3D

Art
DIRECT

FANTASY & SCI-FI ARTIST IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

3DArtDirect.com
SYLVAIN CHEVALLIER

TARIK KESKINDESIGNING THE INTERIORS OF OUR FUTURE

ANDY WELDER

ISSUE 31
July 2013

BRYCE VUE TERRAGEN POSER MOJOWORLD CARRARA DAZ STUDIO CINEMA 4D 3DS MAX BLENDER LIGHTWAVE

3D Art
FANTASY & SCI-FI ARTIST IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

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Front Cover Artwork : Eden Archives

I by Terek Keskin
2

3D Art Live Events

04

Live webinar based conferences for 3D Digital Artists

Interview : Sylvain Chevallier

With Sylvain Chevallier, a Vue artist living and working in
France, it is rare to find the kind of diversity of subject and
genre found in Sylvains Cornucopia gallery. Whether hes
rendering a Fastback Mustang, a deep space mission, or an
Italian Villa, its obvious he brings a passion for the image
regardless of the topic.

Interview : Tarik Keskin

06

22

A modern student of the world of architecture and 3D Space, Tarik

Keskin studies at Dou University, Istanbul. His futuristic vision of
living on Earth and traveling in space is shared in an outstanding and
eye catching style with the help of 3DS Max and Mental Ray.

Interview : Andy Welder

There, on sheer endless afternoons, I discovered Sci-Fi and
Surrealism...Writers like Jack Vance, Larry Niven and Isaac Asimov,
painters like Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Carel Willink and Escher
presented me an alternate reality...those years are the foundation
of my Terragen work

36

www.3DArtLive.com

Animating Nature
Vue Animation Masterclasses
Webinars : Saturday 3rd 4th August 2013 at 20:00 BST
(15:00 EDT and 12:00 PDT)

By Michel Rondberg and Drea Horvath from D&D Creations

Introductory Session (free)

Introduction to animating nature

Wind and atmosphere
Atmospheric effects (rain, snow, particles)
Forest/Jungle scenes with beautiful Sunbeams

Optimize Scenes for Better Resource Handling

What is slowing my frames down?

http://3dartlive.com/vueanimation

Diagnose and cure

Optimizing ecosystems
Mesh optimization
Scene optimization

Strategic Rendering: Settings for Speed and Quality

Determining a strategy for your goals

Strategies for 100% CG renders, 100% nature
Strategies for CG + real life footage (Film)
Suggested strategies speed vs. quality
Render setting starting points

Coming soon.

New live conference for Poser and Poser Pro users

A whole set of webinars throughout one weekend just for the

Poser community

Top well known presenters demonstrating live from their

desktops

Engage live with presenters and other attendees

Get updated on the new conference www.3dartlive.com/poserexpo

Paul Bussey
Editor & Conference Director
paul@3dartdirect.com
5

THE CITADEL

There are few subjects

as diverse as art. Set
aside all the various
mediums where
traditional artists hone
their skills, whether a
fine canvas strung
across a wooden frame,
a concrete sidewalk and
a block of chalk, or
anything between, arts powerful draw, no pun
intended, is rooted in its diversity.
The world of 3D digital art is no different. Although
the software platforms are defined by a few key
companies and a host of add-on suppliers, the
diversity comes from the artists themselves. For
every artist behind a keyboard and mouse, youll
find such a diversity of talent level, subject matter,
genre, color range, scope and technique to keep
even the most discerning eye entertained.
We are joined this month Sylvain Chevallier, a
Frenchman and Vue artist living and working in
France. Its rare to find the kind of diversity of
subject and genre found together in Sylvains
Cornucopia gallery. Whether hes rendering a
Fastback Mustang, a deep space mission, or an
Italian Villa, its obvious he brings a passion for the
image regardless of the topic.

3DA: Welcome to 3D Art Direct glad you

could join us for a look at your work and
discuss your zeal for Vue and your journey to
and through 3D Art.
SC: Hi, I'm glad you given me the
opportunity to share some of my pictures in
your magazine, really thanks for that and I
hope you will like them!
3DA: So tell us about your early journey to
art. Where you one of those artsy children,
always drawing on something?
SC: Mmmmm - artsy child, I don't know,
but when I was young, I had always a pencil
in my hand, I remember I loved to draw
Walt Disney characters or robots, later I've
founded a passion in graffiti, the spray can
was a good friend!! Then I was attracted by
photography and 3 years ago, I've discovered
the CG world!
3DA: You mentioned you always had an
interest in photography and astronomy. Tell
us about that. Do you try to bring a
photographers eye to your art?
SC: Astronomy was a long time passion for
me, I had 2 telescopes (a 105 mm Newton,
and a 305 mm Newton GoTo). I loved moving
in the countryside with them, but because
the lightning pollution, I have sold them and
I admit, I have regrets!!

ANNO 1713

INTERVIEW: Sylvain Chevallier

For the photography, I had the chance to meet a
neighbor who is famous in fashion shots. I
learned a lot with him in composition, lightning
and choice of the colors. I loved to go on his
studio. After, I've started to retouch some of his
pictures in Photoshop, and I started my trip in
digitals pictures and now, I'm here!

