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Autodesk® 3ds Max®
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Autodesk® Maya®
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Autodesk® Softimage®
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Autodesk® MotionBuilder®
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Autodesk® Mudbox™
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Autodesk® ImageModeler™
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Autodesk® Sketchbook® Pro
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Autodesk® Smoke on Mac®
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AUGI
Autodesk User Group International
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Software: Autodesk 3ds Max
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One can very easily see your skills in modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering and compositing. You have a pretty intensive reel. Tell me, on what special computer did this all begin?
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| Denko:
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Heh, it all started one day when my mother bought me my very first computer. It was an Atari 800XL and I was 13 years old at the time. Later, I got my first PC in 1996, a 486 DX4 with 100MHZ and 2MB RAM. I'm still wondering how it was possible to run a 3D package in those days.
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And that first 3D software - how did you come across it?
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| Denko:
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It was long time ago in 1997. I saw my friend's father working in 3D Studio R4 and I was impressed. I was 16, and fell in love with digital art straight away.
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| The Area:
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What did you study at Brno University of Technology, was it computer/graphics related? Did it prepare you for the work you do now?
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| Denko:
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I studied in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and my specialization was railway construction, which has absolutely nothing to do with computer graphics. But on the other hand, this school provided me with lot of technical skills like understanding math, geometry, and physics and so on. I also learned how to use Autodesk AutoCad along with other software, for computing structural forces within things like bridges, halls, etc. During my years of studies, I was the guy who always did something on the computer instead of playing soccer or visiting the pub. I spent most of my free time learning things about CG and after awhile, I understood that CG was going to be my destiny :-).
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What was your first job after graduation?
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| Denko:
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Actually, I got my first job during my studies as a modeler and texturer in the gaming industry. AIso had worked as a freelancer for a long time, and later worked with Jan Rybar's imagesFX (www.imagesfx.cz) that specializes in architectural visualization. My first job after graduation was, and still is, at 263films S.p.a in Milan (www.263films.com). I'm working in the areas of shading, lighting, rendering and compositing.
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Your demo reel features some freakishly realistic images that show you have a very good understanding of natural lighting. Where did you learn that from?
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| Denko:
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You can see it all around. One only needs to look around to see the objects, materials and light. Basically everything is already there; you just need to look at it. All we need to do is learn from nature. Of course, there is a difference between lighting in the 'real' world and lighting in movies, but the effect should be the same; it should evoke things like feeling, messages, emotions and harmony/disharmony. These days, it is much easier to reproduce natural lighting in CG so it is really only about looking at the reference and trying to recreate it in the virtual world.
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| The Area:
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How long have you been using 3ds Max?
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| Denko:
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I think I started with 3ds Max R2. It's possible that 3ds Max R2 was released earlier, but I started to learn it back in 1998.
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What renderer(s) do you use -- do you have a preference?
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| Denko:
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I tried the most popular renders like Brazil r/s, finalRender, mental ray and V-Ray. All of them are good and currently I'm using V-Ray, but I'm not saying that it is the best one. It needs time to be developed with all the small features that I miss sometimes, but all in all -- it is a very good renderer.
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Can you tell us about each image in the reel? Especially the one with the faceless men and columns of wood -- a pretty serious tone and a powerful image.
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| Denko:
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Except for one or two of them, they are all still images that I've done before. I simply wanted to add more life to them so I decided to make a demo reel with all these images in motion.
The beginning of the demo reel is 'Last One' (a cigarette) which was created when I was trying to quit smoking (successfully of course :-)). This part was done quite fast.
Then the scene with the old women against the green background, 'Clochard', which is taken from Bratislava's main railway station. I saw her during my weekly travels from Brno to Bratislava and back.
The image 'Crowd 8' with the faceless men and columns of wood is based on Misha Gordin's (bsimple.com) photography I found while googling the Internet in search of inspiration - with the word 'inspiration' in the search dialogue. I contacted her to request permission in recreating her photography into 3D. I like the monochromatic dark atmospheric style of Misha's work and I have even learned something new remaking this image. I really love these kinds of images.
The next image is 'Female Anatomy Study'. I think it is one of my most famous works. It was made a long time ago. There is a little overview of this image you can read here (marekdenko.net/tutorials/tut04.htm). I think I can still agree with all that I wrote at the time :-). I remade the demo reel from finalRender to V-Ray with saved GI solution, all of which took 25 seconds to render per frame on my laptop.
As for the black Mitsubishi Eclipse 2006 scene, I used the model that I made last summer for a certain Mexican company. It is a complete exterior and interior model, both shaded and textured. For the demo reel, I've built a little environment (background picture and model of road) to complete the scene. That was the last thing done -- and very quickly might I add. I think I spent less then 5 hours altogether on the setup with texturing, shading and render testing.
