Nomeradona SketchUp VR: Featured Artist: Ricardo Cossoli

Our next featured artist is Ricardo Cossoli of Argentina. We knew Ricardo through his postings with Sketchucation.com, Asgvis and other foreign forums. He produced some of the impressive renders in the forums. Today, he is a partner of "Three Dimensions" doing lots of visualization projects in Argentina. We would like to thank Ricardo for allowing us to interview him in this site.

SVR: Please tell us a little about yourself.

RC: My name is Ricardo Cossoli (rcossoli for forums). I am an Argentinian and a student of architecture. I work in an architectural firm, and I like spending time on architectural visualization. In visualization I work with my partner (Mariano Fernandez) and both of us founded "Three Dimensions" in August 2008. We like 3D visualization because it offers us the opportunity to work with different types of projects. In general we do residential for different clients and individual requirements.

SVR: Tell us about Sketch Up. How did you get this software? Are you using other 3D software?

RC: I began with SketchUp5. Before that, I had only seen my current partner who was using SU version 4; and I did not understood what it was all about. When I started using SketchUp5, it was only for the purpose of modeling. I had neither any idea of the world of rendering, nor about architecture visualization. It was only after with the development of a free rendering engine called Kerkythea, that I began to know more about rendering. After a few times of working with it, and reaching different level of sophistication and complexity, we decided to use another rendering engine- VRAY SU. This is what we use today which has given us the best results.

I used different 3D modeling program in the past; several times I tried 3DS Max and Rinhoceros. I must say that I never reached a level of attachment with them. I am trusting that SketchUp will advance towards a more sophisticated version with high poly support in the future.

SVR: Who or what inspires you?

RC: My main inspiration is architecture and the different works that can be seen everywhere - this its the reason why I even started using 3D. In addition, I always look at different web pages, not for inspiration, but to find out what new sophistication are being achieved. No matter what software or technique is being used, everything are sources of new insights.

Personally, there are many artists who inspire me. I like some of them because of the way they work with specific type of material or media, other for the way they work with lighting, some with composition and viewpoints. I think that companies like Luxigon, Mir, Vionix have taken the visualization beyond photo-realism. Many other artists who also work with SketchUp as main modeling program are Pete Stoppel "solo", tranganhhp of Vietnam SketchUp forum, Jacques Cleghorn (I saw his work in Sketchup Artist), Teofilo Pardo (a Mexican who is very good with Vray), Scott Baumberger, nomer! (Who always helps a lot with his tutorials) and many other artists whose names do not come to my mind in this moment.

SVR: Can you talk briefly about SketchUp in your country?

RC: SketchUp is widely used in Argentina. Unfortunately, there is no organized forum or community among Argentinians. In recent years we made great progress in the possibility to visualize space, massing and accurate details of the design even before the final rendering process. In our office, we used to have different software, more sophisticated ones; but now we only mostly use SketchUp because it offers the possibility to visualize the project intuitively, and architectural modeling is fast and easy.

An Argentinian SketchUp forum community where resources, information, tutorials, etc. can be shared would be very useful. I believe this is possible in the near future.

SVR: Any advice for those who are new to the display.

RC: The first tip is to read, learn, study and practice. Everything we do to improve our work will never be in vain. Second, participate in forums in an active way; be sensitive with the resources you need to improve your work. The Internet is a valuable source of endless knowledge, a reason why we should always be looking beyond our borders. Third, be a risk taker; it is the most important thing to be a successful person. Finally, be persistent. Persevere in doing your passion until you are satisfied with your work.