Please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you initially became interested in Architectural Visualization? Do you have any formal training in this field?

Nothing much to say about myself really. I am an ordinary 35 years old guy doing 3d for a living. For the past 10 years I have been spending my work and free time in front a computer. I’m happy as my work and my interest are the same, though my wife and kids are not always so happy about it.

I learned some basics about 3d while studying architecture and later industrial design. But I fell for 3d so much that I spent a lot of time learning alone thanks to the free information on the net.

Do you have any background or interest in traditional art and if so does it help you to make your digital 3d art better?

Yes I always showed interest in traditional art forms. In fact from the early age my biggest interest was drawing, painting and clay modeling. In the “hippie” phase of my life I did a lot of “murals” so painting on walls provided a form of income and even got me trough the military service the easier way.

What I regret is that after discovering the computer slowly I stopped drawing and painting so lately Im trying to work more on my skills… but as always time is the worst enemy.

In my case the traditional background helps me as I look at my works more in the “artistic” way than strictly technical and correct.

What is your favorite project / render that you have done?

As many of you I’m never really fully happy with my work, it can always be better. Still, if I have to pick something than it would be my personal work done for online contests.

On what types of projects you like to work best?

On one side I love to work on personal stuff as it offers more freedom. But I have little time for that so in the ordinary kind of jobs I like anything that provides a challenge for me like large projects, short time frames, nasty object modeling, etc.

What’s the archviz field like in your local area?

We as a business got hocked up to arch viz due to the demand that was present in our area. For some time we had so much work it was amazing, but than the crisis came and you know the rest. Using our quality and the globalization we found our place on the international market as we can still provide lower prices and high quality. For now this is working OK.

What do you like to do when you are not working?

Everyone working for himself knows that the free time is very rare… so when I have some I like to be with my wife & kids, family… go to the sea, spend some time in the nature, play table tennis… and of course make barbecues and taste various alcoholic beverages 🙂

What is your software of choice? Do you use more the one modeling / rendering application in your workflow?

Our main 3d application is CINEMA 4D by Maxon. I use also software like moi, mudbox, adobe stuff… anything really to get the job done.

As for rendering, well that’s my special interest. Today VRay (c4d) is my main and number one engine. I really couldn’t do without it. But as I love to test and experiment with new tech… we have Maxwell Render, Fryrender, and now Thea render in our tool set. I’m grateful to the kind people from various teams that found my work interesting enough to include me in the beta testing so I get a chance to contribute a tiny bit in the bug finding and I provide interesting images for their promotion.

Can you tell us about other tools you can’t do without these days?
Ha… take away my computers and that’s it! 🙂

3ds Max seems like the most popular application for archviz, You use Cinema 4D… can you tell us a little about that?

I started working on a mac and used FormZ as my 1st tool. But than I saw the renderings by my (now) wife made with c4d. The difference was amazing. So I started using it and it became my tool of choice.

You previously used Fryrender and now most of your work is with VRay. Can you tell us about your experience with Fryrender and why you made that switch?

That’s right… but before Fryrender I used Maxwell Render. As much I as I was amazed by the unbiased engines I left them out of the production pipeline when VRay for cinema appeared. The speed is the main issue but not the only one. VRay is so well integrated into the main app that offers so much more.

When talking about Fryrender there is also the fact that, In my personal experience, support was very bad. Issues that I reported were not taken care of for years. Also, stuff promised when buying never got delivered as far as I’m concerned, so I decided not to rely on it as a production tool.

Photoreal or NPR – where do you stand in this debate?

It’s an interesting question. I never try to make photo real stuff, that’s never my goal. Instead I’m trying to make nice images. I love colors and you can see that from my works, so I use them in an unnatural way if that feels right to me. Still many times I got comments about how photo real some stuff looks. I don’t have preferences when looking at other peoples work, and I respect any form if it shows quality.

Are you a post work or pure render type of artist? (Granted, post work is always needed, but how much remains for you to do in post)

Again, I have to divide it on commercial and personal type of work. In everyday work my post is minimal, so adding a background, some color correction and stuff. Personally I love also the post editing part and than there is time to work more on it also.

What other artists inspire you?

Oh, many of them. I cant start naming. But what inspires me the most are not the well known “super stars”, much more works that differ in some way from the usual even if they are not technically perfect, new approaches and ideas.

What do you find most challenging in your daily work?

getting payed, fairly and on time 🙂

How do you keep up to date will all the frequent software updates and plugin additions? Do you even bother yourself with that?

Well, I update what I think is necessary and worth it. my main app has the updates done in a friendly way so I cant complain.

What would you suggest to someone wanting to become part of this industry? What are the essential skills to focus on when one starts?

the most important is having a strong will to invest time in learning and keeping track with the always evolving scene.

What do you love about doing what you do? What is your motivation to keep going?

As said earlier, beside being my work its also my passion so I love the fact that it is constantly changing, that new technology appears and changes the way of work. I also love the 3d scene, the forums, the people, the contests, but I hate repetitive tasks and this makes me like less standard commercial arch viz kind of jobs.

Do you have any interesting projects going on at the moment?

Currently we are investing time and effort into real-time 3d for presentations, that’s quite interesting as needs a different kind of preparation. Also testing beta software provides enough diversity compared to the usual work. Some of the most interesting client projects unfortunately cant be mentioned or shown.

You participate in many challenges and won a few too. What is your motivation behind that and what can you suggest HOVER participants in that regard?

Well, last year I did join 4 competitions and won 3 first places and one 3rd place. That really surprised me but also gave me motivation. My intention was to create some images to use for promotion, to get to know other people and find maybe some business contacts.

I must admit it worked well! What I can suggest to anybody taking part is to try and be original in any aspect they can.