3D Art Direct Issue 23 Mini Mag

ISSUE 23

NOVEMBER 2012

3D

ArtD

irect.c

om

MICHEL RONDBERG

DREA HORVATH

BENOIT PATTERLINI

FANTASY & SCI-FI ARTIST IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

BRYCE ● VUE ● TERRAGEN ● POSER ● MOJOWORLD ● CARRARA ● DAZ STUDIO ● CINEMA 4D ● 3DS MAX ● BLENDER ● LIGHTWAVE

ALFASEED - ARE GAMES

THE ULTIMATE

CREATIVE OUTPUT?

3D Art DIRECT

2

3D Art

Paul Bussey

Editor

[email protected]

Main cover art : “Hooded” by AlfASeeD

Mickey Mills

Assistant Editor

[email protected]

Copyright © 2012 3D Art Direct. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by

any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

FANTASY & SCI-FI ARTIST IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

3DArtDirect.com/backissues

http://3dartdirect.com/backissues


3

Editorial

3.75 Degrees of Separation

0404

Interview : AlfA SeeD

“We see games as the ultimate creative output: they have

story, involvement, role playing, beautiful arts and

amazing music. “

Interview : Benoit Patterlini

“I try to explore several universes for each single piece of

my work. I ever try to evolve and develop my own style.”

2424

0606

Interview : Drea Horvath &

Michel Rondberg

"As long as you love what you do and you put this love and effort

into your artwork, creativity won't leave you."

"A lot of artists find a 'formula' if such thing even exist

and stick to it, this is the same moment it becomes un-

interesting. Keep reinventing yourself."

4646

FULL INTERVIEWS IN PREMIUM EDI-

TION 3DArtDirect.com/backissues


4

In this issue we are privileged to interview Drea

Horvath and Michel Rondberg, outstanding artists

known for their natural landscape artwork using Vue.

One of the questions we asked them was what had

surprised them along the way as they grew and

developed during their careers. Drea responded with:-

"Maybe the biggest surprise is how fast we've got

involved in commercial and non-commercial

productions of bigger studios in a relatively short time.

It's been only a few months since we have officially

launched our services, but we have already been

working on a cinematic trailer, a historical animation,

and soon we start building scenes for a big

commercial 3D projection mapping project. This will

be the first time Vue is involved in such a production,

and we are proud to be the ones to contribute."

Getting involved with the bigger studios is no doubt a

mix of publishing new content regularly and persistent

networking.

Networking has become much easier with the various

social networking sites helping to dramatically reduced

the "Six degrees of Separation", which is the concept

that you can 'connect' anyone to anyone by just a

chain of social acquaintances.

We are blessed in this digital age to get artwork

promoted relatively quickly that could lead to some

commercial success or at least wider recognition for

our efforts.

Curiously mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (who was

the father of fractal geometry) was in a circle of

researchers that were fascinated by the

interconnectedness and "social capital" of human

networks. This research led to the popular idea of the

"6 degrees of separation", the phrase was popularised

by the same named named play by John Guare in

1990.

Then research in 2008 by Facebook calculated an

average of just 4.28 degrees of separation. Further

studies by Facebook in 2011 had found that the gap

between us all had shrunk that much more - to as

little as 3.75 people.

The startling figure shows how interconnected our

world is becoming and how widespread use of the

internet is collapsing physical distance on what seems

to be a large scale, but can the trend continue? The

researchers say that the average distance "appears

now to be stabilising", suggesting that even if the

other nine tenths of the world join Facebook, our

degree of separation will not get much smaller!

This is something that a digital artist that may want to

go professional can leverage, as long as they are

providing quality content and engage in regular

networking, then larger studios and publishers may

take note of their work.

It's a case of "being everywhere" and echoing good

and regular digital arts content in some key places. Of

course, 3D Art Direct can help in that process, by

promoting your sci-fi or fantasy themed portfolio in

the pages of this publication.

