm: We found some abstract and concrete elements and patterns of the jellyfish, how did you come up with these beautiful images? And how did you create them?

Stefan & Grace: Since we wanted this project to be an experimental project, we decided to step back from the standard modeling/animating process and approach things differently. In the early development stage, we created several patterns of velocity fields that were based on the jellyfish’s pulsing motion; and throughout the project, we re-used these velocity fields multiple times, when animating tentacles, advecting particles, even the jellyfish itself is generated through a volume simulation based on this velocity field which was then converted into a mesh. We also utilized custom growth systems and mathematical algorithms to generate organic-looking patterns that resemble jellyfish tentacles.

Fox Renderfarm: We noticed yellow and blue are the 2 main colors, any ideas behind the lighting and colors?

Stefan & Grace: Blue comes from the color of the ocean, indicating this scene is underwater. It also represents the sense of unity and security, the connection of underwater creatures, especially all the mini jellyfish and the big jellyfish at the end. Yellow is a symbol of comfort, happiness and hope. This color kicks in when the big one awakens, and all the mini jellyfish get affected by it.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the artwork?

Stefan & Grace: The project itself took 2 months.

Fox Renderfarm: What renderers did you use?

Stefan & Grace: We rendered with Redshift and Arnold.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most fun and interesting part of the creation?

Stefan: I enjoyed exploring the creative side - the why and how that help create the whole picture - and designing meaningful styleframes and motion sequences. However, we also took a very different approach for this personal creation. Most of the early design process actually came from the R&D stages. We invested a short period of time to create some interesting setup and explore using simulation tools to find abstract patterns that are related to our references. Putting the R&D process a little earlier in production and using whatever we explore to create all the motion tests and shapes. I often find this more interesting as I will learn and meet with some happy accidents!

Grace: I had a lot of fun experimenting with various motions for the jellyfish. In CG, there is always more than one way to achieve a look, there is no such thing as the “right answer”, and this always fascinates me. To achieve the feeling of a jellyfish I took multiple approaches, including a simple sine wave to distort the mesh, a cloth simulation with the wind blowing periodically, creating a velocity field colliding with spherical geometry, etc. Of course, not all of them make it to the final render, but you can still see all of the fun stuff gathered in the process video.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties? How did you solve it?

Stefan & Grace: Since this was a personal project and not a work for a client, there was no deadline, which allowed us flexibility in terms of schedule - maybe a little too flexible! There was a certain period of time when we both got busy with our client works and had to pause this personal project. In order to get the ball rolling again, we decided to set a hard deadline by aiming to submit to an award that was coming up. This helped us to keep motivated and also to take time management seriously.

Fox Renderfarm: How did you step into the CG industry?

Stefan: I first started working in the industry about five years ago as a motion designer after graduating from a multimedia design program. Like many other artists, I wasn't confident enough with my skill level and the creative path where I was heading. But I was lucky that I got the opportunity by one of my instructors who needed help to do some freelance projection mapping for a fashion show in Asia. I learned so much during that time and understood all the CG processes, managed to gain more experience and prepared a more solid personal portfolio to continue in the CG industry. Most of my early work was in projection mapping, where I worked alongside other artists to create large-scale projections for events.

Skywatch End Credits Design by Stefan Kang

Grace: I started out as a hobbyist playing with After Effects and creating random 2D motion graphics in high school. Although I always had a dream to become a CG artist, my first job was as a salesperson in an advertising agency in Tokyo. As a result, this gave me a thorough understanding of the entire workflow of any kind of content creation, from communicating with clients to pitching ideas, going through production, delivering to clients/media, and seeing how the content influenced the public. While I was working as a salesperson, I started taking some freelance projects for simple motion graphics using After Effects, which helped me build my very first motion graphic portfolio. After 3 years of sales work, I started sending out my portfolio to CG companies, and soon thereafter I was able to make a transition to a 2DCG artist creating motion graphics for concert visuals and online advertisements.

Houdini VFX Reel + Breakdown by Grace Hori Reaves

Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly share your education and work experience along your CG journey?

Stefan: I first started working in the industry as a motion designer, creating creative content for fashion shows and projections for events in Asia, mainly focusing on design and motion. Then I took a two year break away from work, and went back as a student at Gnomon school of VFX to improve my technical skill. This is when I first discovered Houdini and realized the potential of this software. I wanted to combine both my design and technical skills to become a better artist. I continued my journey as a Houdini Generalist at multiple studios such as Blur Studio and The Mill LA.

The Essence _Title Sequence Design by Stefan Kang

Grace: For 2D motion graphics, I was basically self-taught by watching After Effects tutorials available online, and was pretty confident with it until I actually started working in a studio and exposed myself to all the professional work out there. There was this thing called “3DCG” whose renders looked amazing. It seemed to have a steep learning curve, but was becoming a bigger deal day by day. After a few attempts of self-teaching 3DCG (and failing), I decided to take a break from work and go back to school to actually sit down and study. I first learned Maya at a school called Digital Hollywood in Tokyo, then found out about Houdini and Nuke which seemed to be the new hot topic in the VFX industry. I flew to LA and spent another year studying these software at Gnomon, and once I got comfortable with it I started freelancing again using my new 3DCG skills.

Compositing Reel by Grace Hori Reaves

Fox Renderfarm: Which area are you mainly working at now? And what’s your next step?

Stefan: I’m currently focusing as a Houdini Generalist at The Mill LA. Most of my daily work involves creating realistic CG/FX works for commercials and 360 experiences creative content. However, I’m hoping to move on as a motion designer, focusing on creative work and hopefully one day becoming an art director in the CG industry.

Grace: I’m currently working for a studio that specializes in volumetric capturing for VR/AR content. At the studio, Houdini is utilized to develop and optimize the pipeline. The work involves a lot of coding, and it is clearly more technical than artistic. However, I am noticing the technical skills actually helps a lot with the more artistic projects I work on in my free time. My next step will be to continue studying the technical aspect of CG, and also start exploring the possibilities of real time rendering and see if I can integrate these new skills to my projects.

Fox Renderfarm: As brilliant artists, how do you keep yourselves inspired and motivated? How to form a unique style in creation?

Stefan & Grace: There’s a lot of creative platforms online these days. We both visit Behance and Vimeo almost everyday to keep ourselves updated to the latest creative content. It’s important to feed yourself with the latest trending design and look at what the others in the industry are creating. Sometimes, seeing all this fun and playful design work just makes you want to create more. Whenever looking for inspiration, we will go on Pinterest, searching for some abstract images, pattern design, or cinematography lighting reference. Then we will use all the reference images to brainstorm a new idea.

Fox Renderfarm: Anyone or any artwork inspires you the most in the industry?

Stefan: Personally, I found “ManvsMachine” and “BUCK” commercial work most inspiring to me. Their work always has the essence of a thoughtful design, you can feel the sense of elegance, cleanness and playfulness. It has a combination of everything, including design, color theory, animation principles and art direction. Just by looking at their breakdown, I feel like they have so much fun during the creation.

https://www.mvsm.com

https://www.buck.co/work/

Grace: As a CG hobbyist back in high school, I was a huge fan of Andrew Kramer’s work and his After Effect tutorials on Video Copilot. Through his videos I’ve learned not only how to use the software, but that the key of creating an awesome design is to have a strong passion for what you are doing and always be hungry to learn more.

SHOWTIME: Making Slime VFX! by Andrew Kramer

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s ?

Stefan & Grace: I’m very satisfied with the service, especially when I have any technical issue there’s always someone ready online to help me fix my problem. Nevertheless, the price is reasonable and the free coupon helps a lot to test out the rendering issue.

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts?

Stefan: The most inspiring thing is when being a beginner at something, always strive to constantly reinvent yourself. With every sacrifice comes with a great reward. I like to remind myself why I started in this industry, how much I enjoy the creation process, and seeing the end product that entertains everyone, that makes me so fulfilled. On the other hand, in addition to doing just client work, invest some time on your personal work.

Grace: As a CG artist, you will be going through a never-ending learning curve, and once in a while you will face a wall that seems to be impossible to climb. There may be no clear answer on how to tackle it; however, it will help if you know what resources are available around you. For a common problem, there is most likely a documentation or a tutorial that can help you. For tricky ones, you might be able to find an answer in an online community. You can ask your peers and they might know the answers, or if not, they may be able to help you figure it out. We all know that learning CG is not easy, and there is always someone out there willing to help. Also, don’t forget to get plenty of sleep! CG uses a lot of brain power, and if you’re making more mistakes than fixing problems, it's time to get some rest.

Edit:

If you also want to win a big sum of render coupons provided by our while showing your talent on the world stage as Stefan and Grace did, don’t hesitate to send us your excellent 3D render artwork through the following link: https://www.foxrenderfarm.com/fox-lent.html

You are going to be our next winner!

The secrets of Alchemy has drawn interests of many to search for its magic and mysterious power behind. held a 3D render challenge with the appealing theme “Alchemist”. Submissions from the imaginative artists are so diverse that they blow the audience’s mind.

As a leading in the CG industry, Fox Renderfarm is glad to interview with Peshang Ahmed, 3rd place winner in the challenge. Peshang shared with us his inspiration for his alien-look alchemist, and how he made the artwork alive with the surroundings and lighting.

Peshang Ahmed

• 3D Generalist
• From: Kurdistan, Iraq

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Peshang! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Peshang: Hi, my name is Peshang, and I'm a 3D Generalist in Kurdistan, Iraq, working for commercials and product visualization, and a part-time CG instructor.

