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In the beginning of 2020, Fox Renderfarm was so pleased to have the chance to talk to Uros Vukovic, Director at Diorama, about their award winning ArchViz shorts J1 L’Odyssée. Since then, Fox Renderfarm has established a solid cooperation with Diorama. 2 years have past, Diorama is becoming more than a company which is specialized in ArchViz, embracing a variety of disciplines with a focus on the metaverse.J1 L’Odyssée © Diorama However, what hasn’t changed over these years is the uniquely photo-realistic visual style and their competence in delivering visual feast that underpin their constant success and won them international awards. Therefore, Fox Renderfarm sat down (virtually) with Mr. Massimiliano Napoli, COO and Head of Still Image Department of Diorama to have an in-depth conversation about the production of their award-winning projects, and how Diorama has grown firmly in the post-pandemic era.Massimiliano NapoliCOO & Head of Still Images Department Diorama!Posters of Diorama’s Award-winning ShortsPosters of Diorama’s Award-winning ShortsAnother good news I can’t wait to share with our audience is that Diorama is looking for teammates who can join them in a universe where everything is possible. If you are also touched by their amazing projects and share the same pursuit of excellence, don’t hesitate to check the open positions: https://diorama.eu/jobs.php!Diorama© DioramaInterview with Massimiliano Napoli Fox Renderfarm: Hi Mr Massimiliano! Thank you and Diorama so much for accepting our interview again! Could you briefly introduce yourself and Diorama?Massi: I’m Massi and at the moment I’m the COO and the Head of Still Images Department at Diorama. We are a 3D Production Company based between Milan and Paris, but nowadays we are becoming more and more of a cloud company with collaborators all over the world.!Diorama-1© Diorama Fox Renderfarm: Diorama has progressed a lot, now you’ve set foot in the fashion and design industry. Could you share with us how Diorama has grown since 2019?Massi: That’s true! Last time we had an interview together we were still rooted in the Architectural Visualization world, and we were in a peculiar moment of our story when we were starting to dip our toes in other industries. Today we have a lot of ongoing projects related to different businesses, from art to design, from fashion to cinema. We grew a lot during the pandemic as we could guarantee to our clients a structured remote team, able to work and perform from anywhere in the globe.!Diorama x Bureau Betak for FendiDiorama x Bureau Betak for Fendi!Diorama x Bureau Betak for ChanelDiorama x Bureau Betak for Chanel!Diorama x Bureau Betak for DiorDiorama x Bureau Betak for Dior!Diorama x Bureau Betak for Saint LaurentDiorama x Bureau Betak for Saint Laurent !Diorama x Studio Milo for Tubes Radiatori!Diorama x Studio Milo for Tubes Radiatori-1Diorama x Studio Milo for Tubes Radiatori Fox Renderfarm: How is the pipeline of your production of still images and films respectively?Massi: You didn’t mention that it would be a 5 hours’ talk! Jokes apart, the idea that revolutionized our workflow and our pipeline was to take inspiration from the big cinema productions. We tend as much as possible to divide a project in small segments which correspond to specific functions. Modeling, texturing, lighting and shading, post production, client management, IT support: those are separated tasks, done by specific teams made of people who love what they do. Fox Renderfarm: Congrats on the award-winning short films, these 3 shorts are breathtakingly beautiful and photorealistic. Do these 3 shorts have some connection on the theme? Could you share the idea behind them a bit? Massi: The Moon Codex is an ident video produced to express a critical thinking between an architect and a designer who were starting the collaboration. It all transforms to architecture and design in a certain way. The video is a short story on how the moon appeared in the universe, floating around Earth and having on it an enormous influence, which means life, culture and architecture.The Moon CodexTempo d'acqua has been created for a discussion around the theme of sustainability for the Pisa Architecture Biennale. We had a fictional concept of traveling through different time frames where the Pisa tower was deep in the water two thousand years ago. There are many historical documents stating that the seashore moved 2km on the west, which means that fictive Pisa will once again be in the water as according to the scientific researches. It's a circle that never ends, and makes us think about the relationship of land-water-architecture.Tempo d’AcquaEquilibrium, presented at La Biennale di Venezia, is the conclusive piece of the trilogy and aims to stimulate critical thinking about space and architecture. On the other hand, it has the intention to tell more about equality between objects in space, taking yet again a fictitious example of spatial equation between the earth, the moon and the water as a meaning of life.Equilibrium Fox Renderfarm: In Equilibrium, there are tons of landscape elements, like rocks and mountains, lakes and rivers, forest, snow, and so forth. What’s the secret behind their realness? Massi: Equilibrium is full CGI video, entirely created in 3D. The way of achieving realism are emotions. It is a very specific approach that all CG artists understand, once they achieve the look they were looking for. The realism doesn't come with realistic textures, but the feeling of mood and story behind the scene. Since Equilibrium had a deep thinking behind the curtains, we went further with simplicity. All those scenes are extremely simple in the sense of CG work; just a couple of animated planes, some of them were created in 2D compositing with a couple of animated layers, but they were all effective.!Equilibrium!Equilibrium-2Water plays a very important role in Diorama’s artworks, did you meet any difficulty in simulating and rendering water? How did you solve these problems?Massi: Water is a very important feature in our studio. We are constantly working on looks and better integration of water in our scenes. In Tempo d'acqua there are some scenes which took over a year to simulate, but they never emerged in the video. I guess one day we will publish them. Regarding simulations, I think that the liquid simulations are those which require the most time and resources. When it comes to water simulations, we tend to use Houdini. Most of our tools are custom made especially because the look doesn't come just out from the shell, in the drag-and-drop manner. It takes time to do multiple iterations, so the approach is usually to avoid tweaking parts of the simulation which could influence extreme simulation time dependence.!Equilibrium-3!Equilibrium-4!Equilibrium-5!Equilibrium-6 Fox Renderfarm: LIGHTFORLIFE shows Diorama’s profound insight and high level competence in handling textures. Could you respectively break down how you achieved the organic texture on the ice surface, the bokeh around the leaves, and smooth demonstration of the snakeskin-like texture? Massi: The secret behind the look of the leaves is in making a very high focal length like macro photos, which creates this dynamic bokeh of reflections in the background. In this shot, we also had the intention to reach the look of an anamorphic lens by changing bokeh ration to something close to 0.7. !LIGHTFORLIFE!LIGHTFORLIFE-1Regarding the snake it is just a sweep object which rotates in multiple directions to achieve the organic look. Moreover the displacement texture that goes over is also animated to move in order to achieve the look of a living being. !Equilibrium-7Metal reflections provide this important fill light from the side that brings attention to the shape and smoothness.!Equilibrium-8 Fox Renderfarm: Diorama is so good at using wide angles to show grand views, while using close up to demonstrate details. Do you have any specific advice on the lighting design of these two aspects?Massi: Understanding light is the key of a successful shot, both in still and in motion. Camera position, or it’s movement and lighting are elements that cannot be treated separately. Those are subsequent. Lighting shapes the geometry and the elements and can be mysterious or revealing just by changing a small parameter, and of course is a strong tool to drive the eye of the viewer. If you always tackle them as a duo, you can easily create amazing shots and have basically the power of showcasing the subject in it’s best version. !The Moon Codex © DioramaThe Moon Codex © Diorama!LIGHTFORLIFE © DioramaLIGHTFORLIFE © Diorama Fox Renderfarm: How did Diorama set the tone of its visual language and keep it coherent and consistent along the way?Massi: You know, to be honest we tend to think that we are a heterogeneous company, when it comes to visual tone. We have such great artists, directing and producing, that it is really easy for us to get lost in their mood, their ideas and exploration, and this is in my opinion one of the keys to our success.The freedom to explore. We do not want to be such a company that produces always the same visuals, with the same style, both clients (the good ones) and the team influence our production a lot. When looking at new artists, almost unconsciously, we are approached and we look to a kindred spirit that in some ways have something in common with our general vision about art, and this job. Guess that’s our secret.!Diorama© Diorama Fox Renderfarm: Technically and management-wise, did Diorama do anything to optimize the efficiency in production?Massi: We started to implement the management team in an early stage, around 2017. We needed to have a lean and flexible art team, leaving to the artists the freedom to spend time doing what they like. We don’t want our collaborators to waste time answering emails or struggling with skill sets which they do not have and are not interested in.!Diorama x Atelier(s) Alfonso FemiaDiorama x Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia Fox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG? Could you share your educational and career experience with us?Massi: As for some of my fields, my roots are in Architecture. I’ve studied Architecture in Florence, and in 2013 I moved to France for my Erasmus. That’s where I discovered this work called visualizer, or perspectiviste, as they call it in France. I got hooked and I started looking into that. After coming back to Italy and taking my degree, I spent one year in Poland. I worked for a small company where I spent great days improving as a post producer and moving my first steps in 3D. In 2016 I met Gilberto, CEO of Diorama, together with Gianni, our actual CFO; they were starting their own company between Paris and Milan. At that time Diorama didn’t even exist, it was just a few chairs and four artists; Uros was one of them, and I became the fifth. From that day we had a lot of fun together and we grew bigger until now, with about 30 people gravitating around the Diorama ecosystem. Fox Renderfarm: In your opinion, what are the qualities that make a good 3D artist better?Massi: Exploration and research. We are kind of artists/professionals who are tasked with depicting a different reality every single day. The challenge can one day be a room, the day after a space colony and the next one an underwater shot. Exploring techniques, new forms of art, new softwares, and new media must be a constant in our work. Picasso used to say that good artists copy, great artists steal. That’s my constant mantra. Looking into other people’s work, select some interesting elements, digest them and incorporate them into my own.!Diorama x Pascual ArchitecteDiorama x Pascual Architecte Fox Renderfarm: Any artist or artwork that inspires you the most?Massi: The list risks to be really long, as per I personally find such new great artists every day and I love to explore how their mind works. As you may see, Diorama aesthetic tend to detach from the 3D feel, looking more into an artistic and minimal way of picturing things.I know for sure that me and Uros, and our team in general, are big fans of Ash Thorp; his cinematic look is what drives most of our research. What I personally tend to do is to look a lot into other media. I should mention Raphael Lacoste, great concept artist, art director and friend, who drove my entire career as an artist as a constant source of inspiration. CG & Design by Ash Thorp!Raphael Lacoste-1!Raphael Lacoste-2© Raphael Lacoste Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any career advice to the newbies in the CG industry? And what did you do to improve your technique skills and aesthetic sense?Massi: This actually connects to your previous question. Even after years of experience you must in some ways consider yourself as a newbie if you do not want to stop growing and learning. This spirit is a constant approach for Diorama. For people who approach image production in CG, my best advice is to look into photography and filmmaking. Do not get inspired by CG when doing CG: you can easily get stuck in someone else's style, and the goal for someone starting should be to find their own. Photographers are an important part of the moodboard we build in the Image Department for each project. I tend to oblige the team to propose photos more than other renders as a source of inspiration (I would also love clients to do that!).!Diorama-3© Diorama Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about the cloud rendering services of Fox Renderfarm?Massi: Amazing, what else can we say about it! You guys rock, what's the secret of the kindness of your support at 3 AM? Jokes apart, we couldn’t be able to be so on time and productive without Fox, you are almost part of the team at the moment, and we are so glad to have this great relationship! Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?Massi: Do not spend too much time on social media; Canaletto didn’t have one and was doing great things. Use them for sharing kitties or barbecue, or the ugly sweater your aunt gave you for Christmas. But do not get in the loop of producing art just to follow an algorithm. Be driven by passion, do what you like, when you like. If it is personal work, spend all the time you want on it, show it to your friends and to people who can really give an honest opinion about it. If it is commercial, push your client and yourself beyond the limits and try to do the best before the deadline hits…I guess Fox Renderfarm can help you a lot with that!

