How did you start in 3D and how did you discover Houdini?
My first experience on 3D is during my college time. I was taught using Maya as my main 3D tool.
The first time I heard the name of Houdini was from my wife who used to work with Rhythm and Hues.
After a couple of attempt of giving up and getting back, I realized that Houdini is a tool that is actually giving a lot of freedom to the artist. And the learning curve is sort of linear compare to other’s package where by at the certain stage coding make a very important role especially doing FX back at then with limited resources.
What drives you to learn the craft of 3D & VFX?
I am passionate to draw since my younger age, I believe it was influenced by the time that comic and Japanese mange are blooming. I don’t really understand 3D until I get to hand on and play around in the viewport. Where by 3D is like a combination of doing art and learning technology content at the same time so it interest me more. By learning 3D and VFX, it helps me to visualize my imagination and able to share the story I wanted to tell.
There are many vfx schools & tutorial websites. In your opinion how does Rebelway compare?
Rebelway as an online institute, I would give a very high rating personally as the content of the workshop are complete. As in Rebelway offer workshops and tutorials which cover the learning path across multiple level of difficulties from beginner to intermediate. Also in a very specify topic where skills, knowledge are taught in a way that helps to understand not only the surface but in-depth of the subject. In terms of accessible, it’s easy to get involve no matter which country student are from. As long as there’re internet connection.
Rebelway really helped me create better visuals and learn trouble shooting difficult technical tasks. Instructors are very keen to help out and share their industry experiences and advise on career path.
Tell us about your favourite project accomplished in Houdini
At the moment my favourite personal project will the “Street Invasion”. I love this piece because I put in quite a number of elements and it challenged me to come up with technical solutions. In the meanwhile I wanted to stick to my original idea without changing due to technical difficulties. The biggest challenger here is to complete the sequences of 4 shots and make them look presentable. So to take care the overall visual for example gathering some close references, assemble the background environment, animating the camera, iterations on versions and making decision throughout this project.
Who inspires you as an artist? Who do you look up to and why?
On different stages I look up to different role model. When I started to draw, I mimic the characters I like in a comic I read. I then follow the other artwork or story of the same author. As for a FX artist, I do follow a couple of artist like :- Joe Scarr, Allan Mckay, Kei Yoneoka, Jacys Lin, Saber Jlassi, Igor Zanic, Fabian Nowak, Hristo Velev and alot more. Their professional works, RnDs, article of sharing, or some online interview session do inspire me to keep on creating and producing work. Also my ex-employer that guide me through my career path. Earning the experience and keep pushing myself to be as good as them in the industry. As well as stay passionate.
On the earlier stage where I started to draw I visit places like deviantart. Then later on until my college time I often visit CGSociety. When I step deeper into creating FX, vimeo is always the place I will look at. Channel like CGrecords do often posted interesting and inspiring clips from awesome artist all over the world. Also not to be missed out many studio’s official pages like ILM, Weta, Framestore, Dneg, LumaPictures.
What’s next for you on your artistic journey?
I would say to keep on production more artwork, carry on study and rnd on topics that I am interested in. Meanwhile I do wish get myself involve and to be part of the team to create stunning VFX in blockbuster movies like Avatar, Terminator, etc .