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the 3rd place in CG Boost Alchemist Challenge this time?

Peshang: It's such a great pleasure to win the 3rd place as my first time entering CGBoost challenge also a good opportunity to challenge yourself and be free from client guidelines and requirements.

Fox Renderfarm: Your artwork is fun and futuristic with the alien, could you tell us the inspiration for this Alchemy artwork? Which part of the artwork do you like most?

Peshang: I was doing rough sketches for creatures to warm up and start making up the story from the character's standpoint, after a few searches, I found Kamaji from Spirited Away movie suitable for my alien creature, and I thought that it would be cool to have a six-handed alien doing alchemy!

Kamaji in Spirited Away

Fox Renderfarm: Could you introduce a bit about the lighting of the artwork?

Peshang: After a few iterations in grey material I decided to go with a brighter theme with some separate area lights, I wanted to use the oven as a backlight for the alien or some green lights from the side to give more of a contrast and break tonality. And a classic candle for the alchemist's room.

Fox Renderfarm: The picture has such a contentful design with a lot of details, such as the mouse and chains in the front, and all the objects and shelves behind. How did you make them? And any ideas behind the layout design?

Peshang: The whole idea was making everything else lead to the character itself, that way I could make it enough detailed while still having the character as my main focal point.

I tried to make use of tyFlow and its PhysX solver to come over the issue of having too many books, paper scrolls, and bottles, so spending a bit more time making procedural and modular assets to help me out later to crowd the scene.

The same goes for the chains except that its spline-based simulation so that it gets a natural hanging feel.

To balance out the foreground I prepared the rat model with Topology and UVs by using ZRemesher and UV Master in ZBrush and Ornatrix for hair grooming. The layout of the Scene was very simple, having shelves for books and items surrounding the alien itself and an oven, so the Alien can do his experiments and hide the walls as much as possible, plus some dried plants hanging around to cover the upper and foreground of the image.

Fox Renderfarm: And about the protagonist, did you refer to any movies or literature when creating it? Could you tell us a bit about the process you made it?

Peshang: Yes indeed, I was inspired by John Carter for the skin texture and Yoda from Star Wars also six-handed because I like Kamaji from The Spirited Away movie.

conceptualization part was depending on Blender, Max, Photoshop to do quick render tests and 3D sketches so that I can decide on the composition and paint over it in Photoshop.

(Left: Scene in John Carter; Right: Yoda in Star Wars)

After that, I used ZBrush for secondary and tertiary forms and Mari was used for tiny small skin details by using XYZ textures and sending it back to ZBrush to tweak the amount of the displacement map.

My quick workflow for making clothes is about sculpting the general shape and poly grouping the surface with mask and send it to Marvelous Designer for cloth simulations, after that using Maya to layout my UVs and make simple rigs so that I feel free to pose the character how I want it later in the shot.

As for the texturing process, I try to keep it as procedural as possible so that I can play with more iterations in that stage as well by relying heavily on Procedural masks and noises in Substance Painter.

First I set up a basic skin shader and check the scale of SSS material to give it more of a shallow look, once I feel ok with the look before I send everything to Substance Painter I bake a cavity map from ZBrush to bring details later on in Substance Painter.

Finally baking everything and send it to 3ds Max, at this point I have a basic studio lighting setup for the assets to make sure that the shaders are all consistent and work with each other in terms of saturation and detail.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the artwork? What software and plugins did you use?

Peshang: I was still trying to improve the artwork as much as I could in the last few hours of the challenges.

I tend to use what fits my workflow with ease, so as for programs I used: Blender, 3ds Max, Photoshop to sketch the idea in 3D and paint over it in Photoshop.

Modeling with Maya and 3ds Max, while using Zbrush for detail works and baking maps, Cloth works was done in Marvelous Designer.

Texturing inside of Substance Painter and Mari.

Using tyFlow for simple scattering and spline simulations, Ornatrix plugin for grooming.

Corona renderer for the final Render inside of 3ds Max.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most interesting and unforgettable part for you in the production?

Peshang: Texturing all of those assets and making it look elegant to some level is what I can look back and say Wow!

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties? And how did you solve them?

Peshang: Lighting the scene was something tricky for me, and I tried to solve it by looking up some photography references and rendering a lot of versions to see what works best.

Fox Renderfarm: When and why did you begin your 3D creation? And could you tell us a bit about the education and career experience along your 3D journey?

Peshang: My first encounter with 3D was back in 2009 when I was looking for art magazines online and I found "3D creative issue 01", that was my first time seeing something related to CG and for my luck, it was talking about the whole industry from scratch. I am a self-taught artist, back then I was learning from Gnomon Workshop's DVDs and slowly building up as a character artist then working in commercials as a generalist.

Peshang’s artwork

Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding 3D artist, what did you do to improve your professional skills and keep motivated?

Peshang: I always refer to traditional art and try to learn from them as much as possible, and I set up daily challenges for myself to extend my skills as an artist.

Fox Renderfarm: Anyone or any artwork in the industry inspire you the most?

Peshang: "Shadowline: The Art of Iain McCaig", Jeremy Vickery's Artworks, also Sergio Toppi's comic books is something that I use very often to refresh the visual style I love most.

Shadowline: The Art of Iain McCaig

Artwork by Jeremy Vickery

Comic books by Sergio Toppi

Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever tried Fox Renderfarm cloud rendering services? If yes, how do you feel about it?

Peshang: I am so excited to try it out with my new upcoming project!

Fox Renderfarm: Anything else you wanna share with CG enthusiasts?

Peshang: Try to have daily challenges in any particular subject related to 3D/2D or traditional Art skills, Study real life and use references everywhere.

ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/peshangahmed

As one of the sponsors of CGTrader's Space competition, Fox Renderfarm is so honored to have the opportunity to interview the winner of high-poly category in this competition, here are the questions and answers as below:

Fox Rendrefarm: Hi Henrik, would you please give a short self-introduction?

Henrik Lein: I am Henrik and my passion was - ever since I can remember - the creative craft. Whether as a child with self-built and coloured wooden cars or in the present with modern 3D technique on PC. Fantasy or creative development has always been my reatest pleasure.

Fox Rendrefarm: You must be a born artist : ) So how did you step into the CG industry?

Henrik Lein: At the end of the 90s my best friend -who did an apprenticeship as a 3D graphic designer – demonstrated to me the tremendous possibilities of Maxon's Cinema 4D offered to him to realize his ideas. I was immediately hooked regarding the seemingly endless opportunities.

Fox Rendrefarm: Haha, that's an interesting story. While what's your favorite 3d software and renderer? Why?

Henrik Lein: Cinema 4D has stayed my favourite software ever since. The user friendly user interface and its convincing operating principle is of great surplus value to me.

Fox Rendrefarm: OK, did you participated in any other CG competition besides the CGTrader Space competition? If yes, got any prize?

Henrik Lein: I attended some smaller contests just for fun and for the sake of the competition itself in a playful sense. My chief concern is to obtain the opportunity to showcase my work. I always hope that my projects will be to some people liking and that they get inspired by it, just like it gives pleasure to me to learn from other creatives.

Fox Rendrefarm: Sounds reasonable, the most important is to enjoy the process. Would you please share your thoughts for winning the 1st prize in the high-poly category?

Henrik Lein: The positive feedback on my futuristic MFP 3D Disc Driver spurs me to implement further creative ideas which will also be located in the sci-fi area.

Fox Rendrefarm: Good for you : ) What problems you met and what you learnt from this work?

Henrik Lein: Problems occur seldom during my free projects as I am not bound to rigid concepts. If it happens, solutions often come up along the way nearly automagically.

Fox Rendrefarm: Good point! Is this your own most favorite work? If not, which one is?

Henrik Lein: My favourite work is always the next work coming. Currently, I collect my thoughts on a flying vehicle. My inspiration will run in the direction of M.A.S.K, an 80s cartoon series, which I enjoyed to watch as a child.

Fox Rendrefarm: Sounds great, we are quite expecting your next artwork. How do you think about the other entries? Any work that you thought is awesome?

Henrik Lein: I'd like to be non-committal here, there were so many submissions that deserve appreciation. The bottom line is that everybody can improve and learn something new. That applies to the beginner as well as to the professional. I appreciate that more and more people realize their ideas and concepts with a 3D software, everybody at their current level. That makes me happy.

Fox Rendrefarm: Anything you would like to share in the last?

Henrik Lein: Yes, the movie industry - as generally known – can't imagined without 3D technique anymore. And the images look better year after year. Of course this puts the studios to higher expenses to allow the audience to view this imagery. However I see for myself the reverse of the medal. The studio's high expenses for CGI paralized creative freedom when it comes to profound screenplays, due to the fear the movie couldn't cash in enough. To my mind, this is why investors bet on mainstream, right now it's no great time for visionary minds.

Fox Renderfarm: Thanks so much for your time, hope we can have some cooperations in the near future.

Ocean is not only the origin of countless natural resources that raise and nourish all humankind, the underwater world has always been a root of curiosity and inspiration for many artists, from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in literature, to Jaws in movie creation. In the Film (Commissioned) Category of CGarchitect 3D Architectural Awards, the nominated artwork J1 L'Odyssée, Naissance d'une Cité Subaquatique (hereinafter J1 L'Odyssée) is a breathtakingly beautiful ArchViz short film featured the underwater world as its theme.

Fox Renderfarm is so glad to have a talk with Uros Vukovic, General Manager for , in which he revealed how the team had made the ambiental underwater scenes and the calm architecture views into reality in Cinema 4D. And he also shared with us the inspiration behind the name of the studio - DIORAMA, and their development vision for the future.

