Q & A and Featured Artist: Eko "Nawaitsa" Astiawan

Our Next SketchUp Vray Resources Featured Artist is Eko Astiawan of Indonesia. Eko is a very inspiring Visualizer. Read this interview and you will find it why.

Thank you Eko for allowing us for this opportunity to know more about you.


SVR: Please tell us more about yourself.

EA: My name is Eko Astiawan, I usually use "nawaitsa" as my nickname. I'm from Indonesia and I’m blessed for having many talented visualizers in this country; for I cannot be what I am now without GOD and the support of the many people around me. Several individuals don’t know this; that I work as an Accountant and 3D visualization was not the kind of thing that I took in college. However, here I am - an Accountant who is doing 3D Visualization as hobby and passion.

SVR: How did you start with visualization, discovered SketchUp and VRAY SketchUp?

EA: I encountered SketchUp from a friend who worked as a visualizer in 2008. I saw his work and I was amazed by its quality. That made me curious about SketchUp and I decided to check the websites and tried this applications. SketchUp is very user-friendly. Common people can use it with ease by reading the help and manual files.  In this course, I also have known VRAY SketchUp ability to render SU models. At first is was very difficult to use; but with hard work in learning and spending lots of time visiting websites and joining the forums, I began to understood these applications (Google Sketchup and VRAY SketchUp).  I explored and learned the parameters one by one, understanding their effects and usefulness. After few years, I could see the difference between the first image that I  created with the image that I made lately. 

Adobe Photoshop is another excellent complement. I always use this three applications together in my 3D visualization.

SVR: Do you have a favorite project? Tell us the story behind this project.

EA: Actually I liked all of my projects, since every one of them is the implementation of my learning process. I like to try something new by synthesizing previous scenes or visualizations that  I made; take a classical living room for example, and  fuse the classical touch to another model. One more example was the eclectic dining room scene where I tried to incorporate wooden elements to this scene.  In short,  I always try to evolve through every scenes that I am creating.

SVR: How is SKetchUp in Indonesia?

EA: The first time I joined forums was with www.kaskus.us. There is a SketchUp group there. There were few sketchup user back then. As the development of this application grows together with different rendering engines, more SketchUp users emerged here in Indonesia, and most of them loved this application for its easy and yet quality output. It has many advantages for quick simple modeling and together with VRAY SketchUp, they can create a great results. Years after years, I have met lots of SketchUp users in the community and  until now the number of SketchUp users in Indonesia keeps on growing.

SVR: We noticed you have used many classical high poly models in your scenes, can you share to us how's your workflow with them in SKetchUp?

EA: Ah those curly classical models. For the high poly models I usually convert the Max files and export them in 3ds format.  I then import them in SketchUp; a fine example was the statue that I used in my classical living room scene. The cornices and the tables were actually taken from the Google Sketchup 3D Warehouse. The reason why they look original was because I “modified” them. Yes! I love to modifiy the models to fit my needs. For me, if I want to achieve greater realism with my scenes, I would maximize the model, not the render. If we have a beautiful model no matter the skills you have in rendering, you will still achieve great results.

SVR: Do you have secrets in rendering, how you managed to achieve excellent settings?

EA: To have an excellent result in visualization, you need to put passion in the process.  If you have great passion, you will try hard to achieve better result by way of   trial and error.  You will learn not to complain and love what you are doing. As time goes by, you won’t  even realize the progress you have achieved, because your time was spent with practicing and honing your skills.

I don’t have a special recipe but for me the keys to get a good rendering are :

- Identify and get along with the dials, parametric settings and what their functions. What functions are needed in what you are trying to achieve. For example, ask if you want to use VRAY sun or HDRI as Image Based Lighting or both of them.

- Look for reference images not just from the visual renders by other artists but  actual interiors and exterior design photos.

- Manage and build your libraries (skp models, vismats, textures) so you know were to get stuff  when you have a fresh idea.

- For those who loves to get better result, always use post processing application like Photoshop. For me this is the final packaging.

SVR: Who is your favorite 3D Artist ?

EA: I have lots of favorite 3D artists and I classified them in different categories: For interiors, I love Ramon Zancanaro, Alfa Smyrna; for exterior definitely is Alex Roman; for 3D SketchUp Modeler definitely Tiago Chrisostomo; and for 3D Guru is most definitely Nomeradona, the best Sketchup Guru- I learned the glass material from, The Z-depth map, the IES light, the Panoview, the HDRI from him.

SVR: Oh Thank you Eko. Final question; what is you advise to our readers, specially to those who are new in the field of visualization?

EA: Put your passion in your work and love what you do.

Eko Astiawan Portfolio : Click HERE.