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Home > Stories > Publications by Alex Roman

Publications by Alex Roman

Posted: Apr 22, 2008 - 01:46 PM

Author: the area

Homepage: none

Software: Autodesk 3ds Max

Category: Design Visualization

Alex Roman

I was born in 1979, in Alacant (Alicante), a city in Spain. I would first like to say that my real name is Jorge Seva, but I use 'Alex Roman' as an artistic alias for publishing independent work. After being trained in traditional painting at a few academies, I discovered this other world called CG. After school, I made the move to Madrid and began working at a visual effects company. That stint did not last too long due to the lack of demand for visual effects in the Spanish market at the time. It was then, that I switched into the VIZ business. I have been working for several companies since. Some time back, in partnership with Sergio Miruri, we had attempted to run our own company -- unfortunately, our efforts were not met with success. Currently, I work as a senior leading artist in a company based in Madrid. In parallel, I'm also working on an "already-built work" visualization series which will be stitched together into a short animated piece.

The Area: We are meeting with a CG artist known as Alex Roman, whose real name is Jorge Seva. Welcome to the AREA -- could you please tell us about the nature of your pseudonym and what kind of work you do. Also, which name do you prefer us to use?

Alex Roman: A long time ago, I wanted to differentiate "Jorge Seva's" published work from a new parallel project. My actual "new" nick was "third.seventh". This makes reference to the third and seventh pillars of art: architecture and cinema. I had to add "Alex Roman" because a few portals demanded a conventional name in order to have artwork published. My first thoughts were of my little brother's name and my grandma’s last name. Hence, "Alex R". As for work, I do Architectural Visualization (ArchViz) as a senior 3D artist and regarding the name .... Alex is fine!

Fuji House

Fuji House

Fuji House

The Area: Your work is already beautiful in its minimalistic ways. But it's only when the realization that hits you, that you really do deliver the punch. None of the images are photographic, they are all CG based on existing references.

Let's take the "Fuji House" for example. There is an actual house on Mount Fuji in Japan that you’ve recreated. I had a hard time studying it, to analyze if it was 3D or not and I was convinced it was a set of photos you had taken until I saw the wireframes. Why did you pick this structure -- has the original architect, Satoshi Okada seen this work of yours?

Alex Roman: I have no idea! -- why this structure? I used to study contemporary architects (and some not-so comtemporary) in my free time and when I came across something that caught my eye or was a potential technical challenge, I would begin work on it. I guess this was one of them...

The Area: Can you tell us how you went about recreating it? Did you use actual blueprints and keep to the exact dimensions and surrounding environment?

Alex Roman: Yes, indeed. I usually search for the proper blueprints inspite of the fact that there's not a lot of quality information of this kind. I start the process this way, but I end up doing lot of things my way taking "advantage" of the lack of information.

The Area: What was the most challenging aspect of this particular project?

Alex Roman: Botanical research, both in real and CG terms. I had to create several different samples of each species while keeping the highest level of detail, and then still be able to render it all at once! It was quite hard.

The Area: Which renderer did you use, any reason why it is your preference?

Alex Roman: I use V-Ray. Illumination has fascinated me since as long as I can remember: Years ago, it was quite difficult to simulate global ilumination by traditional techniques. So after trying several GI engines, I found V-Ray to be the best solution by far to suit all my needs in these terms.

The Area: What did you use to create the foliage (grass, small plants, trees)? How heavy was the scene after all those trees and leaves?

Alex Roman: All the adult trees you see in the images have been generated by OnyxTree. Although it is old, I think it is still a wonderful appz. However, the wonderful results that Onyx produces also require a lot of texturing work in order to finish the job. Grass is generated via displacement shader plus a lot of texturing

- I can't remember exactly how heavy it was since all trees were proxies (about 3000000 polys each) but the scene took finally around 5-6GB at rendertime.

Fuji House Foliage - Proxy

Fuji House Foliage - Proxy

The Area: How long did it take you to complete this project? Any Photoshop post work?

Alex Roman: This work took longer than I had initially planned. Most time spent was focused on botanical research. I do remember it was around a month and a half in freetime - there is no PShop work. I only used AfterEffects for some color correction and effects; what you see is what it is. The whole scene is there in every shot.

The Area: What is the building currently used for? Does somebody live in it?

Alex Roman: I do believe it is a weekend residential getaway - I hope so! It must be a beautiful place to spend the weekend at

The Area: How that we have a better understanding of how you work, can you tell us how you started in the CG industry - and how long you've been working in it?

Alex Roman: I started long ago (1993) as a hobby. In 1999, I received a job offer to work in the VFX industry in a company based in Madrid. I moved and then started my professional career. Soon after, and due to the low demand in this market at the time, I had to move to the ArchViz field like many colleagues of my generation. I have been working on ArchViz since.

Osho

Osho - wireframe

The Area: Do you remember the first computer you used and the first 3D app? How did you start playing in 3D?

Alex Roman: How can I forget

My birthday gift was a PC 386 DX40 when I was fourteen, and then I started to play with an "old-fashioned" 3DStudio (2.01) for MS-DOS. I spent a lot of nights in front of it...

Osho

The Area: What type of school education background do you have? What was your original life plan before discovering computers and CG?

Alex Roman: Artschools, mainly. I learned and practised several traditional painting techniques until I turned to CG.

Auditorium

The Area: What did you do after finishing school?

Alex Roman: I directly moved to Madrid to start my professional CG career.

The Area: Your initial interest was in visual effects, before focusing on design viz. Visual effects demand surely have caught up in the Spanish markets now, would you consider changing over to work in VFX?

Alex Roman: When I first discovered computer graphics I initially thought it has two points: cartoon and visual effects. I very much liked to watch cartoons, but not to "make" it so I accepted the first VFX offer I got -- yes, I think quite a lot about it lately...

Ryotaro Shiba Museum

The Area: Going back to some of your other work: Terrasa, Osho, Ryotaro, and Auditorium; are they strictly professional work or personal as well?

Alex Roman: All of them are personal.

Terrasa

The Area: Can you tell us a bit about each work? And also tell us about your ongoing 'already-built work' -- how this idea came to start and why you specifically choose the specific architectural work?

Alex Roman: All of this work is already built. They came through the same initial idea. I was fascinated by them for one reason or another when I came across their photographs. The first goal was to reproduce it for experimenting with new render engine technology improvements, to exercise composition, etc... Now, I am going to stitch them all together for other purposes than originally planned.

The Area: What will be the outcome of the 'already built work' project?

Alex Roman: The main outcome will be an animated piece that will gather all the "old" work plus a few more new pieces of work. In the first place I will make it for personal and artistic reasons. Second, I will try to reproduce a different VIZ product concept. It will be an ArchViz example told in a cinematographic advertisement style.

Terrasa

The Area: Asides from drawing on the style of minimalism, are there any artists or 'things' that influence your creative work? Do you like Japanese designs in particular?

Alex Roman: Yep, a lot. I consider Japanese architects to be really great "poets" of the minimalist style. I also look for inspiration from cinema directors, photographers, european comics as well as 19th century art movements (Neoclassicism, Orientalism, Art Nouveau, etc...)

Terrasa

The Area: What has become of your business partner Sergio Miruri - will you two try again in the future to do your own company?

Alex Roman: Sergio and I are still working together at the same company – it’s not on our minds currently, but who knows

The Area: For those who are considering to start a company as you have done - if you look back, why do you think that it did not work out and what would you have done differently?

Alex Roman: The main idea, in my opinion, is to be really sure about what kind of product you are offering. The most important thing is to deal with clients that truly demand and appreciate your work and not viceversa. I think that this was our big mistake.