• Company: DIORAMA
• From: France

J1 L'Odyssée, Naissance d'une Cité Subaquatique

• Credits:
• Produced by DIORAMA
• Music by Iz Svemira
• Sound design by Odiseja studio

The nominated short film depicts the Mediterranean atmosphere that exists only in Marseille, combining architecture and nature. The breakdown video below gives us a closer look at the creation process of the amazing short film. Let’s enjoy the video and interview.

Breakdown video

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Uros, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself and your company?

Uros: Interested in the visual presentation of architectural projects, I started with DIORAMA in 2016 working on physical models and artistic installations. Meanwhile, I've been practicing architectural visualization through different media that brought me to the position of Animation Director and General Manager in the motion department of DIORAMA. DIORAMA is a studio based in Milan and Paris founded in 2016, currently counting around 30 artists. From the very beginning, we were heading toward different aspects of production always testing new media and trying new approaches, still rendering, motion, VR, and physical space.

ArchViz work by DIORAMA

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about being nominated in The CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards?

Uros: 3D Awards is a great example of how fast the CG industry develops in architectural presentation and clear description that architects are capable of using media and transforming them according to their necessities but in their own, general perception. Therefore being nominated was a huge honor for us, meaning that our style is acceptable in such a community.

ArchViz work by DIORAMA

Fox Renderfarm: Why did you select this artwork to participate in the competition? Which part of the film do you like the most?

Uros: Selection of J1 L’Odyssée for 3D Awards comes from an intention to present our style and achievements we made in past years but still keeping in mind that the competition was merely for architectural visualization, therefore the selection of our work was an easy job. We have decided to compete in commissioned selection as the best way to express who we are and what we do, especially in relation to the client-based projects. This year we have selected J1 L’Odyssée, calm and very Ambiental film allowing us to technically try this specific way of production, therefore the part of the film starting with dusk mood brings additional calmness and culmination on the aerial view of the city, when the music stops and all attention goes to the Mediterranean atmosphere that exists only in Marseille, combining such an architecture and nature.

J1 L’Odyssée by DIORAMA

Fox Renderfarm: What's your inspiration for this amazing film?

Uros: Inspiration for this film comes from reading Christopher Booker explanation based on Jungian analysis, also David Lynch's workflow for creating personalities, the Seven Basic Plots, and Enneagrams combined together. We have been deeply inspired to bring personality in a technical film. In certain scenes, one should find himself almost hypnotized by watching the environment, architecture, and nature. Even though the mere existence of architectural films is for the sake of demonstrating artificial appearance, we tried to say that the public has the right to enjoy its visual sensation. At the same time, the task became ambiguous as we still had to consider one-sided technical requests by the client.

Left: Christopher Booker; Right: The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker

Enneagram of Personality (Image from Google)

Fox Renderfarm: About the breathtaking scenes of the ocean and underwater city in the film, did you refer to any specific books or movies?

Uros: Speaking about the ocean the inspiration comes from the film Le Mépris, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, especially the scene with the vast sea and villa showing the fight of natural and artificial crashing one into another. This had an influence on thinking of different worlds, which ended as natural above and artificial under. Considering underwater scenes there were not so many inspiring references as just imagination of an underwater life was already enough abstract to be very inspiring, therefore that part was well defined from the very beginning.

Le Mépris

Fox Renderfarm: The incredible project demonstrates a harmonious integration of the sea and the sky, of the history and the future, and of the nature and humankind. What special elements in the film or techniques did you use to illustrate that?

Uros: Understanding what elements are merging together brought a middle relation as a solution. Speaking about scenes such as the ending one, the sea and the sky, sometimes have a middle link as of water, either rain or clouds or fog, the substance is the same. As the project contained two parts, one old warehouse which had to be restored and the other connecting part, the aquarium, we proceeded with lights and colors, this scientific cobalt glowing blue and desaturated yellow was the relation of future and past, nature and humankind. There were two parts of the film, one in the aquarium, which was obviously blue, defining at the same time nature, while entering into the warehouse was defined by that desaturated yellow and at the same time livable light color presenting the life.

The ending scene @ J1 L’Odyssée by DIORAMA

The aquarium @ J1 L’Odyssée by DIORAMA

The warehouse @ J1 L’Odyssée by DIORAMA

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the work?

Uros: This was one of the fastest films we have ever produced, considering the number of people working on the project and the deadline we had. The preproduction phase, building the storyboard, mood board and going forth and back with previz and client took at all one week, while the production phase took 15 days.

The storyboard

Fox Renderfarm: What software, renderers, plugins did you use in this work?

Uros: The whole animation was rendered with Cinema 4D and Redshift, additionally, we used Agisoft 3D Scanning for the island at the beginning. People were animated with AXYZ anima and Mixamo, we used Marvelous Designer for cloth simulation, After Effects and Premiere Pro for compositing and post-production.

Fox Renderfarm: What's the most unforgettable and interesting part of the creation process?

Uros: The most interesting part of the production was definitely building the story and finally putting all together with the music composed especially for this purpose by the great artist Iz Svemira. In 3D it was making an underwater world, modeling and rigging fishes.

J1 L’Odyssée by DIORAMA

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it?

Uros: The most difficult part of the production was the fluid simulation, which at the end was not in the film due to a very short deadline. Probably, we will show it once in the future through the breakdown. As a substitute, we had to make 3D displaced surfaces with an amazing free plugin called HOT4D and additional work in post-production.

Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly introduce the inspiration behind the company name - DIORAMA?

Uros: DIORAMA is named this way from the original invention of Daguerre, today disappeared, working as a mental space to be reactivated running researches, experiments and collaborations.

Fox Renderfarm: What's the development vision of your company?

Uros: As we started not so long ago Diorama is growing very fast and the idea is to keep this exponential line as much as possible. Our main goal is to keep exploring and experimenting that will bring new ideas and possibilities to soon establish new ways of conceptual architectural films, and maybe try some other directions of visual presentation.

ArchViz works by DIORAMA

Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever used Fox Renderfarm services previously? If yes, how do you feel about it?

Uros: We have tried Fox Renderfarm recently, rendered a coupe of animations and the scene from J1 with Cinema 4d and Redshift in the resolution of 17,000px as a billboard poster. Even though we have been very skeptical as we had the experience from the other especially with such high resolution, we were surprised that the image was successfully rendered without any problems on GPU based platform. The website seems very well organized, and the farm quite affordable.

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts?

Uros: Keep exploring, and be productive!

Renderosity 2019 Animation Halloween Contest, the fantastically creepy and creative CG Contest, which was held by Renderosity and sponsored by . Many frightening but amazing artworks were submitted. We are glad to introduce Jared DuBois, the Grand Prize winner of this contest.

“A long drive without any sleep can be detrimental to one’s mind. Without sleep, it can start to play tricks on them…”

Late Night Drive by Jared DuBois

Jared DuBois is a filmmaker and has been practicing his skills for many years. He has been supporting himself on freelance work since 2017. His freelance work has mostly been animation but his best work is done when he is on the set, behind the camera. He loves to work and collaborate with others.

Animation Demo Reel 2019 by Jared DuBois

Here’s the interview between Jared DuBois and Fox Renderfarm, talking about the creation process of his prize-winning film.

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Jared, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself?

Jared: Hello! I am a 22-year-old filmmaker who very recently graduated from Emerson College in Boston. I have wanted to be a filmmaker since I was about 10 years old and I got my first camera so I have been working on that ever since.

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the Grand Prize in the Renderosity 2019 Animation Halloween Contest?

Jared: Very excited! I now have a lot more tools to work with such as the Ipi motion capture studio pro version and the . Hopefully, I utilize all of these tools to their fullest and make something truly special.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s your inspiration for the film? Technically and visually, what is your favorite part of this film?

Jared: My inspiration for this film is from an experience I had not too long ago. I was working as a production assistant on a film and of course, film shoots usually go longer than 12 hours they say you will be working. So after about 14-16 hours of work, it was late and I was extremely tired and on my way home from work I began to hallucinate things on the road such as the roads not going where they actually were and even a weird monster. It’s a wonder I didn't crash before I decided to pull over and rest. I wanted to convey that fear of not knowing what is real while behind the wheel of a car since it is a time when you are very vulnerable. Technically and visually my favorite part of the film is probably the explosion at the end, I love contrasting colors and the bright orange contrasted against the dark blue of the night is something I believe to be visually appealing.

Fox Renderfarm: From the rising of the idea to the final render, could you tell us the creation process of this film?

Jared: The process for me was to get a basic idea of how I wanted the film to look. I figured that a trucker would be a better idea since with the idea of trucker for me at least comes with long roads with nobody on them. Down south kind of stuff where its mostly just roads and long dry grass. After that I attempted to fine tune the colors and build the set which was fairly easy considering it was just a road, some grass, and a sky. The next step was to create the illusion of movement. For about 80% of the shots the truck isn't actually moving and it’s the road and everything else that is moving instead. I did this because it is a lot easier to animate characters if they aren't constantly running away from you. The next step was to just to come up with a basic idea of where I wanted the story to go, and then animate it. I usually set up all the cameras then animate it so I don't end up wasting any time in the animation phase on things that won’t show up in the camera. Then I animate it and render, do that sound design, and that's about it!

Fox Renderfarm: For this is a Halloween creation, what elements in the film or what techniques you used to achieve the scary feeling of the film?

