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.

Featured Artist: Teofilo Pardo

SketchUp Vray Resources Featured Artist: Teofilo Pardo 

Many of us who use Vray Sketchup will definitely know our Featured Artist this month of November is Teofilo Pardo.

Teo or sometimes we call him "Teofas" is one of the reknown Vray Sketchup users. He produced some of the respectable Vray SketchUp renders in this planet. Personally, I have seen Teo's development. I followed his work and I have seen how meticulous, perfectionist and developed his personal style. Teofas is also a great tutorial writer. He often shares his knowledge to the community. Here is one of his tutorial at SketchupArtists.org and at SVR. 

I am very honored to be allowed to interview this known yet accommodating person. Dear friends here is Teofilo Pardo.

SVR: Please tell us more about yourself.

TP: I'm someone who loves architecture and art; that’s the reason why I started learning 3D. I'm the owner/partner of an architecture office here in Merida, Yucatán.I consider myself an autodidactic person; my hobbies are music, sculpture and photography. I'm devoted to my family and to my beliefs.

SVR: Can you please tell us how did you start with SKetchUp and Vray SketchUp.

TP: I started using SketchUp five years ago. I was looking on the web for a software that can help me make nice presentations, and I found SketchUp, and since then, I haven’t stop using it. At that time I was working with my father´s construction company, so I was also in need to learn how to render. At first I used Artlantis render, but found it lacking realism; so I started searching again the web and I found Vray for SketchUp. I was amazed with the quality of the rendered images. I recall when I saw the Vray for SketchUp Gallery and thought: “These images look just like photos!” So I decided to learn it. At first I was very frustrated, but as time goes by, I got used to the software; and I'm glad in finding workarounds for any obstacles I met.

SVR: Do you have any particular project that is memorable to you in terms of visualization? Please tell us a short story about the significance of this project.

TP: Yes, I think it’s the one that I did for the 2nd ASGVIS rendering contest. It is because in this particular project I modeled almost everything on the scene with help of my brother. I also work hard on the texturing process. I had a great time doing this project because I wasn´t pressured at all; this was being done not for any client but only for a contest. There is no deadline, and I can make it whenever I wanted. In the end, it was chosen as honorable mention by the ASGVIS guys. I was pleased with it and I also shared this model with the ASGVIS community.

SVR: Any wish for future development of SketchUp and Vray SKetchuP?

TP: Well I think, like most of the Vray users, I would like to have more features; like the ones on vray for max, proxies for instance.

SVR: Which part of visualization process you think is the most important?

TP: In this matter I heard from some people that lighting/illumination and post-production as the most important. Some claimed that it is the modeling process. Some have even assigned percentage of importance to each stage. However, I think every visualization aspect and stage is important. In my works, I put equal effort with lighintg/illumination, modeling, texturing and even with post-production, etc.

SVR: We know in any Vray Forums, your postings are one of the favorites of the community. How do you feel about this? Any secret?

TP: I feel it’s a great honor, and it’s a great satisfaction that other people likes my work: it's always motivational for me, and makes me want to improve more; but it´s also in some ways a little pressure because of people expectation. The community expects me to come up with nice results with my new work.

Secret? Hahahaha! I honestly don´t think there´s any secret, but hard work and willingness to undergo trial and error. Perhaps learning some photography basics help.

SVR: Any advise to our readers, especially those who are new with visualization?

TP:  Sure! Don’t give up! Realize that in order to achieve good results, it is always imperative to invest time and effort - good things don’t come easy! Remember always to help others whenever you achieve good results. Also never forget that this 3D world is very competitive, therefore always look for new software or new actualizations using such software. Finally, always be an active part of forums, these are the places where you will learn most.

SVR: Thank you Teo!

More of Teofilo's Renders.

SVA Featured Artist: Gerbe GAD Dumahil

Gerbe Dumahil or sometimes we call him GAD is another upcoming visual artist from the Philippines. Recently he won the SkethchUp Ur Space international competition  where he secured a free license fromVray SketchUp of Chaos Group. GAD is also one of our regular contributor of excellent tutorials here at SVR. Please check his tutorial links at the end of this interview. Once again, we would like to thank Gerbe with his tutorial and allowing us to feature him on this site. All images attached here are courtesy of Gerbe Dumahil.





SVR. Please tell us more about yourself.

GAD: Hi! I'm Gerbe Dumahil, a Designer, an Arch Viz, and a Graphic Artist. I'm currently working as an Architectural Assistant and an Apprentice in a local office in Cagayan de Oro, PH. I love to draw Manga; I love to draw things that do not exist; monsters, aliens, and other creatures. This way I got my imagination working. I’m a gamer too, I love playing games specially RPGs where my mind works in solving puzzles. I always try something new especially in visualization.

