Subsurface Talks

Nikodem Bredlich (DemNikoART) is the guest of 11th episode of the Subsurface Talks Podcast. Niko is a 3d artist who has released a series of animated shorts called ‘The Mavericks’ based on the popular Nintendo game franchise ‘MegaMan X’ by Capcom. The game gained a dedicated following in the 90's and since then i inspires a lot of pop-culture and fan-art. Nikodem is giving a more realistic - cinematic action style to his fanart movies. Basing on the MegaMan antagonist characters (the Mavericks) he creates his interpretations of their stories. Niko is also working as a freelance 3d and graphic design artist (with 2d graphic design as his background). In the podcast he shares his inspirations, his challenges and the process of quickly leveling up to a high level of proficiency with Blender. Being able to put out whole animated short movies takes a lot of dedication and time, but also some clever tricks that Niko will share in this episode. If you’re curious how to succeed like Niko, listen to this inspiring conversation.

DJ.

You can watch the latest episode of ‘The Mavericks’ here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHUJbzBOXxQ&list=PLfg4czHT_V7pFYDqammEAfeMQHq0qUV-0&index=5

Check out Niko’s whole ‘Mavericks’ series here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htnnxdxG758&list=PLfg4czHT_V7pFYDqammEAfeMQHq0qUV-0

If you want to follow Niko’s work, subscribe to his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@DemNikoArt

And follow his socials:

https://linktr.ee/DemNiko

To support him and get additional 'behind the scenes' look you can join Niko’s Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/DemNikoArt

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)  https://linktr.ee/djtartak

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

The 10th episode of Subsurface Talks Podcast guest is Jason Van Gumster.

Jason (also known as Monster Javaguns) is a real ‘Jack of all trades’ and he describes himself as a member of the ‘Blender Old Farts Club’, which basically means he has been using this software forever. Jason has seen Blender used and used it himself in the most unexpected ways and he loves to share stories about this. He is the author of ‘Blender for Dummies’.He works for Autotroph (the company behind Blender Market, CG Cookie and Orange Turbine). He also writes science fiction novels and travels with his family around the United States in a mobile home (which he documents on his website https://www.functionallyhomeless.com/). In the podcast we talk about Blender used in companies, the Los Angeles Blender Conference and other interesting nerdy stuff. Jason is a podcaster, writer, coder, animator (it would be easier to write what he is not) There is so much more about what Jason does, but I think it’s enough to get you interested in this unusual conversation. Jason’s passion for Blender is contagious - so be careful, you might just want to ‘Do it all in Blender’ after listening to this episode. 

Enjoy!

DJ.

If you want to know more about Jason Van Gumster and all the cool things he does, check out his website:

https://monsterjavaguns.com/

Or follow him on social media:

https://x.com/monsterjavaguns

https://mastodon.art/@monsterjavaguns

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)  https://linktr.ee/djtartak

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram, and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

The guest of 9th episode of Subsurface Talks is Emlyn Davies - founder of Bomper Studio from Caerphilly near Cardiff, Wales. Emlyn is a talented and experienced animator and director. He’s done (together with his teammates) a lot of great commercial, TV, and product visualization works as well as 2 videos for the Foo Fighters for the songs ‘No son of mine’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAVfdoovrIU

and ‘Chasing Birds’ :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYI-RtmYNI.

They also made a funny and awesome looking animated short ‘Coffe Run’, check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71v_nSSYoAI

You can find all about Bomper Studio and their amazing work on their website : https://bomperstudio.com/

And YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@Bomperstudio

In the episode DJ and Emlyn discuss the history of founding Bomper Studio,The ups and downs of the animation industry (including the recent massive layoffs) and the rise of interest in Blender among many studios. We also talk about the creative process behind the visuals for the Foo Fighter videos and how to get such a great job commission. All of this in a friendly and chilled atmosphere with not a single mention about AI (how strange for a CGI podcast these days), but a few mentions of dragons from Wales and Poland instead.  

Listen and enjoy! 

(And if you happen to like it - subscribe and don’t forget to share it with a friend or two !)

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)  

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

The special guest of this episode of Subsurface Talks is Rob Dickinson - a 3d artist using Blender. Rob is mostly known for his amazing YouTube channel - DecodedVFX where he shares detailed breakdowns of his ambitious 3d projects, entire movie shot remakes, and other Blender-related content. However, this is not the only thing Rob does (in fact he is a real titan of work. He has a wide variety of interests including engineering, movies, and even 2d art. We discuss all of this during this friendly conversation. If you’re interested in modern CGI, fan movies, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, you will find something for yourself in this episode. We also digress about both the cool and annoying features of Blender, the state of the industry facing the A.I. revolution as well as other interesting topics.

Listen and enjoy!