Jared: I used the tried and true method of slow zooms, closeups, and showing as little of the monster as I could. I also of course made sure the main character was alone and I attempted to create a mystery on if the monster was real or not. Towards the end, you can see when the steering wheel spins the monster is no longer there. I love small things like that which help to drive mystery in a story, even one as short as a minute.

Fox Renderfarm: About the details, the lighting design and the fire after accident give the film an overwhelmingly nervous atmosphere, could you introduce a bit about the creation of these two? How did you make them?

Jared: The fire was a particle that was meant to be used on thermite grenades in a video game. I simply took that and applied it alongside some dirt particles, explosion particles, and tada you get what you see in the final product. The lighting design was something that wasn't that hard to think of either. Mostly I did so towards the start of production, I knew I wanted the truck to go up in flames and so to compliment that I gave the rest of the scene a nice dark blue tint to it. That way the fire and the light from that fire would create an entirely different scene and stand out more. I find that the brain remembers things by color and even now when I think back on my work the things I remember are a blue first half and an orange second half.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the work?

Jared: This project took from concept to finish about a week of work. The character being sat down for a majority of it made animation fairly easier than normal.

Fox Renderfarm: What software, renderers, plugins did you use in this work?

Jared: For the most part I stayed within my main animation software, Source Filmmaker. The only other thing that I really used was Adobe Premiere with a Magic Bullet Looks plugin.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable and interesting part of the creation process?

Jared: For me, the most interesting thing was how the tension of a contest changes my work. Usually, the only person who's opinion on my work really matters is the one employing me, however now I had to be more carefully considering my audience, the contest rules, and how readable my video is. Working with these made the process a lot more interesting to me as it does bring me out of my comfort zone and forces me to work a lot smarter.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it?

Jared: One challenge that I did encounter was "how do I make a horror story in such a short time period?". For me, horror is about slow builds, characters, and tension, all of which is difficult to build within a minute or so. A horror to me relies on you liking or at least being invested in the characters so you don't want them to die. To get around this I took a more video game development styled approach. A silent protagonist who is easy to sympathize with. All we know about this character is that he is doing an honest job and that he is likely has over-worked due to the fact that he is so very clearly tired. These traits are very relatable to a lot of people so it's easy to sympathize with this character right off the bat. Now, of course, I couldn't do a slow build but I did try to build up the horror as much as I could. I believe I was fairly successful.

Fox Renderfarm: How do you like Halloween? Does Halloween often give you some creation inspiration?

Jared: I love Halloween, it's my favorite holiday thematically. There is just so much more storytelling potential with it than there is say something like Christmas. A Halloween story doesn't need to be about Halloween either, it can just be a horror story and its perfect. I get very inspired by the Halloween season, the falling leaves and the cooling temperatures bring back memories of childhood, walking through the streets in a costume that I could barely breathe out of and demanding free candy from strangers. Not to mention other people coming up with creations around the same time it all makes for a beautifully disgusting season and I can't wait for next year.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable costume that you’ve ever dressed? Who or what would you like to dress as for the next Halloween?

Jared: The most unforgettable costume I have ever gone as? Well one year I designed my own costume that was just a bunch of black clothing with glow sticks sewn into it to give the illusion of a stick man. This was something way back like when I was 10, I know its a very common thing now but when I was little it was cool to me! Next Halloween, assuming I manage to get any kinda money I think going as Godzilla would be pretty cool. Godzilla has always been a passion of mine so going as him would be pretty amazing.

Fox Renderfarm: Could you recall your first encounter with CG?

Jared: My first encounter with CG... Hm that goes way back, I was born in 1997 so I have grown up with CG films my entire life but if I had to guess it'd probably be the original Toy Story but I’m not entirely sure about that. To me, as 3 years old, I’m sure I wasn't able to appreciate all the work that went into making it and just saw it as another kind of cartoon. Of course, now is a lot different and I really get amazed by GC. Kinda weird how it went from uninteresting to fantastical as I got older, surely that's supposed to be reversed right?

Toy Story

Fox Renderfarm: When did you step into the 3D artist career? What made you decide to pursue this career?

Jared: Ever since I was young I wanted to be a filmmaker, I loved making little movies whenever I could. There was an issue though, growing up in Rhode Island, there really wasn't anybody around me who shared my interests, so if I wanted to make anything I would have to do it by myself. The only way I could do that was through animation and thus I tried using a little program called Pivot which was very very basic but also very easy to understand. Another thing that helped me get into the work of animation was somebody named Kitty0706 or Colin Wyckoff. His content was amazing and my dream was to get to meet him someday and that dream kept me interested in making animations. He used Garrysmod for his animations so I figured the best way to do things would be to get into a program called Source Filmmaker which was released in 2012. Ever since then I have been trying to make content with it and learning all of it in and out. Sadly Colin passed away in 2015 due to leukemia but I still treat my work as if I would be making something good enough to impress even him.

Colin Wyckoff’s works

Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you the most in this industry?

Jared: I am a big fan of Brad Bird's animated films however my biggest inspirations are mostly themes and ideas less so specific people. Something that has been a huge inspiration on how I do horror is a game called "Darkwood", it’s just fantastic and amazing use of horror to its full potential.

Brad Bird's films

Video game: Darkwood

Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding 3D artist, what do you think the quality that will make a great artist greater? What do you do to enhance your professional skills?

Jared: First of all, thank you for the compliment and second a quality that would make a great artist greater would probably an ambition to improve constantly. For me I’m very pessimistic, I tend to hate just about everything I make and my hope is that someday I will make something that I don't hate. That's a factor that keeps me going, the idea that maybe someday I’ll make something that I myself would enjoy but until we get there I just gotta keep practicing. To enhance my skills I usually take on a project that is WAY outside my current abilities and I won’t stop till it's done. By the end, I am guaranteed to have learned something new even if the final product isn't very good.

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts?

Jared: Am I allowed to plug my stuff here? If so you can find me on YouTube at Sparkiegames or on twitter @sparkie237 other than that I would say to keep trying things outside your comfort zone. If you have a wild or stupid idea, write it down and do something with it. Even if you cannot realize it fully, go and try it because I guarantee you will learn something along the way.

Exclusive interview about 2019 ARCHITECTURAL 3D AWARDS

When wandering in a gallery, you may stop by a painting that’s compelling or would also get confused about why you feel so lost in a picture. The reason lies in the composition and lighting, which determine the visual effects and the viewer’s engagement of an image. Cristina attempts to make her ArchViz image rational and focused while illustrating the contrast between strength and lightness. Let’s read the interview about how she illustrates the Guna House by Pezo von Ellrichshausen in a calm and harmonious atmosphere.

• Cristina Martinez Benita
• From: Madrid, Spain
• Architectural Visualizer
• School: School-ing

LAKEHOUSE: Nominated work in Student (Image) Category of CGarchitect 2019 ARCHITECTURAL 3D AWARDS

CREDITS:

Adán Martín, Eduardo Rodríguez and all the schoolmates for each word of advice. Pezo von Ellrichshausen for his amazing Architecture and the fascinating house which inspires this image.

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Cristina, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself?

Cristina: Hi everybody and really thanks for the opportunity to share my personal story. My name is Cris and I am an architect who has always felt a great attraction for everything visual: photography, painting... That’s why 9 months ago I decided to make a huge change to my professional life and enter School-ing, the new 3D school of Adán Martín and Eduardo Rodriguez in Madrid; an amazing experience and a total revolution of knowledge . Thanks to my time at the school today I can work doing what I like most in one of the companies I always admire, Play-Time, based in Barcelona. So I am just landed in the ArchViz community but it is my true passion.

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about being nominated in The CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards?

Cristina: Being nominated in the CGarchtiect Architectural 3D Awards was a complete surprise. It was a mix of happiness and incredulity but of course I felt really lucky, I had no plans to take part in the competition but at the last moment (to be honest last day) I decided to submit the image encouraged for our teachers and schoolmates. Attending Viena event was an amazing experience I will always remember.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s your inspiration for this amazing project? Why did you select this artwork to participate in the competition?

Cristina: The image started as an educational exercise to practise several parts of the ArchViz process. We had to choose an existing architectural project and I took Guna House, an incredible house of Pezo von Ellrichshausen. I was starting with modelling so I wanted to take something really rational and focus the effort to create an atmosphere of contrast and a story around the Architecture and its location. I thought those two elements could help the image to get attention. Guna House emerges as a concrete rational sculpture in the middle of a wild surrounding nature. The contrast between strength and lightness, Human and Nature.

Guna House by Pezo von Ellrichshausen

Fox Renderfarm: Could you introduce the light design and the composition of this project?

Cristina: Since the first sketch I was really clear about an image with a square format and a really static composition, with the house as a solid focus and many details happening around it. I was imagining an atmosphere which inspired (apparently) harmony, calm...and I got it with one of the HDRI of a 3D Collective. Then I just had to add some Vray spots to emphasise the interior of the house. The lake in the scene really helps me with reflections and shades.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the work?

Cristina: It is difficult to say since we use the scene to practise several things along the classes, but yeah I do not want to trick anybody, for sure it takes more time than the available in the daily work ;)

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable and interesting part of the creation process?

Cristina: The most interesting part was the process itself, the constant growth of the image along the time, how the idea was taking shape and at the end, compare the initial sketch with the final result. I also enjoyed a lot creating all of the details along the lakeshore including some hidden little friends. The main idea was the image invited you to become an observer among the bushes, paying attention to small gestures.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it?

Cristina: Well when I started this image it was barely a few months since I started my relationship with 3D Max so everything in it, was a kind of challenge for me but also a great opportunity to apply all the knowledge. Thanks to each piece of advice from teachers and the support of schoolmates the journey was much more easy to live.

