Till Nowak is a 28 year old digital artist, designer and filmmaker from Germany. His work has been exhibited in hundreds of international film festivals, featured at SIGGRAPH 2006 and 2007 and was awarded with more than 35 first prizes, for example in Annecy or at the AFI Fest Hollywood. The shortfilm called “Delivery”, a kind of a science fiction fairy tale, that was created as his graduation work, changed his life having brought him fame and popularity.

Currently Till is working for creative agencies, film productions, and independent projects. Besides his studio work Till has given lectures about his workflows in international events, and worked as jury member in various film festivals. Undoubtedly, he is a gifted person with huge potential! but let him personally tell about himself.

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Please, tell about yourself, your background and education. How did you get into computer graphics?

I was born in 1980, my parents are artists, too, and so I was always surrounded by art and creativity. As a child I had the chance to play a lot with my fathers videocamera and super8 cameras and do little stop motion films. My mother bought me my first computer when I was 12. The mix of art, film and my PC gave me so many possibilities and thrilled me in so many ways that I began to work professionally very early. When I was 19 I founded my studio “frameboX”. I started as my own boss and I always wanted it to stay that way, so I never worked in another company, not even for one day and not even as an intern. First I did a lot of classical print and web design, but over the years I specialized in computer generated images and animations. Besides my independent artworks and the jobs for TV and creative agencies, I was travelling around the world during the past three years, mainly because of film festival events in which I participated with my shortfilm “Delivery”.

“Can’t Smile without You” by Till Nowak.

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Today we want to introduce a talented matte painter and concept artists from Romania – Tiberius Viris. And though he is only in his twenties, he was an immediate success and gained popularity. Tiberius’s amazing matte paintings looks so realistic and lifelike, so it is hardly possible to distinguish them from photos. His works have been featured in many books and art collections such as Digital Art Masters Vol III, D’artiste Matte Painting 2, Expose 5 and 6 and many others.

For more information, please visit a website of Tiberius Viris.

Lost World – Tample of Nature. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris

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Please, tell about yourself. When did you first notice that you have a talent of an artist?

Hello! My name is Tiberius Viris and I’m a visual effects artist working for the film and entertainment industry.

To be honest, I dreamed of environments and exotic worlds ever since I can remember, and this passion found its perfect tool – visual art – only much later. For a very long time I tried to express these ideas through writing until one day I discovered, by accident, the wonders of computer graphics. Since then I’ve devoted myself to this technique, trying to learn everything about it and even find some room for improvement.

Usually the talent is propagated. Is anybody in your family related to arts?

Unfortunately, I have to say no, it’s a curiosity for me too. All my family are strong science folks and I personally like science too…but somehow art found a way to entangle with it in a harmonic way

Antarctica. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris.

What is your main achievement in CG? Do you have a favorite work among works created by yourself? If yes, why is it exactly this one?

Hmmm, I feel it’s still early to talk about a main achievement, because I’m still young and a long road lies ahead But so far I’m very happy with the hyper realism level I’ve reached. Some of my pieces are often mistaken as photos My favorite piece is Lost World, but the most of my friends like Dragon Mist or Hokkaido more.

Hall of the Dragon Mist. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris.

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We’d like to let you know about people we think are doing great work. And with this purpose we continue the interview series. So, now, dear friends, please meet a 26 year old graphic designer and illustrator from Finland – Olli-Pekka Jauhiainen! He is currently living in Helsinki and finishing his studies at the TAMK University of Applied Science, where he specializes in Digital Media. Among his works we may find surreal photomanipulations, 3D experiments and illustrations. They all excel in both creativity/originality and technical execution. Olli-Pekka plays with metaphors and symbols, putting strong ideas and original concepts into his works. You might have seen some of his works on the pages of our blog, where we have used his creations more than once.

Moreover, Olli-Pekka has good experience in website design and coding (HTML/CSS/PHP & Flash) and creates beautiful websites, examples of which are also presented here. Visit Olli-Pekka Jauhiainen’s website to read more about him.

Now, let’s go to the interview.

“It wasn’t me” by Olli-Pekka Jauhiainen.
Photomanipulation/Illustration made for Evokeone online art exhibition called ‘Evoke II’.

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Tell our readers about yourself, your background and education. Was there a turning-point in your life when you decided to cast your lot with computer graphics?

I’m a 26 years old male from Helsinki, Finland. I’m finishing my studies in Tampere University of Applied Science where I’m spelializing in Digital Media. I used to draw a lot when I was at the age of 10-15 but then hobbies, girls etc., the usual, took me away from it. But luckily after my military service at the age of 22, I got accepted to my current school and I was introduced to Photoshop. So I guess I could say that was the turning-point towards the computer graphics world. Even though my school isn’t really teaching computer graphics, (it is more about web coding or interactive media like Flash) the reason why I started learning Photoshop was the school. The needed inspiration came from there.

