Q & A with Damir G Martin
3D Concept Art presents an Q & A with a very talented artist specializing in Paleoart, illustration and Character and Creature creation, Damir G Martin. He has been around for about ten (10) years working in production of short and feature films, advertisements. For companies like Nova Tv, Many Many, Ixor VFX and working for him self with his company Pixelmind. A Small studio primarily specialized in Creature and Character design for entertainment industry.
He uses his skills and experience to make create concept art and illustration, both 2d and 3d as a freelancer. He also teaches valuable know-how in different workshops and has lectured at the ZBrush UGM event in Croatia. He has been involved in different projects like Project ”I” by Ixor VFX , tv-series Dino Dan, Dragon commercial for Canalsat and many more.
He is also working on different types of dinosaurs for the upcoming book by Mike Kelly. The book title, “Super Predator: The World of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Damir has also be featured in several magazines, like Imagine FX, 3D World Magazine, 3D Total and been published in 3D World Magazine.
With a pleasure, 3D Concept Art present Damir G Martin.
| 3D Concept Art: Tell us about you and how did you become interested in the art of 3D modeling and creature and character design?
| Damir G Martin: → I live in a suburb of Mediterranean city Rijeka. I love nature, photography, gaming, movies, and sports like running, biking and kitesurfing.
My interest in 3D became apparent first when I saw Jurassic Park in 1993. With it I started growing interest in the specific aspect of CGI that is creature and character design.
| 3CA: One of your passions is Palaeontology. Which is very interesting topic. What do you feel is the most exciting when creating pre-historic animals like a T-Rex? What are the most difficult parts to re-create and understand what is needed to get that perfection and realism in such complex animal?
| D.M: → Paleontology interests me, but Paleoart is actually what my passion is. Paleoart is not an easy branch of art. There are lots of things you have to take into account when creating dinosaur reconstruction. Unlike creature design, where you are not bound with specific rules, dinosaur reconstruction keeps you within a certain frame.
There are couple things that can be difficult when reconstructing a dinosaur. Lots of unknowns are one of them. We cannot know with certainty about soft tissue, color, skin texture, how well covered that skin was with a feather or something similar. Then there is the environment. So, paleoartists are facing a multitude of obstacles in their attempts of creating accurate and plausible reconstructions.
But it is all worth it. Dinosaurs are one of the most interesting things from our planet past. Just thinking about these long extant animals can be exciting in itself. Constant advancements in technology and Paleontology research gets us closer and closer to how some of these animals looked like and how they behaved while they were alive.
It is exciting to see these steps we’re taking on our way to finding more and more about these magnificent creatures that once inhabited planet Earth.
| 3CA: Where do you get inspiration from and who are your role models?
| D.M: → Mostly I get inspired by nature. Be it dinosaurs or creatures, nature is the ultimate designer. So either browsing photography online, in pursuit for good references is one of the great ways to get inspired. Other ways are to go to nature yourself and hike or bike around and capture nature around you with your camera. Also, some inspiration comes from looking at art and works of other artists from the field. When I really think about it, most important role models in my life are my parents. Hard working decent people.
| 3CA:You are self-taught 3D artist. Nowadays there are a lot of different CG schools, do you feel that it should be a requirement for becoming a 3D artist? And of your expertise, what made you the artist you are today?
| D.M: → I don’t think CG schools should become a requirement to become a professional. I think that would be a bad thing if CG became institutionalized. I believe CG Schools are a good way to start a career. You can get the knowledge a lot faster at these places, depending on the school of course.
So if an individual has means to take the course and go trough some of these establishments that could be a good thing. If an individual cannot afford something like that, he can always learn by himself. It is a bit harder and longer way, but it is achievable. And even more so today than in the past.
Personally, I got to where I am today cos of a lot of work, lot of self-criticism and lots of passion. But I’m constantly learning and improving. Every day you turn on your workstation, you run your software, you get better at it or learn something new. So, work, work, work, practice, practice, practice.
| 3CA: Any good pieces of advice for artists and students who want to get into the business as a 3D Artist in fields like Creature and Character creation?
| Damir G Martin: → Regardless of the field, be passionate about it. Frequent online forums dedicated to computer graphics, post works, comment other people work and join discussions.
Produce art and upload it to those forums. Try and get people to criticize your work. Take the critique and use it to become better and improve. Don’t get offended by critique. Try and avoid arguing with people online, it’s stupid. Spend as much time as you can producing models and illustrations.
Spend as much time as you can working in the software of your choice, at least 5 or more hours a day. Try and create something new each week. If that’s not possible, try and have something new each month. Any less than that is insufficient. Work, work, work, practice, practice, practice.
3D Concept Art Community thanks Damir G Martin for sharing his knowledge about his path on to becoming a 3D artist, a Paleoartist and as well about bringing us the world of Paleontology. As Damir G Martin says, be passionate about what your doing, iterate and produce. Practice, practice and practice.