Fox Renderfarm: How long have you been in the architectural visualization career? And how did you make the decision to step into this career?

Cristina: As I mentioned in the introduction, I officially started in the architectural visualization last January but the curious and interest for this world was there since I started to work as an Architect. Especially, when I got an internship in ETB Studio a really inspirational italian studio where they had an incredible way to tell and communicate projects. The final decision was just a perfect combination of time, personal moment and great school.

Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you most in this industry?

Cristina: I sincerely think almost everything can inspire you in this industry. It is clear that Photography or Painting are directly influences but also travelling itself, visiting places or living landscapes and cities can improve your eyes and your visual background. About who...it is always difficult to choose someone but if I have to give names I love the works from Darcstudio in UK and SixNFive in Barcelona.

ArchViz Works by Darcstudio

ArchViz Works by SixNFive

Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding architectural visualization artist, what do you think are the qualities that will make a great artist greater? And what do you do to enhance your professional skills?

Cristina: I believe that as in every industry, the most important thing is the passion and the non-stop wish to learn everyday, to be curious. Also, I personally like to believe that emotions and feelings are important parts of this job. I try to improve my professional skills listening to all the talented people I am surrounded and trying to learn from their experiences. I also try to exercise the way I look spending a lot of my free time reading images and watercoloring.

Cristina’s artwork

Fox Renderfarm: What’s your next step?

Cristina: Currently I do not make many plans for the future. I am just focus on learning and improving to grow professionally. The industry is changing so who knows....

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts?

Cristina: I just want to say thanks, I feel really grateful for taking part of this industry . Hope it also encourages more women to begin in this inspirational world.

For more artwroks

Cristina’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soyeme/

Behance: https://www.behance.net/cmb1

Play-Time’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playtime.barcelona/

Exclusive interview about 2019 ARCHITECTURAL 3D AWARDS

Hey, friends! Thank you so much for keeping up with our CGarchitect 2019 Awards interview! After seeing numbers of the well-made artworks, from images to short films, students to professional ArchViz creators, personal works to company projects, Fox Renderfarm is excited to introduce you a novel form of ArchViz: the Master Bedroom created by Jesús Gómez San Emeterio, nominee for the Interactive Category.

Can’t wait to see the interactive artwork? Read our interview below, Jesús reveals how he finally made it possible with months of “trials and errors” in UE!

• Jesús Gómez San Emeterio
• From: Spain
• 3D Artist

Master Bedroom by Jesús Gómez San Emeterio

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Jesús, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself?

Jesús: Sure! I'm Jesús Gómez San Emeterio, an Architect and 3D artist from Spain dedicated mainly to Architectural visualization and to narrate what is in my head with CGI in my free time.

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about being nominated in The CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards?

Jesús: I feel really proud and recognized, it was the first year that I participated and it was really emotional when I saw my name with the best studios around the world.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s your inspiration for this amazing interactive artwork? And why did you create the work in an interactive way instead of just still imagery? How do you feel about the differences between still imagery/video and interactive Archviz creation?

Jesús: I think that interactivity is a new way of experimenting unbuilt Architecture. When I do a still image, for example, I always try to express something, to make the viewer see through my eyes for a moment… And there is a beauty in that. Interactivity is more related to exploration, it allows the viewer to experiment the space with freedom and I'm sure that every person will do it differently.

Also, from a technical point of view, you can add much more information, like to see where are you located with the planimetry in real time or change materials, lights... and see how the space changes with your decisions for example.

I like both ways of communicating architecture, they are very different and unique.

Fox Renderfarm: Why did you select this interactive artwork to participate in the competition? Which part of the artwork do you like the most?

Jesús: Through last years I did a few little demos, testing and learning Unreal Engine. I thought that this work shows what I learned in a bit more professional way, so it was the only one that I presented.

The part I liked the most was when I could make changes of materials and see how the space turned into something different in the blink of an eye with photoreal quality, it is like magic!

Fox Renderfarm: Could you introduce the layout and lighting of this master bedroom?

Jesús: Sure. All is bake lighting. It is composed by a stationary directional light (sun) visible at the bed and an atmospheric fog + HDRI captured by a Sky Light.

I share the lightmass values used in this project, as you can see the static lighting level scale is really low and gives high precision in the light calculation over the meshes.

Post Process Volume has a big impact on Unreal Engine as you can see in the picture. The cool thing about it is that all changes in real time, so it gives you the opportunity to be focused on the art direction.

Post Process Volume

Fox Renderfarm: We discovered the decoration and the furniture are beautiful and coherent, did you refer to any style or artist?

Jesús: Thank you! I think that everyone can appreciate the interior design when you put some effort into it and use it as another tool for communicating ideas. In this case was a personal design.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the work?

Jesús: That's a tricky one as I did it in my free time, maybe this master bedroom could take some weeks, but behind it, there are months of “trials and errors”, researches, frustrations and small successes that I can't even count.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable and interesting part of the creation process?

Jesús: The best part I think was to be able to see the same scene with a very different perspective with a successful migration from offline rendering to Unreal with interactivity.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it?

Jesús: Of course, I met any possible difficulties, I think, fixing textures, dealing with lightmap errors, when everything works, be unable to compile the project due to unknown Unreal memory things...

Through one way or another, every issue has a solution. In my case, I had to research a lot, hours of YouTube tutorials that maybe not solve it directly, but it is related to the problems and so on, it is a hard way to learn things.. but somehow it works and I learned a lot during the process.

Fox Renderfarm: How long have you been in the architectural visualization career? And how did you make the decision to step into this career?

Jesús: I finished my studies as Architect when I was 23, then I directly started to work in an interior design company in a 3D team where I learned a lot and months later I moved to a studio of architecture being in charge of the whole visualization process for 3 years until now.

I know that 3 and a half years doesn't sound like much… But hey! They were intense!

Artwork by Jesús

Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you most in this industry?

Jesús: A friend showed me the Third and the Seventh (by Alex Roman) in the university, that was a mind-blowing moment and it look impossible to me, it was really inspiring.

The Third and the Seventh by Alex Roman

Nowadays, I follow the work of all the top studios and artists around the world in the architectural field: Mike Golden, Cornelius Dämmrich, Quixel artist... and from Spain like the Beauty and THE BIT, Play-Time… But also from other fields like cinema or video games like Jama Jurabaev or Nick Hiatt.

ArchViz works by Beauty and THE BIT

ArchViz works by Play-Time

I said some names that can be useful for the reader, but actually, there are hundreds of amazing not so renowned artists that I can see everyday at Artstation and they worth the time to learn from their work as much as from the biggest company.

Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding architectural visualization artist, what do you think are the qualities that will make a great artist greater? And what do you do to enhance your professional skills?

Jesús: Oh wow, thank you! I think that not only as an artist, but in life, a good attitude, being constant, kind and humble with people around you is really important because you can probably learn something from everyone and it is the only way to do it.

What I do is never stop learning and trying new workflows or software that can be useful, and transform that new knowledge into something as a little personal quest. For example, if I try Substance Painter: okay, let's create an asset and paint it to the end as a final product, or if I try a new render engine: well, let's create a good illustration or a little animation clip! I don't know if it sounds stupid, but it helps me during the process and later to look back and see what I could do with that tool or whatever.

Artwork by Jesús Gómez San Emeterio

Fox Renderfarm: What’s your next step?

Jesús: Well, I don't know much about steps, but in my experience, if you work hard to do what you like most, things happen one way or another, so that's my plan! Keep working and learning to become a better Architect and CG Artist every day.

Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever used Fox Renderfarm previously? If yes, how do you feel about it?

Jesús: I had the opportunity to meet at the CG Architect 3DAwards for the first time. I think that is a good option for 3D artists like me who work with one computer for rendering videos with the best quality and be able to keep working on other things. The communication with them is really nice too!

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts?

Jesús: Have fun and do what you love to do!

Artworks by Jesús Gómez San Emeterio

More Personal web page: https://www.jesusgomezarq.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jg_architect

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/jesusarq

For our mutual goal - improving with the community together, Hum 3D and Fox Renderfarm have established a close and significant cooperation. For this year’s Car Render Challenge, Fox Renderfarm, the leading in the CG industry, as the sponsor, is glad to select The Retro Masterpiece by Surjendu Das as the Fox Renderfarm Team Choice.

The Retro Masterpiece by Surjendu Das

“Everything about this work is just well designed, from composition and mood to modeling and materials, making the eye-catching vintage Mustang look strong and smart.”

-- Fox Renderfarm

The powerful Mustang with exquisite lighting was also winning the Autodesk Team Choice. Wouldn’t you want to know more about who’s the magic hand behind the fine artwork and how he has made it? Fox Renderfarm had an interview with Surjendu Das and asked all those questions. Check out out interview for more interesting sharings.

• Surjendu Das
• 3D Artist
• From: Kolkata, India

Fox Renderfarm: Could you please give a brief introduction of yourself?

Surgendu: Hello, I am a student from Kolkata, India. I am currently doing my graduation in Computer Science & Engineering as well as pursuing a diploma in 3D and VFX art. I have a strong desire to learn new things and applying them. I aspire to work for major gaming or VFX studios/companies around the world in the future and be a part of their amazing creativity.

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the Fox Renderfarm Team Choice in the Hum3D ‘Car Render Challenge’?

