CGSociety

Storytelling
Christmas Eve
3ds Max, Photoshop
Jie Ma, CHINA

Jie Ma is from a small town in the northeast of China. Ma specializes in illustration and animation scenes and 3D software education. Ma has a varied work history, working in positions involving indoor design, landscape design, film editing, picture processing and newspaper marketing. Ma attended the Jilin Art Layout Institute, where, bored with a photography major, he began experimenting with digital art, using 3Ds Max and Photoshop.

“I hope that soon I can expose myself to different styles and genres of digital art, and widen my influences. There are many artists I am fond of, but Francois Schuiten and Eiichiro Oda have been the most important to me. My dream is to be like them, to create a unique world with its own humanities, history, science and technology. I prefer to call myself a computer plotter rather than an artist, although it doesn’t sound as cool, it is the literal truth, and it can help to reduce the pressure.”

Jie Ma »

When Fabrício Moraes saw the amazing graphics of films such as ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Antz’, he realised that 3D was his calling. To get his skills up to speed, Moraes enrolled in an Industrial Design qualification, learning 3D techniques by taking extra courses.

“I think the best part of creating digital art is expressing myself through an image by representing a story or character from my own point of view. This liberty is fascinating. The moment when I finish a work and people see exactly what I intended to express is one of the most precious things in my career.

I get inspired by a lot of artists like Steven Ståhlberg, Krishnamurti Costa (Antropus), Fausto de Martini, Sze Jones, Kolby Jukes, all my work friends and a lot of others. The amazing cinematic games of Blizzard and Blur Studio, Epic Games and Ubisoft, also really impress and motivate me.”

Fabrício Moraes »

Whimsical
Can’t smile without you
3ds Max, ZBrush, Photoshop, V-Ray
Till Nowak, GERMANY

Till Nowak began playing around with computer graphics at age 14, and by 18 his work had already reached professional TV production standard.

“By chance an editor from Germany’s biggest TV station ZDF saw my work and asked me if I could produce an opening sequence for five prime-time TV documentaries. This was how I got my first job, and got a bit of money to found my own little company with a friend. This was 10 years ago. While working this first job, I spent five years studying Media Design at The University of Applied Sciences in Mainz. A big milestone for me among hundreds of other projects at the time was the completion of my animated short film ‘Delivery’, which was released in 2005, and won many awards around the world. A few months ago I moved with ‘frameboX’ to Hamburg, a beautiful city in the North of Germany.”

Til Nowak »

In the late 1990s Sergio Sotomayor was finishing an engineering degree and creating his first models and virtual environments in Rhinoceros and 3d Studio Max. He spent a lot of time teaching himself different digital art techniques while working freelance in the audiovisual industry. Sotomayor’s recent project, ‘Madera’, was awarded the ‘Art Critics Association for Estampa 08, Madrid’ Prize, and he was recently granted scholarships from ‘The House of Velázquez’ and ‘The Pilar and Joan Miro Foundation’.

“In 2001 I moved to Sun Valley, in Murcia. It’s a beautiful place in the southeast of Spain. This really changed my creative process, focusing my attention into reinterpreting reality and artistic expression. My canvas is an infinitely three-dimensional space in which I can create entirely from scratch. Modelling with any material, there are plenty of alternatives for illumination, choices between static images and animated ones.”

Sergio Sotomayor »

Wildlife
Tomb Raider Underworld: Panther Pounce
© Crystal Dynamics/Eidos
Photoshop
Client: Crystal Dynamics/Eidos
Paul Sullivan, USA

Paul Sullivan has a traditional artist’s background, starting with media like oil paint and and acrylic. He began working in the video game industry in 2003, and soon realized the importance of being able to produce art quickly.

“I was forced to figure out how to paint digitally to allow for quicker turnaround of finished designs. For me, digital painting was learned through a lot of trial and error and trying to rationalize what I was so used to doing traditionally, in the digital realm.

My first game job was at Activision, working on the Iron Man and X-Men 3 titles, after that I transitioned to Crystal Dynamics where I worked on the Tomb Raider Anniversary and Tomb Raider Underworld projects. My next move was to Namco Bandai Games, where I did concept development on the Afro Samurai project. Most recently, I worked with DreamWorks animation, doing visual development on one of their next feature films.”

Paul Sullivan »

Coming from a background of traditional art, using media such as pencil, watercolor, acrylics, oils and finally an airbrush, Raymond Swanland found the transition to digital painting fairly painless and almost inevitable. Swanland learnt his craft from artists whom he respected and admired, including Rembrandt and H.R. Giger, emulating them until he found his own stylistic voice. Swanland’s first production art position came in 1997, with the game company Oddworld Inhabitants.

“I worked on all four Oddworld games in many different capacities and found my true education among the multitude of talented artists I worked with. Around 2001, I also gradually expanded my artistic horizons to include a freelance illustration career. Ever since ending my very rewarding run with Oddworld in 2005, I’ve been working entirely as a freelance artist for books, comics, games, films and just about anything that will allow me to stretch the range of my imagination.”

Raymond Swanland »

Sarel Theron studied Illustration and Fine Art at the Foundation School of Art in Cape Town. He began as a traditional oil and canvas artist, however, he is now an enthusiastic convert to digital.

“I love the way it allows for the seamless integration of elements such as photographs and 3D CG models into a painting, something that is just not possible in any of the traditional mediums. For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is when I persist with a painting I’m really struggling with, and through sheer dogged determination, turn it into something I’m really pleased with.”

Theron has worked on numerous projects for local and international clients, including book cover illustrations, matte paintings for commercials, concept art for various pitches, and tutorials for digital art magazines. He is currently working as a freelance matte and concept artist.

Sarel Theron »

Growing up in Moscow in an artistic family, (his parents a playwright and a choreographer respectively), Makar Verigo also dreamed of being an artist. He studied at the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts, specializing in Architecture and Informatics. Verigo then spent two years further refining his skills and freelancing in architectural visualization, advertisement and industrial design. He aspires to finding an interesting and challenging job in game development or movie production.

“A lot of my artistic inspiration comes from rare fragments of my childhood memories. After the USSR crumbled down, the whole country turned into an enormous construction site. This became an environment for our games. Sometimes we found abandoned objects with a strong and grim atmosphere that amazed me; I fell in love with industrial culture when I was a kid, and it still has a huge influence on me and my artistic style.”

Makar Verigo »

Fantasy Femmes
Ari
Photoshop
Nikolay Yeliseyev, RUSSIA

Nikolay Yeliseyev began drawing in Photoshop with a mouse in 2003. A year later he invested in a pen and tablet, and found his artwork started to improve. A self-taught artist, he has recently graduated with a Diploma from the Academy of Public Administration, and is looking forward to having more time to further develop his artistic vision.

“I think that I still have much to learn about creating art. I don’t think I have reached my full potential as an artist just yet because none of my artworks have satisfied me completely, and so I continue trying to find my own unique style and technique. I listen to certain music, I go to the cinema, I look at other people’s drawings and their techniques, and sometimes I rummage through photos. I search for inspiration, and I hope someday to become an artist. I look forward to a future of interesting work and new experiences.”

Nikolay Yeliseyev »