3.75 Degrees of Separation

Paul Bussey Editor

[email protected]

FFACEBOOKACEBOOK CEO MCEO MARKARK ZZUCKERBERGUCKERBERG SUMMEDSUMMED THISTHIS UPUP BYBY SAYINGSAYING

'W'WHENHEN CONSIDERINGCONSIDERING EVENEVEN THETHE MOSTMOST DISTANTDISTANT FFACEBOOKACEBOOK USERUSER ININ

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5

“I “I WANTWANT” ” BYBY AALFASEEDLFASEED

6

Behind Alfaseed there’s an artistic duo with As and Syl , a real life couple and a pair of very passionate individuals

all-in-one.

We have produced Poser content for more than ten years and have grown, both as artists and personally. We

have won awards and have had artworks published on digital artbooks, but the truth is, we always look forward,

we strive to constantly improve and widen our skills and experience.

We enjoy art in all its forms, we enjoy the outdoors and never have enough time to do everything we’d like to.

As persons, we’re quite different from each other but are not opposites and we share the most important things,

our values and passions. We feel open minded and use the concept of respect as one of our main guidelines. We

have a passion for creativity in all its forms!

Alfa SeeD

www.al faseed.deviantar t .com/ www.runt imedna.com/Al faSeed/

http://www.alfaseed.deviantart.com/

http://www.runtimedna.com/AlfaSeed/

7

3DAD: How was AlfaseeD formed and what were some

of your early successes that enabled the company to

grow and progress to the next level?

AlfaSeeD: AlfaseeD is the evolution of our previous “AS”,

our first being Aery Sense, then Awful Soul and Aery Soul

after it.

The Seed of creativity, what spawns amazing fantasies

and art is at the root of our work and everything else that

we enjoying doing. Alfa (alpha) Seed represent the want

and need to bloom (again) and grow (we quit

producing content for a year or so).

We re-entered the 3D graphics world as AlfaseeD in

March 2011 with the intent of creating wonderful 3D

products and game designs, to expand compared to

our previous selves.

Our 3D creations, our style, has always been very popular

among users, we feel that’s because we’ve always been

very committed and wanted to do the best our skills

could offer and kept pushing our limits.

We have always been our own bosses, doing what we

liked and enjoyed rather than what we thought the

market wanted. Customers have mostly been on our

side, even when we “dared to dare”.

It was our mentality, putting quality and artistry ahead of

anything else and being very passionate and committed

that we feel made and make us stand out in the crowd

of 3D content creators.

3DAD:. How do you work together and divide up the

tasks at AlfaseeD? Do you have similar strengths, or do

you complement each other with different skills?

AlfaSeeD: We mostly complement each other. Since the

very beginning we decided we should focus on different

tasks, to then specialize and be more proficient in what

we do.

So we decided to specialize and then “merge” our

specialized skills to create wonderful products all around.

We feel this is probably our most important strength when

it comes to our industry.

As for specific tasks, while producing 3D content As takes

care of the modeling part, rigging, UV mapping and

morphs creations. Syl is in charge of the texturing part,

product finalization, writing tutorials.

We both work on the designs of our products and there's

always a lot of back and forth feedback about anything

between us.

Some of our designs are totally original, inspired by

personal (virtual) adventures and such.

Others are inspired by existing “worlds” and styles, more

often than not videogame ones, but also by an image

rather than a character.

We like to look at other artists creations to be inspired

and then create something new and unique and with an

AlfaseeD twist.

Music also plays a huge role, but more in the creation of

artistic images than the products themselves.

ALFAS

EED

WO

RLD

8

3DAD:. Your output a good amount of content for

games. Has it always been your objective to produce

games content?

AlfaSeeD: Absolutely yes.

We see games as the ultimate creative output: they

have story, involvement, role playing, beautiful arts

(graphics), amazing music (score).

Well, not all games have them all, but the point is: a

game can really be a sort of ultimate, concerted form of

art, and an interactive one on top of it.

For creative minds, it’s a topic

genre to deal with.

3DAD: In your minds what are

the top three essential

elements of a good 3D game

design?

AlfaSeeD: Unfortunately,

answering such a question is

not so easy, since the top

elements may vary depending

on the kind of game, its genre.

So to give an answer I’ll

consider the concept of

game design at large, rather

than thinking about all the

specifics and variants that

actually exist. I’ll look at the Game Designer as someone

that doesn’t “only” take care of creating game

mechanics, but it’s also involved in the other creative

tasks of the game design.