C4D, architecture, children’s psychology, softness, and female perspective… What will you think of if you see all those words together? Miss. Rao Jinyu, a graduate of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) created her unique architecture design by integrating all these elements, delivering warmth and comfort.!ParadoxicalThe first 4C Architecture and Design Creativity Exhibition themed Paradoxical was successfully held in Shanghai in July and August 2021. Fox Renderfarm, as a TPN-Accredited cloud rendering services provider, is honored to be the sponsor of this event and have the chance to support the emerging and vigorous architects in China.!Paradoxical PosterPoster Among the exhibitors, Fox Randerfarm is very glad to have had an interview with the brilliant Designer and Director Mr. Xin Liu. He discussed how he shifted the boundary of physical and virtual worlds in 3D art through his designs and creations.!Shifting the Boundary of Physical and Virtual Worlds in 3D Art Introducing Designer & Director, LIU XinShifting the Boundary of Physical and Virtual Worlds in 3D Art: Introducing Designer & Director, LIU Xin(1)Shifting the Boundary of Physical and Virtual Worlds in 3D Art: Introducing Designer & Director, LIU Xin(2)Besides, Fox Renderfarm has also invited another outstanding architect Miss. Rao Jinyu to our interview.- Rao Jinyu- Architect- From: China- Master of Architecture II, SCI-Arc- Bachelor of Architecture, Shanghai University Unlike the conventional architecture we generally see which is solid and cold, the architectural artworks by Rao are of bright colors and soft materials. You will always find some surprising objects in her projects, such as stuffed toys, inflating balloons, or scattering flower petals. From the objects she chose to her unique design language, audiences can easily sense femininity, a romantic atmosphere, and a sense of comfort.!Grow Back to the Eden © Ran Jinyu (Rao’s Undergraduate Thesis)Grow Back to the Eden © Ran Jinyu (Rao’s Undergraduate Thesis) In fact, the younger brother of Rao has suffered from manic depression for a long time. She always accompanied her brother to do the therapy. In the meantime, her interest in children’s psychology grew, and she hopes to help them through her architectural design. From Grow Back to the Eden, her undergraduate thesis to Soft Architecture, her graduate thesis, she gradually explores and researches the possibility of the environment of the institutions for children’s psychotherapy.!Paradoxical - Rao JinyuSoft Architecture Animation In our interview, Rao shared her inspirations, pipeline, and other ArchViz production details with us. Moreover, she discussed the differences between the learning methods for Architecture in China and America, artists who inspire her, and her empathy and care for children’s psychology.Exclusive interview with Jinyu Rao Fox Renderfarm: Hi Jinyu, thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you briefly introduce yourself?Rao: My name is Rao Jinyu. I would like to perceive the world sensitively from a female's perspective, and my architecture design is my inner monologue to the outside world. Fox Renderfarm: How did you constantly form your colorful and romantic design language?Rao: I learned children's painting when I was a child. The colors of children's images are very bright and vivid, which improves my sense of colors and cultivates my aesthetic appreciation. I am a sensitive and emotional person, at the same time, I am quiet and introverted, so I hope to express my feelings with vivid colors and by creating a romantic atmosphere. I may be a pessimistic person, but when creating, I prefer to use bright colors. I like to design romantic things to express my inner expectations and things that will make people happy. My work is a reflection of what is in my mind.!Soft ArchitectureSoft Architecture Student: Jinyu RaoAdvisor: Florencia PitaPre Advisor: Jackilin BloomCultural Agents: Jasmine Benyamin Fox Renderfarm: What is the inspiration of Soft Architecture?Rao: This is my Graduate Thesis. I designed it as a children's psychological counseling center. There is an institution in the United States called Children's Institute, a children's psychotherapy institution. I want to put my soft building in the middle of its courtyard, which is a reconstruction program. The target audience of soft architecture is children, who like to play in giant inflatable installation toys that are soft. Soft objects are more attractive to children, and they can help children improve their mental health.!Soft-Architecture-Front-&-Back-Render!Soft-Architecture-Front-&-Back-RenderSoft Architecture Front & Back Render !Location - Rao JinyuLocation Fox Renderfarm: What are the references for Soft Architecture?Rao: Harry Harlow's Monkey Love Experiments - I learned about this experiment while I was doing my undergraduate thesis. It concludes that softness can substitute for the love provided by the primates’ parents to their children. So I chose to achieve psychological healing by making the buildings soft.!Harry Harlow's Monkey Love ExperimentsCute Aesthetics - This inspiration comes from the article "The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde". It reckons that soft materials can be more easily shaped according to humans’ affective demands. That means pinching in different places of soft materials can get desired deformations. From this point of view, soft things interact with people, and it responds to a human’s psychological needs, unlike a cold wall which is unable to provide any response. So I infer that soft touches are helpful for psychological healing.!Cute Aesthetics Fox Renderfarm: Why did you add Yoshitomo Nara’s painting of children in your artwork?Rao: The protagonists of Yoshitomo Nara's paintings are all little girls. From the expressions of these girls, you can see the helplessness of the children. Children may understand everything that happens in the adults’ world and they need care and love. Maybe they don't like the way their parents regulate them, but they can only express it through helpless expressions.!Yoshitomo Nara Fox Renderfarm: What is the inspiration of Wearable Architecture?Rao: When the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak just began, the instructor of my work - Hernán Díaz Alonso, CEO of our school, showed us a video of a music festival. Everyone who participated in the music festival was in a balloon which also became a kind of isolation.!The Flaming Lips - Assassins of Youth Live ShowThe Flaming Lips - Assassins of Youth Live Show Fox Renderfarm: Could you share with us the different forms and functions of Soft Architecture?Wearable Architecture Rao: Wearable Architecture is mainly a balloon.!Wearable ArchitectureClothes - When the balloon is deflated, it can be used as clothes with beautiful pleats.!Wearable Architecture -1Architecture - When the balloon is inflated, it becomes a big space that can shelter people. It can float in the air, water, etc. It can turn each Ferris wheel carriage into a room and renew the abandoned amusement facilities when it is inflated.!Wearable Architecture!Wearable ArchitectureLandscape - The surface of the balloon is a hydroponic system that can absorb the smog in the air and turn it into plant food. The plants will be scattered on the ground after the explosion to renew the abandoned amusement park/city and become a landscape system.!Landscape!Landscape!Landscape Fox Renderfarm: What is the reference for the material of Wearable Architecture?Rao: I saw 2 photos. The creator pours oil paints of different colors together. The green and pink paints slowly blend together and form the beautiful transition effects on their verges. The pictures are taken at that very moment. When I was creating Wearable Architecture, I considered the permeability and sealing of the building. And I also needed to assess the position of windows and walls, so some parts were simulated as translucent gel material. I made the darker parts transparent, such as the parts in pink, brick red, mint green and so forth. In this way, the open part of the building is very organic, stretching along the boundaries between different colors.!Wearable Architecture!Wearable Architecture Fox Renderfarm: What software and plugins did you use for Wearable Architecture?Rao: Cinema 4D + Octane renderer. And I’ve used a lot of dynamic simulations in C4D.Cloth Simulation - for the pleats and soft parts of the cloths.!Wearable ArchitectureSoft body- for the inflating/inflated balloons.!Soft bodyX-Particles - It is used to make the scattering effect of blooming flowers after the explosion. Each flower is a particle, so it can be made with the particle simulator.!Soft body Fox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG?Rao: When I first entered the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), it was the Graduate Thesis Exhibition. I found that 70% of the artworks in the exhibition contain animation. I never thought about using animation to present architecture before. Still, I found animation a very powerful medium, since it can be made as movies and TV series, and it is also a very good way to demonstrate architecture. Fox Renderfarm: What is the main difference between the learning methods for Architecture in China and America?Rao: Architecture education in China pays more attention to basic knowledge. It mostly discusses architecture itself and has fewer connections with other disciplines. In the past, when I was taking my undergraduate in China, I often had to produce an A1 big picture with a lot of architectural analysis drawings: site analysis, landscape analysis, architectural function analysis, and conceptual analysis... On the one hand, it can lay a solid foundation for students. On the other hand, it can make them think more clearly.While the learning methods abroad will be more straightforward. I haven't drawn any analysis charts since I came to the United States. Whereas, here they pay more attention to architectural expression. It is no longer necessary to produce densely packed pictures or read pictures but more to intuitively observe and feel the architecture itself.I have always wanted to design children's psychotherapy spaces. My undergraduate thesis, "Grow back to the Eden" is also a children's psychotherapy center. There are many tiny houses on a mountain. The architectural methods are adopted based on the residential relations between parents and children at different stages in order to solve the problems of children’s psychology.!Grow Back to the EdenGrow Back to the Eden When I got to graduate school, I used a more simple and straightforward method - I directly made the building soft. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t make it that way in my undergraduate studies, and I don’t think it is feasible for me to do so at that time. Fox Renderfarm: Any artist or artwork inspires you the most?Rao: First of all, the mentor of Wearable Architecture, my principal, Mr. Hernán Díaz Alonso. He has a great influence on me in many aspects such as my speculative logic.!National Museum of World Writing © Hernán Díaz Alonso!National Museum of World Writing © Hernán Díaz AlonsoNational Museum of World Writing © Hernán Díaz Alonso Also, Wang & Söderström, they focus on the digital representation of physical materials, which is called Phygital Materiality.!Wang & Söderström!Wang & SöderströmIDENTS © WANG & SÖDERSTRÖM And I particularly like Gaudí's buildings. His buildings’ shapes are round, mellow, and very colorful.!Casa Milà © Antoni GaudíCasa Milà © Antoni Gaudí Casa Batllo © Antoni Gaudí !Sagrada Familia © Antoni GaudíSagrada Familia © Antoni Gaudí Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?Rao: CG is a very cutting-edge and emerging way to present architecture, and it will have a huge market in China and will be constantly growing. Like Wang & Söderström that I mentioned earlier, they all make digital materials and express architecture in new media. It has great potential in the crossover expression of architecture. For CG enthusiasts, there is a lot to explore. Architecture can be linked with many fields to make fascinating effects. Just like what you can see in this 4C Architecture and Design Creativity Exhibition.!4C Architecture and Design Creativity Exhibition in Shanghai!4C Architecture and Design Creativity Exhibition in Shanghai!4C Architecture and Design Creativity Exhibition in Shanghai4C Architecture and Design Creativity Exhibition in Shanghai Rao’s contact:Email: lianjunshui@outlook.comLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jinyurao Portfolio: https://issuu.com/raojinny/docs/portfolio_issue WeChat：lianjunshui INS: raojinny

