Interview With Andrey Oliver, Who Won First Place in the Student Category of FGT3D Snowman Challenge

FGT3D Snowman Challenge organized by the TPN-Accredited cloud rendering services provider, Fox Renderfarm, was started in September, 2021 and sponsored by our amazing sponsors, including Maxon, Chaos, Poliigon, HDR Light Studio, Pilgway, TopoGun, Graswald, Raysync, Textures.com, Texturebox and iCube R&D Group. After the selection by our jury, 3 Professional artworks and 3 Student artworks were picked and would be awarded the prizes provided by our amazing sponsors. Congratulations to all the winners! And thanks to everyone for participating!

Congrats to Andrey Oliver for winning first place in the Student category with his work Bewitched Friendship. Made with ZBrush, Blender, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Photoshop and Lightroom, the technically accomplished entry stands out for its great modeling, materials and lighting.

“I love the playful character design and the composition. The snowman’s magic wand wisely lights up the scene as practical lighting, making the viewer anticipate the next event in the characters’ journey. In addition, the characters’ rich details and expression really enhance their personalities.” One of our judges, Frank WANG Yefeng said, who is the Assistant Professor in the Art Department from Rhode Island College.

Bewitched Friendship © Andrey Oliver

Caption: A friendship of contrasts, a snowman wizard and his fire warrior friend, on a journey to free themselves from a spell, in the abandoned ruins in search of Gwydion's book, the book of a great old wizard, the only one capable of helping them.

Let's find out how Andrey made the amazing artwork through the exclusive interview with Fox Renderfarm.

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

Andrey: Hi! Thank you very much for the opportunity, my name is Andrey. I am passionate about 2d art and especially 3D and I hope someday to work in a great 3D animation studio.

Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 1st place in the Student Category of the FGT3D Snowman Challenge, how do you feel about that?

Andrey: Thanks! I feel very happy to have competed with such good artists and especially to see an art that I dedicated so much to be in first place.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did you finish the work, Bewitched Friendship?

Andrey: This art took me quite a while, I started sketching my ideas from the first day it was announced focusing more on the Snowman design and then on the other elements.

Caleb O'Brien's Snowman reference

Nicholas-kole Snowman reference

Fox Renderfarm: What software and plugins did you use?

Andrey: I used ZBrush to model the characters, Marvelous Designer to create the clothes, Substance Painter to make all the materials and textures, I joined all the elements in Blender. I used Photoshop and Lightroom for the initial sketches and to edit the final render as well.

Fox Renderfarm: What’s the inspiration behind your artwork?

Andrey: I've watched Lord of the Rings several times, so I think part of the idea came from the film's sets and compositions. After all, I wanted to represent an epic adventure, and for me nothing better than Lord of the Rings as inspiration.

Lord of the Rings References

Fox Renderfarm: How did you make the playful character design and the composition?

Andrey: It took me a while to decide on the character designs because I wanted them to be unique. I decided to make two contrasting characters, a small but powerful one, and a great warrior, but with a good heart, ice and fire, so many differences, but united by a great friendship, I always had that in mind while I was doing the work.

Fox Renderfarm: Great use of warm and cool lighting. The snowman’s magic wand wisely lights up the scene as practical lighting, making the viewer anticipate the next event in the characters’ journey! How did you make the lighting?

Andrey: I used several lamps to make the scene, always thinking from left to right, with a stronger lighting on the snowman and less on the warrior. The cold tones are concentrated in the snowman and the warm ones in the fire warrior. I chose the night to give more prominence to the characters than the scenery.

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

Andrey: The biggest difficulty was time, even though I started on the first day, I had to spend several days without working on the project, but I finished. Because of time, I almost couldn't put the second character in, but without him the artwork wouldn't be complete.

Fox Renderfarm: Any artists or artworks inspired you most?

Andrey: I was very inspired by both Nicholas Kole's style and Caleb O'Brien's modeling for the snowman, for the other character I was inspired by Ed Laag's art.

Photo Studies (skating) © Ed Laag

Colossus © © Ed Laag

Fox Renderfarm: Could you briefly tell us your educational and work experience along your CG journey?

Andrey: I'm self-taught in 3D, I started studying at 13 out of curiosity. Learning everything with videos, manuals and watching other internet artists and today I have a great experience with these softwares. To complement my learning, today I also study Animation Design in college.

Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any recommendable learning methods to improve professional skills?

Andrey: If you really enjoy doing what you are doing and dedicate yourself, you will achieve your goal. See tutorials on the internet, search forums, and if you can, buy a course, because it will be worth it if that's what you really want.

Fox Renderfarm: What do you think of the FGT3D Challenge, any suggestions for us?

Andrey: I think FGT3D is an incredible idea, which stimulates contact and the minds of countless artists to show their potential to the world.

Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any advice for future participants in the competition?

Andrey: Don't hesitate, enter the contest, make your best art and enjoy the work, it's a great experience you get.