By far, I feel that a game design must focus on creating

a game that is as polished as possible, that’s the ultimate

goal and should be the keyword during the whole

design process.

All elements featured in the game must work together

well and smoothly. That’s the most solid foundation upon

which any design can be developed and expanded.

A polished game is a smooth experience that should

present the player with streamlined mechanics that keep

him/her interested throughout the game (also by

including some variation) and that culminate into the

end of the game.

A game design must feature a learning curve. I think it’s

key that a game is structured so that the player learns as

s/he plays, improving his or her skills as they progress in

the game.

The difficulty of the game

must increase as the players

skills also improve and it’s the

experience the gamer gains

while playing that allows him

or her to progress, not just (for

example) more powerful

weapons against more

powerful foes. Ideally, a player

should have mastered the

controls and skills needed to

play during the first third of the

game to then be able to

enjoy the rest of the game at

its fullest.

A designer can also choose to

“challenge” the player

(outside the main game storyline) to “boosts” his/her

skills, in fact there are some psychological aspects of the

gamers that can be linked to the learning curve in an

interesting way. For example, a player may be asked to

complete a series of tasks that require several attempts.

The first few times, the player could feel clumsy and

maybe think there’s something wrong with the challenge

itself, may feel it’s impossible. After some more attempts

though, s/he will feel s/he is improving.

While trying to complete the tasks the players skills have

improved, the game has “asked” the player to commit

and learn to overcome some challenging tasks. As the

game progresses, the player will feel more self-confident

about his or her skills.

The psychological aspect stems from this question: “why

should the player invest his or her time (maybe a few

hours) to complete tasks that will require many attempts

and could even be frustrating at times?”

The answer is simple, because of the rewards. By

completing such tasks or challenges the players will be

AlfA SeeD

“By far, I feel that a game design

must focus on creating a game

that is as polished as possible,

that’s the ultimate goal and

should be the keyword during

the whole design process. “

9 ALMOST HUMAN

Access the FULL INTERVIEW in our

premium edition at


CONTINUED...


10

3DA: Welcome to 3D Art Direct. Thank you for

spending time with our readers as we explore

your incredible body of work.

BP: You are welcome. I am glad to talk to your

audience.

3DA: You live in one of the most art centric cities

in the world, Paris. How much of being part of

the Parisian culture impacted your artistic

development?

BP: Actually Paris does not really impact directly

my artistic development. I prefer to leave Paris

for a while when I go to the south of France in

Benoit Patterlini is a self-taught artist who

began drawing at the age of seven. American

comic strips were a root inspiration for his

work.

He studied Architecture at Marseille-Luminy

where he was fortunate in his second year of

study to meet the French comic artist, Philippe

Caza. The developed a friendship still in place

today,where Caza continues to offer advice

Benoit’s work.

The Architectural field has been a good

compromise between his professional and

creative sides, and also allows him to continue

using his passion for drawing. Best of all, he

still find time to create comics.

Benoit has lived in Paris since 2001 with two

main activities. First, working as a freelance

3D graphic designer for prominent architects

in Paris, such as Claude Vasconi and Jean-

Michel Wilmotte. The second is creating digital

art projects focused on science fiction.

http://noart1999.blogspot.com/

DDRAGONFLYRAGONFLY PPROJECTROJECT——NNEWEW YYORKORK

11

Marseille or to Britain seeing the ocean. I love to

go out because I can feed my brain with new

pictures and new landscapes.

3DA: You mention your love of the American

comic strip and how it inspired you. Expand on

that for us. What were some of your favorite

comics and why?

BP: Yes that is true. I found out Marvel heroes

since I was seven years old. Especially John

Byrne when he was drawing the uncanny X men,

I loved the way he inked characters and

backgrounds.

I also loved John Buscema (Conan, Captain

America) and of course the great Frank Miller

Benoit PatterliniBenoit PatterliniBenoit Patterlini

12

when he was drawing Daredevil.

Currently, I am fascinated by the real talent of

Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith for “30 days

of Night”. They created a new style, which is

blending real pictures with drawings using

Photoshop.

Actually I read the whole collection from IDW

publishing.

3DA: Tell us about the comic strip work that you

do.