GeekatplayStudio tutorials (great place btw),

after was the practice who made my skills.
3DA: How has being part of the Cornucopia
community helped you grow as a 3d Artist?
SC: I've found here some great artists with really
eye catching and inspiring pictures and the
Making-of section too. But essentially is on the
Vue gallery group on Facebook I've grown more.
If you have a moment, take a look on it!!
(Thanks to Barry Marshall who is the admin of
this great group)

3DA: One of the things that caught my eye in

your gallery is your fascination with American
muscle cars. Where does that come from?
SC: I've always been fascinated by those cars,
the bodies shapes, the incredible sounds of their
V8, asphalt eater!!

3DA: Along those lines, who are some of your

Cornucopia peers who have influenced your work
3DA: You picked up Vue three years ago and are along the way?
basically self-taught. Tell us about that
SC: Wow, there is too many to name them all!
experience, what got you to Vue and how you
They have all influenced me! It is on Vue group I
went about learning.
found them, they have all their own style, some
SC: I had the flash when I've bought the first
are better in composition, some in lightning,
issue of our 3d mag where I saw Drea Horvath
some in textures and materials etc., but they do
and Dominic Davison pictures.
all great renders!
It was fantastic and I caught the V.A.S. (Vue
Addiction Syndrome!!) I've started to play with
Vue alone, but to understand well the software
and when I was blocked, I watched some

3DA: The French are known for great works of

art. How have you been influenced by the art
world around you?

BRIEFING CAM VIEW

BAVIERE

THE MACHINES

I've wanted a really

minimal picture without
to many colors, I had this
cyborg and this vehicle.
The composition and the
picture came alone.
JAPONISANT

10

CHRONICAL OF DARKNESS

SC: Thanks for the French! I like a lot travelling

on the web to find my inspiration, photo, video,
don't really care of the style as long as it's eye
catching. I really like to watch all I have all
around me. I'm in love with the light, especially
the golden moments of the day.
3DA: Lets take a look at some of your work. Tell
me about The Machines. For some reason this
one just leapt off the page. The strong black and
white pallet touched off with the hint of red is
stellar. The power is in its simplicity.

SC: My inspiration was the blossoming moment

of the plants and trees in Japan, and their
traditional architecture. Ive used some
Stonemason's props and some Xfrog trees for
doing it.
3DA: Chronicles of Darkness is very middleearth like. I really like the narrow depth of field
on this. What technique let you focus the field to
that sliver of sharpness?

SC: Me too, I like it! For this one, I've used the
classical photography rule who want the focus on
SC: Indeed, as you said, sometimes the power is the eyes, I've just duplicated the iris and I've
in simplicity! I've wanted a really minimal picture locked to camera to it, the blur is done entirely
without to many colors, I had this cyborg and
with Vue.
this vehicle. The composition and the picture
3DA: I like The Little. This tiny droid seems a bit
came alone.
weathered. Is that something you did or did the
3DA: A really nice composition is Japonisant.
model come that way? How did you do the blur
What was your inspiration and how did you put
in Photoshop?
this one together?
THE LITTLE

11

FROM THE BLOCK

12

EXTRACTION SITE

THE HOLE
13

INTERVIEW: Sylvain Chevallier

SC: This model come from Stefan Morrell aka

Stonemason site, the textures are with it. I've
just photo-shopped them to do variation maps
for the highlights, reflections, and bumps. The
only material I've made is the glass on the
drone!

focus on it with a little blur to avoid an overladen

picture. The goal was to see the cyborg looking
this futuristic city with all the life around it. For
that the traffic and the smoke have an important
role.

For the blur, I made two renders, one with and

one without the drone. I generated the alpha
mask of him and the global DOF of the render
without the Little. Then, in Photoshop, I applied
the depth of field and the directional blur in the
first picture, and, in the second, I cut the drone
with the alpha mask. Then I put it on the blurred
render.

3DA: Keeping with the Sci-Fi theme, Extraction

Site is a strong image with a depth and scale that
is difficult to achieve. I think your composition
with this one is spot on. Tell us about this one.

SC: For this picture, the atmosphere does 90% of

the work. To show this sense of big scale it was
important to have something in the foreground
(here, the terrain with the truck and the
characters), and something far to the horizon
3DA: Another of your sci-fi images that stood out (the extraction site). The planets have an
is From the Block. It reminds of Coruscant, home important role too, to avoid an empty sky and to
of the Star Wars Galactic Empire. What was your have a more Sci-fi look, I've achieved this render
inspiration and how did this image unfold?
in Photoshop with a little gamma correction and
with the use of the depth of field pass.
SC: Yes, it's that! I've used again Stonemason's
props except for the character, I've wanted to
3DA: Birmanie is another of your diverse images

14

SC: I don't have a big setup. My machine is an

I7 2600k with 16 GB ram and a 560 GTX TI
graphic card. My screen is a Samsung
SyncMaster, SA300 23 inches. I also have a
Wacom Intuos 3M (my preciouuuuuus as
Gollum said.). That's all!
3DA: What kind of things would you like to
tackle next as a 3D artist?
SC: I don't know really, I like it all. I've never
made archviz picture, so maybe that! A beautiful
modern house in a countryside environment with
a photo realistic look could be nice!!
3DA: And finally, what three tips would give a
digital art newcomer?
SC: Three tips? There is more than three, but the
more important are for me:

BIRMANIE

with a subtle quality some might overlook.

