Interview With Asswad Mouhamad, The Winner of VWArtclub’s Annual *Contest

VWArtclub’s Annual *Contest has announced its 2018 annual winner recently, it is Fox Renderfarm’s honoured to be one of the sponsors in this great contest. And we are so glad to have the chance to talk with Asswad Mouhamad from IMax Studio, the annual winner in Best *Studio Project with his best projects— The Battle.

Fox Renderfarm: Hi Asswad Mouhamad, would you please give a brief introduction about yourself and IMax Studio?

Asswad Mouhamad: First, I would like to thank you for this kind gesture.

I am a Syrian artist who’s currently located in Lebanon. I started my career in Interior design in 2009.

After working hard on developing my skills and approach to interior design, I decided that it was the right time to launch the specialized studio that I always wanted to create, IMAX studio.

At IMAX studio, we work hard on presenting distinctive designs that are able to stand out within a highly competitive design market. We believe that our uniqueness attracts customers who seek and appreciate our designs.

Fox Renderfarm: So how did you make the decision to step into the CG industry?

Asswad Mouhamad: To be honest, I found myself in the middle of the storm. But from the beginning, I liked classic interiors and I was always looking forward to being one of the pioneers in this domain. Later, I’ve become an artist who’s specialized in this type of work.

Fox Renderfarm: Good for you! Did you still remember your first CG Work, how does it look like?

Asswad Mouhamad: None of us forgets. I remember it very well and I still have several images, which I come back to and come back from time to time. We can see these images for example.

Fox Renderfarm: Wow, there are so beautiful. And how did you know the VWArtclub's contest?

Asswad Mouhamad: I constantly follow the group and its Facebook page since I’m one of its fans. Also, I always follow up on competitions and activities that are taking place.

Fox Renderfarm: What inspired you to come out the idea of making the work "The Battle"?

Asswad Mouhamad: Like Mohammed, I always have dreams I cannot really achieve. This is why I often resort to the CG world to embody those dreams and turn them into mythical paintings through which I tell many stories in a crazy and irrational scenario. If you ask me what inspired the Battle, I tell you it’s inspired by MADNESS.

Fox Renderfarm: Great! What software, renderers, plugins you used in this work?

Asswad Mouhamad: In general we are traditional, we use two versions of 3Ds Max (2016 & 2019) with almost no additions, and this is because many of the items we deal with require only basic tools.

For render engines, throughout the period between 2009 and 2017, we used the Vray as a major Render engine and then moved to the Corona. I think it was a very successful move.

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

Asswad Mouhamad: In fact, classic high-level work requires a lot of time at all of its stages. You also need computers that carry a huge amount of Polys. We often resort to traditional modelling solutions- we do not use any additional tools. However, sometimes, some parts of a scene would need more time than anything else.

Without mentioning the time required to complete each image, even with 44 Core some scenes require 20 hours of continuous work per image as a minimum to get the desired result.

Fox Renderfarm: Maybe you can try some additional tools or platform to save time, like cloud rendering. BTW, did you use Fox Renderfarm service previously? If yes, would you share your ideas about us?

Asswad Mouhamad: We usually do not use render farm services but we use our hardware instead. However, this year we will definitely have to do so. Some of the scenes we get will take a lot of time to get to our devices.

Fox Renderfarm: Looking forward to your next works soon. OK, anything else you would like to add or say?

Asswad Mouhamad: I would like to say that our domain is very challenging, which is something that I’m sure that every person working in this domain can feel it. But personally, I think it is these challenges that are driving me forward to do my best with every project I work on.

This industry needs us to always give out best or else we’ll have to sit back and watch others move forward.

Fox Renderfarm: So good of you and IMax Studio, we hope your studio to be better and better. Thanks, it's our pleasure, and hope we can have more cooperation in the near future. And thanks for your time to take this interview.