John F. Kennedy once said that "Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness."Garden of Damocles, the artwork nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, made with 3ds Max, V-Ray, Marvelous Designer and Photoshop, depicts what Kennedy said in an imaginative way. !Garden of Damocles © Csaba BanatiGarden of Damocles © Csaba Banati The author of the work, Csaba Banati, is an architectural illustrator who always focuses on illustrating his thoughts in an immersive way.Fox Renderfarm, the best render farm, is honoured to interview with Csaba, who shared how he built the Garden of Damocles in 3ds Max.Csaba Banati- Freelance Illustrator- From: Austria Fox Renderfarm: Hi Csaba, could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?Csaba: Hi all, I'm Csaba Banati - working as a freelance illustrator currently from the city of Vienna, Austria.I've been working in the industry for about 8-9 years now. Originally I have a degree in architecture but never worked as an architect. Instead I focused on architectural illustrations and jumped right into it after getting my diploma.Save Energy! © Csaba Banati Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on being nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, how do you feel about it?Csaba: I'm feeling proud and lucky! I got nominated despite the fact that the non-commissioned category is super-duper tough every single year. People are getting better and better so it's a tough competition.Also I'm super proud of the fact that this was my 3rd nomination in a row. I hope one day I'll win :)!Garden of Damocles - Csaba Banati Fox Renderfarm: What's your inspiration for the amazing work “Garden of Damocles”? Why did you select this artwork to participate in the competition?Csaba: Everything started with a simple idea to investigate my feelings about courtyards. I've always found these spaces intriguing but I never really figured out why.During the process, I contemplated this idea and one thing led to another and this happened.For me, it was obvious to choose this image. It's a bit special to me for the above-mentioned reason and also I pushed myself hard on this project. Was curious how it would end up against this tough competition.!references - Garden of Damocles © Csaba Banati Fox Renderfarm: The work shows like an allegory of the future world, what do you want to express through the work?Csaba: For me, it is always just mildly interesting what the artist wants to say. The beauty of art is that it can and will mean different things to different people based on their past experiences.I truly believe that as soon as an art piece is out it's not up to the artist to decide what it is about. People will judge and interpret before you could even say a word.But that's the beauty of it and I find it amazing. Fox Renderfarm: The sculptures and nuclear bombs in the picture are very realistic and attractive. Could you tell me how you made them (including the model and textures)?Csaba: This is probably disappointing but it's basic box modelling. :)I looked up real-life references to model them from scratch and in some cases used free 3D models as a base to further modify them.For texturing I'm really lazy so I usually try to avoid unwrapping at any cost. :)So every model got procedural or simple plane projected material.!Final scene and bomb modelFinal scene and bomb model !Empty courtyard modelEmpty courtyard model !Final iteration of cover modelFinal iteration of cover model Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the project? Did you meet any difficulties?Csaba: I believe it was about 2 months but to be fair I didn't work on it every single day. At times I didn't even touch it for days. I like to let projects mature a bit so that I can have a bit more objective view on them.The main difficulty was that I tried to push my boundaries in terms of 3D details. To embrace this fact I wanted to finish it in super high resolution but my PC was not really happy with it, so I had to settle at 7000x5600.!Composition - Garden of Damocles © Csaba Banati!post- Garden of Damocles © Csaba Banati Fox Renderfarm: How long have you been in the visualization field? Who inspires you most in this industry? Csaba: About 8-9 years now. There are a few companies that I can truly appreciate for their high rate of good consistency they can produce. But for inspiration I like to look outside from the ArchViz box and keep an eye on other creative fields. Such as photography, cinematography, music industry, etc. Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding CG artist and Illustrator, what do you do to enhance your professional skills?Csaba: For me, it's extremely important to do various things outside of ArchViz. It's easy to immerse yourself in the awesome world of 3D and architecture but the circle closes fast and you can find yourself running the same lap over and over again.It's good to step back a bit and learn new skills in other areas then go back to ArchViz and try to apply them there.It's also useful to prevent burnout and stay fresh and motivated.!Echo Lake © Csaba BanatiEcho Lake © Csaba Banati !Windy Meadows © Csaba BanatiWindy Meadows © Csaba Banati ArtstationLinkedIn

CGarchitect 3D Awards, the largest and most prestigious awards event for the architectural visualization industry, attracts talented Architectural Artists and students to show their amazing artworks.Christian Paul Espinoza, one of the 2020 CGarchitect 3D Awards student nominees, is an Architect and also a student from School-ing, which is a 3D school specialized in Architectural Visualization. !Christian Paul Espinoza© Christian Paul Espinoza Christian’s nominated work is inspired by the idea of a post-apocalyptic world where people will live in isolated bunkers deep in the sea, since it is the only safe place so far. The picture shows a desperate man who can’t endure loneliness and end his life.If you want to learn more about how he made the thought-provoking artwork, the exclusive interview between Christian and Fox Renderfarm will tell you the answer.!Christian Paul Espinoza from Mexico· Christian Paul Espinoza· 3D Visualizer· From: Mexico Fox Renderfarm: Hi Christian, thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?Christian: My name is Christian Paul Espinoza, I am an Architect. After working in different areas of architecture, Architectural Visualization caught my attention.Four years ago I worked in an architecture office as a draftsman but I always paid attention to the visualization part, how we could generate those environments on the computer was impressive, then I ventured into the area retouching the work I did until I decided to focus on visualization and study formally.!Architecture Office by Christian Paul Espinoza© Christian Paul Espinoza Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about being nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards?Christian: It was great for being nominated because it's an awesome award and it is good to know that the jury took my idea as nominated. Fox Renderfarm: What’s your inspiration for this amazing project? Why did you select this artwork to participate in the competition?Christian: The idea of thinking of a desolate place where it is difficult to escape and the only way is to jump, like the idea of taking certain risks without stopping to think and just doing it, I chose the image because I liked the idea of representing a story sad with few elements and that the color palette was the one that told the story.Sketch Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the work?Christian: For the final work, it took me about 3 weeks from the moment I started to recompile references until I finished, working in the free time between class and class. Fox Renderfarm: The isolated bunkers in your work are very industrial and futuristic, any reference? Could you tell us how you built them?Christian: The reference images were the oil platforms that are in the sea, these impressive structures in the middle of nowhere have always caught my attention and how lonely it can be to live there, that helps to create many stories.ReferenceModel Capture Fox Renderfarm: The gloomy weather and the dropping man make people feeling sad and thought-provoking, what do you want to express through this work?Christian: It's the story of a man who tries to escape from a desolate place, cannot endure the idea of being in that place and looks for a way out no matter how risky it may be. Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it?Christian: At the beginning it was difficult to generate the idea of the structures, I made some previous models but they did not convince me at all, sometimes it is difficult to conclude a personal project because you do not know when to stop, you always want to put more and more details but the registration deadline to the 3D Awards helped me define the final proposal. Fox Renderfarm: Who or what project inspires you most in this industry?Christian: There are several CG artists that I like whose works among them are Jaime Jasso, Jama Jurabaev, Tamas Medve and the list is very long.!jaime-jasso-wacomacademy-lostcity-sLost Temple City © Jaime JassoWild West Unreal engine pack © Jama JurabaevGallery in Warsaw © Tamas Medve Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever heard of or used Fox Renderfarm cloud rendering services previously? If yes, how do you feel about it?Christian: I had heard about Fox Renderfarm from some friends who had recommended it to me, I think it is a good service and I have heard good comments about the way of working and the platform. Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?Christian: I would tell them that they participate in the contest, it is a good way to show your ideas and put yourself to the test with your skills and continue learning from the other participants.!Christian Paul Espinoza-1© Christian Paul EspinozaInstagram

Have you ever thought about what ArchViz can do other than illustrating buildings built or unbuilt? Razan Jaward, a graduate from The Bartlett School of Architecture, ULC, created her graduation project -- LITH. LITH © Razan JawadLITH is a decentralized publicly owned platform for space sharing enabled by a localized fused deposition modelling printing farm, it is aimed towards decommodification of gentrified neighborhoods and to provide affordable long-term homes for at-risk members of the community and to provide a platform to artists and artisan being displaced due to gentrification. It’s more than a regular ArchViz artwork, but a solution towards housing problems that bother numerous artists and people in many communities, showing the social conscience of the creator.The explanation of LITHRazan, with LITH, was also nominated in the Student (FILM) category of the 2020 CGarchitect 3D Awards, which was sponsored by Fox Renderfarm, a top-notch cloud rendering solution provider. For more creative details and ideas behind, please enjoy our interview.- Razan Jawad- Architect- From: Republic of Lebanon Fox Renderfarm: Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?Razan: My name is Razan Jawad, I’m originally Lebanese, born and raised in Antwerp, Belgium. I’ve been passionate about architecture from the age of 15 and it has only increased as I have grown.I have worked in Lebanon and Belgium as an Intern and an Assistant Architect. At the age of 19, I had just finished from the Architectural High school in Antwerp and thus, my life as an architect began, designing stores within the new center that was being built in Centro Ovale Chiasso, at the Swiss Italian border. 70% of my proposed design integration for the H&M and Apple stores were adopted by the clients.!Centro Ovale Chiasso!Centro Ovale ChiassoCentro Ovale ChiassoAfter moving to Lebanon, my determination, learnings and previous work experience landed me on several job opportunities as an Assistant Architect which was done in parallel to my university education. In June 2018 I graduated from ALBA with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture and to further enhance my studies I attended UCL in London where I completed my master’s degree in architectural design. !The Bartlett School of ArchitectureBeing a freelance architect, I’m currently working on three different projects that are based in Sierra Leone, Lebanon and Congo which led me to open up a startup studio. The project in Lebanon is a residential villa for a private client and the 2 projects in Africa are huge commercial projects. Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about being nominated for the CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards?Razan: It feels great to get recognition for the amount of hard work that goes into realizing any architectural project academic or otherwise.!LITH Fox Renderfarm: What inspired you to create the amazing project? Any ideas behind the name “LITH”?Razan: LITH is the culmination of a year of architectural research, It is a amalgamation of philosophies of discrete architecture (a digital combinatorial design theory by Gilles Retsin), a mix of neo-Brutalism and gothic inspirations backed with social theories for cohousing communities. Gilles RetsinDirector at Gilles Retsin ArchitectureFormer Lecturer, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL!Discrete Reappraising the Digital in Architecture by Gilles RetsinDiscrete: Reappraising the Digital in Architecture by Gilles Retsin Fox Renderfarm: Could you introduce the core idea of the film and what kind of concepts do you want to convey through it? The building you design in the film is unique and futuristic, could you introduce the function of it and how you create it?Razan: The buildings in the film are actually a system of buildings rather than an individual building. It is a platform enabled co-housing community. Key concept:LITH stems from the idea that housing is a fundamental human right, while ownership of property is not. Along with the housing crisis, Gentrification adversely affects at-risk communities in neighborhoods. In Hackney, which hosts one of the largest artistic communities in the United Kingdom, artists and residents now face the same issues as many of the flats, and warehouse studios they inhabit have become too expensive for them, to continue to live and work there.!HackneyHackneyMain functions:LITH is a decentralized publicly owned platform for space sharing enabled by a localized fused deposition modelling printing farm, it is aimed towards decommodification of gentrified neighborhoods and to provide affordable long-term homes for at-risk members of the community and to provide a platform to artists and artisan being displaced due to gentrification.!LITHThe automated LITH printing farm works tirelessly around the clock for the production of serialized 3D printed formworks which can be cast incrementally to generate architectural structures. The printing factory continues to be an integral part of the LITH ecosystem after the construction process, and residents and artists can access the 3D printing farm to produce furniture, goods and art.!LITHThe LITH platform can respond to a variety of typologies depending upon the urban conditions, user requirements and varying design briefs. The same localized LITH printing farm can generate various housing communities within a neighborhood. Each housing can have an entirely different underlying functional program and spatial configuration. The generations also respond flexibly to any 3-dimensional boundary constraints.!LITH!LITHWithin LITH, spaces are divided as shared, semi-shared and private. Where semi-shared spaces are shared by residents of the housing, while shared spaces can be utilized by other members of the community as well. Residents and artists can access these shared spaces by booking them through the LITH space sharing platform. Light-based visual cues let the users know if a space is available, being utilized or can be shared. Large public lofts function as shared spaces, which can be utilized by local artists as studio spaces and workshops. The artist can either purchase a subscription to these spaces or occupy them by booking them through the LITH platform.!LITH!LITH Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the film?Razan: The whole project was a culmination of a year long research into 3D Printing, platform based generative architecture, algorithmic design and discrete architecture. The movie itself took over 2 months to make from the initial storyboard to the modelling of the actual building and then the final render.!LITH Fox Renderfarm: In this project, what software and plugins did you use? And do you use any new creative approaches to make the project better? Razan: The generation of the building geometry is a combination of rhino3d + grasshopper and Unity + C algorithms. The animation was carried out entirely on 3ds Max and rendered with V-Ray. Fox Renderfarm: How long have you been in the architectural visualization career? Could you share with us your education and career experience?Razan: Being at UCL was a life changer especially having conducted a bachelor’s degree in the Middle East to the “Western Content” from constant learning of new software to fabrication. During my whole architecture degree using 3d visualization was always part of my academic work, but my experience at The Bartlett encouraged me to explore newer software, whereby I was fortunate enough to have an amazing instructor who encouraged me to apply to the 3D Awards at CGarchitects.!LITH Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding young architect, what do you do to enhance your professional skills?Razan: I make sure I’m up to date with the digital world by watching lectures and documentaries about new architectural technologies.

Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez is a freelance 3D designer and the founder of the3DCube ArchViz studio. He has managed to work for important national and international interior designers and collaborated in many furniture catalogs and in the Casa Decor Madrid 2017 exhibition.!Alejandro Creo Rodriguez- Alejandro Creo Rodriguez- Freelance 3D Designer- Founder of the3DCubeFox Renderfarm is dedicated to providing fast and secure cloud rendering services for our clients around the world. We have over 200,000 happy customers from 50+ countries and regions. And Alejandro is one of them! We are glad and thankful that Alejandro has chosen Fox Renderfarm.!ArchViz © Alejandro Creo RodríguezArchViz © Alejandro Creo Rodríguez, rendered with Fox RenderfarmWith his strong love and passion for art, Alejandro learned 3D design with 3ds Max in his course. And after that, he just fell in love with 3D creations. For the ups and downs in life, he decided to specialize in ArchViz and constantly improved his techniques by getting the 2013 Autodesk Professional Certificate.After completing the degree and seeing the difficulty of finding a job in an architecture studio, He plucked up the courage to found his own 3D infographic business focused on architecture and interior design, combining it at the same time with 2 years as a 3D infoarchitecture instructor for students of the University of Architecture of Donostia / San Sebastián. With about 15 years’ experience in the 3D world and with a lot of study, research, work, time and money invested, he keeps his pursuit in the ArchViz world and explores more possibilities with interactive technology.!Alejandro Creo Rodriguez-1© Alejandro Creo Rodriguez Fox Renderfarm: Hi Alejandro, thank you so much for accepting our interview, could you please introduce yourself? Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: Hi, pleased to talk with you. Well, my name is Alejandro. I'm from Donostia - San Sebastian. It is a beautiful coastal city from Vasque Country in the north of Spain. I’m 40 years old and I’ve been a CG artist for about 15 years.!Alejandro Creo Rodriguez-3© Alejandro Creo Rodriguez Fox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG and get started in the CG industry? Please briefly tell us the story of your career path and how you set up the3DCube.Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: Well...in my family, almost all members have a good hand to draw and a good taste for the design. It is a family thing. Since I was studying at an institute, I was drawing graffiti letters all the time in different study books, and on the walls of the city ;). I finished the institute and I didn’t want to go to the university to study, and I decided to learn graphic design software to continue drawing. There I met 3ds Max. I fell in love with it at the moment. When I finished studying it, I made one special project with Softimage the XSI version. One year later, one architect school from San Sebastian contacted me to work in their office with 3ds Max software making a 3D modeling work for an architecture project. 6 years later, I went to Madrid to study for a Master’s certificate in advanced architectural visualization (ArchVIZ).There I learned all matters to make a base of a good render image. Then, with a lot of hours studying, reading books, watching tutorials and working, I learned to use a lot of tips, plugins, and scripts to make my photorealistic render images. !Alejandro Creo Rodriguez-4© Alejandro Creo Rodriguez Fox Renderfarm: What movies/ tv shows/ games are your favorites respectively?Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: I like sports very much. I think that it is very necessary because I spent a lot of hours sitting in front of a computer. I like CrossFit very much. I don’t watch tv, but I’m addicted to Netflix shows like thrillers movies. For me, one of the best tv shows is “el conquistador del caribe”. It is a local survival tv show. The best. I like skateboarding and surfing.!el conquistador del caribeel conquistador del caribe Fox Renderfarm: Any artists or artworks inspired you most?Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: I follow The works of Filip Hodas (INS @hoodas) and Ronen Bekerman. I like their style very much. For Spanish artists, I like the works of Lemons Bucket so much. Another reference is the artist Juan Siquier. For studios, there are Lemons Bucket Studio and Berga & González.Cartoon Fossils © Filip Hodas!Ronen BekermanRonen BekermanCo-founder/Manager The Craft!Mad hatter © Juan SiquierMad hatter © Juan Siquier!Lemons Bucket© Lemons Bucket!Berga & González© Berga & González Fox Renderfarm: As a freelancer, how do you keep yourself motivated and productive? And what do you do to enhance your artistic sense and professional skills constantly?Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: I love my work and lifestyle, and that is my main motivation. Life and work without a boss and restricted timetables are the best. Daily, I check 3D forums (from Facebook ) where other artists are talking about new features of software and plugins, and showing their works, and asking questions…..that is my form to stay always on the way ;)!Alejandro Creo Rodriguez-5© Alejandro Creo Rodriguez Fox Renderfarm: Could you share with us your creative workflow?Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: It is simple…. I only need to study the project to know what is more important to show in the rooms or zones in the renders. Then, I need to know the materials and I look for reference images from google or magazines, to have an example of materials, illuminations and perspectives. After all the work is tested, I will adapt the camera and the lights and configure the materials. Fox Renderfarm: What’s your proudest or most unforgettable work? Any difficulty you met when making it?Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: Wow...it is difficult to choose..I think that a reform restaurant from the center of Madrid. It was one of the first jobs that I’ve done, and the responsibility was big for me. Finding the best lighting for space was a big difficulty on that project. Finally, the result was very satisfactory. In fact, I have the comparative images from reality vs render ;)!Comparative render-6!Comparative render-8Comparative renderWe can always find fine-balanced lighting, colors and details in your photorealistic artworks. Could you use an example to elaborate on the details about how you made them well? Having reference images from google is always necessary (for example) to see the materials and the details. I never make the materials from memory, always seeing reference images.!Comparative render-8© Alejandro Creo Rodriguez Fox Renderfarm: You’ve also integrated interactive methods, such as VR, with ArchViz, how do you feel about it? Any future plans to adopt them more in your projects? Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: Yes, I think interactive methods are the future for the ArchViz jobs. The clients want interaction and dynamism. At this time, clients sometimes don't want to visit the projects personally, they prefer to make a virtual visit from their homes. Now I’m making static images, virtual visits on 360 images and video animation, but I would like to make Unreal Engine works in the future, that they have a lot of dynamism on the projects.Loft 3d 360 VR Virtual Tour © Alejandro Creo Rodriguez Fox Renderfarm: Could you tell us how you got involved in the Casa Decor Madrid 2017 exhibition? Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: Yes, it was a very proud work, because to know that your renders were shown at an exhibition is very motivating. An interior artist from Madrid contacted me (she was the same artist that contacted me on Madrid´s reform restaurant project) and she said to me what she wanted to do, and showed me the photographs from the room. !Comparative render-7© Alejandro Creo Rodriguez Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about the ArchViz industry in Spain?Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: Things are more complicated in the last year. because now the economy is not at its best moment. Another thing is now we have more artists than some years ago, and now with the news configurations from the render engines that are very easy, all the artists have good jobs. Fox Renderfarm: How do you like Fox Renderfarm’s rendering services?Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: For me, Fox Renderfarm is a very important tool for my job. Without working with Fox Renderfarm, I need a home render farm to have the final renders prepared to send on time, and it will cost a lot of money on computers and hardware. Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts? Mr. Alejandro Creo Rodríguez: Thank you for the interview. Thanks to the people who are making video tutorials and tips because they make my life easier :) If you want, you can follow my works on Instagram @_the3dcube. And finally…….LONG LIVE ARCHVIZ!!! Love, peace and rock n roll.!Comparative render-9© Alejandro Creo RodriguezInstagram

!CGAAs the sponsor and long-term partner of the CGarchitect 3D Awards, which is referred to as the Oscar of ArchViz, Fox Renderfarm, the best cloud rendering service provider, is very pleased to speak with Mr. Reinaldo Handaya, who led his team to create an amazing project -- Born Neo, and got nominated in the Image (Non-commissioned) category in CGarchitect 3D Awards.In our interview, Mr. Reinaldo shared a lot of details about how his team endeavored to make this project happen, and also revealed that he made this competition into an internal challenge. He explained the reason and shared with us the unforgettable hours behind.Besides, his story of how he got into the industry is quite inspirational and motivating. In 2004, his family factory was razed by fire and left him with $100,000 debt, in the later years, his life was changed because of 3D creation. After winning awards and praise in the ArchViz field,with his partner Evan Mandala, he set up ArchViz studio, 2G Studio, and 2G Academy, a 3D educational platform. With his relentless efforts and business mindset, he is a top-tier ArchViz artist in Indonesia now.His experience keeps us wondering how he got out of the trouble, kept his pursuit and succeeded at the same time, which Fox Renderfarm thinks you will find the answer in the latter part where he speaks about his plan in the interview.- Reinaldo Handaya- CEO at 2G Studio- From: Indonesia- Artwork Caption: This project is for our internal challenge to challenge our artist to work together as a team and as a family. We call it a pressure challenge, they have to finish the still image and animation in just 1 week, the building also needs to be modeled from scratch and have to design by themselves.This pressure challenge is also to help the artists to be creative as they want, because most of the commissioned projects are boring and for the team that wins the challenge will be rewarded with a bonus.!BORN NEO © 2G StudioBORN NEO © 2G StudioBORN NEO ANIMATION © 2G Studio Fox Renderfarm: Hi Reinaldo! Congratulations on being nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, how do you feel about it?Reinaldo: First of all, I want to thank you for having us here. We never thought, not even once, that we would get the nomination, especially in the non-commissioned category. Having been one of the judges in 2014, and I know there are thousands of images submitted to the 3D awards, and there are tons of talented artists in this world, and I feel blessed that one of our team’s works got nominated. Fox Renderfarm: What’s your inspiration for this amazing project Born Neo? Any idea behind this name?Reinaldo: I can’t take full credit for this project, me and Evan (Co-Founder of 2G Studio) only help our team to give some space to express themselves and be creative. We give them direction, how to think, how to create the storytelling, the rest is theirs. However, this is also teamwork, not just a single-artist work. The inspiration for this building came from The Heydar Aliyev Center by Zaha Hadid, and the Harbin Opera House by MAD Architect. The rendering look and feel was heavily inspired by our own friend, Arqui9.!Building Concept - ArchViz by Arqui9!ArchViz by Arqui9ArchViz by Arqui9The idea behind this name is because our president decided to move the capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan. Kalimantan’s International name is BORNEO ISLAND. And moving to a new place is kinda like being born new, and the team comes up with BORN NEO, matching the island name. And in fact, there was a competition to design the new capital city, but we didn’t join the competition since it was a design competition, not rendering.!Born Neo Convention Center Fox Renderfarm: The building is so terrific, could you introduce the function of the building?Reinaldo: The building is a convention center, which is a meeting place and also a place for all large-scale activities such as concerts, shows, seminars, as well as national and international level meetings which will certainly be held in the new capital city.!Concept - Born Neo Convention Center Fox Renderfarm: As you introduced, this is a project from your team’s pressure challenge, so why did you hold this challenge and how long did it take to finish the work?Reinaldo: There are several reasons why we held this challenge and they only had 7 days to finish 1 still image and a 60 sec animation. Because if there are more than 7 days, chances are, they will never finish.The first one is to let the team express their creativity, and as you know, our field is filled with people who love architecture, and we challenge our team to do the concept, and the story about why they come up with the concept.The second reason is to challenge them working overtime. Because we cannot deny that sometimes we’ve got tons of work that we need to work overtime. We just don’t want our team to get spoiled.The third reason is to give more pressure by asking them to finish in 7 days and should not disturb the real project schedule.But the ultimate reason is to train them to work as a team. So we split our team into 4 small teams and they have to deliver different concepts, so we got 4 different renderings. Fox Renderfarm: What’s the most unforgettable and interesting part of the creation process?Reinaldo: The team is actually enjoying this challenge although they work till 4 am. And it shows that they really love to do some designs and do the render, completely different than working on a real project. Just make sure not to let them do this all the time, or they will hate me for sure hahaha.The unforgettable moment is that working as a team is not as beautiful as we think, working as a team requires a lot of sacrifice. As you know, people will easily point a finger to others when under pressure. Actually the rule is when one of the team members points a finger to others, the team will be disqualified. We always believe when we point a finger to others, we need to know that the other 4 fingers are pointing to ourselves.One of the teams was actually unable to deliver the animation, only able to deliver 1 image. And of course they would have lost, but this is the most interesting part, the team still continued to work on the project, and finally created another 1 image and 1 animation. And this team is the one that created this BORN NEO. Here we can learn that it's ok to fail, but it shouldn’t stop you to keep doing what you love. The challenge only stops when you said so and they didn’t stop before they delivered 1 image and 1 animation.Well, you know how proud I am with my team.!BORN NEO Fox Renderfarm: How long have you been in the visualization field? Who inspires you most in this industry? Could you briefly introduce your career story?Reinaldo: On November 3, 2004, my family factory was razed by fire and left me with $100, 000 debt. And then I built my furniture workshop, then in 2008 I learned 3D to present my design to my client. And I deeply fell in love with 3D ever since.My career started when I got my first award, Visualization Pro of the Week from CGarchitect, and that was in January 2011. And in March I established 2G Studio with my business partner Evan Mandala. Somehow we got lots of exposure, in 2012 one of my renderings got awarded by Ronen Bekerman, the reinterpretation render of Starbuck by Kengo Kuma and that work skyrocketed my name in this industry. And Evan’s work got Visualization Pro of the Week from CGarchitect. One of our works was also selected to be in the 3D World magazine. And in 2013-2014, CHAOS group chose me to be guest speaker for their Asia Pacific V-Ray Community Meetings and Siggraph Asia in Hongkong. In 2014, Jeff asked me to be one of the 3D awards judges.!Master Bedroom PIK © Reinaldo HandayaMaster Bedroom PIK © Reinaldo Handaya(Won Visualization Pro of the Week from CGArchitect, January 2011)!Reinterpretation render of Starbucks by Kengo Kuma © Reinaldo HandayaReinterpretation render of Starbucks by Kengo Kuma © Reinaldo Handaya(Awarded by Ronen Bekerman, 2012)!House-La-Invernada-©-Evan-MandalaHouse La Invernada © Evan Mandala(Won Visualization Pro of the Week from CGArchitect, 2012)Most of my clients both direct clients and other 3D studios were coming from CGarchitect, and that is why I strongly believe that CGarchitect is the place where talents meet the clients.I was inspired by lots of people, not just one. But the one person that gives me a lot of influence is Jeff Mottle. It's not because CGarchitect Visualization Pro of the Week started my debut in this industry, but I can see that Jeff built CGarchitect not for himself, but to help others in this industry. Somehow it resonates with me a lot, since I also love to help others to learn 3D. And I established 2G Academy in 2013 with the spirit “helping others”. In 2017, I learned from Simon Sinek, why you do what you do is the most important thing, and I learned money is only a result from what you do.Jeff MottlePresident/Founder, CGArchitect!2G Academy2G Academy: https://www.2gacademy.com/Simon SinekAuthor/Motivational Speaker Fox Renderfarm: What is the development vision for 2G Studio? Any new projects or plans that you can share with us?Reinaldo: The development vision for 2G Studio itself is definitely to provide the best marketing tools for our clients both developers and other 3D companies that work with us shoulder to shoulder. However we also have other developments outside the production, which give back to the community. We have our educational platform, 2G Academy and we want to give back to the community. We started a new movement in Indonesia when the lockdown happened in March 2020, we call this movement AVIS ID, meaning ArchViz Indonesia. We are aware the lockdown will affect lots of Indonesian 3D artists. Since Indonesian ArchViz artists' quality is pretty stuck, it is the time to focus on improving the rendering skills when the world stops spinning. We share free tutorials on our YouTube channel, do free portfolio reviews for Indonesian 3D artists. And we also did business and mindset talks and open for the public, we did this consistently till now.We also follow our government program “Bali Kembali” meaning Bali is back, since Bali is a tourism