Theres a lot of detail here and the cultural addins like the temples in the background and the
riverboat. Tell us about what inspired you to go
here and what was your biggest challenge?

- Look, study and understand all around you how

the light is working on objects and you will
better. It's really important for a good picture,
photorealist or stylized!
- If you share your work, you are expecting for
comments and feedbacks, so , take them, they
are always constructive, good or bad.
- And the most important, HAVE FUN and have
your own style!

SC: This picture is inspired by a friend who have

travelled around those countries. The pictures he
made were fabulous, so, I started one! the
biggest challenge here was the variety of the
vegetation. I don't remember well but there is a
lot! One ecosystem layer per plants species for
more control on the distribution. The rest is a
only a composition work!
3DA: Im curious about your production process.
Do you always start with a vision and build out
there, or are you more of a draw and lets see
where it goes kind of designer?
SC: I always have the picture in my head. With
time I find the best solution for doing it.
Sometimes I'm making dozen of renders to have
the goal I want and sometimes one or two is
enough. But I have a notebook to write the
modifications I need to put in a picture.

www.3dartdirect.com/sylvain

3DA: What is your computer setup you use

mostly for your work?
15

MISSION TO CAMP BASE

16

TEMPLE OF SERENITY

MISSION TO CAMP BASE

17

INTERVIEW: Sylvain Chevallier

MT. MAJESTIC

RUST IN PEACE

18

BAJAUS SULAWESI INDONESIA

19

DRIVE

DEUDEUCHE

20

LITTLE ITALY

COPS
21

Architecture - the process and product of

planning, designing, and construction, usually of
buildings and other physical structures. In days
past it meant sitting at a drafting board with
pencil and protractor, templates and T-squares, to
draw, annotate, measure, mold, shape and design
the way we live. That was then this is now.
With the advent of Computer Aided Design,
pencils were replaced by mouse and tablet, paper
by bits and bytes on a storage device. Architects
today claim ownership of multiple disciplines
including mechanical and civil engineering,
computational modeling, materials science, art
culture and technology, among others. In many
ways the very foundation of the way we live and
interact is rooted in the structures around us..

CITY OF DELUSION

3DA: Welcome to 3D Art Direct.

TK: Hello there, I'm glad to be here with you.
3DA: So what brought you to the world of
Architecture?
TK: I've always been fascinated with buildings,
and especially how I feel in buildings or spaces.
I knew that someone created that particular
space and it made my feel relaxed, or made me
imagine or go somewhere else in my head, so I
decided to do the same thing, create spaces
that people would feel themselves in a different
world, elsewhere.
3DA: Who are some of your peers in the
architecture world that have influenced your
style?

TK: Zaha Hadid is the first name comes to

mind. I really admire the way she sees it,
In the pure sense of the word, architecture is art. influenced by the nature, she really interprets
nature in amazing ways. Tadao Ando, Frank
They co-exist in a world of line and curve, color,
Gehry, Zimmerman and Emre Arolat are big
texture and form to create functional space that is
influences too.
also visually attractive. When artist and architect
3DA: Its apparent you have a strong eye for
collide in modern three-dimensional software
design. What are some of your best sources of
some amazing things can happen.
inspiration?
We are fortunate today to sit with a modern
student of the world of architecture and 3D Space.
Tarik Keskin studies at Dou University, Istanbul.
His futuristic vision of living on Earth and traveling
in space seemed the perfect fit for 3D Art Direct.
22

TK: Nature and thoughts about different space

and time continuums are my best sources for
inspiration. And the concept of being
"elsewhere". I try to start thinking about nature
when creating my designs, they are fluent,
organic and shiny. Then it becomes something
else, a different place, the difference is it is not

BLIND F AITH

in our space and continuum, it is somewhere

else. I think I like to think the idea of when
someone looks at it they can be there too, in a
way, detached from reality.
3DA: You mentioned that you created maps for
the video game Counter Strike. How did you get
into that and what was that like?

TK: That is a funny story. I was a kid really, and

played CS. I don't know why, but somehow I
wanted to create spaces that I saw in the game.
I think even in that time I had the idea of being
elsewhere, I wasn't fully aware of that then, but
that was it.
3DA: Besides being a great designer you are a
SPACE WEAPONDARY

23

musician as well. Doesnt this go right to the core

of you being a creative person all around, and
the architecture is just a natural extension of
your art based foundation?

PEREGRINE FALCONCYROGENIC

TK: Of course, I really do not seperate them, I

look them both as "creating stuff". But music is
different in a way. Because music is a performing
art, you are on stage and you are performing
what you feel in front of a crowd. So when I play
drums at a gig, I feel that energy and that, is
something else, different then "creating stuff", it
is something bigger, stronger, and isn't
describable at all.
3DA: You use 3ds Max and Mental Ray as your
core 3D tools. What is it about these packages
that got you to use them in your work?
TK: 3ds Max is for modelling, and Mental Ray is a
rendering engine. 3ds Max is a very widely used
software in modelling and animation, some the
major filmmakers use that software for
animations. Mental Ray is the default rendering
engine included in 3ds Max, which is an industry
standard for rendering animations. It is more
used for animations than it is used for still
images.
3DA: Lets get into some of your work. Id like to
start off with your Peregrine Falcon images,
specifically Club Elsewhile. In your gallery you
mention your inspiration being Mass Effect 2. Tell
us about Peregrine Falcon, what it is, and where
Club Elsewhile fits.
TK: Peregrine Falcon is the fastest animal living
on earth. You can google it to find out how fast
she can fly. I named my design after this very
nice bird, basically the ship Peregrine Falcon is an
interstellar or intergalactic transportation vessel,
making very long trips between spaces. Club
Elsewhile is one of the many floors of the ship,
and it is a club... Elsewhile refers to the shift of
time, when the vessel is cruising, it's speed is
higher than the speed of light, therefore there
are some complications about time when it's in
between places. So you are in elsewhile or
otherwhen when you are on that ship, hence
comes the name Club Elsewhile.