If you want to find Rob's stuff you can follow his YouTube channels:

https://www.youtube.com/@UC6gJtkKLq7MTkm0SJRpYBWg

and:

https://www.youtube.com/@extrapixels

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

The guest of the 7th episode of Subsurface Talks is Midge Sinnaeve - visual artist from Antwerp in Belgium. Midge is a creative experimentator known well for his abstract computer-generated images. He creates music videos, motion graphics, VJ loops and all kinds of visual creations with special inclination for digitally transformed/destroyed meshes, fractal-like structures and particles. Midge describes his style humbly saying ‘I just make weird shit’. While weird it may sometimes be it is always amazingly good looking and sophisticated. Midge also shares his techniques openly with the on-line community in his art streams on his YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@MidgeSinnaeve

You can also find Midge’s work on his website : https://mantissa.xyz/

This is the second part of the conversation and we will talk a bit more about the video that Midge produced for Korn’s song ‘Worst is on its way’ as well as some future plans and new areas that Midge is exploring!

If you haven't listened to the first part you can do it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB30mLJOxeI

Listen and enjoy!

(And if you happen to like it - subscribe and don’t forget to share it with a friend or two !)

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

The guest of the 7th episode of Subsurface Talks is Midge Sinnaeve - visual artist from Antwerp in Belgium. Midge is a creative experimentator known well for his abstract computer-generated images. He creates music videos, motion graphics, VJ loops, and all kinds of visual creations with a special inclination for digitally transformed/destroyed meshes, fractal-like structures, and particles. Midge describes his style humbly saying ‘I just make weird shit’. While weird it may sometimes be it is always amazingly good-looking and sophisticated. Midge also shares his techniques openly with the online community in his art streams on his YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@MidgeSinnaeve

 You can also find Midge’s work on his website: https://mantissa.xyz/

This first part of the conversation revolves around Midge’s journey to 3d art and shifting from freelancing and being hired for his skills to being hired for his own unique style that Midge developed over the years of his personal experimentations. What does it mean to have a style and what is the common denominator that defines it? Are limitations good for creativity? Does working for the music industry open endless creative possibilities? What makes Blender a perfect tool for experimental visual artworks? These are some of the topics that we touch upon.

In the second part we will talk a bit more about the video that Midge produced for Korn’s song ‘Worst is on its way’ as well as some future plans and new areas that Midge is exploring so stay tuned for more in the second part!

 Listen and enjoy! 

(And if you happen to like it - subscribe and don’t forget to share it with a friend or two !)

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)  

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

The guest of 6th episode of Subsurface Talks podcast is Greg Zaal - photographer, developer, 3d artist and entrepreneur from South Africa - founder of Polyhaven.com (a free, public domain licenced assets library for 3d artists)

Greg shares the story of how Polyhaven.com started, what got him into 3d and how it’s possible to make a business out of sharing things for free.

We talk about community challenges for asset creators contributing to Polyhaven. 

We discuss  Artificial Intelligence’s impact on 3D art and asset creation, new exciting features coming to Blender as well as the Blender Conference experience. 

I hope you’ll enjoy the episode and get inspired by Greg’s unusual business (that I’m sure is greatly appreciated by 3d artists all around the world for giving the community access to free high quality assets - no strings attached)

If you want to check out Polyhaven and all it’s assets and endeavours, the best place is : https://polyhaven.com/

Jonathan Lax -3d artist, animator and director of Gecko Animation in London is the guest of this episode of the Subsurface Talks Podcast. Jonathan declares himself as a devoted blenderhead (a 3d artist using Blender for work and really loving it :) ) , a husband and dad. What you will also learn in the podcast, he loves tennis a lot !

DJ had the opportunity of meeting Jonathan at the last Blender Conference in Amsterdam where they only had a brief conversation (but fruitful with contacts exchange). Finally the podcast was a chance of having a longer and deeper talk about Blender, animation, working as a 3d artist and having family life and space travel (yes ! - even that, as Jonathan has worked for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic on some projects around their commercial space travel service).

With years of experience and numerous commercial projects completed (most of which can not be shared due to NDAs) Jonathan shares some wisdom gained on the journey and can testify that Blender has been a reliable tool even for hi-end commercial 3d work (despite not being the ‘industry standard’). We talk about the beginnings of his Gecko Animation studio and how sharing a small success and showing off some impressive work in combination with a good London address have opened the doors to a lot of great CGI work. Jonathan talks about his exciting projects for a Venice based renowned restaurant ‘Quadri’ designed by star architect Philippe Starck. We also discuss some educational experiences he had while teaching Blender to digital artists at Framestore VFX - one of the greatest VFX houses in the world.

So fasten your seatbelts and get ready for another journey into 3d space. And may the force be with you ! (and if you’ll enjoy this episode - make sure to share it with a friend or two).

You can follow Jonathan’s work here: https://www.geckoanimation.com

And on social media: https://twitter.com/Laxy

https://mastodon.social/@Laxy

The guest of 4th episode of Subsurface Talks is the amazing Andres Stephens (aka Draise) , an experienced 3d artist from Colombia (although he also describes himself as half-Kiwi) doing very interesting painterly NPR (Non–Photorealistic-Rendering) experiments in Blender. Andres is also involved in development of Bforartists (Blender for Artists: https://www.bforartists.de/ ) a fork of Blender focused on a more accessible and streamlined user interface. You can find all about Andres’ work on https://www.trinumedia.com/

In this podcast episode DJ and Andres talk about the value of traditional art skill in the age of A.I. and automation. Andres shares his opinions on AI and whether it is a great tool for an artist or a threat to mankind. We dig into the world of painterly shaders in Blender and dive back into childhood memories where great inspiration is drawn from illustrated books for children and puppet animations. 