BP: This project is entitled “That Old Warrior”,

the action takes place In Russia during the

Napoleon Campaign in 1812. This is a blending

between “The Thing” (film directed by John

Carpenter) and a historical story.

First, I draw in pencil, scan the drawing and

finally ink it with Photoshop. I love to work like a

DJ: I mix pictures, real drawing and 3D. I cook

them and create a piece which looks

homogeneous.

3DA: You mentioned getting to meet Caza,

(French comic artist Philippe Cazaumayou) while

you were studying Architecture. What was that

like and how did that meeting influence your art

journey?

BP: A long time ago, Caza influenced my art

journey. When I was 9 years old, I was reading

Inhabitants of the Sun and was overwhelmed by

the splendor of color made with an airbrush.

Caza has always had a unique and powerful

graphic style. His color management and contrast

is unmatched.

The first time I saw him was in 1994 at a meeting

of Dedications in Marseille. I went with my first

comic boards, all excited to show him my work.

The critique destroyed most of my boards

explaining why I hadn’t reached the professional

level.

It is only four years later, during my studies at

Montpellier I saw him again. This time, I had only

two boards designed with Photoshop inked for the

first time. He loved them and encouraged me to

continue in this way.

3DA: I’ve always been amazed by the creativity

of architectural design. What prompted you to go

that direction rather than commercial art?

BP: I am an architect DPLG, I learned perspective

and the art of drawing with one teacher: Ms.

Barthelemy.

She encouraged me to develop my own style.

She was the only one who really spent time with

pupils.

In 2000 my diploma in hand, I went to a media

company located in Annecy. I learned the 3d and

compositing secrets of the Adobe suite. Until

2004, I worked in broadcasting companies and it

was not until 2005 that I joined for the first time

an Architecture firm .

TTHEHE AARRIVALRRIVAL

13

INTERVIEW: BENOIT PATTERLINI

From this moment, I have the opportunity to

work with leading law firms in Paris such as

workshops Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano building

shop, Christian de Portzamparc workshops and

many more.

3DA: From your gallery I’ve gathered you are

mostly a Lightwave 3D and 3DS Max artist. What

are the primary considerations you use when

beginning a new project which application you

will use?

BP: I model with Lightwave, 3ds Max and Rhino.

It depends on the project. I render with Maxwell

for still images and Vray plugin for animation in

3dsmax. I composite my artwork with Photoshop.

Whatever your software, I really think Photoshop

is the most important app in my workflow. It is

very easy to create a story with Photoshop. It

offers good compositing options and higher end

editing tools than 3d programs.

When I work with psd, I sample light effects,

depth of field and reflection effects all thanks to

layers.

14

3DA: In much of your work there is a circus

component, either as a main part of the theme or

a background image. What’s your fascination

there?

BP: The circus and its universe inspired me a lot

in recent years. I love poetry and the energy

released by these artists. In the digital age,

shows like this are important for our consumerist

societies. They show us thanks to their poetry,

that happiness is not to own the latest

technological toys, but take pleasure in seeing

artists communicate with the public. The circus is

an immediate pleasure and stripped of all modern

artifices, that is why I wanted to honor it.

3DA: Let’s start discussing your work. You have

one of the most diverse galleries I have seen.

Your eye for abstract topic is extraordinary. For

example, This Must Be the Place is a blend of

many subjects, from lifeboats to buildings to

space stations. Tell us about this piece. What

were you after here?

BP: This painting is actually the second act of a

paint failure. I wanted to draw a raging sea which

destroyed the neighborhood where I currently

live. But the final composition was wobbly and did

not result in the desired level.

I am therefore left to zero in deciding to keep

only the raging sea. I made the screen tables

TTHISHIS MMUSTUST BBEE TTHEHE PPLACELACE

15

with spaceships stations and ships in a storm, I

just reused by integrating these elements to the

image. For the sky, I had in mind the painting by

the artist William Turner entitled "sinking.” I love

her universe rich in colors and shades.

3DA: Awesome Gypsy Circus is another fantastic

creation where you can get lost in the details.

Back to your fascination with circus lore, what

inspired this piece and did you achieve what you

were looking for?

