Exploring Creativity: Advice for Aspiring Artists - 80 Level Podcast

80LV talked with Ran Manolov (Visual Effects Supervisor, Sculptor & Character Art Director), who worked on such projects as Diablo II, Love Death + Robots and many more. Ran shares his journey from being a classically trained artist to the digital realm and provides insights into the art industry. He also discusses the impact of technology on creativity, and the importance of developing skills & staying curious.

Check out Ran’s portfolio: https://www.ranmanolov.art/
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Transcript

0:00

there are many people trained classically or or not it's not the most important it's about how self-driven you

0:07

are and recruiters and and needs and people in the industry they know why

0:13

exactly they will hire you so

0:20

I know that you had a pleasure of working in a lot of different projects in the love studios and including this one

0:26

um I'm gonna talk a little bit about this later but before we kind of go into the production itself can you tell us a

0:33

little bit about um kind of your journey and your career because you're you come from a family of

0:39

artists you had this incredible education you worked in you studied in Sofia like in a lot of schools you

0:46

studied in Spain you know work in UK it would be interesting to kind of hear

0:51

about your journey because you're like classically trained and it would be interesting to kind of learn how you got

0:57

from from that kind of traditional clay and paints and all that and do like a

1:02

more more modern kind of way people are doing sculpture today

1:08

sure yeah I mean my my journey was basically I grew up being exactly

1:16

classically trained and uh what's interesting what I find

1:22

interesting the most from all this is like there are many people trained classically or or not it's not the most

1:29

important it's about how self-driven you are and uh how curious you are from

1:35

about all that we do and and you know to be fascinated by

1:41

the films and games and all these beautifully crafted uh

1:47

in a way masterpieces at the end um but what was interesting with me is

1:53

that and I always find a bit um bit funny

1:59

um until it wasn't so funny and then again it started being one and I mean for me growing up it was it wasn't much

2:07

of a choice at first it was more like okay we are um like parents artists and that's what

2:15

you will do and I was five years old six years old and then I remember I had to do these sketches of

2:23

my grandma and my grandpa and I didn't have the choice much of it you know I

2:29

had to then I presented this you know I've been given this anatomical book of

2:35

uh Gottfried Thomas which I highly recommend and I had to copy those

2:42

um those joints of knee and elbows and I couldn't really even understand why I

2:48

have to do that but eventually it paid off but I've been saying this also to my

2:53

uh some of my like patreons and and students that I've had the pleasure to

3:00

like have increasing um kind of numbers but in a way I told

3:05

them like sometimes copying something even if it's anatomical book it's not

3:10

actually rewarding in any way because you're coping and you're looking at the image to look the same but what you need

3:18

to do is not actually trace and copy but you need to understand stand why are you

3:25

why this joint where it connects the muscle whereas the inters the insertion

3:31

point and the origin and what drives and when it's going to be flexed and all that it's all also almost as a simple

3:39

map for example the anatomy but back then when I was a kid I didn't understand why

3:45

but I had to do it and draw these hands Etc so I think eventually it paid off but for me as a journey it was um

3:53

it was given I was given the path and then I went to high school at some point

3:58

of Fine Arts because I've been told again that um you know High School of Fine Arts

4:04

that's what they did that's what I'm going to do we are a bit more of a conservative you know country I'm coming

4:11

from Bulgaria and uh that's how at least in my family things were done but of

4:17

course then I went to you know I started to realize that okay I am actually

4:22

getting good at it and I've been told I'm doing fine you know like rewards and

4:28

Alex Awards and all kind of contests

4:33

um winning those again made me realize like okay you know it's getting more and more

4:40

like fruitful so went to Academy of Fine Arts and then it was when I actually

4:46

realized I cannot do anything else so what's the continuation and the natural

4:53

continuation was um because I saw the difference between like

4:59

um artists being very established in the society and then reverse angle when

5:06

um the entire uh capitalism came and change of system in

5:14

Bulgaria Etc and new people became the you know the kind of high profile in

5:20

society and then all the poets and actors and artists they kind of like just reverse

5:29

roles so in a way at some point for decades my

5:34

um you know we weren't the most healthy um wealthy one and uh before this you

5:40

knew it was completely different so for me it wasn't very easy to continue and I

5:47

didn't know what to do like uh what it's going to bring the food on the table and what should I do like depending on