light sources are the stars nearby, and

translucent walls that let the light through inside.
When there is no stars at all, walls become selfilluminated.
3DA: I also like the Falcons Library. Its kind of
the same structure as Cryogenics, but the
warmer lighting gives it more of a cozy feel
where the cooler light found in Cyrogenics has a
much more clinical feel to it. How do these
differences in light play into your design as you
do your architectural design.

3DA: While were on the Falcon, lets step over

to Cyryogenics. One thing that strikes me about
your work is you tend to have very curvy, open
spaces. This is a great example of using light and TK: Lighting is the key of a space. If there no
space to build your environment. Tell us about
light, then there is darkness. If there is darkness,
this area.
there is no space relatively. Cryogenics Lab has a
lighting setup that feels like it is a clinical
TK: That section of the vessel is for people who
laboratory, while the library floor has a warmer
prefer to be unaware of the voyage they take,
they experience a shift of time, in other words if lighting setup, which makes people feel calm and
relaxed, because the function of a library is to
the voyage lasts three Earth months, that three
months is missing from their lives, because they have a quiet, calm space where you can read or
study whatever you would like to read or study.
are in a cryogenic state of sleep. And about the
space, yes it is very curvy and open, and the only So, every particular spaces have to be designed
24

PEREGRINE FALCONCLUB ELSEWHILE

25

INTERVIEW: Tarik Keskin

very carefully, depending on functions and needs. You have to experience with materials to get it
3DA: Ionizer Silos is an extraordinary piece with exactly how you would like to see it. And there
so much going on. Its practically photo-realistic. are some pre-made materials in Mental Ray that
The subtle glass reflections I think is what really works great without any frantic efforts as well.
sets this work off. How difficult was it to achieve So when you do all this, it may look like
photorealistic if you want it to look photorealistic.
such realistic reflections in the glass objects?
Post-process is also an important matter in
TK: It is all about experimenting with different
photorealism by the way.
materials. That's a technical aspect of the work.
3DA: The Taurus IV Meeting Room is another
26

PEREGRINE FALCONLIBRARY

example of how you used lighting and shadow to

your advantage. Thinking about how you begin
one of these environment pieces, tell us about
your process. As a trained architect what is the
balance you try to achieve between function and
form, use and appearance?

criticized for their designs, because basically they

only had form, and not function. 80's were very
unfortunate for architecture, because of this
debate. In my opinion, function always comes
first. You would design a toilet which may look
like a sculpture of an ancient dragon, and if you
TK: Okay that Functions versus Form discussion do this you can't actually place the toilet in it,
began in 80's, with the current Deconstructivism, therefore people won't be able to use it and
instead they will go to the forest to... You know.
architects like Hadid or Gehry had always been
27

INTERVIEW: Tarik Keskin

TAURUS IVMEETING ROOM

IONIZER SILOS

28

SPACE LOUNGE: ROUGE

Well that's funny when you say it like this, but

that's really the truth. Form should always follow
the function. If you have set the functions right,
then you can put them in any form you would
create. Take a look at tunnels ants dig deep into
the ground, they have an amazing form, but that
form comes from the function that ants need.
Nature tells us it all.

3DA: Tell us about your Space Lounges: Rouge

& Blue.
TK: Lounge Rouge was designed before Lounge
Blue, and in both I thought of them as umm,
kind of places to pass the time. They are built on
minor connecting ports where vessels dock in to
refuel or etc.

SPACE LOUNGE: BLUE

29

INTERVIEW: Tarik Keskin

TERMINAL FROST

3DA: Terminal Frost is one where I want to get

into the functional aspect of the space. According
to your DA gallery you refer to this being a
docking station on Pluto. Walk us through the
space if you could. Im guessing by the sheer
expanse of this chamber its outside in the
environment and the transportation units on
either side is to shuttle passengers from the dock
to the station interior.

socialism, communism etc... I mean we have no

idea what system we would have in the future.
When doing this piece, I thought of it like a four
star hotel, if it was to compared to today. Beyond
all of this, I do think and line up with that
architecture should always serve to people of all
socio-economic levels. Architecture should serve
to humanity. Today we are starting to see
examples of this, and I believe in the future we'll
see more and more, and I just hope that we'll
TK: That is correct, they are the shuttles come
and go between the main docking station and the have better standards in terms of spaces that we
live in.
terminal. At the docking station, there is a
waiting area, an exchange office and a caf,
named Frost Caf. There are two gates, two
docking points for the vessels. On the right side
of the terminal, there are two pedestrian bridges,
the lower one leads to the docking floor, and the
other one leads to the waiting area. These
bridges are for those who prefer to walk the
terminal instead of taking a shuttle.
3DA: The last one I wanted to ask you about is
Space Suite H-305. We can only imagine what
long-term space travel would be like. Do you
envision a concept like the ocean liners of the
day where your quarters are in conjunction on
your rank or social status dictates the space you
end up living in and how do those issues play out
in architectural design?
TK: That's an interesting question. I don't take
up seriously any economic system, capitalism,
30