BP: I wanted to create a scene from science

fiction related news of the day. Our president

(Nicolas Sarkozy) wanted to expel all camps

outside Romanian borders. I meant the exclusion

of people with this picture where we see a circus

mechanical fighting the police. I think the artist

has a duty to express positive or negative

feelings.

3DA: You mention that you rendered Gypsy

Circus with 3DS Max and V-Ray. If you would tell

our readers that may not be familiar with V-Ray

what the application brings to your toolbox.

BP: I must admit, at the base, I'm not really

sensitive to 3dsmax and vray. I learned this

software in 2010 because my job required it. All

architectural productions were made with 3dsmax

and rendered with vray.

It was then, that I leave to the detriment of


16

17


TTHEHE AAWESOMEWESOME GGYPSEYYPSEY CC IRCUSIRCUS

18

Lightwave 3dsmax, if I wanted to continue

working in this environment. But Vray’s strengths

are for still images. I believe it is the fastest

rendering software on the market. It is efficient

and allows calculating the same image several

times if the customer requires.

3DA: What aspect of working in a 3D

environment do you find most challenging?

BP: Which requires the most expertise in my

drawings? It is liquid or soft items. I also draw a

lot of attention to a moving scene. It is difficult to

make the motion in a still image. A building is


FFAVELASAVELAS TTOWEROWER

19

CCLIMBLIMB

20

21


TTHEHE FFORESTOREST ISIS BBLEEDINGLEEDING

22

fairly simple to make, with a good light, good

materials and good framing. A scene of action in

my application more know-how and expertise.

3DA: Some of your images really play on your

Architectural background. Favelas Tower is a

wonderful render done with Lightwave and

Maxwell. The small details of the hanging laundry

are a nice touch. Walk us through this image

from inspiration to final render. How did it evolve,

what were your basic production steps, and did

you end up where you wanted to be?

BP: Before each new artwork I try to check my

head and to explore something new. When I have

found the main theme, I make a sketch on a

paper sheet aiming to find a good frame. This

step is really important and decisive in my work.

The camera defines the foreground the second

ground and the background. In this way I model

details for the foreground and add some new

elements which are going to create an attractive

point in the picture. The main textures are simple

but they have to be real. For the glass, I want to

have a perfect transparencey with a good

refraction index. For the metal, I wanted it to be

really rough.

3DA: How does this combination of Lightwave

and Maxwell work together? What are the

benefits to your work?

BP: Thanks to the multilight feature the lighting

with Maxwell is very cool. You can have different

renders with the same multilight file. Each

lighting source is a distinct canal which can be

turned off or on and increased to 1000 percent.

The render time is not really fast, but with

23


patience you can have several atmospheres

(night and day) for the same price. I render thus

several layers, also multi-alpha channel and z

buffer channel. I mix them in psd and then create

the final atmosphere.

I don't have the final cut in my mind, my work

can take several directions, I look for the best

atmosphere with different tests.

3DA: Another Architectural creation is Dragonfly

Project – New York. Tell us about this one.

BP: This project is designed by architect Vincent

Callebaut. It offers a theme around the ecology

and habitat of the future. This project is an eco-

tower autarky.

This project falls within the framework of a

professional production with a client who has

specific guidelines. My role is to transcribe

essentially than just the intrinsic vision of the

architect and thus be able to overcome it. So I

have to create a beautiful image but also

something coherent and responsive.

3DA: The Motel Train is another of those pieces

that just draws in the eye for the details. And

there’s that circus. It’s almost like two images,

the train and the circus, each carrying a balance

to the artwork. This is such a striking piece with a

possible vision of life in the French future. What

was your inspiration here and did you achieve

what you were looking for?

BP: Speaking openly, the real estate

crisis has included exorbitant rents and

offers an increasingly rare choice of

homes. In large cities, buying a home is

an obstacle course. So I went to this idea,

to create the image "the motel train.”

I asked the question: Where would you

live if there was really no room in town

and country?

It seemed obvious to imagine a new way

of living based on the nomadic lifestyle.

Homes would now be more fixed in space,

but moving to accommodate the

maximum number of people over a wide

area. There was a day when the majority

of people in the world could no longer

stay. Railway infrastructure was created

called "dormitory mobile" or "motel

trains.” They were seeking tenants at the

feet of buildings, their offices.