5:54

Galleries and search this so for me that normal modern in a way continuation was

6:01

when I discovered honestly uh zbrush and the digital sculpting and this led to

6:07

okay I can do that there is like plenty of plenty of work and plenty of other

6:14

artists that you start you know admiring and getting to know each other and then I remember

6:20

uh just started in a small company in Bulgaria and and from there I knew I

6:25

want to go and work on big films and big games and apply to London came and

6:31

started here and then I got very lucky to work on very very big projects which kind of

6:37

um escalated very quickly this entire uh

6:43

progression I would say career progression and from there you know I

6:49

realized even though I didn't know technically the things it was very interesting because I was

6:55

you know recruiters and and leads and people in the industry they know why

7:00

exactly they would hire you so even if you shouldn't worry too much your heart there for a reason uh for me in this

7:07

case was mostly because of my uh sculpting skills and exactly classical background so it suddenly paid off very

7:14

quickly so I uh started living and working in London and that's where I am

7:21

yeah so you had an opportunity to work

7:26

for like blur a bunch of other big companies um and and you mentioned that you you

7:33

had uh you were very lucky to kind of work on like those big um IPS big titles

7:40

um can you tell us a little bit about how is this experience overall I know

7:45

that there is a lot of readers who might not have this experience they may be doing something still in school or

7:52

they're working in smaller Studios they want to understand like what do they what do they expect right because

7:58

there's like um how do people approach you like what do you actually do do you what's your

8:06

how much of an influence do you have on like the final thing

8:12

um tell us a little bit more about how does the how how did you how did your journey go like how did you go from like

8:18

you know building something for yourself and then suddenly working on big films

8:23

yeah so this was um it's a very good point and it's an interesting question it's a very broad question because there

8:32

is a lot of um you know there are many ways to get to the

8:38

Tempo in Hawaii so for me how it worked is um I was working in this small Studio

8:44

but the time there and um I just wanted some experience and getting to know a

8:51

little bit more about the software but I was constantly working on my portfolio and as soon as I noticed that actually

8:59

the work in a way nine to five is taking a little more from my time I remember

9:06

that I resigned and I went back to the studio and I worked on my portfolio

9:13

because I knew I had to in a way um accelerate my portfolio and accelerate

9:21

my progress so that I can go in a different direction and to have only so

9:26

it's important for the readers or whoever listens this to really to focus on what

9:33

what you want to get is what you do and what you put in your portfolio because if you do something quite well and uh

9:41

you actually want to do something else you'll be hired for what you are showing and what's more like a

9:48

representative of a good skill they will call you for this so if you want to do characters don't do amazingly done props

9:56

or environment because other if if your character is not strong enough you will

10:03

be hired for environment and then you will start working on this then you will have less time to continue your

10:10

portfolio in the direction that you want to go for and suddenly after a few years you will realize well I'm not at the

10:16

level that I want to be so with me it was going back to the studio working my hands off and then applying to NPC a moving

10:24

picture company and I had the chance to actually with my arrival here in London

10:30

I didn't know the project so they suddenly assigned me to do the main hero character of Batman and Superman which

10:38

was I was totally an experienced but that's how NPC does they just throw you directly in the deep end and you need to

10:45

kind of put your stuff together and and survive uh by

10:53

survive I mean it's very challenging it's very exciting but there is a lot of uh responsibility of course so for

11:01

everyone that wants to do hero creatures Etc and uh characters it is very

11:06

exciting but of course um there will be many people involved don't expect that you're the one driving

11:13

the um the train there is a concept art and

11:18

everything in film is a lot more structured and you're doing only one little chunk But be sure that you're

11:24

good at it because they're like the competition is

11:29

Furious so that's how it happened with me then I moved to another film another

11:35

big character than ilm Jurassic world we had an amazing team

11:41

there um and in every company you learn a little bit about the pipeline about what

11:46

the other artists do um you'll learn a lot by working with those talents and of course more

11:53

exciting shows they progress in a way because obviously if you're doing well

11:59

so after Jurassic world I worked on the Hellboy reboot and from there actually we um

