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Fractal Orange, also known as Hanna Loegering, triumphed in the polygoniq 3D challenge "Into the Future," securing first place with a stunning depiction of a lone robot in a fast-paced future world. Her winning piece "Missing" skillfully utilizes cg time-lapse to highlight this poignant narrative. Congratulations to Hanna! Fox Renderfarm as the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and render farm, was honored to sponsor this contest and interview Hanna.Let’s explore Hanna's creative journey in crafting this technically impressive artwork in this interview.Fox Renderfarm: Hi Hanna! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?Hanna: Thanks for having me. My name is Hanna. I’ve been in the creative industry since 2015 and I’m very fortunate to do what I love for work.When I’m not at my computer you can find me swing dancing, at bible study, or playing overly complicated board games like Scythe and Twilight Imperium with my friends and family.Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning first place in the polygoniq challenge "Into the Future"! How do you feel about it?Hanna: Thanks! I’m honored to receive first place. I’m always looking to improve my work and it’s cool to see how I’ve grown from the days of holding crayons in my hands and I hope to keep pushing forward.I love contests like this because it’s so inspiring to see different creators’ concepts, techniques, and artistic styles for the same prompt.Winning piece "Missing"© Fractal OrangeFox Renderfarm: Can you tell us a bit about how you started "Fractal Orange"？What is the meaning behind this name?Hanna: Post college I moved out of state to the amazing city of Fort Worth TX for a job at Serendipitous Films. I was first introduced to the idea of freelancing by the many freelancers that I worked with on set. I decided to move back to my home state of ND to be back with my family and working as a remote freelancer allowed me to do that.I wanted a catchy name, so I just started mashing two different words together until I found something interesting that made sense for my business and personality. I liked "fractal" because I am constantly using fractal-based effects in After Effects and really enjoy creating procedural materials in Blender that often require some sort of fractal noise. I chose the color orange because in my mind, the decision to go freelance was a bold, risky, and exciting opportunity and I think the color orange represents that.AIR•ER © Fractal OrangeFox Renderfarm: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your work "Missing"? How did you come up with this idea?Hanna: I don’t know where my idea for this animation came from. Maybe it’s because I was feeling sad about the impending snow and cold weather and so the robot ended up sad as well.I took part in pwnisher’s render challenges before and was blown away by the 5th place winner Anna on her Moving Meditations Challenge a year ago. She made an awesome time-lapse and I knew I wanted to learn that technique as well. The polygoniq challenge gave me the opportunity to finally try it out.Moving Meditations Challenge © AnnaDynamic Machines - Garage Style © Fractal OrangeMy Friend Bear - Boss Fight © Fractal OrangeFox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you? Hanna: I didn’t track my hours for this project (I probably should have). My best guess is 50 hours. I got an idea for the animation in the first half of the month but wasn’t able to work on it until a week before the contest deadline. The final render was 4 hours total (2 hours for each pass).Since I knew I didn’t have much time to work on this, I used assets from Kitbash 3D, Pollygonic, and Mixamo. I also purchased Trash Kit which is an amazing add-on for, you guessed it, scattering trash.I used Blender, After Effects, and Audition. I also used Adobe Firefly to generate the poster image of the boy and cleaned it up in Photoshop.Fox Renderfarm: Can you tell us how you use time-lapse to create the contrast between the robot and the background? Hanna: There is definitely a contrast between how the robot moves and how the time-lapse crowd moves. Temporarily, It doesn't make sense. Either the crowd is moving really quickly or the robot is moving really slowly, but then he kicks the can and it rolls as if in real time. But that is the great part about animation, we can break the laws of physics!The time-lapse crowd was intentionally used to create a sense of loneliness for the robot. The world keeps rushing on, not caring about the sad little robot.Missing © Fractal Orange Fox Renderfarm: Why did you decide to make the crowd in the background partly transparent? And how did you achieve this texture?Hanna: The robot is the star of the shot, so I didn’t want the crowd to distract from him. Initially, I tried decreasing the shutter speed to allow for more motion blur, but the crowd was still too distracting. I ended up rendering the entire animation twice: one render with the crowd and one without. Then I composed them and made the crowd partially transparent. So the time lapse isn’t physically correct, but I think it helps tell the story better.Fox Renderfarm: How did you achieve the overall atmosphere through the use of colors, materials, and lighting setup in your work?Hanna: This is a hard one. Throughout the entire process, I’m always thinking about the story and trying to make it more clear and I’m constantly tweaking things every step of the process.The cyberpunk city aesthetic allows me to be a bit more free with the placement of my lights. I have a few points and spotlights that are just floating in space, but since there are so many neon signs and possible light sources, I can cheat a bit.I also do a bit of color correction and effects in posts.Fox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges that you encountered during the process of creation? If so, how did you overcome them?Hanna: One of my favorite parts of working in 3D is setting up the scene with the lights and materials and blocking everything out. Character animation is more difficult for me, but my story called for the robot to walk. For some reason, I am just not good at walking cycles. To make it easier on myself, I decided to give the robot an injured foot. This way the walk does not have to be symmetrical and precise. Because his foot is broken, there can be a bit of jank in the walk. I also found some great references to BD-1 from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Walking with a Broken Foot.BD-1, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order © Respawn EntertainmentFox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process? And what was the most memorable?Hanna: There are several moments in the pipeline that I enjoyed. I do a lot of test renders (a still or entire sequence) to reassure myself that I’m on the right track and it’s just a great feeling seeing the whole thing come together in such a short time.I think one of my favorite parts was animating the can. I hand-animated it and used a slight noise modifier on the Z axis to make it seem like it was rolling on bumpy pavement. I like doing little physics-based animation like that. It would have been far too finicky for me to simulate it rolling in such a specific way anyway.I also enjoyed doing the sound design. When I was testing music tracks, I couldn’t help laughing out loud. One of the tracks was so depressingly dramatic, It was like the robot was part of a soap opera. Needless to say, that one didn’t make the cut.Fox Renderfarm: Any favorite artworks or artists?Hanna: This is a hard one. There are SO many amazing animations and creations out there. Some of the ones that come to mind right away are the Spider-Verse films and the Arcane series. I also really like the work of concept artist Sergio Castaneda.Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse © MarvelArcane © Riot GamesConcept Artist Sergio Castaneda's ArtstationFox Renderfarm: Have you tried Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services before? If so, how do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services?Hanna: I have never used Fox Renderfarm or any other render services before. I have a pretty good GPU that I rely on, but I could see render farm services being more important in my pipeline if I start creating longer-form animations.Thanks again to Hanna for accepting our interview! Wishing new heights in your professional career!!Hanna’s social media:Website: https://www.fractalorange.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fractal_orange/Artstation: https://fractalorange.artstation.com/Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/fractalorangeLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanna-loegering/

CG Katha Studios is a Mumbai-based CG studio representing the vibrant storytelling tradition of India. The company has created an animated commercial video for Impact Mints India’s limited edition cricket-themed mints, which is absolutely stunning!As the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and render farm, Fox Renderfarm has provided the cloud rendering service to the team and helped make this animation a reality. We’re also honored to have an interview with CG Katha Studios. Let’s look behind the scenes of this amazing animation!Fox Renderfarm: Hi CG Katha Studios! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please introduce your studio to our readers?CG Katha Studios: Hello and thank you for having us! CGKatha Studios is a Mumbai-based studio rooted in the vibrant storytelling tradition of India. The name "Katha" is derived from Sanskrit, India's ancient language, and it translates to "storytelling." At CGKatha Studios, we believe that every project is an opportunity to tell a unique and compelling story, and our chosen medium for this narrative exploration is computer graphics (CG).Fox Renderfarm: This animation is created for Impact Mints, can you tell us a bit about this collaboration? Why did you decide to collaborate?CG Katha Studios: We partnered with Impact Mints because they admired our previous work. The client trusted our unique style, and our clear communication made the collaboration seamless. and he expressed a high level of trust and belief in our ability to bring that vision to life. resulting in a successful and impactful animation project. Impact Mints © CGKatha StudiosFox Renderfarm: How did you come up with the overall design for this animation?CG Katha Studios: For this project, given the time constraints, we opted for a simplistic design approach. The characters' proportions were adjusted to match dynamic poses from the product pack artwork, ensuring a cohesive and impactful look. This approach allowed us to meet the project's demands effectively and deliver a visually striking animation within the given timeframe.LookDev © CGKatha StudiosFox Renderfarm: There are flashes of black-and-white moments in the video, what does this sudden change of color represent? Why did you make this choice?CG Katha Studios: The black-and-white moments in the video were intentionally crafted to highlight impactful scenes, like characters hitting the ball or a batsman's forceful batting. We drew inspiration from anime techniques to emphasize the impact and intensity of these moments, adding a dynamic touch to the overall visual experience.Fox Renderfarm: How did you use colors, materials, and lighting setup to promote the product in the animation?CG Katha Studios: We chose vibrant colors aligned with the brand packaging and fresh visuals. Incorporating the cricket theme, we used India's cricket blue for the players. Our material approach was simple, avoiding photorealism. The lighting setup simulated stadium lights for an authentic feel. All achieved in Blender, a versatile tool that translated our creative vision seamlessly.Lighting Breakdown © CGKatha StudiosFox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you? CG Katha Studios: Our pipeline was tailored to Blender, an open-source tool offering great flexibility. The process, from concept to the final video, took approximately 45 days. This timeline included ideation, design, production, and rendering phases, ensuring a comprehensive and well-executed project.Animatics to Final Stage © CGKatha StudiosImpact Mints © CGKatha StudiosFox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges that you encountered during the process of creation? If so, how did you overcome them?CG Katha Studios: Yes, we faced a challenge with the camera aspect. We aimed for a specific distorted feel to enhance the impact of character performances. To achieve this, we used wide-angle views with camera focal lengths of 12 and 18. It was a bit challenging, but through careful compositing of shots, we successfully managed to create the desired style.Impact Mints © CGKatha StudiosFox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process? And what was the most memorable?CG Katha Studios: The entire creation process was enjoyable and memorable for us. At our studio, we cherish the journey itself from concept to completion. The satisfaction lies in the creative process. Once the video is done, our focus shifts to the audience's reactions. It's the journey that we truly relish and find the most joy in.Fox Renderfarm: How do you balance the customer company’s requirements and your own creativity when making a commercial video?CG Katha Studios: At the beginning, there may be some mismatches, but ultimately, both the client and our team share the same goal of creating the best video. Throughout the process, we engage in a collaborative exchange of ideas. We present various options to provide the client with a clear understanding of how specific shots can be executed. It's a give-and-take approach where we work together to find the most effective and creative solutions.Fox Renderfarm: Any favorite works in the past that you would like to share with us?CG Katha Studios: We have a few favorite projects from the past, though they haven't been shared online yet. We're excited to showcase them soon and share the creative journey with you all. Stay tuned for updates.Fox Renderfarm: How do you feel about the cloud rendering services of Fox Renderfarm?CG Katha Studios: We have had an excellent experience with Fox Renderfarm. Previously, managing renders within a specific time frame was challenging, but Fox Renderfarm provided a seamless solution. The platform is user-friendly, efficient, and reliable. The 24/7 support from their team, especially Rachel, has been exceptional. A big thank you to Fox Renderfarm for simplifying our rendering process.Fox Renderfarm: What is the future plan for CGKatha Studios? Are there any new ongoing projects?CGKatha Studios: Yes, we have some exciting plans ahead at CGKatha Studios. Currently, we are actively engaged in several commercial projects, each offering unique creative challenges. Additionally, we're working on an in-house 3D animation short film, and we're eagerly looking forward to sharing more details about it with you soon. Stay tuned for updates on our upcoming projects.CGKatha Studios’ Social Media:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CGKATHAANIMATIONSTUDIOS/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cgkatha_studios/