3DA: If the Autodesk programmers came to you

and asked you to help them design the next
generation, what would be your first choice for a
new feature geared towards architectural design?
TK: They already have software that are
extremely powerful and effective for today. But
for the future, I would ask them to give me a
spacious room with devices that allowed me to
draw touchable holograms with the movement of
my hand, and at the same time rendered photorealistically in zero delay.
3DA: You mention on many of your images you
use Photoshop and After Effects in post work.
What does After Effects bring in that you cant do
in Photoshop?

TK: After Effects has a plug-in named Optical

Flares, which does not exist in Photoshop, it's a
great lens flare plug-in that is used in most of the

BIO-RESEARCH

movies or videos you see.

3DA: What is your hardware configuration?

TK: You are very welcome, it has been a good

experience for me too. Take care.

TK: I have a desktop computer, pretty powerful,

8 cores processor running at 4.2 Ghz, 16 gigs of
ram, and Nvidia GTX550ti. I also have a Macbook
Pro, to see the colors as true as possible and to
see how it would look if I print it. I make final
adjustments of the images on the Mac.
3DA: Whats next? Where do you see yourself in
five years?
TK: I really don't know, I think I will continue to
work freelance, maybe study a Master's Degree
in Spain, which is the heart of the architecture
right now. I'm also planning to enter
architectural competitions and make my living on
them for some time, before I start my own
company.
3DA: What advice would you give a newcomer to
the study and practice of architecture design?

You can find Tarik on the internet at:

TK: Observation is vital. Observe, analyze, think

profoundly and try to understand. Look to the
past, to move on to the future, and to not to
recreate something that is already done. Draw,
no matter what it is, whether some random lines
or a sketch of a church. Draw and let the pen
find its way, do not try to control it with your
hand; try to control it with your mind.

siamon89.deviantart.com/
www.tarikkeskin.co/
www.facebook.com/tarikkeskinofficial
Tarik also chases a music career.
He is the drummer for the band Manto:

3DA: Thank you for spending some time and

sharing your work and experience with us.

www.myspace.com/mantoband

31

32

EDEN ARCHIVES 1

33

INTERVIEW: Tarik Keskin

EDEN ARCHIVES 3

EDEN ARCHIVES 2

34

C HELIDONIA

SPACE DOCK

35

Andy Wachelder

LIGHTEN UP

Born 1954 in
Scheveningen, The
Netherlands, my very
early years were
spent at the beach
and the dunes: They
were right across the
street! At the age of four my parents moved to
the coalmining region in the south -east of the
Netherlands. Most of my teenage years were
spent in the bookstore to town, with comfy seats
and folks that did ask if you did like the book,
instead of asking "Do you want to buy it?" There,
on sheer endless afternoons, I discovered Sci-Fi
and Surrealism...Writers like Jack Vance, Larry
Niven and Isaac Asimov, painters like Salvador
Dali, Rene Magritte, Carel Willink and Escher
presented me an alternate reality that somehow
36

did sooth the longing for the sea. Those years

are the foundation of my Terragen work. Art
theory was something that came as part of my
college education in the late seventies. The
eighties to me were a long period of
unemployment followed by work as a
cabinetmaker. I did do quite a number of oil
paintings in those years and gradually shifted
from surrealism to a more abstract style inspired
by the Bauhaus period. Fave artists from that
period are Klee, Miro and Kandinsky Other
influences are the years I travelled across Europe
working as an exhibition builder, in particular the
landscapes I did see while traveling in a small
van from one exhibition to the other. After a
severe back injury that left me unable to work in
the 90s I had a lot of extra time on my hands,
this is when I was introduced to the world of
computing.

3DAD: We are very

happy to have with us
today digital artist
Andy Wachelder aka
Andy Welder, Andy
welcome to 3d art direct.

LAICHZEIT

AW: Thank you 3D

Art Direct for the invitation!
3DAD: We see looking through your gallery at Renderosity
that you are influenced by Sci-Fi Fantasy as well as surreal
and thought provoking works. What got
you into these genres?
AW: A very nice
bookshop where you
could sit down in a
comfy chair, have a
tea and read the
books for sale. That
was in my teenage
years in the early
seventies and posters
were booming business. The bookshop
also sold these and
that was the main
reason for me to
come there at first. I
spent hours thumbing
through the collection with reproductions of Salva- 3DAD: There is a fine-tuned quality that is predor Dali, Renee Magritte, Escher and Carel Willink. sent in all your work, was this something that
They also had a very nice collection of Sci-fi
came naturally?
books. Not that I had any idea of what Sci-fi was,
I was only familiar with comic books about the
Green Lantern, Superman and so on. But the covers of the books did grab my attention with their
surreal scenes. And so I started reading them,
there, in that bookshop. Also there was this "Yes"
37