12:06

I started working also and picking up more of a freelance work

12:12

um a bit more gaming Diablo 2 blur Studios with love death and robots

12:18

and uh now we're working together again on another unannounced project which is

12:24

very very exciting and it's going to be I think it's in early development so there I'm more of a you know when you

12:30

progress into something you're becoming less of a um execution you just do that but you're

12:37

starting to have more and more input on the on the design of the character of the just it depends but yeah that's how

12:46

that's how it worked with me really that's you know not sure I think it's a it's a very good answer and thank you

12:53

for kind of touching all the points I know it's a broad question because you you mentioned like the portfolio piece

12:59

and how to get there but also you kind of talked a little bit about how you progress like from these tasks and how

13:06

the teams work and so on um I'm wondering when you were working

13:11

in companies you know like ilm who are like a pioneers of like whatever

13:18

we see currently on the screen um how does the learning work there do

13:23

you just kind of like go and Learn by making mistakes or do you get support

13:28

from like colleagues and other people in in the teams like is there a competition

13:36

inside those uh teams where people kind of like trying to do a job better than

13:42

you sort of in a way how do you like what should you expect when you go in in this kind of environment

13:49

I think I think you should definitely not get too stressed because that's what

13:54

I'm um So currently I'm supervising a lot of the character and creature work um and

14:01

also VFX supervising so this is when it comes to shots and you just Overlook all

14:07

the Departments which was a natural progression over the last few years but in a way

14:13

um now that I'm looking from different perspective and I'm also interviewing people and you know recruiting people

14:18

for our company um we should not forget that after all this

14:24

is what we do because we liked it in the first place because we are supposed to

14:30

have fun so of course there will be stressful times I remember you know

14:36

myself being very stressed and a matter of life and death and I'm gonna

14:41

stay here for like till 12 a.m Etc which is a good mentality you shouldn't be pushed by your lead or reminded that hey

14:48

if you need to stay let's stay a little longer you know you should at least I've never heard this from my lead so of

14:55

course to that level um you shouldn't relax to like certain

15:00

like this extent but after all having fun and definitely you will learn

15:08

a lot um people do help each other even more than

15:13

what you will expect because I always thought okay everyone wants to to do

15:19

your character and you know it's kind of a furious competition inside but it's not really like this at some point

15:25

especially for if you're long in a team or even if you're a new incomer I was

15:30

very uh lucky to have been helped by the more senior people and they kind of take

15:36

you under their wing and and show you of course

15:42

um you need to be self-driven you need to push you need to be curious again about

15:50

the new ways of doing things but also stay truthful to really to what you're good at don't try

15:58

to get too technical if you are hired to be artistic and the opposite if you are

16:04

Technical and in a way you don't have the the Eye of being too artistic don't

16:09

try to interfere too much so in a way keep your lane and you know be friendly

16:15

don't lose touch with people people kill teams are important and yeah

16:22

you mentioned in your comment that you did some freelance work for

16:28

some pretty big titles like some of the biggest titles in the of the last couple of years like you you worked on Diablo

16:35

you worked on the love dancing robots and you did a couple characters there

16:40

um how did this how did this land on your table like to when where do you

16:46

need to be in order for blizzard to kind of call you and say hey we're doing this

16:52

Legendary game remake and how about you help us with some character work for

16:58

that thing that you know millions of people are gonna watch like how do you What level do you need to be at to get a

17:05

gig like that I think I mean the team was really impressive I was uh

17:11

I was actually honored to be among those artists because uh when you look at the

17:17

names at the end especially of the Freelancers um those are pretty just the whole team is

17:24

pretty impressive so I think you need to be close to top of the game at the

17:30

moment um and your work needs to be really um up there so

17:37

that's how I think I got the call it was really exciting because I'm a massive

17:42

fan of especially Diablo 2 and I grew up with this and it was a really I remember just reading the email and I was it I

17:50

read it like I think walk up it was four or five am and I just looked at my phone

17:56

until I fall asleep again but I read the email and I just stood up and I left the house and I just uh walked around

18:03

because you know I knew I'm going to to take it um just because that's blizzard and also

18:11

because of the project as well uh very very important so yeah I think the anatomy and the way and

18:19

the style and the art director Chris was uh you know um amazing amazing art Direction amazing