“Unique” by Olli-Pekka Jauhiainen.
Photomanipulation/3D/Illustration work made for Evokeone online art exhibition called ‘Evoke II’.

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Philip Straub. Art Director, Illustrator, Concept Art Teacher and Writer.
His main objective is to create and develop beautiful things that entertain and enrich people lives.

Philip is a master of digital and traditional (oil) art. His designs and illustrations can be seen on a variety of products: books, games, wall murals, scrap booking, gift, stationery and textiles, broadcast media, book jackets, CD covers, magazine covers, trading cards and in feature films.

The image that landed him his first artist representative, his first national award, and first paying job was “Faceplate” painted in oil and acrylic on board. And now he is an established world-famous artist held in high respect among artistic circles. He has been a featured artist numerous times in several publications including: The Society of Illustrators NY and Los Angeles Annuals, Spectrum Fantasy Annuals, Expose’ digital fine art books, ImagineFX Magazine, Advanced Photoshop Magazine, Corel Painter Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, 2D artist Magazine, It’s Art Magazine, and on dozens of digital art websites and forums.

The pronounced common element that unites almost all his masterpieces is a fantastic element. Due to his artworks, you can be easily transported into new worlds, surreal worlds inhabited by unique characters, where everything seems real, but it can’t be.

For more information, view Philip Straub’s website.

“Faceplate” by Philip Straub.
Medium: Oil and Acrylic on board / Photoshop .

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Hello Philip. Please, tell a couple of words about yourself and your family. Where did you get your education?

Hi there Well, let’s see – I was born in New York in 1973. My family moved to southern Connecticut when I was 8 and I lived there most of life until I started traveling to different parts of the country for my career. As for my education, I received my Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Illustration in 95, from Paier College of Art in Hamden Ct.

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Denis Tolkishevsky is one of the skillful 3D artists from Russia who has already managed to prove himself as a successful and highly perspective digital art professional. If you visit his personal website, you will be greatly surprised by the number of awards he received for the amazing masterpieces. His work “DragONtFLY ” got 5 awards on Russian and English CG portals such as Render.ru, CGSociety.org (CGTalk.com), 3dtotal.com, Tigerstudio.ro, and ArtTalk.ru . It also has been published in the books ELEMENTAL 3 and Digital Art Masters 3.

“DragONtFLY” by Denis Tolkishevsky.

Now we give you a great opportunity to get to know more about Denis Tolkishevsky, his way of working, his achievements and awards. And we hope this interview will be useful and inspiring to everybody who is in any way related to computer graphics.

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Art is eternal… Because the artist puts his whole soul into his works. And we would like to introduce one of such artists, known worldwide as Feebee.

Feebee is an established Japanese artist with a wealth of experience. In her creative work you may feel the Japanese motives interlaced with the modern age trends. The main characters of her works are girls. But the the most important aspect for her is not to draw them as beautiful as possible but to express their inner world. This is how the author characterizes the girls which she likes to depict: “They are strong and beautiful, but gentle. I capture the best moment of the girls and I put all my spirit in to that one moment. Please feel it through my art.” In fact, she always manages to convey the character and make the others feel her mood during which the works have been created. And now her brilliant images can be seen in all their beauty on the books and magazines covers, cards, and garments, products packs, on the walls of cafes and even on cars.

In 2007 she was chosen as a Feature Creator of the Month of September on the established Japanese website – Photoshopworld.jp. Her book ”The Art of Feebee” came to be in great demand and received general approval all over the world. At the moment she is working as an Adobe Illustrator cs3 lecturer and, of course, continuing to create the amazing masterpieces.

We also showed interest in Feebee’s creative work and asked her a couple of questions. So, read the exclusive interview with Feebee to know more about this talented artist.

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For those who are not familiar with you yet, tell us about your background. How did you get into graphic designing?

I was already drawing some pictures ever since I could remember and it was very natural for me to develop interest in graphic design.

Art of Feebee.

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For those who are not familiar yet, let us introduce a prominent person, a man of genius in the world of film industry – FREDERIC ST-ARNAUD. He is a visual effect artist with 10 years of experience, focusing mostly on high-end photo-realistic digital matte-paintings, set extensions and concept arts.

He created a huge amount of matte paintings and concept arts for our favorite movies such as: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Golden Compass (Best visual effects Award Winner 2008), The Legend of Secret Pass, Race to Mars, Silent Hill, Sin City, Babel, The Wind in the Willows, Racing Stripes, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sharkboy and Lavagirl, The Last Sign, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and many others. He was a creator of the numerous Napoleon’s 3D army for the film Napoleon.