island. We live in Bali and we love Bali so much. And we want to promote Bali through ArchViz. We are still working on this project and we choose 3ds Max and V-Ray to do this project, and we are also going to work on this project with our students. It is going to be epic, lots of still images and animations. And this is not for our personal benefit, but for a greater cause, we also want this industry to be aware about Indonesia as one of the best in this ArchViz world, and also want to break the stereotype that outsourcing to Asia is low cost.The upcoming movement is following the CGarchitect movement, Women in ArchViz. Our version is Kartini in ArchViz, as you know there are lots of women that are not exposed in this industry. Why we call it Kartini is because Raden Adjeng Kartini is an Indonesian heroine and she is a symbol of women's right movement in Indonesia. This project is all about women in ArchViz in Indonesia, and we are also surprised that around 40% of our students are women.!Sanctum © 2G Studio!Sanctum © 2G StudioSanctum © 2G Studio Fox Renderfarm: As the founder of 2G Studio, you established the leading 3D ArchViz Company in Indonesia, so do you have any views and prospects for the development of this industry in Indonesia?Reinaldo: It is very challenging, having been in this industry for years, we’ve only worked with 1 local client. The reason why it is challenging is because in Indonesia we don’t have any belief in products labeled “Made in Indonesia” and this is happening in every sector not just ArchViz. Most big developers in Indonesia send inquiries to other 3D companies outside Indonesia, because they don’t believe there is a company in Indonesia that can produce high quality images. So definitely more time is needed to build the trust. As 2G Studio itself never tried to work with locals, we know the problem, that is why we always aim to work with international clients. All the movements that we build, and all the architectural talks we did every Saturday by inviting architects in Indonesia to share their thoughts, is also to build a strong community. Definitely it's not a quick result that we are chasing after, it is a journey, and for a good cause. Fox Renderfarm: As an outstanding 3D Artist and architect, do you have any advice for the young artists in ArchViz Industry?Reinaldo: We can say that this industry is easy to make money while we are doing what we love. Most people in this industry are artists, either architects or interior designers, and most of us here is because we are introverted people that enjoy our time when we do what we love. But this comes with a cost, and what happened in Indonesia is that most people don’t know anything about business and the art of negotiation, don’t know how to add value and end up slashing the price and racing to the bottom. Racing to the bottom will always happen in any kind of industry, Arch viz is not exceptional. The only way to get out from the red ocean is learning about business and marketing. Business and marketing are the art itself with a different form. It is also the same when we learn about rendering, rendering is a journey, it needs time, business and marketing also need time, and learning about these 2 things will help us overcome our own fear. !Futuristic Architecture2G Studio: www.2gs.coInstagram Facebook Youtube2G Academy: www.2gacademy.comInstagram Facebook

!CGASpeaking of creation in 3D art, there are always tutorials about Step 1, 2, 3… and a set of rules telling you what is right and what is wrong. However, LIU Xin, Designer and Director, always thinks out of the box, experimenting with creative approaches, no matter the physical or the digital ones. The distinctiveness and uniqueness in his artworks help him win praise and awards in the industry. Phytial Shopping Cart is one of them, and got the 2020 CGarchitect Awards in the Student (Film) category sponsored by Fox Renderfarm, your TPN-Accredited cloud rendering services provider.- LIU Xin- Designer/DirectorLIU Xin is a Designer and Director who works between architecture and time-based media. His practice centers around the influence of digital and physical on shifting the boundaries of the design of spaces and objects.He is currently freelancing. And in the beginning of March, 2021, he received admission to Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Master in Design Studies degree program. His collaborators include Burberry, Wallpaper, NYLON, and Microsoft. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) where he also worked as the teaching assistant for graduate and undergraduate courses, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with Honors from the University of Liverpool where his graduation project was awarded the Sheppard Robson Jicwood Prize. Previously, he has worked at Testa & Weiser in the U.S., Sheppard Robson in the U.K., and Tianhua in China.Burberry x Victor Ma x Microsoft AI - Runway 2.0 (Music Video)He is traveling around the world examining the notion of both natural and built environments, individual experiences, and emerging techniques.Phygital Shopping Cart © LIU Xin & Yuting ZhuWon the 2021 CGarchitect AwardsCaption:Phygital = Physical × DigitalPhygital Shopping Cart is the second episode of the Phygital Supermarket Trilogy.Shopping Cart Miniature Scenarios*The main character of the story is a shopping cart (or a trolley). In a shopping cart in a supermarket, we designed six miniature model scenarios, which can be organically combined in a shopping cart. Each miniature scene contains a miniature version shopping cart to tell a short story, and each scene embodies a technology or design method which we explored with Cinema 4D and Redshift Renderer. We selected the most familiar, unremarkable, and most overlooked object in life (that is, common daily necessities in supermarkets), and explored these familiar objects through a unique workflow we developed with Cinema 4D and Redshift rendering technology. Things were explored on the playful side, either enlarge the size or manipulate it with Effectors in order to take a look at what magical effects will burst out. Therefore, in each mini-model scene, in addition to the narrative of the story, a technique is also expressed. As we used the title sequence design as a format of the film, so we can use the text on the screen to introduce the story and design techniques of each scene.Phygital Shopping Cart is the second episode of the Phygital Supermarket Trilogy, the other 2 episodes are Three Supermarkets and Phygital Supermarket Worlds. Phygital Supermarket Trilogy explores multiple techniques and mediums, discovering the possibility of shopping space forms in urban life.Three Supermarkets© LIU Xin, Yuting Zhu, Jui-Cheng Hung, Fateme JalaliPhygital Supermarket Worlds© LIU Xin, Yuting ZhuLIU established his connection with CGarchitect Awards in 2019 for his nomination in the Student (Film) category. In the nominated artwork Augmented Library Aggregation, he selected objects like flowers and showerheads, and volume bashed them to depict a futuristic library space in the video.Augmented Library AggregationAugmented Library Aggregation© Xin Liu, Nero Hevolume bashingAfter experiencing all these fusions of physical and virtual space, you may wonder how LIU made his artworks, what’s more pivotal, how he has formed his design methodology and design language. In our interview with LIU, he reveals his workflow, techniques and design mindset, and explains his playful experiments in the creation process. Last but not least, his suggestion to CG enthusiasts that -- we should not only upgrade our technical skills with 3D software, and also improve our sense of art and aesthetic value -- resonates with what Fox Renderfarm has always insisted on -- Art Challenges Technology, whereas Technology Inspires Art.For detailed interview:Shifting the Boundary of Physical and Virtual Worlds in 3D Art: Introducing Designer & Director, LIU Xin(2)

Painted Room© LIU Xin, Yuting Zhu Fox Renderfarm: Hi Xin, thank you so much for accepting our interview! How do you feel about being the winner of CGarchitect 3D Awards-Student(Film) 2020?LIU: I am very happy and honored. When I heard the news, I was surprised! I have been following this competition since undergrad. I saw a lot of excellent works and knew some like-minded creators from there. I used to wonder if my work will be nominated, and it turned out to be a winner. For me, this is a great affirmation and encouragement. Fox Renderfarm: Phygital Shopping Cart is the second episode of the Phygital Supermarket Trilogy, so what inspired you to create this project?LIU: The "Phygital Supermarket" series is a one-year project, including three experimental animated short films and a 130-page research book. This series mainly explores the combination of multiple technologies and mediums, novel representations of everyday objects, and interactive architectural forms. One of the inspirations for "Phygital Shopping Cart" came from a movie I watched when I was a child, that is "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids".!screenshots of Phygital Supermarket Trilogyscreenshots of Phygital Supermarket Trilogy Fox Renderfarm: Why did you choose C4D as the main 3D software for this project? Could you tell us about what 3D technology or effects are used for the project?LIU: Because we are familiar with the C4D production pipeline including scene management, lighting, animation, and rendering. In addition, many ready-made Mograph tools in C4D can be used to create procedural effects, which meets the overall technical requirements of the project. These tools are enough for us to make playful effects. As each small scene expresses, the main techniques used in this project are Boolean, displacement, brush texture, cloner, Voronoi fracture, and multi-pass rendering. When we used these techniques, we ignored their initial purpose and tried to “misuse” in order to achieve novel representation.1. Farm / BooleanIn a farm covered with LEGO blocks, apples are bitten off by blueberries.!Farm、Boolean-Phygital Supermarket2. 3D Cinema / DisplacementThe iPhone becomes a theater in a small world. Video and flying texts on the screen are extruded out based on moving displacement maps to play “Real”3D movies to the audience which are mini shopping carts.!3D Cinema、Displacement-Phygital Supermarket3. Playground / Painting Brush StrokesFloating painting brush strokes are smeared into various slope ramps to create a playground for small shopping carts. Those brush strokes also smeared on gloves, and the bumpy surface becomes a rock wall for climbing. These paint materials are materials that we first test the shape and pattern in reality with real acrylic paint, and then scan, import, and manipulate in the digital world.!Playground Painting Brush Strokes-Phygital Supermarket4. Disorder / Mograph ClonerThe shelves in the miniature supermarket are disrupted by a mini shopping cart!!Disorder Mograph Cloner-Phygital Supermarket5. Restaurant / Voronoi FracturingLay's potato chips bag becomes a building, where the inside is a cafe, and the big potato chips become a table for mini shopping carts.!restaurant vf6. Viewpoint / Anamorphic Optical IllusionWhen the twisted patterns on the bottles are viewed at a specific point of view, they can be recognized as a meaningful texture or a perfect pattern.!Viewpoint Anamorphic Optical Illusion-Phygital Supermarket Fox Renderfarm: Why did you choose the shopping cart as the protagonist? All the stories of the small shopping carts are finally gathered in one big shopping cart, any meaning for the design?LIU: The "shopping cart" in the title refers not only to the main character of each miniature scene but also to the fact that the entire scene is on a real-scale shopping cart. The daily objects in a real shopping cart have become various scenes where the “adventure” of a mini shopping cart happens. This design not only embodies the concept of nested worlds but also uses the scale comparison of the shopping cart to defamiliarize familiar objects and express architectural potentials.!shopping cart Fox Renderfarm: In the video, the title texts become an original part of each scene. Could you tell us why you choose this unique way of displaying and how did you do that?LIU: We studied a lot of movie titles design in the early stages. In many cases, the text was not overlapped on the two-dimensional video, but integrated into the set design and became