18:26

team um we pushed each other and and really I think the the Remake and the the

18:32

remaster is uh top-notch yeah I bought that game I'm also a

18:39

massive uh massive fan I really liked it um you mentioned one thing there uh that

18:47

kind of like the project matters do you feel like the project is actually one of the one of the most important parts of

18:54

kind of attracting Talent that's of course you have a big name that it's easier to attract the best guys yes uh

19:02

but there's a it's there's a tricky bit in it so some companies rely a little too much I don't

19:09

want to criticize anyone but and I'm like I don't mean companies that I have

19:15

worked with but I know that uh some companies rely a little too much on

19:20

their name so you would expect that uh you know they will the payment will be

19:30

let's say the payment will be adequate but because

19:35

of their name and because of their reputation they expect artists to just

19:40

go there and surrender but you are an established name and you can't afford your time is very valuable you have

19:47

personal life or at least you're trying to have a personal life and the project really matters it's not so much about

19:55

the and and that's what I mean by the project matters because sometimes for the sake of the project you can

20:01

sacrifice a lot of things but for the sake of the company I don't think you should because there are other companies

20:09

uh new starters and and all that where they have attracted a lot of talent and

20:14

they're doing an amazing product and um probably they're willing to in a way

20:19

reward the artists um adequate and yeah in a way that's

20:26

that's a bit of a issue you should value your time and effort

20:31

yeah I I totally understand what you mean basically companies are using their brand name

20:37

sometimes to kind of lower your willingness to sell so to speak right

20:43

and then I mean everybody does it like Google Facebook you know meta or whatever

20:49

they're all kind of like leveraging this in order to get the talent especially

20:54

like younger people who wanted yeah who want to have this on their

21:00

portfolio or on the LinkedIn or whatever and it works but at some point the more you progress in your career

21:07

um you should start really filtering projects and really something that

21:13

it will at least that's what I'm trying to do I'm really interested to work on or at

21:20

least I'm going to have fun and by having fun this means the company will extract the maximum uh you know out of

21:28

me because I am enjoying I am willing to give and uh that's it that's that's what at the

21:35

moment I'm working on a massive game um it's uh it's called arc2 so there was

21:40

Arc one it's an open world this is such a huge fan base and now in the R2 we're pushing a lot of the new characters and

21:48

the new yeah characters and dinosaurs and all that so it's very well handled

21:54

because the way we work with the uh with wild card which is the name of the company

22:00

um that is behind the arc one and now arc2 is um

22:06

we have in a way they are Outsourcing to the company that

22:11

I work with and um we have really when we talk about the creature or when we do a character it's

22:19

more about of um a teamwork and collaboration rather than you being an external vendor and this way you are of

22:26

course bringing more to the table they are open to the ideas and you push more

22:31

the quality and more and in a way I think it's it's really exciting project

22:37

so which that we touched about um we talk a lot about work

22:43

so let's talk about tools a little bit as well so as a classical artist coming

22:50

to zbrush and kind of staying with this tool for years right because that's your

22:56

main thing um how do you feel about it now like what's what's going on with this

23:02

technology because this is in a way I mean I don't know if there are any

23:08

people who don't know what zbrush is but this is basically a unique unique offering a unique tool that is

23:15

available for for people to work with digital clay um tell me about how you've how you felt

23:21

kind of like when you first started playing with it and uh maybe let's start with this like what were your first kind

23:27

of like Impressions if you can recall I can I can recall like it was yesterday

23:33

basically because for me it was incredibly incredibly exciting to be able to

23:39

um in a way for me it still is but then it led to

23:45

learning more but anyway it's it's more of a drawing from different angles

23:52

and eventually you end up with this three-dimensional object which nowadays

23:57

you can even for me the most exciting is to go back to classical and to uh 3D

24:03

print and mold and cast eventually from bronze and something that I am heavily working on or at least trying to steal

24:10

time and go into that direction a bit more and probably do an exhibition or yeah something like it so zbrush is

24:18

giving all that it's very um what I love about it is that the the

24:24

feel for now is unmatched in other softwares um the field and the tools they are so

24:32

incredibly artistically friendly at some point after you learn the incredibly weird UI

