Interview with Self-Taught 3D Artist Kenny- 3rd Place Winner in the Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries Challenge

Kenny, a self-taught 3D artist and illustrator with two years of experience, took part in the Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries 3D contest organized by True-VFX and won third place. Congratulations to Kenny for this achievement! Fox Renderfarm as the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and render farm, was honored to sponsor this contest and look at all the spectacular talents.

Let's look at the interview with Kenny and learn more about his amazing works.

Kenny’s artwork for Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries Challenge

Fox Renderfarm: Hi Kenny! We are honored to have you here! Could you please introduce yourself first to our readers?

Kenny: Hi I'm Kenny, a self-taught 3D artist and illustrator, I have been doing 3D for about 2 years now.

Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 3rd Place in the Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries Competitions organized by True-VFX! How do you feel about it?

Kenny: I feel very happy to win 3rd place. It was a very enjoyable experience, I learned a lot, and there's definitely room for improvement too.

Fox Renderfarm: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your work? How did you come up with this idea?

Kenny: I was mostly inspired by the "Garden of Words" movie by Makoto Shinkai.

Makoto Shinkai’s The Garden of Words

Fox Renderfarm: Your render has an overgrown springtime atmosphere of rebirth, which fits the theme. Could you tell us how you considered the colors, materials, and lighting setup to achieve it?

Kenny: Since it is a nature scene the predominant color would be green, and I wanted to add some other colors to complement the green, for example brown. For lighting, I had an overcast HDRI blocked with tree models to add more interesting shadows. There is also a volumetric material for the lighting to bounce and reach all parts of the scene.

Fox Renderfarm: Why did you choose two birds to be the only creatures in the scene? Was it a consideration for the theme? What is the story behind your work?

Kenny: As it is an abandoned place I didn't want there to be any human being, and having 2 birds interacting felt like the perfect touch of life in the scene without overdoing it.

Fox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you?

Kenny: It took me about 10 hours total spread across 4 different days (Not counting render time). I didn't have a proper pipeline other than dropping assets in the scene and following my intuition, so I'm not really proud of it and am trying to change it.

Check out Kenny's breakdown video here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtiyYyQqJSe/

Fox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges you have encountered during the process of creation? If so, how did you overcome them?

Kenny: I was having some trouble integrating the foreground into the background, as you can see the midground in the scene is a bit poorly done. Also, the high focal length made it harder for me to keep the composition together.

Madman’s Basement © Kenny

Fox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process? And what was the most memorable?

Kenny: I personally really like looking at reflections. Having rocks and trees and seeing their reflection in the water material was kind of fun.

Fox Renderfarm: Any artist or artwork that inspires you the most?

Kenny: I am mostly inspired by Makoto Shinkai and Ian Hubert.

Farmhouse by the Lake © Kenny

Fox Renderfarm: How do you update your knowledge and practice your skills to follow up with new trends in the CG industry?

Kenny: I probably bite off more than I can chew and do many things at once which is not a good idea. There are so many things to learn and I don't limit myself to a certain subgroup of CG, so I just give myself projects that would explore different aspects of CG and improve my skills in it. Recently I have been working on projects that would focus on animation, proceduralism, and stylized art.

Jurassic Park Warehouse © Kenny

Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever tried the cloud rendering service from Fox Renderfarm? If so, what do you think of our services?

Kenny: I haven't yet, but it's on my to-do list. There's a big animation challenge coming up and I'm saving my credits for it.

Fox Renderfarm: Do you have a goal in mind for the future? How long do you plan to achieve it?

Kenny: I want to do many things, for example making my full CG short film, learning filmmaking, and becoming a VTuber. I don't have a long-term plan but I am trying to hold a 30-day marathon this September where I will make a different thing each day regularly to improve my illustration skills.

Kenny’s social media: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Artstation.

Thanks again to Kenny for accepting our interview and we wish you all the best!