NEWS CENTER

A few days ago, we just had the luck to interview with Florian Renner, the 3rd winner of Hum3d Survial Car Challenge which is sponsored by Fox Renderfarm, we are always appreciated to have such precious opportunities to talk with those professionals. And today, we just finished the interview with Federico Ciuffolini, the 1st winner of this competition. Here are the details as below:

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

Federico Ciuffolini: Sure! I am 30 years old, Italian, and I've been interested in CG for almost 15 years.

Fox Renderfarm: That's really a quite long time! So are you currently working as a CG artist?

Federico Ciuffolini: Yes! I am a 3D artist and programmer. I have been doing photo realistic rendering for several years, and right now I’m working on interactive apps, augmented and virtual reality.

Fox Renderfarm: Sounds great. How did you made the decision to step into the CG industry?

Federico Ciuffolini: I started experimenting with simple 3D softwares when I was 16 years old. I was fascinated by the first 3D cartoons, like that famous Simpsons episode where Homer travels to the 3D universe.

From that point, the passion just grew and grew. When I was 18 I decided to study Computer Science as a backup plan, but I knew what I really wanted to do. A lot of practice with 3ds Max and a bit of luck made the dream possible.

Fox Renderfarm: The current prize definitely demostrates your hardwork! Did you still remember your first CG work, how does it look like?

Federico Ciuffolini: Yes I do! They were made with Corel Dream 3D, a really simple software from the early 2000s, and I still have them here on my hard disk. Let's say that I was kinda surprised when I opened them, they are simple but not as ugly as I thought!

Fox Renderfarm: It sounds pretty awesome. How did you know the Hum3d Survival Car competition?

Federico Ciuffolini: I already knew the Hum3D website. I think I saw a post about the competition on some Facebook Group.

Fox Renderfarm: OK. What inspire you to come out the idea of making the work "The Free Autonomous Republic of Dieselville"?

Federico Ciuffolini: I've always been interested in the post apocalyptic trend, and I have started dozens of 3D works in that style, but I completed none of them. I took the occasion to actually close this chapter with myself :)

I knew that I wanted to do something different, out of the ordinary post apocalyptic style. It took me some days of brainstorming and a couple of beers with some friends, then the idea come naturally and I started working.

Fox Renderfarm: Haha, what you did finally is get rewarded! What software, renderers, plugins you used in this work?

Federico Ciuffolini: 3ds Max, Corona Renderer and Substance Designer. I think that Corona did a great job on this work, it accomplished everything flawlessly.

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

Federico Ciuffolini: I knew that the scene was going to be pretty big, so I decided to use as much parametric maps as possible. All of the grime, dirt and rust were done with CoronaAO + CoronaTriplanars. I had to tweak a lot of maps and parameters, but in the long run this technique proved to be fast and effective. I saved a lot of time since I could reuse a lot of procedural maps and I had to unwrap only a small number of meshes. I did a lot of cloth simulations, too. For the smaller objects I used MassFX, which proved to be quick and stable, and for more complex objects I used the Cloth modifier. These simulations took me more time than I thought, but I think they came out quite good.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you used Fox Renderfarm's cloud rendering service previously? If yes, would you share your ideas about us?

Federico Ciuffolini: I will be honest here, I actually never used a render farm service. I think this will be a nice opportunity to finally do it!

Fox Renderfarm: Would you please share your ideas for winning the 1st prize in the Hum3d Survival Car competition?

Federico Ciuffolini: I am not sure I understand this question, sorry. Do you mean what I felt? Or the ideas at the base of the project?

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

Federico Ciuffolini: This contest has been a terrific experience to me! It had been so long since the last competition, and only now I understand how much I missed it. Thinking, planning and completing a personal work with a strict deadline is so tiring, but so satisfying!

The Hum3d Car Challenge just finished recently, and we did found a lot of awesome works there. Fox Renderfarm is so honored to be one of the sponsors and has the opportutnity to be part of it. And we are so glad to have the chance to talk with Florian Renner, the 3rd winner of this competition. Here are the details as below:

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

Florian Renner: I started to work 2003 after my education as graphic designer . I always loved to create images.. doesn't matter how..digital or analog with pencils. About in 2007 I started with digital painting for contests and combined my work with cinema4d. In 2011, I started as a freelancer in the field of graphic design, 3D visualization, and later 3d animation too.

Fox Renderfarm: Are you currently working as a CG artist?

Florian Renner: Yes, about 70% of my projects are 3d designs(key visuals). style guides, 3d visuals, product visualizations etc. not all projects are shown on my website. Some have secrecy or may not be shown, the other 30% is typical graphic design, logos, flyer, brochures.

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

Florian Renner: I wanted to become a freelancer and working on projects I like. I was in a permanent position for 8 years before. In addition to my work, I have illustrated a lot and taught myself in cinema 4d to expand my offer. To become a freelancer was my best decision, but without my 3d experiences it would be hard, most of my clients come to me because of the 3d animations and visualizations.

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

Florian Renner: Yes, my first 100% digital created image with my wacom was for a game contest about in 2006. I won a trip to Hamburg and had an insight how they work on the pc game. The first images were a bit too rough but some months later the images had a better quality. On my website are still some early illustrations from 2007 (). My "Tank" image is from 2008 and one of the first I combined cinema 4d and digital art.

Fox Renderfarm: The "Tank" looks pretty awesome. While how did you know the Hum3d Survival Car competition?

Florian Renner: I always download my car models on this site for my projects. I don't remember exactly but I think I was searching for a new model and saw the post.

Fox Renderfarm: Haha, that means you are regular customers of Hum3d. So what inspires you most to come out the idea of making the work "Lightage"?

Florian Renner: I like Fantasy Sci Fi settings but I am a bit bored of the zombie and their gore/violence in general...maybe I watched "the walking dead" too often. So I was trying to find something new outside of the mad max universe, the movie was great but most of the apocalyptic cars are in mad max style, so my sketches then went more in the direction of snow and ice and the weapons on my car are for hunting not for killing :-) later I liked the idea of whale bones on a car... This raises a few questions and tells a story I don't know for myself too :-) Maybe an inspiration was the very cool series "the terror" I was looking some weeks before.

Fox Renderfarm: Fantastic idea. OK, what software, renderers, plugins you used in this work?

Florian Renner: I used cinema 4d with the octane renderer. 3D Coat for modelling some parts. World creator for the ground and the background. substance painter for the car textures etc. The car model is a customized Alfa Romeo Carabo.

Fox Renderfarm: Haha, so many software used in it. Did you met any difficulties when creating this work? If yes, how did you solved it?

Florian Renner: The snow shader in octane was a bit complex. First it looked like styropor at the beginning, a bit trial and error. Later I doubled the refraction channel layer in photoshop,  after that the surface looked more like ice. And I used substance painter the first time, it was fun to learn but takes some time.

Fox Renderfarm: Difficulties always help move you forward : ) Did you used Fox Renderfarm cloud rendering service previously? If yes, would you share your ideas about us?

Florian Renner: No yet, sorry :-) But maybe in the future if I have an 3d animation project.

Fox Renderfarm: Great, feel free to enjoy yourself. Anything else you would like to add or say?

Florian Renner: Keep on learning 3d software and techniques and try new styles and workflows.  The prizes of the competition is great for me, some software I don't know and now I am curious about trying out them.

Fox Renderfarm: Good for you! We are looking forward to your more works in the near future. And thanks so much for your time for this interview.