24:40

which I love now but in the beginning might be a bit intimidating I

24:46

just remember doing this head and I was like wow you know this is something I can do really well I guess and it felt

24:53

right it felt very exciting it didn't put you off uh for example I've

24:59

encountered years ago 3D Max and it was uh something that I was like oh no so

25:06

I'm not going to be able to do 3D but then I discovered zbrush and I was like wait a second this is like drawing if

25:12

you have the artistic skills if you can draw come on you will learn a little

25:18

more about the software and zbrush does this incredibly well because it feels

25:24

organic it really feels organic and it's all about the rendering it's not about the retopology

25:32

that comes after then you'll learn more and more about texturing look there etc

25:37

etc but the more interesting for me was the shape the

25:42

form the how you can slice it and you can you know scratch it and build and

25:48

then twist and just incredibly exciting so zebras did that for me and in a way

25:53

became bread and butter and continuation of my entire career what do you feel about like the the

26:00

development of this software and how and where where their Pixel Logic and like

26:07

now it's Maxin right so where are they taking it now like do what are like the

26:12

next steps because I see a lot of um not a lot of but I see some competition now

26:17

ramping up and I see a lot of stuff from Adobe coming um which is again is it's a force to be

26:25

reckoned with because the the when they set their mind into something they will probably deliver so what do you feel

26:32

like beta testers on zbrush and beta testers on Adobe medium but I didn't have time

26:40

to do any of those so it was very unfortunate because I'm I feel like flattered and excited to be able to get

26:48

my hands especially I remember because I was very familiar with with zebra so uh the guys are awesome and you know

26:55

recently I had this talk on on zebra Summit so we started to to know each

27:01

other and um yeah the the team behind zebra she's always being incredible and

27:07

uh I think they do care a lot about the artist because this is Their audience in a way

27:14

and also I think they are genuinely interested and they've been like proving

27:20

that over and over again so this however right now

27:27

I mean there is a change of management and all that but I don't want to get any political in a way

27:34

um and I'm trying to stay you know correct and say the right things but I

27:41

hope things won't change too much because things were incredibly well for this relationship between

27:49

artists community and you know back then Pixel Logic and

27:56

zbrush developers my request or recommendation would be not to go in

28:02

direction to I don't know bring more tools and make

28:08

redshift render Etc not that it's a critique but we the very experienced

28:16

people working with the brush and other artists that are top names we have a list of things that

28:25

needs to get sorted and trust me guys there will be a lot of

28:30

more appreciation rather than bringing new tools which are not refined not developed yet so you

28:38

kinda put these on hold and you don't Dive In so

28:44

stay autistic fix a few things that we really need and it will be very well

28:50

yeah I I feel like still this um this Legacy of being a very artistic

28:57

tool for zbrush it's it's still going to be there because if you maybe some people don't know but their offices is

29:03

right next to No One offices in Hollywood in California so it's like they're they're communicating with

29:10

artists like all the times like not just like virtual like we're doing right now but also like face to face and they can

29:17

go around and see how the tools are used it's like I really like the company and I feel like the

29:24

they have a lot of potential right so there's like even even after all those years

29:29

it's still number one tool like you like they are they don't do any advertising

29:35

so from from a point of a publisher I can I I can I'm kind of reluctant to say

29:42

this but this is just because they don't really have anyone else that competes for this um for this piece of pie so I think

29:48

they're still there's there's still a lot to do but uh yeah which you can wish them good luck and

29:55

kind of hope they they will do better and kind of like improve and like you said get more stuff done and so on so

30:03

I do have one more question connected with tools and I know I have a very strong opinion on it but I'm still gonna go

30:10

there so imagine a world where there is no

30:15

zbrush right and you were just doing you know working with Clay working with

30:20

bronze and then suddenly zbrush comes and it's just like people are certainly starting paying for

30:26

things that are not really physical right um and this is like a big disruption big

30:32

technological shift and so on now we have this story with artificial intelligence stuff coming

30:39

was mid journey and all the other tools I'm going to mention and we have this very strong reaction

30:44

from the artistic community and there is a number of arguments uh what do you think this is different like what are

30:51

the things that AI companies are currently doing that's uh robbing artists the wrong way

30:59

and kind of like making sure that it it just doesn't work for them like what are the things that

31:05

is that do not work and how can we address them so yeah it's a Hot Topic I guess we

31:14

couldn't go without it um it's not the same what's been happening

31:20

right now because um if you're working with clay and you're working with

31:26

actual charcoal and Photoshop comes in you still have to move your hand

31:32

use your eyes compare struggle and

31:38

the only easier thing would be you can go back or forth or you can layer things

31:44

but if you use a very thin piece of paper let's say in animation they've

31:49

they've been layering things anyway or you use multiple glass and you paint

31:54

with temper or oil and you layer things let's say

32:00

Photoshop right if you do play and casting and

32:06

um I mean machines are coming only to help but you still need to model it you still need to

32:12

use your skill you still need to develop and progress as a

32:18

as creativity as a human being you've been challenged and you're using another

32:24

tool that's fine you can use charcoal you can use pencil but if you're starting to use only words and sit back

32:32

and someone else does the whole thing for you it's almost like

32:37

I know it's a very silly example but I'm not even sure why are we so fascinated

32:42

by it to be fair because it's almost like now together my entire family and

32:48

to go in the kitchen and show them what the microwave does it's it's like

32:54

I got it I didn't make a fire cook my own like

33:00

piece of meat or whatever like a lamp or something else for the vegans and

33:06

vegetarians but you know what I mean he's like okay it's a microwave it's supposed to do that but it's way more

33:12

fascinating when a human being create something because it's very personal so my problem with

33:19

this is first it's a mishmash it's like a must squashed

33:27

information and digits that create an image

33:32

sure computer can do it why should I be fascinated by it why it's just creating

33:39

a collage of what sees and information that let alone these are images that are

33:46

copyrighted and belong to other artists and there are hours put behind them and you know

33:54

tears and and sweat behind or just a photograph but this Photograph has been taken processed uploaded and then this

34:02

thing just it's it's like um I was talking to a friend of mine and he said

34:08

it very well it's um releasing this thing and also stepping

34:16

aside and making like just giving it freedom in a way

34:23

um is chopping off or ending the path of creativity of

34:31

humanity so the human being and the Brain in a way it's almost

34:38

tempted to go into the direction of less effort and to

34:43

go lazy to to just you know if something can do it for me I'm not gonna do it but

34:49

this is incredibly incredibly dangerous because here we're talking about

34:55

as a humanity and species the creativity will be taken away and we will only be

35:01

reprocessing information that exists so this surge of the soul and uh going

35:11

throughout the entire journey and arriving at certain point

35:16

even if it's not the best Etc this is a progression that

35:22

it gives feedback to our soul and to our society

35:27

and we talk about it and we just I think elevates us as a

35:32

as species and at the moment it's it's it's incredibly dangerous because something else will do it and we will

35:40

type words and all the skill will be taken away I mean it's also very very

35:46

very demotivating I guess for younger talents and people but

35:52

yeah it's a I think we should be

35:57

aware that the two is there but also creativity is meant for for humans

36:03

I I really will thank you for your answer and I thank you for taking this

36:10

kind of like position where it's not only about corporate but it's more about

36:16

kind of like basically human right to do art sort of in a way and um

36:24

I so I I was one of those people where I I didn't really follow my journey and

36:31

then suddenly I went to this group on Facebook somewhere and just started and they just started spitting

36:38

uh new images my way and I fulfilled like wow this is just this is this is just incredible there's like so many

36:44

different reasons like they did a lot of those where you take a movie and do it

36:49

in different styles so they do like aliens but it's anime or like they're doing Batman but in his samurai or

36:56

something and I feel like okay it's it's a fun it's kind of like a fun thing but then as I started seeing more and more

37:03

of it it I mean it let's face it it does look very much the same like you can

37:09

kind of tell it apart when when when it's not it might it might imitate the look of a

37:17

zbrush render let's say right but it's still you you're still gonna see it because it's just like the repetition

37:22

and details and even if my theory is like that even if we come to like better

37:28

algorithm they're gonna fix the you know six uh fingers or whatever and uh or all

37:35

those other things it's you will still be able to see that it's really that there's not no