Surgendu: I am feeling very happy to say the least, and proud of myself, my friends, and my parents who helped me a lot to achieve this milestone in my life. This is my first ever international achievement in the field of 3D and it has encouraged me so much to work and create more and more nice artworks. Big thanks to the Fox Renderfarm Team and Hum3D Team for selecting and portraying my artwork, this means a lot to me . And again I want to thank my parents for enabling me to achieve my goals in life.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s your inspiration for the well-made artwork The Retro Masterpiece?

Surgendu: I am a big fan of cyberpunk, retro-night style arts and games like GTA V. So I always take snapshots of those whenever I get the opportunity, from galleries like Pinterest, Artstation etc. And it eventually inspired me to create a similar one like them. Also the main inspiration for my scene was from a famous scene by Marek Denko – “Her Eventual Hesitation”.

GTA V

Her Eventual Hesitation by Marek Denko

Fox Renderfarm: Could you tell us the making process of the vintage Mustang?

Surgendu: I started by making a rough layout in Photoshop, mainly I photobashed the various images I saved to my collection.

On the modeling part, my friend really helped me out as he was modeling the Mustang. And I thought that it would be awesome to have the Mustang model in the scene. While he finished the Mustang, I set out the very basic layout of the scene in 3ds Max. After that I added the Mustang and the buildings as per the layout and did the necessary modeling and tweaking. The buildings used in the scene was from a free kit that was available from Kitbash3d.com

For texturing the Mustang I made custom shaders in 3ds Max for the body, headlights, tires and also added some free textures which I googled and photoshopped as per my needs.

Then I used V-Ray lights to light up my scene. As it was a night scene I had to produce many lights at every place which affected the final view of the scene. I rendered out various lighting passes as a test, and composited them in photoshop to judge and finalize the lighting. I also added fake lighting to enhance the scene.

Then I rendered the raw file in 4K in V-Ray along with various passes for my needs and comped it all together in Photoshop, did some crazy color corrections, masking, painting and finally it was ready to publish.

Fox Renderfarm: We noticed the reflection on the surface of the car and the texture of the car lights are exquisite, could you tell us how did you achieve both of them respectively?

Surgendu: The reflection on the surface of the car is what has started to make the scene look good. It was made by adding fake scene lights. Initially I assigned the car with a matte surface and did the lighting with an HDRI / Dome light. But it came out to be worse than ever, so I made the car paint material to be very reflective and added three big plane lights in the scene on the right side of the car which cannot be seen from the scene camera. Then I googled some night images and put them as a light texture in the big lights which eventually worked as reflection lights and changed the look and feel of the scene and the mustang.

The texture of the car headlight is made by connecting a simple procedural grid map to the bump node of the vray glass material. The grid was created by using a composite texture of two Waves maps available in 3ds Max, one having horizontal lines and one having vertical lines, and one of their blend modes was set to multiply in composite node. The image of the shader is attached.

Fox Renderfarm: And the environment design enriches the ambiance of the whole picture, any ideas behind the lighting design?

Surgendu: As it was a night scene I had to create lights at every possible area to illuminate the objects. So I made use of direct and indirect lighting to light up my scene. I created lights on the physical light sources and created bounces off them where the light would spread. I also added fake lights off the camera to help illuminate the scene and especially the Mustang, such as the creating lights on the right side of mustang to help with extra illumination and reflection. Also I used self illumination material on various sign boards which helped catch attention.

I started with a night HDRI for all the light bounces but it eventually made the scene bad so I did lights on my own.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the artwork?

Surgendu: It took approximately 3 months to complete the whole artwork.

Fox Renderfarm: What software and plugins did you use to make the artwork?

Surgendu: I used Autodesk 3ds Max for modeling, texturing, Chaos Group’s V-Ray for lighting and rendering in 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop for final Compositing.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable experience in the production process?

Surgendu: For me, during the production, the most unforgettable experience was the individual lighting of the scene, it felt like it would never end, it was a bit monotonous to add lights and test the renders again & again as I was using CPU rendering but I really enjoyed the process as a whole and was surprised at last to see that the lighting of the scene went well.

Fox Renderfarm: Have you met any difficulties? How did you solve it?

Surgendu: The difficulties that I met in the whole scene was again the lighting part and the time left. I used several HDRIs/Dome light for overall environmental lighting but the outputs were bad or not coming up to the mark. I once thought of changing the entire concept but the time was limited and I had to make the change then and there.

So I ended up manually creating the lights for the light sources as well as creating bounce lighting for the scene along with the big reflection lights on the other side of the car which I discussed earlier. There are a total of 150 lights approx in the scene.

Fox Renderfarm: Could you recall your first encounter with CG? How did you come up with pursuing your 3D career?

Surgendu: My first encounter with CG was back in 2014 when I tried to composite a transformer in my home video after watching many tutorials on YouTube and which I failed eventually.

I loved to play video games and watch sci-fi movies since childhood. So one day all of a sudden I thought of filming & creating my own cool action sci-fi scene with my brother. I searched for a hell lot of videos and tutorials of it and came across VideoCopilot and its host Andrew Kramer. He is a great guy who does free tutorials on After Effects and 3D. His way of approach highly impressed me and encouraged me to create cool action scenes like him. I followed him thoroughly and slowly generated a liking towards this subject as it got revealed more and more. That’s how I ended up pursuing a career in 3D.

Tutorial video via VideoCopilot

Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly tell us about the education and career experience along your 3D journey?

Surgendu: It’s not long since I started my 3D journey, having started it back in 2017. But in these 2 years I have gathered a lot of experience in the course of learning it and I want to say that it is challenging as well as the most fun subject to learn and work in if anyone is really interested. The mix of technology and fine art is groundbreaking and the things that can be achieved is limitless. I have been learning the subject restlessly and the best thing is that I have faced many problems and I learned many things from it eventually solving bigger problems. Hoping to level up my career more and more in the future.

Fox Renderfarm: In your Facebook profile, we saw that you are “Autodesk Certified”, could you share your experience of getting the certification?

Surgendu: After completing the 3ds Max course last year, I was allowed to sit for the Autodesk Certification Examination for 3ds Max from the authorized Training Center I was studying in, as a mark of completing the course successfully. It was a 3-hour long online MCQ-Type exam.

I was given a set of questions from various fields – modeling, texturing, lighting, rigging , animation and particles inside of 3ds Max. The questions were moderate to difficult and consisted of core conceptual questions about using 3ds Max properly and questions asking a lot of keyboard-shortcuts in 3ds Max. I successfully completed the exam with .

Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you the most in the industry?

Surgendu: In the CG and VFX industry I am inspired the most by many personnels, some of them are:

1> Marek Denko, his CG projects very much detailed which inspires me.

Artworks by Marek Denko

2> Andrew Kramer, he is one of the game changers in the field of VFX and is one of the main reasons why people like me got interested in the world of CG and vfx. His works inspire me the most.

Lock & Load by Andrew Kramer

The project which inspired me the most recently is Project Spotlight by Epic Games where they are doing real time vfx and cg manipulation with actor’s performance in unreal engine, which can save a lot of time in production.

Project Spotlight by Epic Games

Fox Renderfarm: What do you do to get inspired and motivated? And how do you improve your professional skills?

Surgendu: I get inspiration from lots of things. I watch artworks of other artists, play video games which has stunning environments and assets, watch sci-fi short films and watch intros of various films and TV shows.

I take various subscription of online courses whenever possible to further improve my professional skills and creativity and in general I gather knowledge from Youtube and Google any time I face a problem.

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you wanna share with CG enthusiasts?

Surgendu: I want to say the CG Enthusiasts that you should always remain interested and keep creating and working without thinking twice, because the more you create, the more you face problems, and the more you solve and overcome, creating your best artwork, that is where the real fun in the process of CG lies.

Hum3D ‘Car Render Challenge’ is one of the fantastic render challenges that artists who are passionate about both 3D creation and cars should not miss! As the sponsor for the challenge, is amazed by the numerous submitted artworks, not only for the exquisite images but also the fun and the storytelling mindset behind the creations.

We are so glad to have an interview with the first prize winner -- Mr. Ehsan Darvishi, who created the Chevrolet Corvette 1960 with the overwhelmingly beautiful details and lighting. He revealed the production process and share his industry experience. Please check out our interview for more.

Ehsan Darvishi3D Artist, Qoo Studio From: Iran

Chevrolet Corvette 1960 by Ehsan Darvishi

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Ehsan! Thank you for accepting our interview! Could you give us a brief introduction of yourself?

Ehsan: Hi. Thanks for this interview. I’m Ehsan Darvishi, from Isfahan province, Iran. I’m 31 years old and I got into the CG industry from the age of 15. I’ve been as 3D artist in the animation studio for 7 years. During this time, two cinematic animations and three short animations were produced. Currently, I work remotely for Qoo Studio in Toronto, Canada, and also working as a freelancer.

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the 1st Place in the Hum3D ‘Car Render Challenge’?

Ehsan: I’m so happy. I’m glad for achieving the first place. Thanks to Hum3D and Serhii Antonov for this competition, also the jury and all sponsors.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s your inspiration for Chevrolet Corvette 1960?

Ehsan: The Corvette always makes me feel good especially old models. Of course, I'm sorry I can't drive with them. Unfortunately, there are no American cars in Iran.

The real Chevrolet Corvette 1960 in Photo. Source from Google Search

Fox Renderfarm: The car in the picture is so well-made, especially the reflection on the surface and the windshield, could you tell us the process you made the car?

Ehsan: In fact, reflections are created from a HDRI light with a proper image. I tried to select a picture that caused well reflections on the car’s body, windshield and metallic part. I changed the HDRI a lot for achieving the best result.