a part of the scene props. We like this idea very much. Also, because the supermarket-themed objects contain a large number of packaging designs and involve graphic designs that include text, we decided to incorporate text about each small scene into the packaging design of daily objects.!Phygital Supermarket!Phygital Supermarket!Phygital Supermarket!Phygital Supermarket!Phygital Supermarket!Phygital Supermarket Fox Renderfarm: How long did you take to finish the work? Did you meet any difficulties?LIU: It took three and a half weeks from the conception to the final film. The design ideas in the early stage have been discussed very clearly. It took some time to think about how the film will be presented, such as the camera language. There is a difficulty in lighting during the production stage, which is how to ensure the lighting of both small scenes and the overall shopping cart scene creates a sense of visual hierarchy.!Phygital Supermarket!Phygital Supermarket Fox Renderfarm: As a Designer and Director who was originally trained as an architect, do you plan to have any new explorations in the integration of architecture and digital technology?LIU: Currently, I am interested in the combination of architecture and motion design. It can be mainly divided into two aspects: 1. Dynamically-changing space, that is, with the help of emerging technologies, such as mixed reality, projection mapping, hologram, etc., by combining motion design methods and introducing timeline into architecture, we are able to create spatial experiences that are no longer static, but are dynamically changing influenced by human activities, or vice versa;video clips from Augmented Library Aggregation2. Use motion design to articulate the concept of design, that is, with the help of procedural animation tools, we can use motion visuals to efficiently convey the designer’s idea behind the work, which is more efficient than traditional drawings and models.!Phygital Fox Renderfarm: Phygital (Physical × Digital), the theme of Phygital Supermarket Trilogy, also means the combination of reality and artistic creation, could you talk about your views on this combination and future outlook?LIU: The unprecedented global pandemic and quarantine in 2020 transformed the mode of life and work from the physical world to the digital screen. However, since the physical body ultimately lives in the physical world, the challenge that the screen space takes over physical space and the desire which brings digital back to the physical exist at the same time. Therefore, I believe that the future of digitalization is not pure digital, but an organic combination of digital and the physical realities. From a functional perspective, designers can use digital technology to change human perception to create alternative realities; from an aesthetic perspective, design languages originally belonging to the digital world, such as glitch, can be applied to the design of physical spaces.!the offline and online exhibitions of All At Onceness-1!the offline and online exhibitions of All At Onceness-2the offline and online exhibitions of All At Onceness© LIU Xin, Jessie Pan, Leo Wanthe physical models of Augmented Library Aggregation under normal and UV lighting Fox Renderfarm: What made you start learning CG? Could you briefly share with us your education and work experience along your CG journey?LIU: When I was young, I liked watching movies. My first vision of my profession was to make special visual effects for movies, although I didn't know CG at that time. Later, when I was about 13 years old, I was exposed to some CG software through magazines, so I started to understand, and gradually learned Video Studio, AE, and Nuke, and tried to make some short videos. I studied CG systematically when I was studying architecture in Liverpool, England. Because architectural design needs renderings for presentation, in order to do it better and faster, I self-taught non-photorealistic rendering workflow with Cinema 4D to quickly produce architectural illustrations. After working at the British architectural firm Sheppard Robson for a year, I went to the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) to study for a master’s degree. Since the school curriculum is known for its pioneering and experimental thinking, I deliberately chose courses related to CG during the two years of study, and I have made a lot of advancement in both design thinking and technical skills. With the help of CG tools, I feel the freedom of creation, as if I can "create" anything imaginable. Fox Renderfarm: Which CG artist or CG work has the most influence on you?LIU: ZEITGUISED, whose works are weird, playful, sometimes ridiculous, and thought-provoking.Berlin Magazine “032c”, where I learned a lot of fresh and novel ideas.© ZEITGUISED!Berlin Magazine “032c”032c Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about Fox Renderfarm cloud rendering services?LIU: I really enjoyed rendering with Fox Renderfarm. It has good quality and low price and helps us to meet a lot of deadlines. I also want to mention the 24-hour technical support, which is super helpful. Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?LIU: Believe in your instincts, improve design thinking, and do not be limited to techniques.It is true that compared with many other arts, CG creation has higher requirements for "techniques". If one’s technical skill is not enough, how can we talk about creating "arts" that have aesthetic value? If the creator does not have basic skills, the images in his mind cannot be effectively presented. However, I also see that more CG creators are obsessed with the learning of "techniques" and ignore the improvement of "thinking". They spend a lot of time studying tutorials, but they rarely think about the originality and concept of the works, and make a bunch of "software function test images." Of course, this learning method can quickly improve software operating skills, but with the iteration of software and tools, the technical threshold will only be lowered. Therefore, creators should spend more time improving their knowledge on design and artistic thinking, and think more about how to create their own original work. I believe this is the key to distinguishing excellent and mediocre works.For previews introduction to LIU and his delicate artworks:Shifting the Boundary of Physical and Virtual Worlds in 3D Art: Introducing Designer & Director, LIU Xin(1)")

!CGAWalk&Talk temporary pavilion, designed by SCORE Architecture, is located in Largo de São João in Ponta Delgada, Azores (Portugal). With the excellent depiction of this building, Massimiliano Marzoli’s ArchViz work won the Best commissioned image in 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards.With the strong contrast and excellent composition, the artwork shows the building as a warm and cozy retreat to spend the night. The artist played a bit with the atmosphere in order to enhance the contrast between the cold exterior and the warm interior.The outstanding winner, Massimiliano Marzoli, is an Architect and Digital Artist from Rome, and in 2019, he founded a studio Imperfct, which focus on architectural & product visualization. With this special name, Imperfct wants to celebrate the love for imperfection, because both in CGI and in real life, what makes something true to our eyes are the small imperfections. You can learn more stories about his award-winning artwork and the studio in our interview below.!Massimiliano Marzoli- Massimiliano Marzoli- Digital Artist- CEO & Founder of Imperfct Fox Renderfarm: Hi Massimiliano, could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?Massimiliano: Hey there, thanks to you for giving me this opportunity! I'm a 33 years old graduate architect from Rome, Italy. After University I decided to combine my passion for photography with Architecture and I moved to Venice to study how to become an architectural illustrator. After that, in the past years, I had the great opportunity to work in some architectural and visualization companies in Italy and abroad, before deciding to come back to Rome to found my own company, Imperfct. !Imperfct Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, Best commissioned image category, how do you feel about it?Massimiliano: Still can't believe it, it's an amazing feeling, really! I recently received the prize via mail (since this year it wasn't possible to meet in Vienna) and I'm starting to realize now. I want once again to thank everyone who made this possible. it's a great honor and privilege. !Walk&Talk Pavilion-2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards Fox Renderfarm: The award-winning work Walk&Talk Pavilion is so impressive, and what inspired you to create the work?Massimiliano: Thank you :) Several things, hard to mention all of them. This is the kind of work where you have to experiment a bit otherwise you'll end up doing something already seen a thousand times. One of the sources of inspiration I can mention comes for sure from Simon Stålenhag's works. There was an amazing shot in a parking, in The Electric State that probably came across my mind while creating this image. I remember I thought it was a brilliant idea playing with contrasts and temperatures in the scene. Same thing more or less happening in the Café Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh. Two great references I think. !The Electric State Parking © Simon StålenhagThe Electric State Parking © Simon Stålenhag Café Terrace at Night © Vincent Van Gogh Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take to finish the work? Could you introduce the CG pipeline of this project? Massimiliano: 4-5 working days, feedback rounds included. This project was quite simple, at least on the geometry side of things. A very small building with few furniture inside/outside and big empty public space just in front. So it didn't take too much to build the scene in 3D. The base of the image was rendered (building, furniture, base atmosphere, etc) and then I started the post production process which took more than the 3D phase in this case. Drawings © SCORE Architecture Fox Renderfarm: The work’s atmosphere is so amazing, could you tell us how you set up the composition and any idea behind the contrast？Massimiliano: The idea came after studying a bit the location, which I didn't know at all before this project. I discovered that sometimes in the Azores the weather can vary very quickly so I thought it could have been a nice idea to show the building not as expected, with people sitting enjoying the sun, but instead as a cozy and warm shelter while outside is very cold and wet. Two different worlds meet in the middle of this depiction. The composition is very simple and clean, which is something I always love to go for. Everything in the image creates a sort of tension with its specular element. The warmth of the inside against the cold of the outside, the barman with the guys walking in, the cold street lights with the warm light bulbs, etc. Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any challenges when creating the work? And how did the team solve it?Massimiliano: The main challenge was achieving the right atmosphere I had in mind and creating the right tension between all the elements in the image. It required some research and tests but I'm happy with the final outcome. Fox Renderfarm: Could you give us a brief introduction about your studio Imperfct and team members?Massimiliano: Imperfct is born at the end of 2019 and since then we're now two people working full time and one freelance collaborator working remotely. We eagerly await the moment to come back to a normal life to start working all together!!Imperfct!Imperfct Fox Renderfarm: What’s the development vision of Imperfct? Any new projects or plans can share with us?Massimiliano: The idea is to slowly grow, I want to make sure that all the elements of the orchestra are playing in time. This is not easy but we work very hard on it. About projects, we recently had the opportunity to work on really nice projects, including an animation, that we're going to share very soon. Stay tuned! Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?Massimiliano: Yes, I really want to thank all of those who spent a minute of their time to congratulate us for the 3D Awards result and for what we're trying to do with Imperfct. Thank you so much, we're totally overwhelmed by the enthusiastic reactions.