INTERVIEW: Andy Welder

AW: Partially, I think, it came from looking at so
many good artworks and reading about art: You
could say I absorbed art theory while looking at
art. What also did help is the fact that I'm an
autistic and tend to notice details that others do
not notice. This attention for detail is something
that does return in anything I do, sometimes ad
absurdum; I'm the kind of guy who does paint
the veins in the corners of a life sized eye while
working on a painting at ten meters above the
ground... In Dutch they call it
"Kerkenwerk" (Work for the Church) because the
only one that will ever notice those details is
God, who sees all, and the priest.. *grins* Also
things I'm working on do really grab me, I'm so
absorbed by what I'm doing everything else
escapes me; you could say I'm totally focused
and I can spent hours, sometimes even days,
working on getting one detail right. Let's say I

have a forest scene and want a sunlight spot in a

particular place; Terragen offers several ways to
achieve that: I can play with the position and
intensity of the sun, generate new cloud fractal
seeds and move the clouds up or down, generate
new seeds for the populations of vegetation
objects and play with the density of the
population and move them around. There's a lot
to fiddle with and that's what I'll do till it's right.
It's a good thing TG2 can do cropped renders so
there's no need to render the full picture again
and again.
3DAD: You are primarily a Terragen artist today.
Were there any other applications that you
experimented with before settling in with TG? If
so what were they?
AW: Besides from an occasional excursion to

URCHIN VALLEY
38

DER RAMMSTEIN

MojoWorld, which is still installed on this machine

btw, I never really tried anything else. I did tinker
with the free copies of Poser, Bryce, Vue and DAZ,
who didn't? But I gave up on them because , honestly, the struggle of getting familiar with these
new interfaces, new concepts and synonyms was
too much for me. Being accustomed to classic
Terragen the way TG2 did look came as a huge
shock because of the totally new interface and
setup. The first time I did open it there was sheer
panic! The thought of having to master tht made
me feel like the ground I was standing on collapsed! Yup, I can be such a wimp at times. I do
like MojoWorld a lot and though the interface is
not really my thing: If there would be no Terragen
MojoWorld would be my choice application for
rendering landscapes. For now my MojoWorld renders are strictly private, I will never post them because there is not enough Andy in them to make
39

them mine. Maybe after my retirement there's

time to really get acquainted with MojoWorld
3DAD: Early on who were some of the artists that
inspired you to create and grow as a 3d artist?
AW: To name a few joshus_hund, heikoh,
prutzworks, Rich2, hillrunner and some more but
who's names Just to name a few .joshus-hund:
The detailed surfaces and crisp atmospheres in his
renders still can take my breath away. heikoh:
Magnificent mountains and he was the one who
showed me the possibilities of TG cloud creation.
Rich2's terrains did inspire me to experiment with
WorldMachine, also I liked his dense atmospheres
a lot. Prutzworks for me is the one who brought
poetry and humor to Terragen renders: "Weg van
de velden, weg van de zee" is possibly the best
example. "Away from the fields, away from the
sea" and that from a Dutch guy? That still makes

INTERVIEW: Andy Welder

Smile! Even his alias is humor: to tinker, to
piddle, to potter, messing around

classics like Hillrunner's "Flojoa" and Prutzwork's

"Weg van de velden, weg van de zee". Those
terrains got me interested in MojoWorld btw
3DAD: Terragen Classic was and still is a great
because I found out they were exports from MW
landscape application that excels at realistic
worlds! And then there was Rich2 with his
procedural treatments of terrains. This early
WorldMachine terrains so I started experimenting
version had its own internal terrain generator
with that. WorldMachine was a great program
that was very useful, however didnt have the
though a bit intimidating, to me that is, because
ability to create highly detailed terrains that the
I felt some mathematical background was
current version can. Many artists preferred to use required to understand what those filters were all
3rd party terrain generators like World Machine or about. And I had practically none... But pushing
Leveller. Was this the case with you? If so which sliders and changing valuesand connecting nodes
program do you prefer to work with and why.
in different ways without really knowing what I
was doing still resulted in very nice terrains. And
AW: For a very long time there was only
Terragen for me, I did experiment a lot with the then there came this Johannes Rosenberg aka
built-in tools like BMP import and the Sculpt tool. Cajomi who was looking for testers to take part
in testing his new terrain generating software
Also got nice results with the "Merge" function.
called GeoControl. Right from the start I felt
And I did often use someone else's terrain,

SANDBLASTED
40

connected to this program and it really did inspire me. http://www.geocontrol2.com/

e_index.htm

to give it another try and go for realistic dunes

thinking this filter might do the trick. The first
results were very disappointing, there was nothing that even remotely did look like dunes but I
3DAD: Sandblasted is a great example of what
also realized that, if I forgot about dunes, the
GeoControl can do. Walk us through the creation terrain formations did look kinda cool and had
of this piece.
potential. To emphasize certain aspects I slowly
started changing values here and there until I
AW: Not only is "Sandblasted" a great example
of what GeoControl can do, the way it was creat- was satisfied with the terrain in Geo Control.
ed is also a good illustration of the way I do ap- Then I started doing some renders in TG and got
another disappointment because the terrain didproach renders, the way I work in general. The
n't look that great from a traditional POV: Camwhole terrain is based upon the use of the
era hovering a short distance above the ground
"Displace" layer method and the fact I read an
and pointing at the horizon. That made me try a
article on sand dunes and their displacement
POV similar to the camera position in GeoConthrough the environment. Now, natural looking
sand dunes are extremely hard to create, in fact trol: Orthographic. Also I did decide to use the
GC color scheme for the surface The result did
I still haven't found software that's capable of
surprise me in a very positive way. From there it
that, but after this "Displacement" setting became available to the beta-testers I just wanted was a matter of fiddling with the distribution values for the surface layers and tuning other surAnother Canyon