SVR. Can you share to us how did you start with visualization?

GAD: "Great things start from small beginnings". I started my "visualization career" from the very first time I held a pencil and a paper. Back then, sketching and doodling were my favorite past times. Even though my drawings were not really that good, (I just drew stick figures fighting each other, or a Head Quarters of stick figures), it helped me improve my visualization capabilities, I believed that the key factor to visualization is your imagination. As time goes by, my sketching had been improved a lot, from stick figures into full drawn characters. With such improvements (I believed I improved that time.), I've made my first Comics.

As I moved forward, the path of art leads me to the discovery of a new dimension, the world of 3D visualization. On 2006, SketchUp was introduced to me by a friend and I was amazed by its capabilities to create simple to complex geometries. I got even more amazed when I saw their "cooked" images. They said it was done using a plug-in called V-Ray. At that time, they were my masters. I was eager to try the softwares right away but then I faced a huge dilemma, I don't have a computer. Luckily, after a few weeks or so, my sister bought a "new" one, it's not actually new, and it’s a second hand surplus Pentium III computer. A not-so-fast-pc but helped me took my major leap in visualization. With its helped, I managed to learn different softwares, like Photoshop, Image Ready, Flash, Swift 3D and others. I made my first stick fight flash animation out with it. But whenever I try to create very complex scenes in SketchUp, I always encountered the most feared Popup ever in the history of Google SketchUp, the Bug splat. It frustrates me, yet I still have the guts to continue on practicing.

For my great determination to learn, I'll have to widen up my sources. Whenever I went outside to rent a unit in an internet cafe, I always searched for tutorials about SketchUp and VRay, Photoshop, and Flash. I learned mostly from my current mentors, Nomer Adona, Zernan Suarez, Onel Pabico and many others.

SVR. Who are your inspirations? How did they inspire you?

GAD: I'm a big fan of Japanese Manga Artists such as Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball); Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy); Keiji Inafune (Mega Man), and many others who influenced my style in manual drawings.

Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson and Santiago Calatrava. These are my Mentors in Architecture.

For Architectural Visualizations; Ronen Bekermen, Peter Guthrie, Bertrand Benoit and Alex Roman. Influenced much on my post processing styles and scene compositions.

SVR. We have seen your work in evermotion.org, sketchupartists.org and now you recently won the SKetchup Ur Space competition. How does it feel to be recognized as one of the upcoming visualizers using SKetchup and VraySU? Any secret?

GAD: I am really thankful and grateful for the things that are happening now. I am also happy that I won the SketchUp Ur Space Competition, where I didn't even have the slightest expectation of winning as I am competing with some great international artists. My secret won't be a secret anymore after I expose it; it’s my love for 3D arts.

SVR. What is the most important aspect of visualization you focus more? Why?

GAD.Design. In the field of Architectural Visualization, I always believed that a good render starts with a good design. Let's not forget that the sole purpose of 3D architectural visualization is to showcase ones Design. The rendering comes secondary.

SVR. You produced a lot of the excellent tutorial at SKetchupVrayresources, what is your motivation in doing these new tutorials?

GAD. For the past few years, I have been also a tutorial reader. I learned new things, tips, and tricks from these masters. Maybe it's about time to share my discoveries too. :)

SVR. Please tell us about your workflow or pipeline in Visualisation.

GAD. Conceptualization is my first step to any project. I sketch on papers about my ideas. Sometimes I go straight into AutoCAD and start drafting them. My workflow depends on the type of project I am handling. For simple scenes with less polygon counts, I do everything in SketchUp, from modeling to rendering. However, if the project needs vast vegetation, base modeling will be done in SketchUp then imported in 3Ds Max to render. My post-processing is done either in Photoshop or in After Effects.

SVR. Final words to our readers please, especially those who are new.

GAD. One should have constant practice and a heart full of determination to learn. Take it slow, learning is not a race, take it step by step. Learn to criticize your work and learn to accept criticism constructively. Take courage to practice even on a slow computer, you’ll get used to it.

And lastly, a quote from General Iroh of Avatar: The Last Airbender; “Follow your passion, and life will reward you.”

Here is the link to view GAD's Portfolio , Facebook Page HERE.

Gerbe's Tutorial Links

Vray SketchUp Animation

How to Use Vray Alpha Channel


Glass Etching in Vray SU


How to Simulate Lamp Shade material