I will create a solution that hosts the

public. It will be stopped, with the

majority of occupants out. They will be

welcomed by the circus. At right, a

billboard, where you can read in English:

"You work, but can’t pay your rent ... You

are welcome at the motel train".

I thus confront two worlds: one consisting

of people who have no other choice but to

become nomadic, to survive. The other

TTHEHE MMOTELOTEL TTRAINRAIN

24

world, who chose nomadism as a way of life

assumed.

3DA: The last piece I want to ask about is The A

Team. Being a Vietnam era veteran myself the

imagery is not lost on me. The Hueys have been

replaced by Blackhawks and the VC has been

replaced by zombies, and the soldiers are

common house pets. Between the London eye

and the carousel in the background my eyes don’t

know what to focus on. Tell me about creating

this one. What was your inspiration and how did

it unfold in the design process?

BP: Since the 60s, zombies have become a

subject in its own right, film and American

literature. George A. Romero, through Ruben

Fleischer and Zack Snyder, zombies continue to

fascinate and to produce, major films (film

genre).

In comics, the series "walking dead" has recently

been adapted to television. This shows the

enthusiasm of farmers to see the zombies as

"profitable subjects." The two parts "28 Days

Later" and "28 Weeks Later" are for me, the most

successful of its kind.

I wanted to pay homage to these films, devoting

a new image. I try to restore, in a fair, the

universe explored by adding a humorous offset .

In this context, I decided to create characters

that are inspired from the famous series of the

80s: The A-Team, but I display them as dogs

TTHEHE A TA TEAMEAM

25


and cats.

3DA: Keeping up with software and hardware is a

challenge in today’s technical world. Between the

high costs of upgrade and the rapidly changing

world of applications it’s enough to drive a

designer mad. How do you strike that balance

between what you have and what you think you

need to be more productive?

BP: Honestly, it does not really matter to me. A

good graphic designer can make the same

images with Photoshop 01 with the latest version.

Every year a new version of 3dsmax is available.

But they are not able to resolve bugs from

previous versions. Even as new bugs appear.

This is only marketing and business. I can advise

to change software versions every two years, or

three years for Photoshop. Personally, I still use

version cs3 psd. This is in my opinion the most

stable and the most optimized.

3DA: Like many of your peers in the 3D world

you do your post-work in Photoshop. If you could

add one tool to PS that isn’t there today, what

would that be?

BP: I like to finalize colorimetry and contrast my

work with after effects and the magic bullet

plugin. This allows me to save the settings and

effects on layers of effects, and to reuse them

whenever I want.

3DA: How do you like to work? Are you on

obsessive planner or do you just sit down and let

the work dynamically unfold as begin to layout?

BP: I try to explore several universes for each

single piece of my work. I ever try to evolve and

develop my own style. I can say I love living

colors and for each artwork, I work with 2 or 3

main colors. I really love blue and gold.

I'm found of a dynamic camera because there is

so much motion on it.

Anyway, my style is a mix between US comic

strips (Marvel heroes), science fiction movie (Star

Wars) and contemporary architecture.

3DA: I noticed browsing through your blog you

are in the process of releasing the Benoit

Patterlini Artbook. How’s the project going and

where can readers find a copy?

BP: Yes my art book is published and available

on internet: http://www.amazon.fr/De-lid%C3%

A9e-%C3%A0-limage-finale/dp/2361450496

The book pitch:

Is there a recipe for success in digital art? To this

day, there is no easy answer, however, there are

rules and principles that any digital art enthusiast

can follow.

Through fifteen original illustrative works, the

artist Benoit Patterlini, aka Noart reveals his

working method and explains all the stages of

creation, from sketch to the final image. This

book is both a journey through a world of

wonderful talent that mixes science fiction,

architecture and poetry, but also an exceptional

invitation to dive into the creative process, and

discover the intricacies, techniques, practices,

rules, tips, and questioned the joys of the final

image. It’s a book unique in its design, and a first

in digital art.

3DA: What are working on these days?

BP: I work for the workshops of Christian

Portzamparc and I develop a personal project

that is an animation lasting two minutes.