Fox Renderfarm: The diner behind is rich with details, and the lighting design is sophisticated, how did you design and make the lighting?

Ehsan: There were three types of lights in the dining room. First, the skylight and the ambient light coming through the windows. Then, yellow lights from big lamps in the roof and next, two sources of white lights above cubic glass. The blend of these lights created this light effect. In fact, I was inspired by an old photo for modeling and lighting the environment.

Draft render of Chevrolet Corvette 1960 by Ehsan Darvishi

Fox Renderfarm: And regarding the environment, how did you achieve the fine texture of the bushes and floor respectively?

Ehsan: I tried to show an early fall season. There is a tree without leaves in the back of the building, and the color of the plants is a little green. I wanted to show that sidewalk and asphalt weren't smooth like reality.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the artwork?

Ehsan: When I decided to take part in the competition, I had just 10 days chance. I started very fast and was able to send it one day before the time finished. I worked for that 9 days (12 to 14 hours a day).

Fox Renderfarm: What software and plugins did you use to make the artwork?

Ehsan: I used Autodesk 3ds Max, Substance Painter, Corona renderer and Photoshop.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable experience in the production process?

Ehsan: In my idea, the best-producing stage or process is the time when it's completed. A final artwork involves several stages. The combination of these steps can be seen in the final work.

Fox Renderfarm: Have you met any difficulties? How did you solve it?

Ehsan: Not having enough time and weak hardware especially for rendering. You can see some part is noisy, and there was no way for me to remove it.

Fox Renderfarm: How did you come up with entering into the CG industry?

Ehsan: My interest in CG industry began when computer games turned from 2D into 3D. Also, sci-fi films at that time helped my interest in CG. I was fifteen at the time, and I decided to start learning 3d software. At first, learning was difficult for me because there were limited educational resources.

Artwork by Ehsan

Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly tell us about the education and career experience along your 3D journey?

Ehsan: I graduated in computer software major. At first, I didn’t like it. Anyway, I started my education because there was no major in the CG field. I faced lots of problems for 15 years but they were sweet and useful because I could learn a new experience. The best time in my life and job was working for an animation studio as a 3D artist. I gained many useful experiences there, and the type of work was very attractive.

Artworks by Ehsan

Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you the most in the industry?

Ehsan: I always follow the works of 3D artists. I also see a lot of Sci-Fi Films. Video games are always my favorite and besides enjoying them, I pay attention to modeling, texturing and making them.

Fox Renderfarm: What do you do to get inspired and motivated? And how do you improve your professional skills?

Ehsan: Sci-fi Films, video games, and 3D artwork motivate me, and I always follow them.

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you wanna share with CG enthusiasts?

Ehsan: I believe that practice and learning are very important for being successful and should never be forgotten.

Who wouldn’t dream about life on a boat, far from boredom and pressure, with tranquillity and maybe some adventure? Fox Renderfarm is amazed by the excellent artworks from ‘Life on a Boat’ 3D render challenge held by CGBoost, both for their diverse creativity and high-quality images. Congratulations to all the winners of the challenge, and never stop letting your ideas make the community shine bright!

Jakob Scheidt, the 3rd place winner in the challenge, is also an old friend of Fox Renderfarm - Winner of Fox’s Got Talent! Here is one thing about him you won’t believe - Jakob, with 6 years’ practice of Blender and having won prizes and praise in various platforms, is only 16 years old.

In the interview with Fox Renderfarm, he told us his unique thoughts behind the awarded artwork, and how he got started and motivated in 3D art creation.

• Jakob Scheidt
• 3D Artist

• From: Germany

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Jakob! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Jakob: Hello! My name is Jakob Scheidt, I’m a 16-year-old 3D artist from Germany. I started drawing when I was a kid and continued creating visual artwork. I discovered Blender six years ago and I’m still using it today, combined with Substance Painter and Photoshop. I think about working as an Illustrator or 3D Artist in the future.

Artworks by Jakob Scheidt

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the 3rd place in CGBoost ‘Life on a Boat Challenge’ this time?

Jakob: It’s always a good feeling to be awarded, but the prizes are not the most important thing you get from participating in a competition. Every time I have a deadline and a topic to create an artwork I get very motivated and spend as much time as possible working on the artwork. At the end you get improved in so many areas, like concepting, telling a story, modelling, sculpting, texturing and lighting. Knowing and practicing the complete process is crucial, even if you want to specialize in a particular skill. In the past, 3D art challenges always boosted my motivation and skills as a 3D artist.

Fox Renderfarm: Your artwork delivers a pretty tranquil and exotic feeling, could you tell us your inspiration for it?

Jakob: The topic ‘Life on a Boat’ can be interpreted in many different ways. In the beginning I had no idea what to create and started researching to get inspired. I came across many different cultures, the instruments they play, the food they eat and the boats they have. I combined everything I liked into a scene that captures the relaxed, calm mood. It was great to see that the other participants had totally different ideas and created images with action and humor for example.

Fox Renderfarm: The lake takes the biggest proportion of the image, the lighting and ripples of the water matters a lot to the picture, could you introduce the production process and any consideration behind?

Jakob: I added the water at the end of the process and thought it would just be a simple plane with a simple material. It took several hours to finish in the end, it was a challenge to make it look good with the lighting of the scene. I experimented with volumetric effects, particles, color variations and several combined bump textures for the small waves. In the end I had a giant node tree that included all the elements mentioned. The interaction between the water and the paddle was particularly challenging. It’s basically a bump texture painted by hand, even though I used a water simulation as a basis. And as always, using many reference images was important to make it look realistic and appealing.

Fox Renderfarm: About the senior man on the boat, his clothes, hat and shoes have really appealing colors and prints, how did you make them? And did you refer to any materials?

Jakob: I was fascinated by the clothing patterns of different cultures; many parts of the image include them. Although I tried using a simple texture to wrap around the whole model, I ended up painting or adjusting most of the textures by hand in Substance Painter. Adding the golden parts and the small graphical patterns was time consuming, but it makes you want to look at the image for a longer time, the details and bright colors catch your attention.

Fox Renderfarm: About the objects on the boat, like the case, food, hookah and so forth, could you introduce them a bit, and any ideas behind that?

Jakob: All the assets are created based on reference pictures I collected earlier. They had to look good individually as well as combined with the boat and the character. Modeling and texturing them was time consuming, but these details make the scene look believable and appealing.

Fox Renderfarm: The steam from the spout of the pot gives the whole image a dynamic and vivid touch. How did you make it? And any ideas behind that?

Jakob: Adding the steam makes the scene look more realistic. It was very easy to create though, I just added an alpha texture to a plane, the scene is not meant to work as an animation.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most interesting and unforgettable memory during the production?

Jakob: At the beginning of the modelling process I was very keen on getting every detail on the boat right, even though I wasn’t sure about the final camera angle and composition. So, I spent 6 hours creating two special chests with sophisticated details and complex textures. At the end you can’t even see the first one, the other one is mostly in shadow and a simple cube would have done the job. The lesson I learned from this is to think about the specific camera angle and how much details you need to include in the assets early on, so you don’t waste your time like I did!

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulty, and how did you solve it?

Jakob: The water and the character have been challenging, and the lighting for sure. I spent a lot of time trying different HDRs and added many spot lamps in addition to that. This was important for establishing the mood of the piece and emphasizing particular parts.

Fox Renderfarm: What are the software and plugins did you use for this artwork?

Jakob: I used Blender 2.8 for modeling, sculpting, retopology, UVs, Materials and Rendering. Most of the textures are created in Substance Painter, but I used resources like Poliigon, Textures.com and Pixabay. The final image was composited in Adobe Photoshop and rendered in Blender cycles.

Fox Renderfarm: You are also the winner for Fox’s Got Talent, how do you feel about winning our challenge?

Jakob: It was a great promotion for my ArtStation profile and some free render credits are always great for future projects. Looking at the other artworks created for Fox’s Got Talent is a pleasure too, very inspiring!

Fox Renderfarm: Can you recall your first encounter with CG? And could you briefly tell us about the education and career experience along your 3D journey?

Jakob: I started using 3D software six years ago. The beginning was tough, but I had a lot of time to learn and was fascinated by 3D, even though 100% of my renders in the first two years sucked. I was learning Blender with video tutorials on YouTube, but I wasn’t following a particular curriculum. Slowly my technical skills improved and I could use the software. At that time, I was messing around with animation, VFX and simulations almost every day. Today I focus mostly on modeling, sculpting and texturing realistic creatures and props.

Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you the most in this career?

Jakob: I look at a lot of 2D artwork and I like to draw as well. That’s why I enjoy many concept artists, but I’m very inspired by artists mixing 3D and 2D, one example is Jama Jurabaev. Some other 3D artists I admire are Julien Kaspar, Gregory Smith, Henning Sanden and Gleb Alexandrov.

Concept Art by Jama Jurabaev

Rain-Turntables by Julien Kaspar

Artwork by Gregory Smith

Artwork by Henning Sanden

Artwork by Gleb Alexandrov

Fox Renderfarm: What do you do to get inspired and motivated? And how do you improve your professional skills?

Jakob: Participating in art competitions is very motivating and drawing every day is very important for me to practice observation. Other than that, there are many excellent courses on the internet on 3D tools, asset creation, lighting and anatomy.

Fox Renderfarm: As an old friend of Fox Renderfarm, how do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s ?

Jakob: Having access to an easy to use is rendering my animations.

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you wanna share with CG enthusiasts?

Jakob: Never stop creating!

