Q & A : David Brufau aka. "DbRenders"

Featured Artist: David Brufau

Good day again to all of you. We have again another segment in featuring exemplary artists and visualizers. This time we want to feature David Brufau or better known in our community as "dbrenders". If you are follower of RonenBekerman you will realized that 3 out 4 of David's render where voted as winners in the 2011 Forum. We have a very high regards of David's passion to Visualization. His visual art background could be seen in his work instantly. In the past this emerging artist also shared to us some of his tutorials which we posted in this Blog (see this modeling tutorial HERE).

SVR: Tell us more about yourself?

DB: My name is David Brufau, I’m from Barcelona Spain. I started working as freelancer one year and 4months ago. As many of you know, I’m a SketchUp user - an addict might be the right word.

SVR: You started as visual artist, now you are doing visualization and design; can you tell us the connection.

DB: Yes, you are right, I think visual arts and visualization should not be branded as separate disciplines. For me they are one.  I have the notion of manipulating objects digitally and I was attracted with visualization. This passion led me to work in design office. Here is where I got exposed with visualization which is art in itself.

In the office, there are times clients need specific furniture or models that you can’t find in the internet. I have to learn advanced modeling in order to provide their needs. This year, I started my own collection of models in the 3DWarehouse site, which I’m very thankful of. In order to give back, I decided to put some of my new models here and share them with fellow SketchUp users.

Now did I forget Visual arts? No not all, for me its a continuum.

SVR: Interesting! Can you tell us how did you start with SketchUp and VraySketchUp?

DB: Sure! With SketchUp I started with Version 5 when I was working in a big office using other 3d software. One day while browsing other software, I found it and I realized how cool this program is; simple, easy, and fast. I realized that it is going to be a great tool for me in the future. With VRAY the story is shorter, I started just one year and few months ago when I started my own freelancing firm DB Renders. (You can visit our site at www.dbrenders.com. Initially it was very overwhelming for me, VRAY has too many parameters to deal with. Slowly, through many trials; reading and watching lots of tutorials (also video-tutorials), I started to be comfortable with it and understood how it works. As I said many times, thank you very much for this site(SketchUp Vray Resources, one of the main sites for learning and understanding SketchUp and VRAY SketchUp. I want to take this opportunity to thank Fernando Rentas, for his great video tutorials which are very precious resources.

SVR: Thank you for your kind words DB. Can you tell us about your assessment with SketchUp and VRAY SketchUp so far. What do you like, and what do you think needs to be added and addressed by the developers in the future.

DB: I like this question very much! First, I must admit that SketchUp is really a nice program to learn, as if you are just just playing. The capability to be a great and powerful software is there with some add-on and plugins of course. Its fast feedback during modeling, and seeing the changes you are doing in real time. I hope it will support 64 bit memory and address the high poly issue in the future. As for VRAY SketchUp, I will be happy to see the new features they added for VRAY Rhino - Vray proxy, for saving memory and doing tons of detail geometries like vegetation. VRAY RT would be perfect too for having more control and instant feedback of your settings. Lastly, Vray light manager and light map to bake light.

SVA. You have written a nice tutorial using "Artisan", tell us your experience with this script so far.

DB: I started with Artisan when I was doing a terrain model for a scene. I found some difficulties in modeling terrain with the sandbox tool. Then, I started searching for alternative plugin. Here where I found Artisan or Smooth and Subdivide 2. Dale Marten's Artisan is a stunning script. Organic modeling is so easy with. I love it so much, and it makes your work absolutely easier with it.

SVA: You have a lot of beautiful renders in your gallery, tell us some of your secret.

DB: Think, work; experiment, work; read, work; try, work; learn, work; search, work; try again, coffee time and work; publish your result, wait for advices, then work on it again! Well.. these are my secret. As for my work, the most important thing for me is not what I see, but what I feel.

SVA: You are really an artist DB. Ok, this is our final question.. Do you have any advise to the young proteges (newbies) when it comes with visualization.

DB: Patience... Results does not come in two days time. Start joining the SketchUp Vray Artist Facebook Group, it is great place to start visualization. There are lots of good, young and talented artists there who are willing to share their knowledge to you. Think critically, and of course have fun in doing what you like most.

SVA: Thank you David..

Visit more of David's work at www.dbrenders.com