3DA: What three tips would give a young artist

thinking about a career in 3D Comic Book design?

BP: You have to be able to draw anything at any

time and know how perspective works.

http://www.amazon.fr/De-lid%C3%A9e-%C3%A0-limage-finale/dp/2361450496

http://www.amazon.fr/De-lid%C3%A9e-%C3%A0-limage-finale/dp/2361450496

26

If you are a

student, walk in

the streets with a

sketch book and

draw what you

see: you have to

develop accurate

sight for

architecture and

art.

I suggest visiting

museums and

galleries to see

great architecture

first hand and gain

aspiration as there

is no substitute for

first-hand

observation.

I also advise

developing an

interest in

contemporary

design and

ensuring you keep

track of

architecture news

and current

trends, best found

online.

Each week, I have

a look at the best

3d artists on the

internet via

websites...

3DA: Thank you

for your time. We

look forward to

more of this

incredible work in

the future.

BP: Thanks a lot.

PPHOENIXHOENIX

27


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28

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29


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30

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TTHEHE PPERFECTERFECT SSTORMTORM

31


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32

3DA: We are excited to spend some time today

with the award-winning team of Drea Horvath

and Michel Rondberg, creative genius behind D&D

Creations, an art collaboration dedicated to

bringing high quality content for the digital art

world. Thank you for joining us.

DH: We thank you for this great opportunity! It is

a pleasure to share our work and art with you all.

MR: Thanks for having us!

3DA: For our readers who may not be familiar

with D&D Creations give us a quick highlight of

who you are and what you do?

DH: D&D Creations is an art collaboration

specified in 3D landscape design, using E-on

Software's Vue. Our goal is to provide high-

quality content - atmospheres, scenes,

ecosystems, materials, 3D models and terrains -

for the 3D community, and to offer professional

services in 3D landscape design, rendering, post-

production, assistance in Vue and audio & video

compositing and editing. We have several years

of experience in Vue, and during these years

we've been working hard to learn, experiment

and further improve our skills. The positive

feedback we've received from our clients,

customers, other professionals and fellow artists

verified that our hard work was not in vain.

Drea was born in Budapest,

Hungary, where she became

interested in 3D Landscape Art

during her college studies. She has

been working with Vue and

Photoshop for almost five years, and

with her compassion and the

invaluable help of highly skilled 3D

masters, she has improved her 3D

skills to a professional level.

Before founding D&D Creations, she worked for three

years in the video game industry as a terrain & level

designer, and completed many visualization projects as

a freelance artist.

Drea has won several awards given by E-on

Software and other art sharing sites with her work. She

has published three tutorial articles for 3D Artist

magazine and many of her works were showcased in

the magazine. She designed the cover image for 3D

World Issue 156, and some of her making-of tutorials are

available online.

Currently she works and lives in central Netherlands,

where she founded D&D Creations with Michel. Besides

working in the studio as a 3D Landscape Artist, she also

works as a Software Specialist for Vue and as a Product

Copyright Consultant at YURdigital.

Visit Drea’s website at www.dreahorvath.com

RROCKYOCKY SSHOREHORE

http://www.dreahorvath.com/

33

MR: On the Digital Media side of things, I

qualified as a Digital Audio & Video Engineer at

Sound Seminar Rotterdam. I was trained by the

best in the industry. One teacher in particular I

remember Alan Parsons from the Alan Parsons

Project. Some of the (then) groundbreaking 3D

audio techniques called Que-sound. I chose to

go for Digital Engineering, it became clear to me

very early that the analog world would have

little to no future. Besides this I’ve always been

playing the piano. I love composing and just

playing whatever I feel inside of me. I have

released numerous records (yes, those real Vinyl

discs). Depending on your age, you may or may

not remember them. I had a hit record with my

song Voices of Angels, which was released at

Purple Eye Records, on the Tsunami Special

Blend Label. It reached the top of the top 10 in

New York City. Right now I have over three

hours of new compositions, waiting to be

produced and engineered .

3DA: Step back in time to when you two first

met and began to collaborate. When did you

know you were destined to do something

together and how did this endeavor unfold?