37:41

person behind behind it so to speak to there's you're not really drawing you're

37:47

not really putting end in in an industry like film in an industry like games

37:54

it will never help you achieve Commercial Success because my

38:00

my thinking in general is that yes there's like a lot of like producing

38:06

and there's like a lot of commercialization there and people feel like they have this figured out but

38:13

there's just um the sheer amount of magic that is happening when you're doing a

38:19

movie when you're doing a game it's just you have to have people there to make

38:25

those decisions to kind of take this pencil and fix it right because without

38:30

that there's like a certain part that's missing that it just does not resonate it just doesn't resonate with with

38:37

people mm-hmm yeah I agree I mean I've been thinking a lot about it and uh

38:45

first of all I don't want to predict anything because the the way it progresses it's

38:51

incredibly fast right it's almost like Genie out of the the bottle when they

38:57

know what we're gonna do now but I'm not even so concerned about

39:02

I should be probably as many people are but my point of view is not only about oh it

39:10

will take jobs it's more about taking out a creativity in general

39:15

um it's more about the real what we call Art you know we we call Something art

39:22

because there is a message and a story and

39:28

certain exaggeration or not or a style and and someone uh behind it where

39:36

this thing is empty it's a collage of things and what is a little bit more of

39:41

a relieving is that in a way yes they look impressive Etc but

39:47

they look very similar so

39:52

these all that movie in certain like different

39:58

scenario or uh they look almost as a

40:03

retouched photograph so it's semi-realistic but it's not it's

40:10

of course lacking style what I think is very almost disgusting and super

40:16

disappointing that it's out there is that I saw even um I don't know which one of those was

40:22

but there was style and names of artists that you want your

40:28

um I was kind of like

40:34

that's a copyright infringement right there that's like that's that's totally not acceptable yeah this is not right to

40:44

to to to an extent where I'm you know I I don't know I don't want to be the judge of all this but we need to have uh

40:51

I was very happy to see actually the reaction of so many artists and so many artists leaving art station and

40:58

um again you know I think someone should say it but the respond of uh station was I mean

41:05

your your customers your your community let's

41:11

not call the customized but your community you're hosting all these artists and suddenly you turn blind

41:16

Blind Eye to all of them it was surprisingly slow responses surprisingly

41:23

um you know in in the quad inadequate uh

41:28

response and now I see they're taking actions but it's a bit too slow and so

41:33

many good names left uh you know I unsubscribed from like

41:39

yeah anyway I think people are still sorting it out but um I said the other day to one of my uh

41:47

one of our team members um because he's a bit more concerned

41:53

about the drawing side and what's going to happen and the design will be taken away from us Etc

42:00

um so I said like honestly if you if if we step aside and give too much space to

42:06

this uh more people will in a way you know we should not surrender and we

42:12

should not give up and what I mean by this is if your passion is to draw to sculpt to

42:19

do whatever creatively related to this keep doing it

42:24

because those people that are using Ai and they're having fun they will get very quickly bored it wasn't their thing

42:32

they're not they're not brought up to do that so

42:39

there was a massive boom of AI images now they are still out there of course

42:45

but it's a lot less my everything is like settling the dust is settling now

42:51

so we just need to keep doing what we're doing what we love because I can't not

42:56

do sculpture I can not think of hey this is great as a sculptural idea or you see

43:03

something you want to bring it to your scene or but the other person is gonna

43:09

have fun and after seven eight days or five weeks these things will just move

43:17

ahead with their life and I think it's not going to disappear of course but we

43:22

as artists we should just move forward and uh not get too worried just keep doing

43:29

what you're doing passionately yeah thank you I think this is a very good inspiring message on my end uh

43:36

I I want to say that this is a disruption right so this is like a A disruption of a process and these things

43:43

happen they happen all the time and to like a larger scale on a smaller scale

43:49

remember when Amazon launched Kindle like the when when they launched Kindle

43:56

uh you know Publishers like Harper Collins and everyone else they were thought like we're going out of business because it's like their their book was

44:04

cheaper than my book and I would never be able to compete but they're still

44:09

around and they're they're adopting both of those methods and uh they're doing very well and on the contrary like one

44:16

of the examples from the publishing world is that they say that the physical book

44:22

it works as advertising for the digital one so basically you see a book somebody

44:27

reading it on the you know on a Subway and then you look at the covering you Google it and you you buy it for you so