For more Jakob’s artworks:

ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/jakobscheidt

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakob.scheidt/

Youtuebe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk4--F0P5NGHjy_1JGwWDCA

Who wouldn’t dream about life on a boat, far from boredom and pressure, with tranquillity and maybe some adventure? Fox Renderfarm is amazed by the excellent artworks from ‘Life on a Boat’ 3D render challenge held by CGBoost, both for their diverse creativity and high-quality images. Congratulations to all the winners of the challenge, and never stop letting your ideas make the community shine bright!

Jakob Scheidt, the 3rd place winner in the challenge, is also an old friend of Fox Renderfarm - Winner of Fox’s Got Talent! Here is one thing about him you won’t believe - Jakob, with 6 years’ practice of Blender and having won prizes and praise in various platforms, is only 16 years old.

In the interview with Fox Renderfarm, he told us his unique thoughts behind the awarded artwork, and how he got started and motivated in 3D art creation.

• Jakob Scheidt
• 3D Artist

• From: Germany

Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Jakob! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Jakob: Hello! My name is Jakob Scheidt, I’m a 16-year-old 3D artist from Germany. I started drawing when I was a kid and continued creating visual artwork. I discovered Blender six years ago and I’m still using it today, combined with Substance Painter and Photoshop. I think about working as an Illustrator or 3D Artist in the future.

Artworks by Jakob Scheidt

Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning the 3rd place in CGBoost ‘Life on a Boat Challenge’ this time?

Jakob: It’s always a good feeling to be awarded, but the prizes are not the most important thing you get from participating in a competition. Every time I have a deadline and a topic to create an artwork I get very motivated and spend as much time as possible working on the artwork. At the end you get improved in so many areas, like concepting, telling a story, modelling, sculpting, texturing and lighting. Knowing and practicing the complete process is crucial, even if you want to specialize in a particular skill. In the past, 3D art challenges always boosted my motivation and skills as a 3D artist.

Fox Renderfarm: Your artwork delivers a pretty tranquil and exotic feeling, could you tell us your inspiration for it?

Jakob: The topic ‘Life on a Boat’ can be interpreted in many different ways. In the beginning I had no idea what to create and started researching to get inspired. I came across many different cultures, the instruments they play, the food they eat and the boats they have. I combined everything I liked into a scene that captures the relaxed, calm mood. It was great to see that the other participants had totally different ideas and created images with action and humor for example.

Fox Renderfarm: The lake takes the biggest proportion of the image, the lighting and ripples of the water matters a lot to the picture, could you introduce the production process and any consideration behind?

Jakob: I added the water at the end of the process and thought it would just be a simple plane with a simple material. It took several hours to finish in the end, it was a challenge to make it look good with the lighting of the scene. I experimented with volumetric effects, particles, color variations and several combined bump textures for the small waves. In the end I had a giant node tree that included all the elements mentioned. The interaction between the water and the paddle was particularly challenging. It’s basically a bump texture painted by hand, even though I used a water simulation as a basis. And as always, using many reference images was important to make it look realistic and appealing.

Fox Renderfarm: About the senior man on the boat, his clothes, hat and shoes have really appealing colors and prints, how did you make them? And did you refer to any materials?

Jakob: I was fascinated by the clothing patterns of different cultures; many parts of the image include them. Although I tried using a simple texture to wrap around the whole model, I ended up painting or adjusting most of the textures by hand in Substance Painter. Adding the golden parts and the small graphical patterns was time consuming, but it makes you want to look at the image for a longer time, the details and bright colors catch your attention.

Fox Renderfarm: About the objects on the boat, like the case, food, hookah and so forth, could you introduce them a bit, and any ideas behind that?

Jakob: All the assets are created based on reference pictures I collected earlier. They had to look good individually as well as combined with the boat and the character. Modeling and texturing them was time consuming, but these details make the scene look believable and appealing.

Fox Renderfarm: The steam from the spout of the pot gives the whole image a dynamic and vivid touch. How did you make it? And any ideas behind that?

Jakob: Adding the steam makes the scene look more realistic. It was very easy to create though, I just added an alpha texture to a plane, the scene is not meant to work as an animation.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most interesting and unforgettable memory during the production?

Jakob: At the beginning of the modelling process I was very keen on getting every detail on the boat right, even though I wasn’t sure about the final camera angle and composition. So, I spent 6 hours creating two special chests with sophisticated details and complex textures. At the end you can’t even see the first one, the other one is mostly in shadow and a simple cube would have done the job. The lesson I learned from this is to think about the specific camera angle and how much details you need to include in the assets early on, so you don’t waste your time like I did!

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulty, and how did you solve it?

Jakob: The water and the character have been challenging, and the lighting for sure. I spent a lot of time trying different HDRs and added many spot lamps in addition to that. This was important for establishing the mood of the piece and emphasizing particular parts.

Fox Renderfarm: What are the software and plugins did you use for this artwork?

Jakob: I used Blender 2.8 for modeling, sculpting, retopology, UVs, Materials and Rendering. Most of the textures are created in Substance Painter, but I used resources like Poliigon, Textures.com and Pixabay. The final image was composited in Adobe Photoshop and rendered in Blender cycles.

Fox Renderfarm: You are also the winner for Fox’s Got Talent, how do you feel about winning our challenge?

Jakob: It was a great promotion for my ArtStation profile and some free render credits are always great for future projects. Looking at the other artworks created for Fox’s Got Talent is a pleasure too, very inspiring!

Fox Renderfarm: Can you recall your first encounter with CG? And could you briefly tell us about the education and career experience along your 3D journey?

Jakob: I started using 3D software six years ago. The beginning was tough, but I had a lot of time to learn and was fascinated by 3D, even though 100% of my renders in the first two years sucked. I was learning Blender with video tutorials on YouTube, but I wasn’t following a particular curriculum. Slowly my technical skills improved and I could use the software. At that time, I was messing around with animation, VFX and simulations almost every day. Today I focus mostly on modeling, sculpting and texturing realistic creatures and props.

Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you the most in this career?

Jakob: I look at a lot of 2D artwork and I like to draw as well. That’s why I enjoy many concept artists, but I’m very inspired by artists mixing 3D and 2D, one example is Jama Jurabaev. Some other 3D artists I admire are Julien Kaspar, Gregory Smith, Henning Sanden and Gleb Alexandrov.

Concept Art by Jama Jurabaev

Rain-Turntables by Julien Kaspar

Artwork by Gregory Smith

Artwork by Henning Sanden

Artwork by Gleb Alexandrov

Fox Renderfarm: What do you do to get inspired and motivated? And how do you improve your professional skills?

Jakob: Participating in art competitions is very motivating and drawing every day is very important for me to practice observation. Other than that, there are many excellent courses on the internet on 3D tools, asset creation, lighting and anatomy.

Fox Renderfarm: As an old friend of Fox Renderfarm, how do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s ?

Jakob: Having access to an easy to use is rendering my animations.

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you wanna share with CG enthusiasts?

Jakob: Never stop creating!

For more Jakob’s artworks:

ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/jakobscheidt

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakob.scheidt/

Youtuebe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk4--F0P5NGHjy_1JGwWDCA

Besides the 3D category, our also sponsors the animation category of Renderosity 2018 Holiday Contest. Welcome Gary to have an interview on Fox Renderfarm, the 2nd winner in the animation category, thanks so much for your time.

Fox Renderfarm: Hi Gary, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself?

Gary S. Kennedy:  I'm a retired chemical engineer who has used a slide rule.  My primary hobby is short computer 3D animations.

Fox Renderfarm: So are you currently working as a CG artist?

Gary S. Kennedy: I didn't.  Just a hobbyist.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you still remember your first CG work, how does it look like?

Gary S. Kennedy: Probably something in Bryce/Poser, maybe an NVIATWAS.

Fox Renderfarm: How did you know the Renderosity Contest?

Gary S. Kennedy: I've been a member of the Renderosity community for many years.  I'm not a modeler, I primarily purchase Poser format figures and props since they load seamlessly into Carrara Pro 8.5, my main software for animation.  Renderosity is the best source of such content, with great modelers who sell their products for very affordable prices.

Fox Renderfarm: Haha, you are not the first one to give it a high appreciation. About your work, what inspired you to come out with the idea of making "A Christmas Caper"?

Gary S. Kennedy: The contest was titled "The Ghosts of Christmas Past" which brought to mind the great Dickens' story "A Christmas Carol".  The animation is sort of a parody of that.

Fox Renderfarm: As a hobbyist, did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? If yes, how did you solve it?

Gary S. Kennedy: I participate in the 48 Hour Film contest here in Houston, which requires a 5 minute video (most are live action) in two days, starting with an assigned character (name & occupation) and prop, and a randomly drawn genre (about twenty total - comedy, western, noir, etc.)  Two days is very little time for a five-minute animation, there is no time for re-thinking or re-anything.  In this contest, I had a month or more, so the problem was not time, but discarding ideas which were too complicated, e.g. ghosts as in the Dickens' story.

Fox Renderfarm: Yes, that’s really a great difficulty, like what to do and how to do at the begging, it is very important. Beside the Renderosity holiday contest, did you participate in any other CG competition?

Gary S. Kennedy: Yes, as I participated in the 48 Hour Film contest in Houston I have said above.

Fox Renderfarm:  Anything else you would like to add or say?

Gary S. Kennedy: Computer animation is a very engrossing activity, I recommend it.  The good news is you have complete control over every detail.  The bad news is you have complete control over every detail.  Here is the animation, "A Christmas Caper".