The Hum3D Sci-Fi Industrial Zone 3D Challenge focuses on the theme of science fiction and industrial design, allowing participants to explore futuristic settings. Todor Vladev, a professional 3D artist who is experienced in creating industrial-themed 3D art, won second place in the competition. Congratulations to Todor! Fox Renderfarm as the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and render farm, was honored to sponsor this contest and interview Todor.Let’s take a look at the creation process behind Todor’s stunning 3D render “Interplanetary Pioneers” in this interview.Interplanetary Pioneers © Todor VladevFox Renderfarm: Hi Todor! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please introduce yourself first to our readers?Todor: Hi, thank you for selecting me for an interview. My name is Todor, and I've been involved in 3D art professionally and personally for quite some time. In my free time, I enjoy working on personal projects and engaging in outdoor activities such as bike riding and bouldering.Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning second place in the Hum3D Sci-Fi Industrial Zone Competition! How do you feel about it?Todor: It feels great to be among the top 3 winners of the competition. For me, it's about being part of a great community of artists and for my art to be recognized amongst other great 3D artists.Fox Renderfarm: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your work “Interplanetary Pioneers''? How did you come up with this idea?Todor: At first, I wasn't sure what I wanted to create. The inspiration behind “Interplanetary Pioneers” comes from sci-fi movies such as “Aliens”, “Prometheus” and “Star Trek” and some sci-fi action first person shooters like “Quake 2”, “Doom” and “Dead Space”. I wanted to create an atmospheric environment that is grungy, worn, and old, a place that has been lived in, a space station that has been floating through space for a long time. I also wanted to make the image with a cinematic feel, as if straight from a sci-fi movie.Fox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you?Todor: First, I researched and gathered inspirational images for ideas of what I want to achieve. I also study lighting examples to determine the mood of the image. I start by blocking out the scene with basic modeling and setting up preliminary lighting to get the overall mood. Then, I proceed to detail and texturing the assets while simultaneously adjusting the lighting to achieve the desired atmosphere. Once all that is done, I add the finishing touches, make any necessary lighting adjustments, and then perform some post-production to achieve the final image.Modeling and scene setup © Todor VladevModeling and scene setup © Todor VladevCheck out Todor's pipeline in more detail here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8b1dLQFox Renderfarm: The metal texture in your work is so realistic! Can you tell us how you achieved all the different complex textures and details?Todor: That was the main challenge for me in the competition. I needed to capture the right look and feeling as if the space station is very old and well-used. The metal textures were created in Substance Painter by blending different materials, painting details, and adding decals and grunge to surfaces to achieve the desired appearance.Texturing models in Substance 3d Painter - Walls © Todor VladevTexturing models in Substance 3d Painter - Floors © Todor VladevFox Renderfarm: There are several different character figures in your work, can you tell us about the blocking and the relationship between them?Todor: I aimed to create a bustling atmosphere while keeping the focus on the two main characters, the space pilots. I wanted the space station to feel alive, teeming with activity. Picture engineers maintaining corridors and machinery, workers welding pipes and metal plates, others having lunch and chatting, a briefing room where new missions are discussed, and astronauts making their way to the space hangar.Interplanetary Pioneers © Todor VladevInterplanetary Pioneers © Todor VladevFox Renderfarm: How did you achieve the overall atmosphere through the use of colors, materials, and lighting setup in your work?Todor: Lighting played a pivotal role in this image. Achieving a moody space environment presented challenges. For instance, if the lighting is uniformly distributed, the scene lacks depth and narrative. To convey the right mood, I focused on highlighting key features of the space station. The colors emanating from the briefing room, the distant corridor—these accentuated secondary elements. The primary lighting source from the space hangar on the right underscored a crucial part of the story, while simultaneous lighting from the left emphasized the path of the astronauts navigating the bustling space station corridors. This deliberate arrangement drew the viewer's attention to secondary elements such as corridors, hallways, the briefing room, and workers welding.Base model and lighting © Todor VladevBase model and lighting © Todor VladevFox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges that you encountered during the process of creation? If so, how did you overcome them?Todor: The creation process didn't pose many challenges. I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve within the given timeframe.Fox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process? And what was the most memorable?Todor: Yes, lighting is the most enjoyable part of the creation process for me. It offers freedom and creativity, opening up numerous possibilities. I also find post-production to be quite enjoyable.Fox Renderfarm: We see that you have done many industrial-themed works in the past too, why do you choose to stick to this theme? Any favorite works that you would love to share?Todor: I'm drawn to the grungy look and feel of those environments. As a child, my dad used to take me to his workplace in shipyards and ship engine rooms. I would imagine myself on a spaceship, surrounded by control panels, blinking lights, and immersed in the smell of engine oil and grease. The moody lighting and the bustling activity in those places left a lasting impression on me.Late Night Snack © Todor VladevOutpost Planet © Todor VladevMission to Minerva © Todor VladevFox Renderfarm: Any artworks or artists that inspire you the most?Todor: My inspiration comes from concept art in sci-fi games and movies, with a particular appreciation for Ian Hubert's work. His creations encompass amazing sci-fi and cyberpunk environments, along with captivating animations.Party Tug © Ian HubertFox Renderfarm: Have you tried Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services before? If so, how do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services?Todor: I haven't really tried Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services before. But I know the services are quite good and useful for big and small projects too.Fox Renderfarm: Any future plans in mind?Todor: Not at the moment. I've recently begun exploring Unreal Engine 5 and I am eager to create more amazing work and animations using this platform.Todor’s Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/todorvladev/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todor-vladev-5b496635/Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/tvladev

Veggie Go Round is a collaborative animated short film created by an Illustration and Digital Animation student team - Salad Bowl Studios, for their final year graduation project at The One Academy. It’s an action-packed comedy about a young boy who imagines the veggies on his plate as live monsters, merrily inspired by the universal childhood experience of growing up as a picky eater.Watch Veggie Go RoundAs a leading render farm and partner of The One Academy, Fox Renderfarm has provided the cloud rendering service to the team and helped make this animated short film a reality. We’re honored to have Violet Lee, the Director of Salad Bowl Studios here and made an exclusive interview with her. Let’s look behind the scenes of Veggie Go Round through this interview.Fox Renderfarm: Hi Violet, thank you so much for accepting our interview. First of all, please introduce yourself and your team to us.Violet: Hello, thank you for the precious opportunity! I’m Violet Lee, the Director of Salad Bowl Studios. We are a team of twenty-eight 2D and 3D artists who created a short film Veggie Go Round that was released earlier this year in June 2023.Fox Renderfarm: Why did you call yourself Salad Bowl Studios? Is it a combination of all kinds of CG talent?Violet: That’s right! Salad Bowl Studios consists of various students majoring in Illustration, 3D Animation and 3D Modeling in The One Academy, Malaysia. The concept of a Salad Bowl is indeed our way of describing the bright mixture of CG talents that contributed to this short film about vegetables.Fox Renderfarm: Could you tell us more about this short? And what was the inspiration?Violet: Veggie Go Round is a cute and light-hearted comedy portraying the adventures of a young picky eater as he imagines himself being chased by vegetable monsters. When creating this story, we took inspiration from our own childhood memories of disliking veggies, as we’ve found that many people around the world can relate to this experience.Our head writer, Metta Soegiharto, is the main lead this pitch is accredited to, as she had worked tirelessly to bring us the full development and visual flow of the script alongside co-writer Chi Hang and line producer Ly-Ann. To add a fun fact: we had originally imagined our film to have an eerie and sinister style like Cuphead! However, we ultimately decided on a cute short that’s safe and friendly for young audiences.Our initial idea was thought to have a darker art style. © Studio MDHRThe final execution ended up cute and funny. Meet the vegetable monsters! © Salad Bowl StudiosFox Renderfarm: How did you design the characters of the little boy and vegetables? Were there any references?Violet: To approach each of our character designs, we start with describing a prompt of the character. For example, our boy is a “small mischievous boy, ginger hair with a hat”. Then our illustrators begin compiling a variety of references to develop design concepts around this prompt.Prompt: small mischievous boy, ginger hair with a hat.A collection of sketches by our character artist team that captures the boy best. © Salad Bowl StudiosOnce the most suitable idea was established, our lead character artist Erina Sufian proceeded with the final version of the boy’s design.Boy character sheet by Erina Sufian. © Salad Bowl StudiosUp next is the adaptation of 2D design into 3D model, executed and rigged by our lead modeler Hsin Wei.Boy sculpt by Hsin Wei. © Salad Bowl StudiosCompleted 3D model, rigged and textured by Hsin Wei. © Salad Bowl StudiosDemo of our boy’s personality, animated by lead animator Ardelia Tiffany Yoga. © Salad Bowl StudiosAs for the rest of the cast, it is a slightly different process where we narrow down our selection of iconic vegetables to make the prompt, before creating cute and charming designs from the unique shapes. Under the guidance of art director Ting Wei, here are some key points of our veggie development.Studying the silhouettes of existing food characters for inspiration. © Salad Bowl StudiosOriginally, we were sketching out eccentric and creepy veggie monsters for the thrilling chase scene. Later on however, it