DH: Our story began in 2009 October, when -

after a conversation about one of my scenes -

Michel hired me as terrain designer for the

project his team was working on. Being a fresh

freelancer looking for opportunities, it seemed to

be a great start to take a deeper look into the

workflow of a production and to gain experience.

Born in Tiel, The Netherlands, Michel

discovered his hidden talent for music.

At age five. He started learning the

piano at eight and by his tenth year

was composing his own tracks using his

keyboard and home computer. His first

official album released at the age of 15. His greatest

achievement in music was his 2005 album “Voices of

Angels”, which ranked #1 in the USA.

Michel also became interested in 3D art and game

development at a very young age. When he was just

13 he wrote the codes for a computer game as a

hobby. Two years later he started learning 3D

applications and has improved his technical and

artistic skills to a professional level in Vue.

Before founding D&D Creations with Drea Horvath, he

spent more than 8 years working for a game studio

where they worked together as a terrain & level

designer, and concurrent to that composed more

than 3 hours of music for the studio.

Michel has won several awards from E-on Software

and other art sharing sites with his work. Several of his

tutorials, tips & tricks have been published online.

Currently he works as a 3D Environment Artist,

Certified Sound and Video Engineer and Music

Composer in the Studio, and has a publishing deal

at Strengholt Music Group. Along with Drea, he also

works as a Software Specialist for Vue and as a

Product Copyright Consultant at YURdigital.

Visit Michel’s website at www.michelrondberg.com

EELVENLVEN VV ILLAGEILLAGE

http://www.michelrondberg.com/

34

Michel and I worked together a lot, almost every

day, and it was obvious right from the start that

we formed a great team. The communication,

sharing tasks and ideas and the production itself

went flawlessly. While I could help Michel with my

artistic skills and deeper knowledge of Vue, I

could also learn a lot from him about the

technical side of 3D design. These skills combined

made us, and still makes us a great, productive

team.

MR: But soon we realized that we wanted to

form something unique, something that was

entirely made by us. I was working under the

nickname Da1 back then, and Drea under Drea-

mer. Since we are two very positive and creative

spirits, this logically formed D&D Creations. In

2011 we launched our website and our first store.

Every week we receive numerous emails of

production companies for jobs on our personal

websites. That led us to making another logical

step forward, to make this a joint venture too

under our D&D Creations Services. We are open

to any kind of 3D job, I always like to say, “you

MICHEL–ALENE’S WORLD

35

INTERVIEW: DREA HORVATH & MICHEL RONDBERG

order, we deliver! “

3DA: What have been the biggest surprises along

the way?

DH: Maybe the biggest surprise is how fast we've

got involved in commercial and non-commercial

productions of bigger studios in a relatively short

time. It's been only a few months since we have

officially launched our services, but we have

already been working on a cinematic trailer, a

historical animation, and soon we start building

scenes for a big commercial 3D projection

mapping project. This will be the first time Vue is

involved in such a production, and we are proud

to be the ones to contribute.

MR: Right now we are pretty much the first to

establish in the Benelux specialized in Vue, and

we are very proud of this. This is a rollercoaster

and we love it!

3DA: I imagine the lines between art and hobby,

business and pleasure, gets blurred when you

turn your passion into commerce. How do you

balance those aspects as you continue to design

for art’s sake?

DH: Yes, when you are busy with business and

projects, you have way less time for personal art,

and although we are lucky to work in an area we

really like, at work we have to visualize the ideas

of someone else, and not our own. This is always

a nice challenge, but very different. Whenever I

have a little free time, I create something

personal. If the weather is good, I like to take a

walk or a bike ride in the area before focusing on

a personal work; it clears my mind. When I make

something personal, I can't wait to render,

postwork and publish it online, and I always

enjoy getting feedback. These are the things I'm

missing when I create something for work.

MR: The two blend together often. Stuff used in

personal project often end up as products, and of

course the other way around. When working on

tight deadlines it becomes really handy in using

your own products. We love every product we

release because they have been tested “in the

field.”

3DA: Let’s talk about

some of your

individual

art. We’ll

start with

Drea –

ladies first,

DREA-APPENZELLERSTATT

Access the FULL INTERVIEW in our

premium edition at


CONTINUED...


36 3D Art Direct : Be Inspired By Digital Art Issue#23

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