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Autodesk® 3ds Max®
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AUGI
Autodesk User Group International
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Software: Autodesk 3ds Max
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Tomáš Müller
My name is Tomáš Müller and for over eight years, my primary point of interest is in commercial visual art. I specialize in the creation of advertising visuals, concept art and matte painting. I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of major clients from advertising, game and film industry during my career. The cooperation with top photographers in the area of advanced photo-montage and photorealistic visuals is another one of my passions.
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Hello Tomáš, welcome to the AREA. By the way, what does the name "Temüjin" mean?
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| Tomáš:
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Temüjin is my nickname, which in actuality is the birthname of Genghis Khan. I started using this nickname a long time ago for online gaming. Afterwards it became my standard nickname since many people knew me by that name at the time. I chose it because it is very similar to my last name.
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Can you tell us a little bit about yourself - where you are situated, what you do, how long you have been in the industry?
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| Tomáš:
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I live and work in Prague. My primary direction is illustration and, secondarily, creating visual things using different techniques, i.e., 3D, matte painting, drawings, etc. I‘ve been doing this kind of work for around eight years, ever since I finished art school.
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Indeed the range of work in your portfolio spans from advertising visuals, photo-montage, matte painting, concept art, and 3D. Where would you say the culmination of your skills originates?
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I was always interested in special techniques and solutions. I really like experimenting and trying to find new ways to create my artwork. The foundation for all my experience and knowledge came from school. There, I was trained in classical drawing techniques. After that, I began searching for a new direction and started to explore CG, composition and the application of digital airbrush. With the combined experience gained through exploring these media, I got the opportunity to work with advertising and on various game projects. Thanks to working in these industries, I got even more experience from different fields. I try to explore all options and not stay in one spot.
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How did you begin to produce visual work on the computer?
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My school focused more on the 'manual‘ aspect, I was studying engraving at the time. Working on the computer -- this I had discovered on my own. Since childhood I loved to play computer games, but after a while I began to wonder about the 'background‘ in creating a game. This became my main interest and it was at that point that I had decided to continue on the path of CG graphics.
Sometimes, I get nostalgic when I recall the days of sleepless nights, when I was sitting in front of Autodesk Animator and trying to figure out the first steps for my animation and then the next day trying not to sleep in class. Autodesk Animator was the first graphic application that I used, if I don’t count Paintbrush in Windows.
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When did you start to integrate 3D into your work?
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For the first few years I started out making really bad CG and I tried to figure out how to truly use 3D applications, so initially I spent more time using them on personal projects. The first professional CG job was in an advertising agency. At the start, I was doing very simple stuff and when I became more confident, 3D became my only tool.
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At which point did you know you wanted to work in the commercial visual industry?
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My parents saw that I was keen on the arts and encouraged me to pursue it. The biggest influence though, was my grandpa who was a painter. He fostered my interest in the arts, particularly in creative techniques. As I mentioned before, I studied engraving and that gave me a good foundation in theoretical knowledge about drawing and other practices. It was during school where I developed a deep interest in digital art and by the end of my studies, I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.
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How did you get the opportunity to work on your first commercial project?
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These days I work freelance but before, I worked at a few advertising agencies and they were the beginnings of what has lead to my professional career in CG.
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What are your primary tools for work?
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The software I use primarily are 3ds Max, Photoshop and ZBbrush. I also use classical techniques, mostly for the conception and design of my work.
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How long have you been using 3ds Max?
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It’s hard to say precisely when -- I tried switching a few times during my exploration in software so occasionally I used a handful of 3D applications all at once. But my first experience with 3D was in 3D Studio Max 3.0. It was in this version where I gained the most experience from and that was my first step into digital art.
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Over the years, what would you say has been the biggest improvement in 3ds Max that helps to streamline your work today?
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If I were to think back to the version I had started with (3.0), I’d have to say that the biggest improvements were in rendering -- with mental ray, and then reactor and bi-ped.