became clear that cute rounded designs were more visually appealing for general audiences, especially when viewed and animated from different angles. And that’s how our adorable and energetic cast was born!Three different render styles for our character cast explored by Hui Ching, Joel Chong and Natasha Ng. © Salad Bowl StudiosDiscovering the “personalities” of each veggie: illustrated by Ainsley Phua, Hui Ching, Natasha and Ting Wei. © Salad Bowl StudiosDemo of our veggie character lineup in 3D with distinct silhouettes and unique behaviors. The execution was a collaborative effort - modeled by Hsin Wei, Donovan and Nicholas, rigged by Alex and Vincent, and finally animated by Ardelia Tiffany Yoga, Ammar Syahiran, Violet Lee, Chloe Loh and JoJo Chan.Fox Renderfarm: Could you introduce the pipeline/workflow of this project? What software or plug-ins did you use? And how long did it take you to finish the short?Violet: To keep track of our progress and scheduling, we referenced the classic animation production pipeline to divide our workload across pre-production, production and post-production stages. Below is an illustrated example of how each task may be split.Image © "3D Animation Essentials" by Andy Beane.In the case of our film, we referred to this timeline with some minor deviations depending on the completion status of each phase. Pre-production is largely focused on developing the story, character and environment designs in 2D so that the 3D team can begin sculpting and building the previsualization scene. An efficient workflow ensures that all the look development plus 3D blocking is completed before moving onto the production stage — which focuses on polishing the animation, finalizing the model textures, and fixing any rigging issues that subsequently arise. Lastly, post-production is dedicated to lighting, rendering and compositing as this process can take longer than expected to tweak and troubleshoot. This is also the stage for us to prepare promotional materials for official release on various platforms.Once the film’s individual scenes have been stitched together with music, sound effects, visual adjustments and special effects, that’s when we know our film is complete and ready.Example of environment blocking in the pre-production stage, modeled by lead environment artist Nicholas. © Salad Bowl StudiosRender of a scene in production stage with refined textures and lighting. © Salad Bowl StudiosFinal result upon release, after compositing and VFX. © Salad Bowl StudiosThe main software of choice for our production is Autodesk Maya, and relevant supplementary work was done in ZBrush, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro. Our line producers Ly-Ann and Chloe Loh collaborated to manage the timeline and arrange the task distribution for each team member.It took us exactly a year from May 2022 to May 2023 to complete our 4-minute short film, and we managed to speed things up by having processes run concurrently such as the 2D team finalizing the visual design whilst the 3D team constructing the previs at the same time. The benefit of having a team of diverse talents is that you don’t have to wait for one task to be complete before starting the other — you can have multiple sectors simultaneously working on separate fragments to be combined later on.Fox Renderfarm: The little boy has rich facial expressions and various movements. How did you achieve this cute style through animation? Were the animators observing the behaviors of children or taking reference videos before?Violet: I’m very happy to hear that! Yes, to capture the cute vibe of the character, we began by compiling funny clips of children reacting to eating vegetables. However, as we proceeded to the 3D animation stage, we found that there were many references that needed further refinement before they could be translated into our workflow. That was when we started recording our own facial expressions and movements to match the emotional progression of our boy under the direction of our lead animator, Ardelia Tiffany Yoga.Here is an example of using our own recordings to refine body language and timing, acted by Vincent Yeoh and translated to animation by Filbert Yohanes Sulivan. © Salad Bowl StudiosAnother example acted and animated by Ammar Syahiran with more emphasis on pose-silhouette and emotions. © Salad Bowl StudiosA difficulty that we faced at this point was realizing how hard it was to transfer movement information from a properly-proportioned reference to a small character with tiny limbs — the boy needed to run more little steps compared to our one big step. Therefore, we referenced the stylized animation movements of ‘Coin Operated’ and the TinyTAN series to better match the small body proportions of our boy.An inspiring short film with a bouncy character. (Two Ghosts Films "Coin Operated", Nicholas Arioli 2018.)Chibi animation of BTS members. (TinyTAN “Dream ON”, Big Hit Ent 2021.)Fox Renderfarm: Did you guys run into any obstacles? How were they resolved?Violet: Working in 3D, technical troubles come pretty frequently. Most of the obstacles we met were related to rigging and the occasional bug in the software (Maya), but with the guidance of our lecturers, we managed to learn the necessary solutions to resolve them.Unwanted mesh deformations can appear haunted in nature.Eye constraints that bugged out due to a conflicting namespace.Whenever we encounter an issue with a rig, we first consult our lead rigger Hsin Wei to see if the problem lies with the rigging process, the model topology, or the animator’s settings. If the rig’s structure looks fine in the Outliner, we test the rig to gauge how the mesh deforms with skin weights and blendshapes.We’ll also check the animator’s rig settings to see if they may have used an older version of the rig or accidentally tweaked an attribute without knowing. However, sometimes the solution is as simple as making sure everyone is using the same version across the board. When we began production we started with Maya 2022.3, but when we upgraded to 2022.4 a few months later, some parts of the rig needed to be redone to accommodate the transition. Our veggie rigs in particular required a lot of manual re-rigging from scratch due to the stylistic proportions that can’t be replicated with automated rigging tools. Although necessary, it definitely caused delays when our animators needed to re-animate parts of the rig that were affected during the update.Fox Renderfarm: This work is rich in color and goes well together. How did you consider the color palette for different scenes? Please give one or two examples.Violet: I’m glad you think so. While refining the story beats, we were considering the color progression to match the emotional state of the boy throughout his journey. Regarding the kitchen scenes, we wanted to give a safe homely vibe like ‘Wallace &x26; Gromit’ and ‘Bao’.Semi-realistic warm tone of a comfy kitchen, designed by Revvathy and modeled by Nicholas and Donovan. © Salad Bowl StudiosHowever, the Veggie Land has a more stylized approach influenced by the films ‘Trolls’ and ‘Blue Curry’. To capture the childlike disgust for vegetables, our illustrators took the initiative to explore crafts with an emphasis on color and textures.Mood and texture experiments created by our illustrators. © Salad Bowl StudiosColor-focused explorations painted by Patrick Ch’ng, Shun Cheng, Revvathy, Ker Er and Ting Wei. © Salad Bowl StudiosAfter these explorations, we optimized our research into a cohesive color script that the lighters and compositors can refer to. Starting from a bright imaginative wonder, the colors slowly turn more eerie and dark as the boy delves deeper into his adventure.Color script as the story progresses, compiled with the guidance of Metta Soegiharto. © Salad Bowl StudiosComparison of 2D key art and 3D execution. © Salad Bowl StudiosFox Renderfarm: What are the future plans for Salad Bowl Studios? Are there any ongoing projects?Violet: Thank you for your interest! For the time being, we have no further projects scheduled under Salad Bowl Studios as our members are either focused on personal projects or have begun working in local CG production industries (Malaysia and Indonesia). As we are a student-run group, there is still much to learn when it comes to creating art in a professional environment. I’m proud to say that many of my teammates are working hard to gain creative experience and/or progressing in their careers within their preferred specialization.Salad Bowl Studios: an array of talents covering illustration, animation, modeling and rigging.In addition, I’d like to add that many of us are individually open to contract work and freelance. If you are interested in hiring our members for your vision or project, please email an enquiry to saladbowlstudiostoa@gmail.com or connect with us through Instagram via @veggiegoround.Fox Renderfarm: On top of that, we’d like to know more about you, our director. How did you encounter CG?Violet: As a kid, I was always a big fan of cartoons that aired regularly on TV. Animating stories was my dream and learning about how technology has advanced to develop 3D productions was very inspiring and humbling at the same time.For example, when you’re young, you think that greenscreens are magical enchanted backdrops. Only when you’re older, do you start to realize how the necessary special effects that contribute to the film’s commercial success were manually created and layered by artists over months of hard work. For a perfect result, creative people are willing to go to extreme lengths to tell stories and break conventional limits. Although I’m most familiar with CG creations through Disney and Pixar storytelling, it’s amazing to realize just how much the work of CG artists across animation, modeling and VFX actually make up the backbone of most films we see today.Fox Renderfarm: Any artist or artwork that inspires you the most?Violet: Admittedly it's not easy for me to name specific persons, as many of the films I enjoy are created by a large team of highly skilled artists and creators that combine their unique strengths to produce a fantastic result. However, I find that some examples of CG work I’ve been awed by lately are the immersive character-centric animation shorts produced by Blizzard and Riot Games, as well as the revolutionary experimental style of the Spider-Verse movie series.A screenshot from one of the first game-animated shorts I watched a few years ago. The prospect of expanding in-game character lore through CG animation really took my breath away. (Overwatch “Alive”, Blizzard Ent 2016.)A music video with fantastic execution, animated by French studio Fortiche Prod. Although these are in-game characters, the production team did wonderful bringing them to life. (K/DA “POP/STARS”, Riot Games 2018.)A series with beautifully-stylized art direction, produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Animation. The dedication to wit and detail in the film left an unforgettable impression. (Spider-Man “Into the Spider-Verse”, Marvel Ent 2018.)Fox Renderfarm: Veggie Go Round was rendered with Fox Renderfarm. How do you feel about the cloud rendering services of Fox Renderfarm?Violet: I recommend it for both personal and team-based projects! Fox Renderfarm has been a very helpful asset in the making of ‘Veggie Go Round’, especially when our release date was just around the corner. Although I would consider our scenes less resource-intensive than many other 3D projects, we did have some shots with dynamic lighting and shadows that required at least a day or two to render with our best computers. However, Fox Renderfarm’s service managed to render these shots within a matter of hours — it was so satisfying. Implementing it into our workflow has sped up production and given our compositors more opportunity to polish up the film’s outcome.Once your settings are established and ready to go, I definitely suggest trying out Fox Renderfarm to complete your rendering. A scene that takes an hour to render by laptop can be completed within seconds, and that extra time you save can be dedicated to making adjustments for refinement. I think all CG artists should get familiar with cloud-based rendering, and Fox Renderfarm is a good introductory service thanks to their helpful and proactive staff.The render settings for our project file on Fox Renderfarm.Fox Renderfarm: What would you like to say or share with the CG enthusiasts who support your works?Violet: I think the message I would like to leave most for fellow CG enthusiasts is to extend more appreciation to your own creations and others. If we take a moment to truly appreciate the incredible privilege we have in being able to create and immerse ourselves in the world of CG, we will realize how behind every project lies countless hours of dedication and creativity.It's essential to remember that we're not just crafting images; we're giving life to our ideas and passions. In this ever-evolving field, flexibility and adaptability are becoming increasingly valuable. Embrace the opportunity to diversify your skill set, but never forget the profound joy of creating something uniquely your own! Let's continue to support and inspire each other, nurturing our love for CG and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Our shared journey is a testament to the beauty of human creativity.