!CGAAs the largest and most prestigious awards event for the architectural visualization industry, 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards has been held for 17 years and attracts more and more top studios, freelancers and students from around the world to show their talents.Sonny Holmberg is one of the excellent architects, whose work was nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards of image (commissioned) category.The artwork is the interpretation of the blue whale skeleton’s new home in Tromsø Museum in Norway, designed by Henning Larsen. Sonny built a romantic stage for the whale with lighting that creates the feeling of "being underwater".In this interview, you can know how Sonny created the beautiful artwork and his experience of being an outstanding artist and the founder of an architect studio.- Sonny Holmberg- Architectural Visualisation Artist- Founder & Art Director of Depth Per Image Fox Renderfarm: Hi Sonny, could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?Sonny: Thanks for inviting me for the interview! I’m an architect from Denmark, who early in my career decided to specialise within architectural visualisation. I’ve lived and worked in Munich and London and now I’m based in Copenhagen, where I’m from. I’ve previously focused on building up strong in-house visualisation units in architectural practises, but one year ago I started up my own visualisation studio, Depth Per Image. Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on being nominated in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, how do you feel about it?Sonny: The nomination in the 2020 CGarchitect Architectural 3D Awards, really means a lot to me. I’ve been following the awards for many years, and it’s a great honour to have my work recognised in such a prestigious award within our industry.!Tromsø Museum Fox Renderfarm: In this project, you created a new home for the blue whale skeleton, any idea behind the amazing design? And what's your inspiration?Sonny: The brief from the architects stated that they wanted to create a feeling of being under water in the circulation space where the blue whale skeleton should be hanging. There weren’t any specific directions for what this might be. I did some studies and iterations and came up with the simple idea of using light projections of water caustics to create this feeling. In the end the composition and concept with the light projections turned out very successful and the architects were very pleased with the image.!concept-Tromsø Museum-Sonny Holmberg!light projection - Tromsø Museum-Sonny Holmberg Fox Renderfarm: The lighting in the image is so romantic, could you introduce how you created the lighting?Sonny: The lighting is basically created in a similar manner to how you could do it in real life. I’ve used a photo of water caustics as a light projection in my 3D scene. The volumetric light is created by rendering an additional pass with V-Ray environment fog in the scene. In this way I had full control over the light in post-production. I’ve made a little video of the main steps of the post-production process. Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the project? What’s the most unforgettable and interesting part of the creation process?Sonny: The time spent to create this image was around 5 working days. Any image creation process is interesting, but for this image I think the fact that it was a very open brief and I had many talks with the architects to convince them to go with my direction. Lucky, I did manage to convince them and it turned out as a big success in the end.!creation process-Tromsø Museum-Sonny Holmberg Fox Renderfarm: As the founder of Depth Per Image, could you briefly introduce your studio, and what’s the development vision and ambition of your company?Sonny: Depth Per Image is my studio, but also a philosophy. Nowadays a lot of architectural visualisation is simply showcasing a building or space in a generic setting without any thoughts put into it. Depth Per Image seeks the uniqueness in every project we work on and always strives to bring that forward and communicate it in the clearest way possible. What we do is what I refer to as handcrafted images.!Depth Per Image Fox Renderfarm: As a top architectural visualisation artist with international experience, do you have any advice for young artists in the industry?Sonny: My best advice for young artists would be to not focus on the technicalities of software, but instead to train their eyes and imagination. Mastering 3D software is getting easier and easier all the time, but the top artists are the ones not relying on what output the software offers, but purely focuses on being creative as artists. Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?Sonny: To all CG and arch-viz enthusiasts I would encourage you to follow me on social media for more insight and engaging with me on CG-related topics.- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonnyholmberg/- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/depthperimage- Behance: https://www.behance.net/sonnyholmberg- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnyholmberg/

Have you ever imagined what the world will be like if there are endless pandemics in the future?As the 2nd place winner of Evermotion Challenge 2020, Neil Cross, a 3D Artist from London, hopes to warn us about the future world challenges by his artwork “Final Stand”. As he mentioned, ”We need to accept these challenges and learn from our mistakes before it's too late.”!clay-Final Stand © Neil CrossFinal Stand © Neil Cross Using 3ds Max, Corona Render, Quixel Megascans and Photoshop, Neil took 2 months to finish this powerful and thought-provoking artwork, In the interview with Fox Renderfarm, Neil introduced in detail how he created the award-winning artwork.!Neil Cross- Neil Cross- CGI Artist- Senior 3D Artist at The Boundary Architectural Visualisation- London, United KingdomFox Renderfarm: Hi Neil, thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?Neil: Hi Fox Renderfarm. I just want to thank you guys for giving me this opportunity. I also want to thank you guys for the service you offer. Cloud rendering plays a huge role in our community.My name is Neil Cross. I'm originally from South Africa where I started my career as an Architectural Draughtsman working in the construction industry focussed on delivering projects around Africa.After a few years starting off as a draughtsman I found draughting wasn't for me and wanted to be more creative, so I started to get into 3D. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for 3D artists in South Africa so at that moment I decided it was time to pack my bags and move to London. I knew this city was filled with talents and moving here would only help me progress as a 3D artist. I'm currently working full time as a senior 3D artist at The Boundary. I also spend a lot of my free time working on my personal images allowing me to express my creative side.Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about winning second place in Evermotion Challenge 2020?Neil: After seeing all the entries, I'm very proud to have made second place. To be honest, I was just hoping for a special mention, so to make the top 3 means a lot to me. I also have a lot of respect for Evermotion. Their articles have helped me grow my skills, so to come second in an Evermotion Challenge makes it more special.!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds MaxFox Renderfarm: As this year’s theme was "My own 2020", what inspired you to create the work Final Stand?Neil: 2020 has been a tough year for most of us. There's a good chance future pandemics will happen more often where more people will get ill which will wreak even worse damages to the global economy than Covid-19.This challenge inspired me to share my vision towards the future because If there's no fundamental shift in how humans treat nature, these are the things (my render) we could face. I might be over exaggerating but I wanted to send a message.!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds MaxFox Renderfarm: How long did you take to finish the work? Neil: I spent around 30 mins to an hour a day which took around 2 months in total. I was aiming for 2 days but that didn't exactly work out! haha!!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds MaxFox Renderfarm: We’re all impressed by the strong lighting and composition of the work, could you introduce how you set up the lighting and composition?Neil: Thank you! Unlike modeling and texturing, I find lighting and composition less forgiving. It can either make or break your image. I have little experience when it comes to photography so I generally keep things as simple as possible to avoid destroying an image!I'm using Corona Sky (fully desaturated) with no Sun. I've also placed a plane light at the window to help light the interior. In addition, I'm using volumetrics. Regarding the composition I wanted to go with something simple but powerful. Getting the light set up correctly and having my camera focus on the girl was key.!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds MaxFox Renderfarm: There are so many details in the image, which make the scene more realistic and attractive, could you show us how you make them?Neil: I'm always referring back to reference images to help achieve realism. I generally add chamfers and imperfections to everything. !How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds MaxThe biggest stand out for me was the floor. There’s no better way achieving this than using Real Displacement Textures. They are by far my favorite textures. I also push my displacement settings to the limit. I tend to drop my displacement screen size (px) as low as possible for the best results.!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds Max!How To Create A Realistic Doomsday in 3ds MaxFox Renderfarm: Did you meet any challenges, and how did you solve them? Neil: My biggest challenge was having patience. When I first started working on Final Stand I realised I was in it for the long run. I didn't want to spend hours on the image and come back the next day tired. I ended up cutting my time down to an hour a day which actually helped.Fox Renderfarm: You work as a CGI artist for more than 10 years, could you briefly share with us your work experience along your CG journey?Neil: I started my CGI career at a construction company where I initially started as an Architectural Draughtsman. The company entered numerous tenders to try to win new projects. During that period I started to get more involved with 3D to try to impress our clients. 5 years later I decided to join my first studio. I knew I had made the right move knowing I'd be working alongside other artists. It was crazy how quick my skills improved.I wanted to take my career further so I decided to move to London. I first started my career in London with a well known architecture firm. Working alongside different architects was a good experience. During my time there I spent a lot of my time attending events such as 3ds London which helped me grow even further.After some time there I realised that I was best suited to work in a studio so a year later I joined The Boundary where I have grown to become a Senior 3D Artist. Whilst working for The Boundary, I've had the opportunity to go to both State of Art and D2 which were both amazing events to attend.!Night Time © Neil CrossNight Time © Neil CrossFox Renderfarm: Do you have any suggestions for CG artists to improve their CG skills?Neil: Choose a niche you enjoy and master it! Whether you enjoy using ZBrush sculpting characters, 3ds Max visualising architecture, or unreal creating blueprints. Don't try to learn everything unless you are a complete genius.Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?Neil: Just enjoy what you do.If you like my Final Stand Image please follow me on ArtStation for future images.https://www.artstation.com/neilcross