| DA: Welcome to
Digital Artworks Anatoliy and thanks for taking time to do this interview.
AM: Thanks for inviting me.
DA: I'm glad I
found you...took some surfing on the internet clicking different links.
Then suddenly I
was captivated by
the eyes of the beautiful Amazon.
Would you please start telling a
little about yourself and where you come from?
AM: Yes, my name Anatoliy Meymuhin, I'm 31 years old, living in
the city Rostov-on-Don in the South of Russia. I have been working as a
computer's designer for 5 years.
I'm also working as a freelancer with
2D and 3D graphics (as a 3D modeler) and I'm
selling my art print and
3D pictures.
My main hobby is 3D art. I like art very much -
especially fantasy, and music too - different variations of
Metal.
DA: Your art is
very expressive.... if you should describe it, what would you call the
genre?
AM: I am always trying to show some special atmosphere and
feelings in my art. I want an interaction to happen between the spectator
and my pictures. I think this is the
main purpose of any art. Actually
I don't know what to call my genre, I don't think the important thing for
me is to name it, but since you ask - maybe "realistic fantasy"?
DA: Well, that
covers it fine I think.
http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=11100
For
how long have you worked with computer graphics - do you have a
professional background …please tell me, how did it all
begin?
AM: I have now made pictures for about 1,5 year. But with
computer graphics, as I mentioned, my experience is about 5 years.
I
came into it by accident a couple of years earlier, when I was engaged
selling and servicing computers. For a period I was unimployed, and then I
started calling some potential clients and offered my services.
Fortunately among them was a small medical magazine and they invited me to
work for them - not as a computer specialist - I was hired to do the
layout of the magazine, except for the covers - they were made by a
special designer. I used Adobe Page Maker to place text and photos in this
(printed) magazine. It was a redaction (and advertising agency) - so I
also made additional works such as colour calendars, booklets and other
things.
I wanted to go
on and I was always a very fast learner, so in half a year I became a
computer
designer. I continued to work in Adobe Page Maker still doing
layout, but I also began doing additional work and then became designer of
full color covers for two monthly printed magazines. Now I work in another
place too as a computer designer making advertisements for a
newspaper.
But I realized that good and interesting covers very often
don't use enough photos, if the budget of the magazine is very limited
…they simply can't afford to pay for good photographers and photo models.
Therefore I began to study 3D Max (that was version 1.2) - I read many
tutorials on the Internet, because at the time books about 3D graphics
were not available.
I also realized that I needed a more powerful
computer if I wanted to do serious graphics, but unfortunately I only had
a Pentium 133 with 32 Mb RAM at the time.
DA: Well it did not
stop you as I can see …so what happened next?
AM: I had to postpone my plans to better
times, and they came about 2 years ago. I bought an Athlon 900 with 256 Mb
RAM - and with that computer I was able to do
fairly complicated
models.
At about the same time I saw the images of my favorite painter
Boris Vallejo http://www.suicide.couk.com/gallery/boris/borisg.htm
- and I was totally amazed - I knew at once that I should learn to do
images like his. But I didn't want to paint with water color, acrylic or
oils - besides it would have taken a lot of time to learn those special
techniques. Computer graphics was what I liked to do. Of course I could
have used Photoshop and Painter, but 3D gives
so many additional
opportunities: You can very easily turn around and move
all models,
camera and lights…you can play with lights, material, effects and so
on.
But I was aware, that for achieving good results in 3D Art - I
needed to understand classical painting and photography very well. So I
started to learn again ….and I'm continuing to
learn.
DA: Are you inspired and influenced
by other artists than Boris Vallejo?
AM: Yes, of course first of all by him and then Luis Royo. I am
a self taught artist so I very often look at pictures by my favorite
artists and study them.
There are plenty of great masters I like very
much - Keith Parkinson,
Clyde Caldwell, Ken Kelly, Larry Elmore, Julia
Bell, Earl Bowser just to mention a few - it's a very long
list.
DA: You are working with different softwares
...which ones are you using?
AM: Usually it is 3DS Max with Shag Hair plugin for making the
hair, DeepPaint 3D and Photoshop.
DA: And now a
question you must have heard before. How do you create your characters?
AM: I always use spline modeling in 3DS Max.
Many people ask
me if I do all models by myself or if I use Poser or other
generators -
they also want to know how much work I do in Photoshop, and
how I can
make my images so fast.
I use to answer: I never worked with Poser (I
even don't have it). Actually I don't like how Poser models look in high
resolutions. For art prints the final renders must be at least 2000 pixels
for small sizes, and more for bigger ones…and I like doing all details by
hand. I am trying to avoid any postwork in Photoshop, because my 3D view
pictures need to be rendered from about 10 different camera angles. Check
this link: (http://www.3dpictures.biz/scenegal/sg1/sg1.htm).
This is the prints of pictures on a special material…. and when you turn
the images around in your hands - you can see the picture under different
angles.
For postwork in Photoshop I usually add only blur and "depth of
field" effect and sometimes correct minor artifacts, which would be
visible in very close up high resolution images.
By the way…I always
show the wireview together with my finished images on my main homepage http://www.3dluvr.com/fantasy3d/Hipoly.html and
sometimes also simple animations - fly camera around models.
DA: Let's take a
look on your most recent picture - another beautiful woman: http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=18918%20
Where
are your ideas coming from?
AM: I have so many ideas, they can come from words of music
(lyrics) and sometimes combinations of words, photos and the art. I think
I have enough ideas for a lot of years in the future.
DA: How is your
working process…and how long time does it take for you to create an
image?
AM: When I am starting a new image, I don't begin from scratch.
I reuse my own models when it's possible. But I change something on the
model every time, and try to make it better. This technique gives me the
opportunity to make new images much faster. It takes from 1 to 3 weeks to
do a new image …depending on the difficulty of the scene. I make them in
my free time - in the evenings.
DA: Do you have
everything clear in your mind like lights, textures, colors
and so on
when you start an image?
AM: Usually some main things are clear to me before I start an
image. But then while working with it I'm trying different variants - as I
told before 3D gives major possibilities for
experiments.
DA: Now please tell
me …how did the "Amazon and Dragon"come to life?
AM: I "have seen" this image in my mind - and all that was
needed for me was to do it
in 3D. If I should describe how exactly I
made it, it would be a large tutorial. I'm planning on writing a book with
a step by step tutorial about how I do my images … very many people have
asked me about this. But I need a lot of time if I shall write a book …so
hopefully I'll get the time some day.
DA: I'm sure it
will be of interest to our readers to know about your
computer
system?
AM: Now it is Dual Athlon 1800 with 1Gb RAM, but I wait with
impatience
for 64-bits processor systems.
DA: Hope you will
get what you wish for soon.
I thank you on the behalf of Digital
Artworks for this interview ... and wish you luck with your excellent
artwork in the future.
AM: Thanks a lot. I want to wish all the readers and creative
people luck and succes too, and invite everybody to my visit (and maybe
comment some pictures) in my Art Gallery at http://anatoliy.epilogue.net/
For Digital
Artworks
Karin Eszterhás.
September
2002
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