41

INTERVIEW: Andy Welder

Face properties. Oh, and I did ad haze to
emphasize the height differences more. That was
an observation I made at that period: To bring
out the depth in a landscape best not use a clear
atmosphere but ad some haze because that will
accentuate the distance between terrain features.
3DAD: The guys at Planetside have put a lot of
time an effort over the years to improve
Terragen from the days of Version v.9. Along
with all the improvements comes a completely
different UI. What were your initial thoughts
when first opened TGD/Version 2?
AW: Like I touched on before: Sheer panic
though the node based was kinda familiar from
the WorldMachine interface. But like with World
Machine I figured it would require knowledge of

FERN GULLY CROSS ROADS

42

mathematics and as a former

cabinetmaker I never got beyond
Pythagoras. Thanks to the
Planetside forum for pointing me in
the right direction because it turned
out my initial fears were
unnecessary and my basic approach
of moving sliders bit by bit and
experimenting with changing values
soon paid off. I.e. the moment I
could visualize how fractal
displacement worked in a 3D space
was of great importance for my
approach of surfaces and terrain:

Naboo Palace

STONGAE BEACH

This understanding came from playing with

spheres and planets like in "Where once the gods
did roam

3DAD:Ok let's talk about some of your v2 work,

Fern Gully Crossroads is an exceptional image
with a great mood and really shows of what this
application can do. What got the ball rolling for
3DAD:The Learning curve is somewhat steep with this?
this current version; however the results achieved
are quite impressive. For many artists forums play AW: A typo! Seriously .. While working on a new
an essential part in learning new applications, was render I made a typo with the value for the disthis case with you?
placement of displacement mask, so instead of a
shallow trail I suddenly was looking at a deep canAW: It's my advice to anyone who seriously
yon.
wants to get somewhere with the software of their
choice: Go visit forums!! There's so much to learn 3DAD: Naboo Palace is a crisp render with a high
from the other visitors.... If there wouldn't have
level of realism both in foliage as well as lighting.
been the Planetside forums I sure would have giv- What are some of your personal tricks for our
en up on TG2.
readers in creating realism?
43

INTERVIEW: Andy Welder

AW: Again I think that's largely my autism. Last
weekend I had a nice discussion with an another
autistic I know and , though he's creative in
other ways, also is known for the high level of
detail in his work. Bottom line of our
conversation was: "Why, if w see all those
details and how everything is connected and
intertwined, is it possible that other people don't
have access to that same information?". It's as if
people take a book, look at it from all sides and
after doing so, state they've read it. In "Naboo
Palace" I made some adjustments to the camera
and lighting settings that did reflect an
observation I made while standing outside the
office smoking a cigarette: Even with backlight
the shadows in a patch of forest still showed a lot
of detail and the shadows certainly were not as
dark as with the default settings of TG2. From

then on practically none of my renders was done

with those settings on TG2 default.
3DAD The Toy Shop is a very intriguing piece,
abstract and very well presented. What technics
did you use and what were your inspirations?
AW: The Toy Shop is based on the play with two
aspects "Transparency" and "Scale", a short SciFi story of that name (where aliens did collect
artifacts and would put them on display for their
offspring to play with) and a lot of memories:
Memories of a real toy shop that was inaccessible
for the poor kids like me and where they had
those highly detailed toys on display in glass
boxes. And my fascination for those glass balls
filled with water and artificial snow and a
miniature landscape or building. And fish tanks I
still have and ant colonies. I had got me busy for

Where once the gods did roam

44

hours looking at
those industrious creatures.
And I combined
that all with the
observation that
things in glass
displays look
like so much
more... The
glass in the render is mimicked
by adding a water shader to a
simple plane objects' surface
and setting everything involving
displacement to
zero and everything concerning
transparency to
the max. You
get good "glass"
that way and extremely long render times....

MOJO CANYONS

to create a sense of distance was another reason

to use them. Without the clouds it was hard to
tell where one rock/planet/sphere ended and the
other began.

3DAD: We talked earlier about Terragen Classics limitations in terms of detailed terrain generation; this is certainly not the case with version
2. Where once the gods did roam is proof of
3DAD: Mojocanyons and Mojolith Moon have
this.. Talk us through its creation.
some wild Mojoworld type displacements. You
mention at your gallery at Renderosity that these
AW: Like with so many of my renders the base is are modifications to a displacement node armerely a matter of associating and playing
rangearrangement created by Richard Street aka
'round with elements Terragen 2 is offering: In
Rich2.Tell us about this.
this case it's the 'Planet' object and the 'Fake
Stones' shader. While playing with TG2 I comAW: Like so many TG enthusiasts I'm scared by
bined the fact you can scale down planets and
those blue nodes and have no real clue on what
scale up stones so I did combine small planets
they do, leave alone how to use them. So I'm
with large fake stones. And isn't toying with
very glad if there's someone who can put them
planets and their inhabitants what gods are sup- to use and does share this with the community.
posed to be doing to kill time? At least, that's
Rich2 did a lot of "field work" and combined blue
what is told in the ancient Greek and Roman reli- nodes in such a way that even a mathematical
gion. That's also why there is that classic temple. nitwit like me could create those fantastic terrain
And the clouds are there because a lot of things features by adjusting a few values The fact he
that do concern gods are shrouded for/to (?) us
grouped nodes on function and result and labeled
mortals, isnt it? From this example I think it is
them accordingly was very helpful too, a kind of
clear free association is an important ingredient
"... For Dummies". Like with the Moog synthesizin my renders. The fact that the clouds did help
er: You didnt need to understand how the ma45