Natalie Ho, a designer based in Hong Kong and Vancouver, took part in the Domble Symetri Student Awards and won both the Gold and Silver Awards in the “Best 3D Animation (Non-Automative)” category. Congratulations to Natalie on this outstanding achievement! Fox Renderfarm as the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and render farm, was honored to sponsor this contest and interview Natalie.This interview will focus on Natalie’s silver award entry “Comfy Spaces”. Let’s dive into the creation process behind this therapeutic animation work.Fox Renderfarm: Hi Natalie! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please introduce yourself and your school to our readers? (If you are willing, please attach a selfie to the questionnaire! It can be a CG-animated version too. No pressure! you can choose not to as well)Natalie: Hi! My name is Natalie Ho, and I am a designer based in Hong Kong and Vancouver. I'm a 2023 fresh graduate from Central Saint Martins (UAL) in London and just got my BA in Graphic Communication Design!Natalie HoNatalie Ho’s CG characterFox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning both the Gold and Silver Awards in the “Best 3D Animation (Non-Automative)” category of the Domble Symetri Student Awards! How do you feel about it?Natalie: It feels pretty surreal. I entered this competition without much expectation of winning, but I did so anyway because I thought if I got that slight chance of winning, wouldn't it be nice to share the work I've done for my final year? What a great way to complete my degree ahaha!Fox Renderfarm: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your work "Comfy Spaces"? How did you come up with this idea?Natalie: Surprisingly, my inspiration for combining therapy with environments came from Yayoi Kusama! Her creation of spaces full of patterns and art was her process of healing the mind, and seeing it in an exhibition in Hong Kong made me question what a modernized version would look like. How would you combine modern tech and spaces to create more art therapy solutions?© Yayoi Kusama"Comfy Spaces" was a concept I had for one of my final year projects. The idea is an AR comfort room, a supportive therapeutic environment where users can customize their space based on their needs to destress. It aims to be a convenient and accessible way to provide comfort and be in a safe environment at any time. In hopes of contributing to users' mental health wellness, this private comfort room's purpose is to cope with anxiety and break away from the hectic lifestyle. The outcome is more like a prototype of what "Comfy Spaces" would look like if this idea became a reality."Comfy Spaces" of Natalie:Fox Renderfarm: Why did you choose to create an interior design work? Have you encountered a space like this in real life before?Natalie: Comfort rooms can take place in an indoor or outdoor environment. It all depends on personal preference with what type of space you'd feel more at peace. That's why I created an indoor and outdoor space to show an example of the atmosphere for both options.I have encountered a space like the indoor room. It's pretty similar to my home since many design choices have modern Asian design influence.Isometric view of the indoor room (not fully furnished) © Natalie HoFox Renderfarm: There is a use of cute Japanese plushies in your work such as Gudetama, Kirby, and Pompompurin. What is the meaning behind this choice and why did you choose these particular characters?Natalie: The interior and exterior design for both environments were based on survey responses I collected for the project as a substitute for not creating a functional personalized room generator! It was like a BuzzFeed quiz where I had people create their ideal comfort rooms, and I picked out responses for each environment to make it more personalized. It just so happened that the responder for the indoor room loves Sanrio characters and games, so I thought that including the little plushies would be a cute surprise for her!Fox Renderfarm: How did you achieve a soothing and relaxed atmosphere through the use of colors, materials, and lighting setup in your work?Natalie: All the models are low-poly, but I wanted to capture the cute, simple aesthetic in low-poly games, so most proportions are scaled to be rounded and stubby-like. As for the colors, I chose light pastel colors since they are more soothing to the eyes than highly saturated tones.There were many options with what lighting I should go for, and many would have different preferences with what time of day they'd like to set their environment. But in this outcome, I settled for a sunset daytime feel so it wouldn't alter the original colors too much, and using orange and pink lights gives the environment a very comforting, warm glow.With that said, what brought everything together was the sound. Sound is powerful, especially in creating immersive atmospheres. So, using various combinations of natural sounds and instruments elevated the experience.Lighting experimentation © Natalie HoLighting experimentation © Natalie HoFox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you?Natalie: I had approximately five weeks for the project as a whole. But with all the concept creation, drafting, planning, and feedback, I was left with one week to start and complete the 3D work. It sounds ridiculous, and it was ahaha.Initial sketch of the outdoor environment model © Natalie HoFox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges that you encountered during the process of creation? If so, how did you overcome them?Natalie: I'm not a pro with 3D design since I'm pretty new, and I am primarily self-taught with Blender, all thanks to YouTube. It was a challenge to create a variety of props for the scene, but I always enjoyed adding detail and the modeling process (even though it is a pain a lot of the time). It's all about practice and patience. Once you get used to the workflow, you can make anything!Work process © Natalie HoWork process © Natalie HoFox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process? And what was the most memorable?Natalie: Creating the tea set in the indoor room was a joy and made me reminisce about my home. The most satisfying feeling is setting up the lighting. You get to see how your outcome looks under any lighting and how it affects the mood.Little tea set model © Natalie HoFox Renderfarm: As a student, how much time do you spend in a week to practice your CG skills?Natalie: Even now, I'm still practicing as much as possible! During my final year, I forced myself to work with Blender as much as possible by incorporating them into my projects. Currently, I've been working with Maya very often every week, mainly because I'm taking short courses to strengthen my modeling skills further.Fox Renderfarm: Any artworks or artists that inspire you the most?Natalie: Yes, and it's my cousin! His work shocks me every time. He goes by nocluse (Nick Wong) and mostly does mecha models using Blender, and he's hella good at it. Before doing any 3D work, I'm sure many others have felt intimidated and reluctant even to touch 3D design. I gained a lot of motivation thanks to him, an architecture student who loves Gundam.Flamingo © Nicholas WongFox Renderfarm: Have you tried Fox Renderfarm’s services before? If so, how do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services?Natalie: I have not, but I will use it for my upcoming projects! My PC will be pleased.Fox Renderfarm: Any future plans in mind? Do you plan to pursue a career in the CG industry after you graduate?Natalie: I will continue to improve to pursue a career in the CG industry! I'm taking 3D game environment courses with CGMA to strengthen my portfolio as a designer and artist.Natalie’s Social Media: Website: https://911natalie.cargo.site/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/911natalie/YouTube: https://youtube.com/@911natDeviant Art: https://www.deviantart.com/911natalie ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/911natalie

The stop-motion 3D animated short film "The Goose", directed, written, and designed by Jan Míka, was officially selected by the Annecy Festival in the “Young Audiences Shorts Films” category. It tells a story about a boy fantasizing about becoming a famous footballer, playing in big stadiums, but first, he has to win a match in his small backyard against a goose.As the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and leading render farm, Fox Renderfarm participated in Annecy Festivals and exhibited at MIFA. We were honored to meet Jan Míka at MIFA and have an in-depth interview with him.Jan MíkaProducer & Director, Founder of FilmofonIn this interview, Jan will share with us his experience in the CG industry and provide insights into the process of creating his project “The Goose”. Let’s look at the interview and learn more about Jan!The Goose teaserFox Renderfarm: Hi Jan, it’s our honor to have you here in MIFA. Thank you for accepting our interview. Please introduce yourself first and your company Filmofon.Jan: Hi Everyone! My name is Jan Míka, I am the founder of Filmofon which is based in the Czech Republic. Our company is mainly focused on hybrid films and we are combining different techniques such as stop motion, CGI, classic 2D cartoon animation, live action, and we put everything together to achieve a unique look.Fox Renderfarm: What's the story behind the logo design?Jan: Filmofon is a machine that creates films. In the previous logo, we had the machine included and it was kind of a box that projected the films. Later the logo was compressed into letters with a circle representing the lens and a triangle representing the light beam.Logo Design © FilmofonFox Renderfarm: "The Goose/Husa", directed by you, becomes the Official Selection in competition at Annecy Festival 2023. Congrats! How do you feel about it?Jan: Thank you! Yes I'm super happy because it is an honor to be included in that competition, especially in a program for young audiences. I'm honored to be among the only eight films selected, that is absolutely fantastic! I also came here to represent another film and to discuss any potential collaborations, to meet people, friends, and producers, and to watch films of course.The Goose in Annecy FestivalFox Renderfarm: What’s your plan at Annecy?Jan: Well I would like to see the official competition for short films. The Czech Republic also has a feature film by Filip POŠIVAČ in the competition. So I'm really looking forward to it.Fox Renderfarm: Can you give us a brief introduction to the story of this short film?Jan: The story is quite simple. It's about a boy who fantasizes about playing football in big stadiums and becoming a famous football player. But first, he has to win a match against a goose in his front yard. So the story mainly focuses on the conflict between a small boy and the big goose.The Goose © FilmofonFox Renderfarm: Why did you choose the felt/puppet style and stop-motion animation to present this project?Jan: In the beginning, I wanted to have a human-touch feeling in the film, so I decided to go with real-built sets and shoot it in the studio. Anyway... we had some stylized characters that would be difficult to animate in