A big chunk of the talk is dedicated to Bforartists that tries to tweak Blender’s UI into something more easily digestible and accessible for an average user that doesn’t want to memorise a gazillion of keyboard shortcuts. Why are coloured icons important ? Does learning Blender have to be like learning black magic ? Can a fork of Blender add to the benefit of the official Blender release and the whole community ? If any of these questions seem interesting to you - you need to listen to this episode! 

To follow Andres Stephens and his endeavours check out these social media links:

https://twitter.com/Trinumedia/

https://www.instagram.com/trinumedia/

https://www.youtube.com/@trinumedia

You can also support Draise on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=11705563

Bforartists Discord:

https://discord.gg/8hVdUJNz9E

Listen and enjoy! 

(And if you happen to like it - subscribe and don’t forget to share it with a friend or two !)

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)  

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

This episode of Subsurface Talks is an exciting journey to the land of compositing. Our guest and guide on this marvelous expedition is Daniel Nees - compositing artist from Australia with an impressive portfolio that includes work on titles like ‘Captain Marvel’, ‘Thor - Love and Thunder’, ‘Star Wars:Andor’; ‘ Shang Chi’ and recently ‘Rings of Power’.

You can take a look at his portfolio here: https://danielneesart.carbonmade.com/

Daniel shares his experiences of getting into compositing and finding a path to getting a job in a studio working on the biggest productions in the world. Apart from Hollywood level compositing he does excellent job as a 3d artist and works as a community manager for CG Boost - an on-line educational platform founded by Zacharias Reinhardt offering great Blender courses and support for aspiring 3d artists. The conversation revolves around the fun and the tedious aspects of compositing work and sidetracks to topics like deadly and dangerous wildlife in Australia or the advantages of drumming. What links the Wombats with AC/DC ? Is it hard to remove markers from sunburnt grass in Sydney? Why is having a supportive community as an artist priceless? If any of these questions seem interesting to you - listen to this podcast. If you like it at least a bit - make sure to leave a comment, review or just share it with a friend.

Happy listening

D.J.

The guest of 2d episode of Subsurface Talks is Jan van den Hemel who is an experienced Blender 3d artist running a popular YouTube channel 'Blender Secrets'(https://www.youtube.com/c/BlenderSecrets ) offering very useful productivity tips for 3d artists using Blender. 

Jan shares his experience of freelancing as a 3d artist and starting a YT channel that eventually grew to become his full time job (that freed him from the doubtful pleasure of visualizing colostomy bags ! :) ). 

As Jan went through the long and winding road of learning Blender himself he found that recording short ‘tip’ tutorials helped him memorize and store some techniques that otherwise might be easily forgotten and he shared those with his viewers on YT. After a few years Blender Secrets became one of the top sources of useful Blender lore for beginners and seasoned professionals alike. Jan also gathered these into a compilation ebook that he sells on gumroad .

You can find all about Jan’s work on his website :

https://www.blendersecrets.org/

During the one hour long conversation DJ and Jan talk about the rise of AI, whether it is possible to buy a cup of coffee at 6 AM and what to do when all the electricity is gone. Of course most of the episode revolves around Blender and 3d as well as Blender Conference (that both for DJ and Jan was the first one ever they attended, but want to go back to every year now). Are YouTube shorts beneficial for the creators and viewers ? Is TikTok working for everyone? Those and some other interesting questions get answered in this episode.

Listen and enjoy! 

(And if you happen to like it - subscribe and don’t forget to share it with a friend or two !)

If you want to follow the podcast host (DJ)  

you can do it on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://www.instagram.com/jaroslawdzedzej

https://mastodon.art/@jaroslawdzedzej

This is the first episode of the Subsurface Talks podcast. Hosted by a 3d artist and a veteran Blender proffesional Jarosław Dzedzej (also known as D.J.) currently workin for CG Boost as Community manager. The podcast revolves around computer graphics, 3d, and art in the digital age.

The first guest of the podcast is Chris McFall - animator and director from Wales (Cardiff) - founder of Hollow Pixel studio (https://www.hollowpixels.com)

Chris talks about his journey to 3d animation and how he started using Blender. We are talking about struggles and lessons learned when trying to do your own thing in this highly competitive industry. How to be more pirate in the CGI industry while remaining true to yourself and honoring the pirate code :).

I highly recommend watching Chris' talk at the last Blender Conference ?(the awesome event where DJ and Chris met each other) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QF7K1qQifk

If you want to follow the host of this podcast you can do it here:

https://twitter.com/jaroslawdzedzej

DJ also used to host the 'CG Talks' podcast : https://www.youtube.com/@CG_Talks_Podcast