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Your work is a very interesting combination of fantasy mixed with what our brain recognizes as real/reality. What elements do you have to take into consideration when compositing your image?
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I always try to use elements in my work that everybody can identify as 'real‘, regardless of the work being sci-fi or something surreal. This makes my work more believable. I think it’s easy to create futuristic design without any elements of reality than it is to create futuristic design that has elements of reality. This is largely the problem with concept art.
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What is the primary renderer that you use?
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I use V-Ray because it is flexible and fast.
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Working as a freelance artist, are you given complete creative freedom over the artistic direction of all your projects?
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I cannot make a general answer for this -- it depends on the project and the industry that I‘m doing this project for (ie. games or advertising). Sometimes I get projects with total freedom where I can do everything from concept to final artwork. But other times, I have projects that are very strict and leave no room for freedom of decision.
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How much are you involved in an average project?
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If there is photo-production involved, I work with the photographers and try to influence the project as much as I can. For example, I‘ll present an idea, story, sketches, and storyboarding. At the end, I‘ll try to add more CG parts and manage the final composition. Those types of projects give me freedom in my creative thinking.
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How do you begin to work on an image? Do you already imagine the final image or do you spontaneously add elements?
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Most of my projects are already thought out -- but in the process of creating, I usually change some parts of the project.
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Can you describe to us the Harpers Bazaar Editorial piece and the workflow used to create the series of images?
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What is the average resolution that you work in?
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If I’m working on advertisements and things for print, the resolution is between 3500pixels to 20,000 pixels – the latter for more difficult outdoor campaigns (such as huge posters). Typical formats that I very often work in are (European formats) A4 to A2 in 300DPI.
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When working in such high res for your line of work -- in general do you come across challenges?
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There are many challenges. I‘m very happy if I work on very difficult projects with challenges I‘ve never faced before because I can drive my experience to the next dimension.
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What is the average time spent in the production of a project?
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It‘s hard to answer generally. Illustration can take anywhere from one day to a week. It depends on how difficult the project is, the technical specifications of the final work and also how big the project is. There are many many other factors as well. With advertising, I am often pushed to work under very tight deadlines, so I’m trying to use the given production time with minimum effort, but never minimizing the quality of work.
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There are so many different styles and moods in all of your imagery - from cute/childlike, to dramatic high-end fashion, to minimal/fresh design. What are you most passionate about in your digital art?
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I was always interested in many themes and things. I cannot say that I like one thing over another. All creative techniques are challenging and they challenge you to discover and figure out new techniques. I love every aspect of my work, negative and positive. And I think that you can easily quote the well known expression of ‘What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger’.
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What/who are the biggest influences on your work?
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I admire the work of Pascal Blanche, Neil Blevins, Arild Wiro and Raphael Lacoste.
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What are your future plans? Any chance that you'll start your own company to provide services for advertising agencies?
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No, I don’t want to build my own company. I am very happy with my freelance lifestyle because it allows me time to extend my knowledge. My plan for the future is to be the best in the things I do.
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Thanks very much for sharing your diverse portfolio of work, Tomáš. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours.
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| Tomáš:
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Thank you. I gladly share my knowledge with your readers.
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| Posted by LoveFest on Nov 16, 2011 at 03:32 AM
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| Very nice images. Must have been a lot of hard work and experimentation to get them to look they way you wanted.
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| Posted by shi guang zhi ren on Aug 05, 2011 at 11:38 PM
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Thank you, I'm very excited and I see so beautiful work
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| Posted by Jeremy Cordeiro on May 23, 2011 at 12:23 AM
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| hmmm the making of link seems broken... :(
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| Posted by Shahbaz3d on Apr 04, 2011 at 04:51 AM
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| You are Great. Greatest work. I want to work with you...! Also I have the Skills of Auto Cad, 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Premier. But I dont have Good Company yet....
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| Posted by Milivoj Popovic on Apr 04, 2011 at 02:55 AM
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| niiiiceee!
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