stop-motion. Therefore, we decided to use them only in a certain amount of shots, but the rest is in a complete CGI pipeline. Every shot had to be shot twice, first with the puppet and then a second time without them. So we had the clean plate and the reference with puppets. It was kind of animatic in a set. The puppets were animated very roughly, like a blocking. Later, during the post-production, they got two takes from us. One clean plate for adding 3D characters, and one reference with the blocking animation. So animators knew exactly what the characters should do, where they should stand, how big they are, and what is the lighting on them. I'm focused on hybrid films so the combination of real footage with CGI was something I wanted to try and to test.Fox Renderfarm: How did you make it? What software &x26; plug-ins did you use? And how long did it take you?Jan: “The Goose” is produced by a Czech company Animation People and a French company called Autour de Minuit. In the Czech Republic we shot the real footage and then transferred it to France where all the 3D stuff was made. It was made in Blender and rendered with Cycles.I started the development in 2017 and the production began in 2021. It took about a year and a half to complete the film.Behide the scenes of The GooseFox Renderfarm: Were there any difficulties encountered during the production?Jan: Yes, there were a few of them. First I had to change the ending of the film since the French TV wanted me to change it to a happy end. Now I see it was a good decision so I would like to thank French TV. During the shooting, there was a little bit of reordering and replanning of shots. The entire shooting took about two months so there was time to change things. Other difficulties included the size of the puppets because we had well-made puppets to work with, but of a different scale than we needed. The overall proportion was slightly bigger than we expected, so we couldn't use them on sets as we planned. Instead, we used 3D-printed characters for the blocking and it was luckily enough...The Goose © FilmofonFox Renderfarm: Are there any impressive memories during this production alongside these difficulties?Jan: The whole process was amazing, everyone was learning a lot. We had to have a motion control jib for the camera, extract the data from the motion control and then bring them to the 3D software. So there was also a conversation between Dragonframe engineers and the data management support on Blender’s side.Fox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG? Could you share your educational and career experience with us?Jan: Let’s start with the cooperation with Fox Renderfarm which was very nice. Last time I was in Annecy with my previous film, I was contacted by the Fox Renderfarm team who offered some free rendering credits to try the cloud rendering service, and I was quite happy because I'd already started to plan this film (The Goose). It was difficult for me to develop it on my own with no budget at all. So I was happy that someone was helping me. I did some tests with 3D characters, and all the rendering during the development of “The Goose '' was done with Fox Renderfarm.Regarding my educational background, I started by studying live-action films, but then I realized that almost every of my live-action films at school had some animated sequence. It got me thinking that maybe I should care more about animation. I started to study again, this time at a department called Classic Animation and Visual Effects at Film Academy of Miroslav Ondricek in Pisek, a Czech university, and that brought me directly to the animation industry. My graduation film called “We're Human, After All” is where it all started. The fundamentals of live-action and animation brought me to combine these two worlds and start making hybrid films. 3D in general is something that can be done very easily at home with a computer, nowadays the visuals can be fantastic and very realistic, so it brings great opportunities and I'm ready to catch them.The Goose © FilmofonFox Renderfarm: Which of the works you have directed/taken part in has impressed you the most? And why?Jan: I’m impressed the most by a project I’m currently working on. No matter what it is. I think it must be this way. If I’m not impressed by what I'm doing then something goes wrong.Fox Renderfarm: Any artist or artwork that inspires you the most?Jan: Yes, absolutely there are some directors and filmmakers that were a big inspiration for me. One that I’d love to mention is Czech director Karel Zeman. He has passed already but his films are still alive. Still very fresh and innovative. He started to combine live-action and animation in a very unique and artistic way, and those films were very successful worldwide and still are. Even nowadays. The film I'm working on at the moment is also a tribute to Karel Zeman’s films.Fox Renderfarm: May I know the status of the project right now that is in tribute to Karl Zeman?Jan: The project I'm working on at the moment is called “Kill, Kokesh, Kill!” It's a short film based on a story by another Czech writer named Karel Michal. The combination of the film is very tricky. We combine real actors in close-ups with a 2D cut-out animation in wide shots. The cut-out will be made of photographs of actors.Kill, Kokesh, Kill! © FilmofonFox Renderfarm: How do you like Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services?Jan: Like I’ve said, It is very quick and stable. I remember that when I was designing a character and preparing it for rendering using photogrammetry, the rendering time on my device took ages. I rendered one frame for thirty minutes or so... I said to myself, let's try Fox Renderfarm’s service. I pushed all those settings up to the best quality and I was so impressed by how quick it was. I just uploaded my files and the image (TIFF) sequence immediately came out. It was so quick! It was exactly what I needed. So my experience is very good.Fox Renderfarm: At the end of our interview, what else do you want to share with us?Jan: Have a nice time, enjoy your life and goodbye!Filmofon Contact and Social MediaOfficial Website: https://www.filmofon.cz/en/filmofonFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/filmofon.cz/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/filmofon.cz/Vimeo：https://vimeo.com/filmofon

Organized by acclaimed visual effects artist pwnisher (Clinton Jones), the 7th Global 3D Rendering Challenge, Boss Fight Challenge, recently ended. It was a great opportunity for anyone to challenge themselves and nearly 3,000 entrants from around the world participated.Fox Renderfarm, the industry's leading cloud rendering service provider and render farm, had the honor of sponsoring the rendering part of Gautam's artwork Zoro vs. Godzilla and interviewing him. Let's take a look at how Gautam learns 3D and makes his creations as a college artist, and how he accomplished this artwork.Fox Renderfarm: Hi Gautam! We are honored to have you here! Could you please introduce yourself first to our readers?Gautam: Hi, I am Gautam Kumar, 3rd year Architecture student from India.Fox Renderfarm: What brought you to the 3D world? And what made you keep creating in the 3D world?Gautam: Movies are the most important part that brought me to the 3D world. During my childhood, I got fascinated with how 3d makes imaginative things look real, and how it has no boundaries. My dream is to make my own studio which is what keeps me wanting to create new works.Fox Renderfarm: Could you show us your first 3D work and your favorite one?Gautam: My first project is a logo animation:My favourite 3D work is my cars video:It shows how much I have tried to improve with time.Fox Renderfarm: What 3D software, renderers, and plugins do you use? Which is your favorite and why?Gautam: No doubt Blender is the best software for everything. It has its own render engines, many free helpful plugins and addons, and it’s free so everybody can use it. The best part is that it has a very relevant and active community.Fox Renderfarm: As a college student, how much time do you spend practicing your 3D skills and how do you improve them?Gautam: Due to my heavy schedule I don’t have much time during weekdays so I practice 4 hours every weekend. If we talk about improving it only comes from making something because learning is not the only solution for getting good or best at something, you have to utilize that knowledge and create something out of it.Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever encountered challenges in learning 3D? If so, how did you overcome them?Gautam: The main challenge that came with learning 3D is the hardware because you need good hardware to create a good 3D render. However, I overcame the challenge by just making something because at that time I had a PC with i3 4GB RAM which can hardly handle 3D renders. So I mainly learned modeling because it can support a viewport but it gets hung when the model becomes heavy. After I got a decent laptop I started my full animation journey.Fox Renderfarm: Any artist or artwork that inspires you the most?Gautam: Transformers movies are the turning point of my 3D career. If there were no Transformers movies I would have been doing something else.Fox Renderfarm: After graduating, would you consider a job related to the 3D industry? If yes, is there a desired career goal?Gautam: For now I am pursuing a degree in Architecture.Fox Renderfarm: What inspired you to create your own YouTube channel and name it Tri-Core Studios? Will you continue to be active as a YouTuber in the future?Gautam: It was my friend who suggested this idea. Regarding the inspiration for YouTube, I wanted a place to showcase my work as a college student and I think YouTube is the best platform for it. Yes, I will continue being a YouTuber in the future.Fox Renderfarm: Could you show us your pipeline of your work "My Journey (Zoro vs Godzilla)" for the Boss Fight challenge held by Pwnisher?(With images would be better)Gautam: First I created a concept art.Due to having little time, I had to search models online and I got model for Zoro.And started setting up the main scene and it was looking ok.For the king I tried to simulate fire through embergen but it was not working so I decided to change the main villain to Godzilla.So I downloaded a free model of Godzilla for Sketchfab and remeshed it accordingly.After that I complete my scene setup.And then added all extra effects.After that I completed my animation work.And now its done.Fox Renderfarm: Did you have any problems making "My Journey (Zoro vs Godzilla)"? How did you solve them?Gautam: There were so many issues to deal with. There was one time because of my laptop issue, I got only 3 days to complete the project. Sometimes my Blender file crashes so I have to redo all the work which got deleted. Many times in the middle of working some unknown glitches appear that have to be fixed before moving forward etc.Fox Renderfarm: After using Fox Renderfarm to render this project, how do you feel about our cloud rendering service?Gautam: It was great and fast, very much satisfied with it.Thanks again to Gautam. Good luck with your Architecture degree and making a name for yourself in the 3D world!