Frederic St-Arnaud is a master of digital visual effects: he designed and integrated muzzle flares of guns and explosions for the movie project Once upon a time in Mexico.
Artist’s credit in movie Spy Kids 2, 3 is also great: he did a lot of concept art, character animation of the spider-robot “Ralph”, texturing, lightning, animations of different gadgets and vehicles.

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Please, tell our readers about yourself a bit.

Frederic St-Arnaud: Hi, my name is Frederic St-Arnaud. I was born in the town of Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada. Interested in art from a young age, I started to draw before I reached my teens. After two years studying Fine Arts and one year of Communication Arts, I worked on many theatre plays and exhibited my paintings during this time. In 1997 I was admitted into a 3D animation School in Montreal for an 2D and 3D Animation program.

At the end of my studies I worked as a Storyboard artist for a time moving on to Character Animation for several TV Series and commercials. I’m a digital matte-painter since the last five years, which combines my three big passions: cinema, computers ans arts. Take a look at www.starno.net to know more.

As we know, you studied Fine Arts at College of Fine Arts at Cegep de Sainte-Foy and Communication Arts at Laval University, and then attended a 3D animation School in Montreal for a 2D and 3D Animation program. Does the education necessary to become a professional in the sphere of Arts, to your opinion?

Frederic St-Arnaud: It’s necessary to learn how to use the softwares. The 3D softwares such as Softimage XSI, Maya or 3D Max for instance are quite complicated. Of course, you can try to learn at home with tutorials and help guides you will not learn as fast as you would do it as a student of a 3D animation program. The artistic side can be stimulated by lessons and courses but usually, it’s something that you have from your birth and It’s difficult to improve.

“The Decline of Babel Myth” by Frederic St-Arnaud.

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Andrius Balciunas is a young talented 3D artist from Lithuania. In August he was chosen as an Artist of the Month on the celebrated 3D artists’ portal Raph.Com. His new 3D image called “Open Green” was included into upcoming book of the world’s most beautiful CG characters “Exotique 4” that will be released worldwide in November 2008. Besides 3D skills, Andrius demonstrates great aptitude for music that goes side by side with the computer graphics. Undoubtedly, he is a creative personality with huge potential!

So, we couldn’t help showing interest in Andrius’s creative work and decided to interview him and learn about his achievements, aims and plans for the future. He with pleasure agreed to answer all our questions.

‘Open Green’ by Andrius Balciunas

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Please, tell about yourself (your background and education). When did you first notice that you have a talent of an artists and when did you begin to create 3D models?

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Kerem Gogus is a talented Turkish 3D artists that has a colossal experience behind him and a great number of victories in different CG contests such as Art4All Contest (his work “Memories” created under the influence of Dare’s song “Take Me Away” took the 1st place), DeviantArt Seasons of 3D Contest (with the work “Spring In Atlantia”), Miramax/Deviantart.com Eagle Vs. Shark Movie Poser Design Contest, Miramax / DeviantArt Renaissance – Live Forever: Movie Poster Contest where he took the first place as well and many others. He managed to win several E-on Software Picture Of The Day Awards. The list of Kerem’s achievements seems to go on forever. And you, guys, have a great opportunity to read the interview with this skillful artist where he tells about himself, shares his experience, ideas and thoughts.

“Memories” by Kerem Gogus

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Kerem Gogus is an all-arounder with vast interests: art history, traditional painting, and architecture. He adores music, especially Celtic music and fully and emotionally involved with Computer Graphics. But, let him personally tell about this!

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Contemporary art is many-sided and audacious. It is very innovative in its nature in regards to ideas and technical means. This is an art of the new generation influenced by Internet and other modern technologies that helped to enlarge the number of means used by artists.

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Among such contemporary artists is Marumiyan, a talented guy from Japan who has recently been chosen as one of the “10 Top Artists” in the design magazine MdN – a general information magazine for graphic and design (Japan). He works with various media, such as posters, flyers, websites and CD jackets. Currently he is living in Fukuoka City, one of the Japanese five largest cities that provides excellent opportunities for different types of activities.
Marumiyan has agreed with pleasure to give us an interview and share his experience, ideas and thoughts concerning his creative process and artworks. So, let’s start!

“Affectation” by Marumiyan

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What’s your background? What or who has had the most influence on you?

My father and cousin drew the pictures. It was their hobby. I was also interested in drawing in my childhood.
I studied design in the university.

“Happy Memory” by Marumiyan

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