My 'Love in Bed' image was also done a few years ago. It was a really hot summer day and I was sitting on the side of a parking place waiting for my girlfriend and thinking about my new picture...sick I know :-)
I think that only a few people will remember the original U.F.O apocalyptic scene. Previously, it was the scene from WWII with two characters (a son welcoming his father in a destroyed city). The picture itself was not very good, but the environment was made quite well, so I decided to use it as a post-apocalyptic scene with big UFOs and atomic dust in the air. I love these deadly, hopeless, apocalyptic scenes with dramatic music from movies.
The Fiat 500L ('Cinquecento' as my Italian friends call it) is a scene based on a picture I took only a few meters from the place where I've lived in Bratislava. I was passing this car for so many days without paying any attention to it. But one winter day, I saw it in sunset covered by snow and it was so lovely that I decided to create something similar.
The 'Street of Memories' scene is described in the tutorial I wrote for the AREA. All I can say is that it was (quite) hellish to render. You can imagine how it was with all those glossy reflections and displacement... the days seemed to never end.
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With the others, were they for commercial or personal work?
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| Denko:
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All of them are personal works, with exception of the 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
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The 'Street of Memories' is kind of disturbing -- in the sense that it is hard for people to say whether it is real or not, especially if it wasn't posted on CGTalk-- where we know for sure that it is CG. Very nice light, textures, image composition.
How did you make the water on the street? And those textures... Were those taken from the real thing? Is there really a street that looks like that, which you worked directly from?
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| Denko:
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The asphalt texture is fully procedural except for the diffuse map which is almost invisible anyway. I mixed a few procedural maps and then used them as displacement and a very similar map with minor changes for blending the water and asphalt together. So there are no textures from the real world on the sidewalk.
This street doesn't exist. It is a combination of many elements from the places where I have lived before.
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How long did that take you to do? What's your process -- work from (reference) image and model straight? Stuff like thinking about image composition/object placement, textures, light, etc...please describe.
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| Denko:
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It took most of my free time in the evenings for the duration of more than one month. At the beginning, I had an idea and after I knew what I was going to do, I made a 3D sketch of the scene. The final was the same as the 3D sketch, but I used primitive geometry (instead of high resolution models) for figuring out the position and placement of objects within the scene. I placed the lights to set the mood of the image. In this case, the lighting was quite easy. There is only the sun and environment light (skylight). To use the best resources and to make it more realistic, I used a lot of references from the pictures I took myself or found on the Internet.
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I remember seeing the Fiat earlier ' how did you make the snow like that? And that shader...any secrets you are willing to share?
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| Denko:
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There is really nothing special on the snow shader in this scene. It is a white material with a little noise for the bump and a falloff map (shadow/light type) for the diffuse map. This fall-off map fakes a little bit of translucency of the snow. Then there is a displace map which I painted in Photoshop. No secrets at all :-).
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When you create your scenes, you really pay attention to detail -- every speck of dirt, dent, dust. How important is that to your final image?
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| Denko:
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I don't know. I just like to make it as real as possible. For me, it is fun to make it more and more detailed and to see that it is becoming better and better. Of course, at the beginning it is important to look at the image overall and to consider all the stuff for composition.
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What are the things that you pay attention and consider most when using references?
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| Denko:
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At the start, I tend to pay attention to overall shapes and then look at the details. Small dirty parts on the material, reflection, bump etc. I try to pay attention to everything I can analyze, or better yet...to everything I'm able to analyze.
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What are your sources of inspiration when doing your work?
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| Denko:
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My feelings, experience, movies, pictures -- everything has a little influence on me.
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What project are you currently working on now?
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| Denko:
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I'm working in Milan, Italy on a featured movie Dear Anne, The Gift of Hope. My work is on shading, lighting, rendering and (later) compositing.
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And your plans for the future?
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| Denko:
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In the immediate future, I'd like to start and finish my own short movie. In the distant future, I'd like to be in places where something big is happening. I'd like to work at a VFX production on movies or commercials and then later create my own company...but this is really distant into the future. All those plans may change one day -- who knows :-).
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Can you give some advice for those beginning this 3D journey?
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| Denko:
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To practice, practice and practice and to try to be better than others. And don't forget to ask questions...only by asking will you -- maybe -- receive an answer. And trust no one ;-).
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What would you be doing now if you mother didn't bring home that computer?
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| Denko:
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Hehe-- probably she would have bought it for me sooner or later. Really, I can't imagine and I don't want to :-)!
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| Posted by alteredgene on May 19, 2009 at 04:53 AM
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I loved your renders, specially street of memories.
i saw it few years back, and really set a high bar for me, something i have been working towards ever since : )
so good to see your interview here! look forward seeing more from you!
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| Posted by MAXIN on Mar 03, 2009 at 06:56 PM
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| marek denko is the king
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| Posted by shyamsprasad on Jan 13, 2009 at 08:35 AM
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| Hats off to you !!!
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| Posted by lalamax3d on Aug 06, 2008 at 08:54 PM
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| impressive work and tough benchmark for rest of us
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| Posted by Shylon on Jun 22, 2008 at 06:42 PM
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| very cool man
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