Kenny, a self-taught 3D artist and illustrator with two years of experience, took part in the Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries 3D contest organized by True-VFX and won third place. Congratulations to Kenny for this achievement! Fox Renderfarm as the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and render farm, was honored to sponsor this contest and look at all the spectacular talents.Let's look at the interview with Kenny and learn more about his amazing works.Kenny’s artwork for Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries ChallengeFox Renderfarm: Hi Kenny! We are honored to have you here! Could you please introduce yourself first to our readers?Kenny: Hi I'm Kenny, a self-taught 3D artist and illustrator, I have been doing 3D for about 2 years now.Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 3rd Place in the Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries Competitions organized by True-VFX! How do you feel about it?Kenny: I feel very happy to win 3rd place. It was a very enjoyable experience, I learned a lot, and there's definitely room for improvement too.Fox Renderfarm: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your work? How did you come up with this idea?Kenny: I was mostly inspired by the "Garden of Words" movie by Makoto Shinkai.Makoto Shinkai’s The Garden of WordsFox Renderfarm: Your render has an overgrown springtime atmosphere of rebirth, which fits the theme. Could you tell us how you considered the colors, materials, and lighting setup to achieve it?Kenny: Since it is a nature scene the predominant color would be green, and I wanted to add some other colors to complement the green, for example brown. For lighting, I had an overcast HDRI blocked with tree models to add more interesting shadows. There is also a volumetric material for the lighting to bounce and reach all parts of the scene.Fox Renderfarm: Why did you choose two birds to be the only creatures in the scene? Was it a consideration for the theme? What is the story behind your work?Kenny: As it is an abandoned place I didn't want there to be any human being, and having 2 birds interacting felt like the perfect touch of life in the scene without overdoing it.Fox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you?Kenny: It took me about 10 hours total spread across 4 different days (Not counting render time). I didn't have a proper pipeline other than dropping assets in the scene and following my intuition, so I'm not really proud of it and am trying to change it.Check out Kenny's breakdown video here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtiyYyQqJSe/Fox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges you have encountered during the process of creation? If so, how did you overcome them?Kenny: I was having some trouble integrating the foreground into the background, as you can see the midground in the scene is a bit poorly done. Also, the high focal length made it harder for me to keep the composition together.Madman’s Basement © KennyFox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process? And what was the most memorable?Kenny: I personally really like looking at reflections. Having rocks and trees and seeing their reflection in the water material was kind of fun.Fox Renderfarm: Any artist or artwork that inspires you the most?Kenny: I am mostly inspired by Makoto Shinkai and Ian Hubert.Farmhouse by the Lake © KennyFox Renderfarm: How do you update your knowledge and practice your skills to follow up with new trends in the CG industry?Kenny: I probably bite off more than I can chew and do many things at once which is not a good idea. There are so many things to learn and I don't limit myself to a certain subgroup of CG, so I just give myself projects that would explore different aspects of CG and improve my skills in it. Recently I have been working on projects that would focus on animation, proceduralism, and stylized art.Jurassic Park Warehouse © KennyFox Renderfarm: Have you ever tried the cloud rendering service from Fox Renderfarm? If so, what do you think of our services?Kenny: I haven't yet, but it's on my to-do list. There's a big animation challenge coming up and I'm saving my credits for it.Fox Renderfarm: Do you have a goal in mind for the future? How long do you plan to achieve it?Kenny: I want to do many things, for example making my full CG short film, learning filmmaking, and becoming a VTuber. I don't have a long-term plan but I am trying to hold a 30-day marathon this September where I will make a different thing each day regularly to improve my illustration skills.Kenny’s social media: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Artstation.Thanks again to Kenny for accepting our interview and we wish you all the best!

The FGT Art Campaign is a monthly 3D challenge organized by Fox Renderfarm for our users to shine with their talents. In May, our friend Andrey Oliver's submission "Stylized Wednesday Addams" was chosen as the featured work of the month. Congratulations! As the industry's leading cloud rendering service provider and render farm, Fox Renderfarm has the honor to interview Andrey, so let's take a look at Andrey’s story and his winning entry.Stylized Wednesday Addams © Andrey OliverFox Renderfarm: Hi Andrey, thank you for your submission to our FGT Art program and congratulations on being selected as the featured artwork of May 2023. First of all, can you please introduce yourself?Andrey: Hello, my name is Andrey Oliver. Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate and have my artwork featured in May in the FGT Art program! I am a self-taught artist and I currently hold a degree in Animation Design. I have been studying 3D art since I was 12 years old and have always been driven by curiosity and the challenges of the 3D art form.Fox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG and become a CG artist? Can you tell us a little bit about your career experience in the 3D industry?Andrey: I have always enjoyed drawing. When I was 6 years old my mother showed me Paint and PowerPoint, where I made my first animation with stick figures. At the age of 12, my cousin introduced me to Blender for the first time, and since then, I have never stopped studying. In college, my friends and I created a short film called "BUG", which has received some awards at festivals. Today, I work as a freelance 3D generalist, specializing in character design and animation.BUG © Andrey Oliver and his friendsAndrey Oliver’s portfolio pageAndrey Oliver’s FilmFreewayFox Renderfarm: Why did you choose to create "Stylized Wednesday Addams"? Are you a big fan of "The Addams Family"? And what were your references for this work?Andrey: Yes, I really like "The Addams Family". After Netflix released the series "Wednesday," I got inspired to create 3D artwork. My goal was to make the overall design a blend of all the different versions of Wednesday, including the hair, clothes, and other elements, combined with my own artistic style.Fox Renderfarm: Could you elaborate a bit on your workflow/pipeline of this work? And how long did it take you?Andrey: For my workflow, I used ZBrush for character modeling, Marvelous Designer for creating clothes, Topogun 3 for retopology, Substance Painter for materials, and everything was brought together in Blender and rendered using Cycles Render. Since this project was quite heavy, rendering an 8K turnaround on my computer would have taken a long time. So, I used Fox Renderfarm, which took very little time to render all the frames, which I found incredible. This gave me more time to edit and color grade in DaVinci Resolve. In total, it took me around 4 weeks to complete this project.© Andrey Oliver© Andrey Oliver© Andrey Oliver© Andrey Oliver© Andrey Oliver© Andrey Oliver© Andrey OliverFox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties during your creation? How did you tackle them?Andrey: Yes, the biggest challenge was definitely grooming the braids. Since I wanted a design where the braids formed a hangman's noose shape, it was very difficult. I found some solutions on how to braid hair in a few YouTube videos, but they were from older versions of Blender, so I had to adapt and come up with solutions on my own.Fox Renderfarm: How did you make the 3D hair grooming and the pigtails?Andrey: To create the braids, I followed a tutorial by the artist Nazar Noschenko, who has incredible artwork. The logic was to create three guided curves in the direction of the braid and convert them into hair fibers using a plugin that unfortunately only runs on older versions of Blender. Since my design had a unique shape, I had to create three different braids: one starting from the head, another one just for the loop, and a spiral braid specifically for the knot of the loop. I had to create three braids for each side of the head. This was one of the most time-consuming and complex processes to accomplish.© Andrey Oliver© Andrey OliverFox Renderfarm: Have you learned any new 3D techniques recently? How do you improve your professional skills?Andrey: Yes, I have been studying cloth sewing to improve the designs I create in Marvelous Designer, and I'm also exploring new ways to create a more natural skin shader. For fashion, I use the books by Antonio Donnanno, "La tecnica dei modelli" vol. 1 and vol. 2. They are incredible because they present clothing cutting patterns, making the process of learning cuts much more intuitive. As for skin texturing, I watch tutorials and read forums, as well as try to figure things out on my own. Most of the time, if you experiment and test new node configurations, you end up with very good results.© Andrey OliverFox Renderfarm: Is there any artwork or artist that inspired you the most during your CG learning journey?Andrey: Yes, there are three artists that I always draw inspiration from: Julen Urrutia, Gabriel Soares, and Rodrigo Paulicchi. All of these artists create simply incredible designs for their stylized 3D characters. Personally, I've only met Rodrigo Paulicchi; I attended a lecture he gave a few years ago at my college. These three artists inspire me because with each piece of art they create, there is something to learn just by looking at it, both in terms of character design and the aesthetic quality of the rendering.© Julen Urrutia© Gabriel Soares© Rodrigo PaulicchiFox Renderfarm: Do you have any future plans for your 3D career?Andrey: Yes, I have plans for the future. My main focus is to join a big studio, take part in incredible projects, continuously develop myself along the way, and explore different areas since 3D is so vast. Currently, I specialize in Character Design and hope to one day find an opportunity to work professionally in a good place. My biggest dream is to work at Disney!!Fox Renderfarm: What do you think of the cloud rendering services of Fox Renderfarm?Andrey: Amazing, seriously. For the first time, I was able to render my artwork with much better quality. Wednesday, for instance, has 8K textures and a large number of hair particles. It would be too heavy to render a turnaround of her on my computer. With your render farm, I managed to easily render several frames in 8K.Fox Renderfarm: As a CG artist, do you have any advice for people who are still new to the CG industry?Andrey: Absolutely! To be honest, even though I've been studying 3D for 10 years (I'm 22 now), I'm still relatively new to the industry. I recently graduated, and what I can say is, if you truly love this, be perseverant and patient. Always seek inspiration from art or artists you admire. Don't compare yourself to others; instead, use them to maintain your motivation. The beauty of art is its uniqueness for each individual. Evolve, build your portfolio, seek feedback, and never stop learning. Even when watching a movie, try to learn from it. The important thing is to keep going while respecting your limits.Thanks again to Andrey for accepting our interview! We wish you to achieve your goals soon and reach new heights in your professional career!!

