Interview with a 3D Artist of the Month - Andrius Balciunas

Andrius Balciunas is a young talented 3D artist from Lithuania. In August he was chosen as an Artist of the Month on the celebrated 3D artists’ portal Raph.Com. His new 3D image called “Open Green” was included into upcoming book of the world’s most beautiful CG characters “Exotique 4” that will be released worldwide in November 2008. Besides 3D skills, Andrius demonstrates great aptitude for music that goes side by side with the computer graphics. Undoubtedly, he is a creative personality with huge potential!

 

So, we couldn’t help showing interest in Andrius’s creative work and decided to interview him and learn about his achievements, aims and plans for the future. He with pleasure agreed to answer all our questions.

 

‘Open Green’ by Andrius Balciunas

 

* * *

 

Please, tell about yourself (your background and education). When did you first notice that you have a talent of an artists and when did you begin to create 3D models?

 

Hello, I’m Andrius Balciunas aka CryingHorn. I was born and raised in Lithuania. I have a bachelor degree in IT and currently I’m one year to master degree in economics. I’ve started doing CG around 7 years ago. The main reason of starting CG was a strong influence of games I’ve played then. I’ve always enjoyed game intros and animations. I’ve always dreamed of making something my own and all this 3d stuff was a huge mystery for me. Finally, when I saw Final Fantasy VIII intro for the first time, it just hit me and I started to learn about 3d deeper.

 

Poster1 for personal project Nostalgia by Andrius Balciunas

 

Do you have a teacher or preceptor who influenced you? And what people do you find true and talented artists who are worth following his or her example?

 

Basically I’m self taught, without counting learning DVDs and online tutorials. Talking about inspiration – it can be anything. I’ve noticed that very often I get inspired by some kind of mood that I may feel out of something or someone. If I’d talk about artists that inspire me I could say that there are too much of them to name. Some of them are well known at all times: Salvador Dali, M. C. Escher, and Hieronymus Bosch. Speaking about the contemporary artists, I’d like to mention 2d artists like: Benita Winckler, Melanie Delon, Philip Straub, Linda Bergkvist; 3d artists like: Francisco Cortina, Greg Petchkovsky, Zack Petroc, Damien Canderle and so on. Like I said these are just very few.

 

‘The Gate’ by Andrius Balciunas

 

What is your main achievement in Computer Graphics?

 

Recently my image “Open Green” was confirmed to be included into upcoming book of the most beautiful cg characters “Exotique 4″ published by Ballistic. I find this to be very huge achievement for my self and I feel very much honored.

 

What is the most important thing for you when you start a new project?

 

The concept itself. When I develop a concept, this is a part where I feel my inspiration transforming into my own art. And since I always try to push my self technically, the concept I develop must be motivational enough for me to actually realize it.

 

‘Four Nights Fountain’ by Andrius Balciunas

 

What stage of 3D model creation is the most difficult and the most interesting for you and why?

 

The most difficult is to make everything look natural. At least this is what I always aim for. So I spend most of the time on this part. And the most interesting is to research the main aspects of that. This requires time, patience and lots of experimenting, but for me it’s very satisfying.

 

‘Shadow Conscious’ by Andrius Balciunas

 

What’s your attitude towards the critiques? Do you put some value on the pieces of advice of your close people?

 

This is btw a very good question. Basically I always welcome critique, and almost always I even need it. Because the longer you are working on something, less objectively you start to look at it. No one of my close people is related to CG, so their opinions are totally natural. When I show them my progress, they just simply say this or that doesn’t look good to my eye, and I know they are right, because they are the ones who are not damaged with huge amount of various artificial cg stuff, which, we, cg artists, tend unconsciously use as examples :).

 

‘Haley Joel Osment’ by Andrius Balciunas

 

How do you estimate the traditional art? How can it help the modern CG artists?

 

I always respected traditional art artists, because I think this is a main way to show your true talent. I’m very impressed by people who can draw something so clear and obvious with just a few critical strokes. It can astonish me way much more then a super highly detailed work no matter of what type. So this kind of skill makes your work so much easier and way much more potential.

 

On your personal website you wrote that besides CG you also like to create music. Can you imagine your life without CG?

 

Well, if CG would become forbidden, music making would be the first thing I’d go after. But for now it greatly complements my art. I enjoy making music, I’m only enthusiast in this field, but luckily it’s enough to satisfy me. Sometimes I just hook my midi keyboard, put the sound pad of some kind and play with piano or trumpet along for hours and hours, and it’s so satisfying. Sometimes I even get inspired on my CG art this way. This is just another way to express myself.

 

Poster2 for personal project Nostalgia by Andrius Balciunas

 

What pieces of advice can you give to the beginning 3D artists?

 

Learn and then practice. Also be inspired, this is the strongest motivation for everything else. Because when you want to make something so bad it’s way much more easier to learn, in fact you almost don’t even notice that you learn. And that’s what art making is all about – having fun. So have fun!

 

* * *
Thank you, Andrius, for the captivating interview. We wish you inspiration and creative power. Let success and luck accompany you all time!
I hope everyone enjoyed this interview as I did. Stay in touch with us!

Similar Posts:

3D Characters Magician Interview - Matt Mills

The Art of Philip Straub. Exclusive Interview with the Artist!

Neo-Japanesque Art of Feebee. Exclusive Interview with the Artist!

Exciting Interview with Turkish 3D Artist Kerem Gogus

3D in Russian. Interview with a Talented 3D Artist Denis Tolkishevsky

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 7:04 amand is filed under interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Interview with a 3D Artist of the Month - Andrius Balciunas”

Leave a Reply

Name (required):  

Mail (will not be published) (required):  

Website: