“Each painting and every render is special”
Kornl Ravadits, is an amazingly talented 3d artist, matte painter and an illustrator from Hungary. This startling artist portrays his deep sense of designing via many of his heartrending renders and paintings, which have gained much recognition at the top cg art forums around the globe.
Could you introduce yourself?
I live in Hungary (Budapest), working as a freelancer graphic artist since 1995.
Education: 1989 – 94: University of Fine Arts in Budapest -I graduated as a graphic artist and teacher
The various fields I am involved in, are: graphic design, illustration, matte painting, 3d art.
I had been working with leading Hungarian advertisement and animation/postproduction studios previously for a long period. We also made the introductory animation of
Warhammer game, where we happened to work with Digic Pictures.
What brought you to the 3d industry and how has the journey been so far?
As a graphic designer I was always fascinated with the latest things. Computers and animation have been a hobby since years, but then slowly it became a part of my daily life and eventually my bread and butter. With the ever changing technologies, at times i dont find myself completely aquinted, but i never gave up the fight.In the process I learnt new stuff everyday. Working with these high end technologies and softwares gives me immense pleasure.
Your artwork “Old street fountain in Firenze’ is very impressive. How did you go about texturing the scene?
The Florentine fountain is a simple test scene. I happened to come across the test version of Brazil and wanted to try it out. Playing with lights was fun and hence I rendered the scene in different moods..
Old street fountain in Firenze
Do you paint your own textures or use pre made textures?
If required, then I always paint ‘new’ maps. The process is gradual, which eventually speeds up for making further maps. First I create the colour map in photoshop with many layers, because I can build up the bump, specular and all other required maps from this primary map easily , and they can be easily modified during the test rendering process.
How did you manage the sun and dark contrasts in the render? What rendering system did you use?
The choice of the renderer depends on the scene and requirement. Many times the scanline renderer is convenient and quicker of course. ThenI have to work more during the post production to try and improve the render; but it is worth the trouble even in this way. When the quality is really important, then I choose between Mental Ray and Vray. I define the contrast of the pictures majorly during the lighting-process and at the end I make only a few alterations.
Could you tell us something about your render “Fruits”?
I love fruits. Different fruits, varied colors. This really inspired me to model and render them in 3d. And hence this render was born!!. I used Brazil for rendering here too. Nowadays I try creating different pictures, differently, but the beauty to render of 3d lies in the fact, that there is possibility for continous improvement.
How did you texture such amazingly photorealistic fruits? And how did you light the scene?
The texture maps were hand made, generally in 2048px or in a bigger size.This is important to gt high quality renders even at higher resolutions . The lightning was a classical 3 point studio setup-: keylight, backlight and one light from the right. Rendering with Brazil was easy since it you the freedom to work on whole lot of parameters.
Homage to Master Claesz (3ds max, Vray)
Yet another render which was much talked about and found its way to major CG galleries and even raph.com is Homage to Master Claesz.How did you go about modeling the scene.
I had planned a „still life� picture in 3d since long . While making a picture ,one can learn much about the lighting, texturing and the rendering; and so i did. This render was a very big challenge, because I wanted to keep the atmosphere which was typically like those of the great Dutch still life-picture painters. And this inpired me to get started with the modelling proceess for the scene which eventually came out as a huge success.
The render has its own finesse. How did you do the texturing? Did you also use displacement for the orange peel and the walnuts?
The main challenge here was testing my skills at I was using it for the first time. I used Zbruss and displacement maps for every organic object. Plus there were bump maps and individual shaders used on every object.
Could you tell us something about the lighting process for this scene?
There was a main light and 2 brightening lamps which were simulating the lights from the direction of non-existant objects. And off course an HDR image was used for the reflections. The scene was rendered in passes which gave me more flexibility unlike one simgle HDR light set up.
You have some charismatic paintings in your gallery. Could you tell us something about one similar work ‘Oriental Portrait’?
The picture of Chinese Princess was made for a special series but later I felt that it stands good individually. Hence I painted a new background for this and completed it with cranes.
Road of Pain- Master and Servant Contest
Your painting “Road of Pain” for the “master and Servant” contest is a highly detailed image. How did you go about painting it?
The first idea was the creation of an unexpected and sarcastic picture. The mere thought is so simple: the representation of the human inferior and superior state in an appaling form . For this kind of representation the more detailed and more realistic style was the important, hence a very detailed picture.
Of 3d renders and matte painting, what do you prefer doing?
I don’t want to separate them or categorise them. Each painting and every render is special. Both 2d paintings and 3d renders have different moods to them and use different technology. I always get new ideas and motivations when I learn and make them one after the other. I love learning new things and try implementing them in my various art styles.