We are glad that we invited Quinn VB for an interview, who is a photographer and a self-taught 3D artist for only one year. Quinn participated in the 3D contest, Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries, which was organized by True-VFX and won first place in the competition. Congratulations! As the industry's leading cloud rendering service provider and render farm, Fox Renderfarm was proud to be one of the sponsors of this challenge and we witnessed many outstanding entries!Let's start our interview and learn more about Quinn and his amazing works.Arriving at Paradise © Quinn VBQuinn VB’s ArtstationQuinn VB’s DeviantartFox Renderfarm: Hi Quinn! We are honored to have you here! Could you please introduce yourself first to our readers?Quinn: Hello! I’m Quinn (she/her) and I’m a 30-year-old self-taught amateur hobbyist from Canada. I’ve been a hobbyist photographer for around 10 years but I am still very new to the world of 3D. I spend my free time making things in Blender, gaming, and taking care of my fish!Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 1st Place in the Abandoned Spring Sanctuaries organized by True-VFX! How do you feel about it?Quinn: Thank you! It took me entirely by surprise. There were many absolutely stunning entries to the contest and I was confident that I wouldn’t even make the top ten. I was very shocked when first place was announced and it was my entry that won.Fox Renderfarm: How did you find out about this competition? Would you like to participate in more 3D competitions in the future?Quinn: I’ve been somewhat active in True-VFX’s community Discord for a while and I have used their products before, so I found out through them. I’m absolutely interested in more contests; it has been a ton of fun!Fox Renderfarm: Could you elaborate a bit on your workflow/pipeline of this project? And how long did it take you?Quinn: I’m still very much a student when it comes to 3D/CG artistry, so I’m sure my workflow is far from the best. I first started out by collecting various reference images in PureRef that best fit the rough idea I had in my head of what I wanted. Then, using those images, I blocked out some basic shapes in Blender (the stairs, room shape, etc) and moved them around to find a composition I was happy with. The hardest part was translating my mental image into 3D and I rebuilt the scene several times. The scene was made in Blender with some textures being done in Substance Painter while others are procedural. The True-Terrain easter egg was made in an entirely different scene by reverse-searching the font True-VFX uses and placing some text in the grass and rendering it. It’s hard to see in the scene, though.Arriving at Paradise © Quinn VBFox Renderfarm: Could you tell us the story or the idea that you want to express in this work? And what is the inspiration behind your work?Quinn: I wanted to convey the idea that the viewer wasn’t in the sanctuary yet, but it was just slightly out of frame or out of reach, that it was a destination and we (the viewers) were just about to step into it. I felt this also meshed with the idea of something being abandoned or neglected. The image is a transition in numerous ways both literal and otherwise.Fox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us a bit about your use of colors, materials, lighting, and overall composition?Quinn: I come from a background of hobby photography and one of the best things I ever learned during my photo days was “photography is painting with light”. I think this translates to any type of visual art medium, including 3D, so getting the light correct was extremely important. I spent a lot of time tweaking the light just right so the sunlight interacted with the foliage in a pleasing way. Secondly important was making the scene look adequately dirty and grungy. I really wanted to make it look like this train station hadn’t seen any servicing or cleaning in a long, long time.Fox Renderfarm: We noticed you added words in your artwork, is there any special meaning behind it?Quinn: The “Paradise” text was added in because I felt it added some character to the scene and also acted as a sign that people have been in this space before. The sign is a custom texture made in Substance Painter and I wrote over top of it with my drawing tablet.Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties during this work? How did you tackle them?Quinn: I find the hardest part of any project is translating my vision to 3D. One thing I think helps with that is to find as many reference images as I can to help give me a visual idea to work with; something to wrap my brain around. I can think of “abandoned train station” but putting that on the screen isn’t as easy. As for the scene itself - the escalator stairs were tricky to get looking how I wanted. Also maintaining accurate scale throughout the entire creation process.Fox Renderfarm: What is the most satisfying part of your work?Quinn: The best part for me is when I hit render and see everything come together. Seeing light interact with the things I’ve created, appearing as real, physical things, is awesome to me. It never gets old!Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any favorites from previous productions that you can share with us?Quinn: One of the pieces I made before my contest entry was this one I made of a dystopian-styled cistern. I quite liked the way it turned out.Regrowth © Quinn VBFox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG and become a CG artist? Could you share your educational or professional experience with us?Quinn: I am 100% self-taught and have been on the 3D journey for just over a year now. 3D was one of those things I considered too advanced or too difficult for me to ever attempt so I put it off for years and years. One day I decided to download Blender simply to play around with because I was both curious and highly bored. 200 tutorials later, here I am!Fox Renderfarm: Is there any artwork or artist that inspired you the most during your CG learning journey?Quinn: No specific artist, but I’ve always been fascinated by old 3D landscapes made in Terragen and the like. I remember trying my hand at making them years and years ago and being very confused as it was way beyond my skill level (and patience!).Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any plans or goals for your future CG journey?Quinn: I would really like to advance my sculpting skills and learn character creation. Most of what I do is hard-surface modeling and I’d like to branch out a little and learn some new things. I am happy to learn anything new though, and thankfully there are always new things to learn and improve on.Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever tried cloud rendering services from Fox Renderfarm? If you did, what did you think of our services?Quinn: This is my first time! I am entirely new to render farm’s services and I am excited to learn how they work and how they can speed up my rendering process.Fox Renderfarm: As a CG artist, do you have any advice for people who are still new to the CG industry?Quinn: Set goals. Always have a goal in mind for you to work towards. Even if your goal is as simple as “make a wine glass” or “make a happy face out of a sphere”. These little goals give you something to focus on, to learn from, and to get excited over as you accomplish them. And, even more importantly, don’t give up! CG art can be quite complicated and there is a lot to learn but at the same time the potential is limitless - you can create anything you want.Thank you Quinn for taking the time and wish you all the best in the future!Let's take a look at some of Quinn's other stunning and fantastic works:The Basement © Quinn VBFirefly © Quinn VBThe Gardens © Quinn VBLearn more about Quinn: Quinn’s Artstation &x26; Deviantart.

RenderHub's Sexy Robot Contest ran from January 25th to March 31st, 2023, and the theme was to create an original sexy robot character. The contest received many amazing entries, and in addition to the top three winners, there were eight Honorable Mentions. Fox Renderfarm, the industry's leading cloud rendering service provider and render farm, is honored to sponsor the competition and to have a chance to interview Roy Stanton, who won the Honorable Mention.Jacked In: Data Transfer Commencing… © Roy StantonFox Renderfarm: Hi Roy! We are honored to have you here! Could you please introduce yourself first?Roy: Hi! My name is Roy Stanton, and I’ve been a visual artist working in traditional media for my whole life, and digital media for the last twenty years.Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning Honorable Mentions in the Renderhub's Sexy Robot Contest! How do you feel about it?Roy: Very excited! I’m a big fan of cyberpunk and sci-fi art in general, and art featuring robots, in particular. I’ve also done a lot of pin-up style art, so this was the perfect blend of many of my interests.Fox Renderfarm: Regarding your award-winning entry “Jacked In: Data Transfer Commencing...,” could you elaborate on your workflow/pipeline of it? And how long did it take you?Roy: For me, I tend to work in thumbnails first, and often will do a quick sketch of a piece with pencil and paper, just to get a feel for the overall composition.From that point, I’ll choose a model in the software I’m using (DAZ Studio, in this case) and do any custom work as far as shaping, texture or the addition of any assets like clothing that I think would work. The pose is worked out based on the thumbnail sketch, and then an environment is added.I’ll then start thinking about framing and lighting, and working on arranging the “set pieces” to allow the lighting I want to use to do what I want. For this image, once I had settled on framing, I had to ensure that all the flexible pipes (which were their own project in terms of posing) entered and left the frame in a compositionally sound way.Additional lights were added to bring out certain areas of the figure where I wanted the viewer’s eye to rest, and I utilized some very small, specific spotlights to bring out the figure’s eyes.Once the posing and lighting were locked in, the scene was rendered and the finished image was put into Photoshop for adjustments in tonal value, contrast, exposure and gamma correction.As for time, I think I put in about five days, working anywhere from 3 to 6 hours on the image at a time.The wireframe © Roy StantonFox Renderfarm: Can you tell us the story or the idea that you want to express in this work? And what is the inspiration for this work?Roy: Well, the brief for the contest was “Sexy Robot”, so that is the foundation the idea is built on. In my experience, determining what is “sexy” can encompass so many factors. I wanted to show a humanoid robot in a state of sensual pleasure over the uploading of data into its system. Like that kind of situation is for a robot the closest thing to human sex. To add to the titillation factor, I’ve draped all these long, flexible pipes over and around her, and they definitely have a phallic sense to them. Where are they going? How are they plugged into the robot? In what way are they transmitting data? Through some viscous fluid medium? Also, the addition of the liquid surface in which the robot is reclining and the overall glossy appearance of the figure give it a more sensual, sexy look.I think my primary inspiration is the work of H.R. Giger. He typically incorporated a great many objects with sexual overtones into his designs. Though my figure doesn’t have the same look as Giger’s, the notion of sexualizing a machine is in line with Giger’s imagery, I think.Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties during this project? How did you tackle them?Roy: I think the most challenging aspect of the project was posing the flexible pipe. It was certainly the most time-consuming. I tackled that issue as I do with any difficulty in a project: patience and diligence.Fox Renderfarm: Why did you choose a texture like ceramics? What were your considerations for the texture of robot?Roy: Going back to the “sexy robot” nature of the image, I wanted to represent a figure that was definitely NOT human, and the glossy off-white skin was a good way to do that. Additionally, it was a good texture for showing off all the curves of the figure against a relatively dark background and floor. And there’s something sexy in a smooth, glossy, curvy surface. It invites one to touch it.Fox Renderfarm: How many faces does the model have? How did you handle the high polygon model and low polygon model of your work?Roy: The model as you see it in the render has 1,047,552 faces. When working on the image, I’ll set the resolution to a much lower value, with only about 16,000 faces. I’ve got a fairly robust computer system, so I had little trouble working with a model that size.Fox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG and become a CG artist? Could you tell us a bit about your journey in 3D?Roy: My first encounter with CG was with video games, and at one time I thought I might want to get into game design. To that end, I enrolled in a digital art program at the University of Washington that focused on training in 3D Studio Max and Zbrush. Before then, I had discovered Poser software and was playing around with that at home. My career trajectory shifted away from CG design, but I still liked to utilize the tools to create art, and that’s when I discovered DAZ Studio.Elven Goblin Hunter Portrait © Roy StantonFox Renderfarm: Is there any artwork or artist that inspired you the most during your CG learning journey?Roy: I’ve already cited H.R Giger, but I’m also a fan of a lot of fantasy artists who work in traditional media. Frank Frazetta, Dave Stevens, Adam Hughes, Stanley Lau (Artgerm), Frank Cho, and Phil Noto, just to name a few. There’s also a big crossover in my favorite artists into the comic industry.Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any plans or goals for your future CG journey?Roy: For me, it’s about refining what I want to say with CG. At this point, I regard the software as another tool in the pursuit of making fantasy art, or even fine art. A lot of the images I produce veer out of sci-fi and into the realm of fantasy or even everyday life. It’s all about capturing a feeling and communicating that to the viewer.Fox Renderfarm: Have you ever tried the cloud rendering services of Fox Renderfarm? If you do, what do you think of our services?Roy: I think it’s a great set up and I’m looking forward to using it very soon!Fox Renderfarm: As a CG artist, do you have any advice for people who are still new to the CG industry?Roy: I think I’d say again that CG software has become a tool for any artist who wishes to produce beautiful imagery, not just for the game industry but in terms of fine art, as well. I think that as a CG artist, it still benefits you to have training in traditional art forms, as well as the conceptual basis. Whether you’re making art with pixels and polygons or oil paint and a brush, there are some basic techniques that will always serve the artist in their creative efforts.Let's take a look at some of Roy's other artwork:Hulk in the Aftermath © Roy StantonEagle in the Cassini System © Roy StantonWhat Waits in Darkness © Roy StantonThanks to Roy for accepting our interview! To learn more about Roy and his artwork, visit his website or Artstation.