44:33

it's you cannot predict Maybe this will draw more people into learning

44:40

how to do art eventually I don't know so yeah we shouldn't be like super pessimistic on

44:46

overall and speaking about people uh wanting to Excel and learn art tell us a

44:52

little bit about your patreon how to get to kind of to learn

44:57

from you and maybe give some advice for people who want to kind of go into this field like where should they start

45:03

what should they listen to and how can they learn

45:08

um how can they learn they can learn by observing drawing exploring what's the

45:17

what's out there already uh meaning even like there's nothing nothing beats

45:23

nature in a way so studying nature and exploring

45:28

um the mechanism because behind a lot of things will help you no matter if you do an alien that you haven't seen you need

45:34

to know uh the anatomy and the mechanic underneath and what could be potentially

45:42

um happening underneath the skin and and everything else then you will learn more

45:47

and more and you'll talk about design etc etc so um I would say this um also there is

45:54

incredible amount and resources out there uh from YouTube to any other

46:00

course and I think very self-driven and of course uh

46:07

I don't want to advertise myself but I've recently as well made a patreon

46:13

page and uh yeah I mean I've been I've been mostly keeping it um related to anatomy and and sculpture

46:21

and uh character design and character character art mostly but also a little

46:28

more leaning to what I think my stronger side is and this is more more artistic

46:34

we talk about life about art about what makes sculpture sculpture and what makes

46:41

a good pose right for you know for a finished piece and how we mold and cast

46:48

and the anatomy um all that of course so if you want to

46:55

visit uh feel free to search in and go there but of course it's not only

47:02

about about me there are so many talents in our industry super super exciting so

47:08

just always be curious um compete but still don't forget that this

47:15

whole thing is Art related so we should have fun

47:20

what would you show her like what what's a good movie that you can use as a as a

47:26

conversion to uh for people who want to get into like animation in terms of like modern CGI

47:33

stuff something convincing then um why she should like it well

47:40

um probably the one that comes on top of my head is like films that definitely especially if

47:48

you want to convince someone why this is good Etc you shouldn't be leaning only

47:54

um on the visuals the storytelling for me it's very important so should be the

47:59

driving like basically the most important thing and the

48:05

complementary are the visuals where they shouldn't be too distracting or they

48:10

shouldn't take over so a good film that has plenty of visuals

48:16

of course but they are done incredibly well and also the story and the music and the entire atmosphere is probably

48:22

Interstellar um comes as a something that when I watched and and

48:29

then I I left the cinema you didn't think about the visuals you didn't think about

48:34

um anything else more than the story The the message and the really it was very

48:43

um impactful in a way so I felt I remember quite

48:48

insignificant where we are and what's happening with the time and so this is a good example of you know film done

48:56

incredibly well I think it was done by d-neck so they lean towards that

49:02

when I'm thinking about this question is like the one I like a lot is the the

49:07

recent Spider-Man like you remember the Spider-Man Multiverse or something how it's called where it had like this

49:15

amazing art style and I remember I took my wife actually to the to see that film and she was like really really impressed

49:22

and for me that film was was I didn't really understand how they had so much courage

49:29

to kind of create this movie where there was like so the the art style is so

49:36

different it's very comic-like and there's like when you knock there is like this pow uh moment on there and

49:42

everything that was like a very interesting one and uh but probably like the the love deaths

49:50

and robots is probably also an another big one I know it's like it's it's a very quirky

49:55

um kind of like more like heavy metal uh collection of uh films but I I still

50:02

really enjoyed it and I felt like it was again a very bold move kind of like in

50:07

that in that industry and Ron thank you so much for your time I think it was an

50:13

amazing conversation we touched on so many topics we will leave the links in the description to the video and you can

50:19

just Google uh Run's name and I'm sure it'll kind of come up thank you

50:24

all the best wishes good luck and I hope we'll talk sometime in the future

50:29

yes thank you so much for inviting me having me it was a great uh pleasure to

50:35

yeah sit down and chat thanks for enjoying another episode of the 80 level Roundtable podcast check out upcoming

50:43

episodes on the 80 level website at 80. LV join our career site at 80. LV RFP

50:51

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