INTERVIEW: Andy Welder

MOJOLITH MOON

Chine was doing it (though that did help), all you

had to do was turn some dials, move some
sliders and push some buttons and there you are:
Music! Or noise... Well, I like to think I found
ways to create music with Rich2's setup.
3DAD: Speaking of Renderosity, you where the
Terragen moderator there for several years and
more recently crowned Artist Of The Month for
July 2012. You have done so much for the
Terragen community over there. What was your
reaction when you heard the news?

And then there's this guy, Danny_Gordon, who's

quickly developing into one of my favorites. But
because I don't comment a lot on other people's
work (because I have a hard time finding the
right words) I figured the more "active" members
would be the ones to be voted for.(?is this
english?) Oh boy, was I wrong!
3DAD: Lets talk hardware for a second, what
kind of set up are you currently running?

AW: Nothing fancy: A machine build around an

AMD Phenom2 X4 955 CPU running at 3.2 GHz, a
AW: Being nominated for AOM came as a big
Zalman CPU cooler, the motherboard is an ASUS
surprise because even though I thought I did do
M4N98TD, very good in dealing with heath with
decent TG renders I found lots of other folks'
lots of heat sinks, 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM and a
renders were way better and they were far better GeForce GT610 VGA card with 2GB RAM steering
candidates for an AOM nomination. Markal for
a 24" monitor. Added a few extra coolers to deal
instance is someone who's work I think highly of.46 with the heat produced while rendering. The sys-

-tem is considered sluggish nowadays but it's the

system that I use to work on my TG renders.
Most of my final renders however are done on a
laptop with an Intel i3 quad core so my main
machine is still available for other things then
Terragen. And it doesn't matter rendering on the
notebook takes longer, I have time. Also rendering on the notebook gives me the option to take
it with me and let it run in the climatic controlled
server room at work, a welcome option during
hot summer days.

whatever you see, notice how changes in the

light do change everything ,not just the color of
the sky but also the color of the vegetation, the
color of the shadows and last but not least how
the mood changes. And keep your eyes open,
even when doing chores around the house. I.e.
when Im out on the flat roof hanging laundry
out to dry I always take the time to look at the
sky to see how the clouds change, how the light
changes and how it differs depending on the time
of day. Notice how atmospherics like fog, haze,
chasing clouds paint new views on the same ter3DAD: Lastly what advice would you give some- rain. What I said about haze and depth earlier on
one interested in getting started with 3d digital
is an example of what I learned from observaarts?
tion: Walking through the flat heather fields on a
AW: "If you want to go "realistic" forget realistic clear, sunny day, I noticed that though I could
see details several kilometers away the "sense"
settings"? Honestly, I don't know what to tell
someone because, hey, I'm autistic so my refer- of depth/distance was more prominent on a hazy
ences are mildly put "Odd". But I'll give it a try.. day because now some terrain features stood out
Go outside as often a possible: Make long walks instead of being swamped by all the surrounding
through nature, follow the same route (very im- details. And very important too: Don't look at
portant!) and whenever you're out there soak in photographs of landscapes that much, n, not if

TOY SHOP 1
47

INTERVIEW: Andy Welder

you want to create realistic landscapes: A photo
lens is not the human eye! You can use
photographs as a source of inspiration but the
details have to come from what you did see with
your own eyes. And experiment with the settings
of Terragen, or whatever software you use: Don't
assume the default settings are what's always
best. Default exposure values are rarely seen in
reality.

do so will require a lot of study on waves and

foam, or maybe I'm lucky and some whizz-kid
comes up with a good clipfile.
3DAD: Andy thank you for taking the time to
speak with us. We have enjoyed your work for
years. We look forward to all your future
endeavors

AW: Thank you 3DAD for your interest in my

3DAD You have been very active over the past 10 work. Live Long And Prosper
years creating and inspiring, what will we see
Andy Welders Renderosity Gallery> http://
from Andy Welder in the years to come?
www.renderosity.com/homepage.php?
page=3&userid=186481
AW: That's a guess for me as well. The last
months, due to the lack of inspiration, I spent
Andy Welder GeoControl Gallerie http://
quite some time looking at my previous renders
www.geocontrol2.com/gallerie_AndyWelder.htm
and found there are some themes that do lure me
into a deeper exploration of those themes I.e. the
meta-realistic theme I find tempting and it has
already been the inspiration for two new renders:
"Underworld" (already posted at Renderosity) and
another one without title and not fully completed,
yet. And I'm dying to do some seascapes but to

BACKROAD BLUES

48

SILENT RUNNING - LEAVING ORBIT

49

BAJAUS SULAWESI INDONESIA : S YLVAIN C HEVALLIER

3D Art Direct : Be Inspired By Digital Art

50

Issue 30