The Sexy Robot Contest was organized by RenderHub, from January 25 to March 31, 2023. And its winners were announced on April 14! Olisoda won First Place with the work “Cyber Geisha”. Congratulations!Image via RenderHubFox Renderfarm, as a world-leading render farm and the best cloud rendering services provider, is glad to sponsor this competition and witnessed the birth of many excellent and beautiful artworks. We were honored to have the opportunity to interview Olisoda, talking about his award-winning work and his CG journey.Olisoda's Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/studio_aberrationFox Renderfarm: Hi, Olisoda, it’s our honor to have you here. First of all, please introduce yourself.Olisoda: I am a 3D generalist working in southern California, with the hopes to make a movie one day! I’ll try my best to sound intelligent here. Hi Mom!Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning First Place in The Renderhub Sexy Robot Contest! How do you feel about it?Olisoda: Feeling absolutely ecstatic about it! I got to really stretch my legs in this one. The extra time allotment from the contest allowed me to flesh out some more details and try out some new methods for making characters. I don’t get to often work with characters that are more “hard-surface”, so experimenting with the different materials that aren't skins was a nice change of pace.There were some really really good entries to compete against as well. A couple of them were just stunning in concept and execution. I’m happy that there was that pressure to push me to make something that I thought was truly exceptional. That being said, with some time to think about the piece, there is a lot I would change. The knees down are a sore point, and the clothing could have used some more detail, just to name a couple.Cyber Geisha © OlisodaFox Renderfarm: There are some Japanese elements in your work, what was the inspiration for this work? Are there any references?Olisoda: In my WIP images for the contest, I had said: “I didn't have an explicit plan going into the project. I did know a couple of key things going in. It was going to be a female character, Japanese inspired, and contain cherry blossoms.” Even without a plan, the initial Japanese inspiration probably stems from my love of anime. Many shows that I watch have scenes with gorgeous cherry blossoms. I just think they are pretty, and wanted to replicate them in my work.There are a lot of scenes with cherry blossoms from one of my favorite anime movies, “A Silent Voice”. I still can’t really get my own cherry blossoms to look as pretty as they did there.A scene from one of my favorite anime movies, “A Silent Voice”. I still can’t really get my own cherry blossoms to look as pretty as they did there. (image via the internet)As for the look of the character, I didn’t want to do something that was considered attractive or sexy now in modern times. The feudal look with sci-fi bits. Interesting right? Really just fun to work around.Fox Renderfarm: Could you please describe your workflow/pipeline for this project? And how long did it take you?Olisoda: The character came first as she was the subject of the scene. I used only Blender when it came to modeling the character. Since the character was still very humanoid I used the sculpt mode for most of the work. For parts that were more mechanical, I jumped into the edit mode to build. When everything was modeled, UV Unwrapped, and rigged. I exported it to Substance Painter for texturing. The colors just came from the reference images of the pale makeup with red flourishes.Image via BYRDIEWhen texturing was done. I exported the textures back into the scene and applied them to the character. Several poses were tried, and with one selected, the rest of the scene was to be built around it, with composition lines to guide the placement of assets. While building the scene, I kept the colors in mind. Making sure that there weren’t so many colors to overstimulate the eye. Originally I was going to have flowers in the grass but it would add pink to the scene which didn’t really match:I used the camera's depth of field to blur out the background, and volumetrics to desaturate the colors of objects further back. All of that with the main objective of drawing the eye to the character as they are supposed to be the focus!TL;DR-Blender: Modeling, Retopology, UV-unwrapping, and Rigging → Substance Painter: Texturing→ Blender: Posing, Scene setup, lighting, and Rendering→ Affinity Photo: Post work→Done.The project was maybe 1 month and 10 days of work.Fox Renderfarm: Could you share with us your considerations on lighting and texture to give the robot appearance and photorealistic?Olisoda: I have been trying to mimic how an IRL sensor captures light for quite a while now and how imperfect they are. If you go out in the middle of the day, you won’t be able to make out the detail from something reflecting the light. But if you try and squint to block some light, the area in shadow will then lose the detail. Blender can output an image that lets you see everything, but it isn’t realistic. A lot of my early work has that issue of being much too flat in the lighting and low in contrast. You can see every detail, but it's just not realistic. In my recent projects, I have been trying to purposefully “lose” detail for realism.Taking that into consideration. Lighting a subject is something I think of as, how I highlight the specific features that I think are important. Bright spots in an image draw attention from the audience.Example of an early lighting attemptThe lighting from the cybernetic bits on the character is something that I wanted people to see, but the sun in some positions will absolutely drown out those lights. Especially in the eyes, the iris lights are almost gone. It becomes a balancing act of making sure that the audience can see the small cybernetic lights and making sure the character is properly lit.Final RenderThe eye lighting is plainly more visible(and more dramatic) just from a little strategic placement of the sun. Using the “hair” and “pin” as shadow casters kept the sun out of the eyes. Angling the sun also brought out the detail like panel lines and other small Greeble-like bits. Lighting isn’t something that I have the best grasp on, so I can’t really give you all the things that I look for explicitly. A lot of it is getting to a point where I have a good gut feeling.For her skin, I tried to copy the shiny porcelain look of some Japanese Hina dolls. Since it was shiny enough to be reflective, I had to make sure that there were objects in every direction. Even outside the frame, behind the camera, so that the skin had something to mirror. I was bound by hardware limitations though, so the reflections aren’t as populated with assets as I wanted them to be.Fox Renderfarm: Did you have any difficulties in creating this work? How did you solve them?Olisoda: I wouldn’t say I had much difficulty. Most of the processes that I used are something that I am well versed in. Most of my issues pertained mostly to managing the memory usage in the scene.Fox Renderfarm: Could you introduce some of your memorable 3D works? And why they are unforgettable?Olisoda: Trying to make my own Thanos is a particularly bright spot in my memory. It's where I was hit by the Dunning-Kruger effect particularly hard, but it opened my eyes to how truly talented some people are.I just like this one. My very own mascot.© OlisodaFox Renderfarm: How did you encounter CG and develop it as a career? Could you share your educational experience with us?Olisoda: My first encounter with CG was with Google SketchUp in middle school. Maybe 13 years old at the time? I had fun building my own little worlds, low poly as they were, just fun. In high school, I enrolled in classes for rapid prototyping with Solidworks. Shout out to Mr. Ford. I had gotten good at it, but ultimately I fell in love with Blender after playing with the default cube and running physics sims! That was back in 2014 and this was my first creation!© OlisodaSince then I primarily learned Blender from trial and error. Just exploring the program. I would look up videos on any hard topics like hair particles or cloth sims. A slow gradual buildup of knowledge for almost 10 years.Fox Renderfarm: Any artworks or artists inspire you the most?Olisoda: WLOP. Pure witchcraft. I still am trying to chase the aesthetics and lighting of their work. Their understanding of 3D space in a 2D medium. Breathtaking stuff.Fox Renderfarm: Have you used Fox Renderfarm?Olisoda: Cloud rendering isn’t something that I have had a need for yet. Most things that I would render out right now, are something that I could leave running overnight. As I get closer to making my own film, the use of a render farm looks to be inevitable. After winning the RenderHub Sexy Robot Contest and some render coupons from Fox Renderfarm as a prize. It’ll be fun to test it out!Fox Renderfarm: As a CG artist, do you have any advice for people who are still new to the CG industry?Olisoda: For every project, make it a habit to try 1 new thing. Maybe it’s a new modifier or a new compositing setup. Treat learning a 3d program like an adventure. It keeps it fun and there's a good chance that you will stumble onto a new favorite tool!Thanks to Olisoda for accepting our interview! More interviews with other winners of the RenderHub Sexy Robot Contest will come soon! Stay tuned!See all the winners and learn more on the RenderHub Sexy Robot Contest.