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3DTotal: Hi Blaz, after having the pleasure of laying out your artwork - “20,000 Miles Lost” - in the Digital
Art Masters: Volume 4 book, it’s great that I can get to know a bit more about the artist behind the image. So let’s get things under way shall we? Could you tell us what sparked your interest in art? Can you
recall the first image you drew and what it was?
Blaz: Firstly, I would like to express a big thank you for inviting me to do this interview for your magazine and giving me this great exposure.
I’ve been interested in drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. I felt that expressing my
ideas through art was much easier than explaining it verbally. I put down everything I saw, from things
that had happened that day to characters from cartoons that I had been watching, animals from a zoo
that I had visited, etc. Fortunately, that urge to portray things around me still keeps me going today. |
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3DTotal: You’re currently the Art Director for Actalogic and prior to this you were AD at Zootfly. Could you tell us a little bit about your role and what sort of projects you’ve worked on whilst you’ve been there?
Blaz: One of my first professional projects was for Zootfly, where they hired me as a concept artist for their The Hollow project – working on weapons design. I was 19 at the time and very inexperienced, so it was a great opportunity for me to get to know the industry a bit. The project unfortunately didn’t get published. At the same time I was accepted into the Academy for Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and because the school didn’t fill up all of my schedule, I started working as a freelance illustrator as well. I finished various projects and a couple of years later got back to Zootfly, only this time they invited me to take an Art Directors position. We did a demo pitch for a TimeO game, which was very well accepted by publishers and we got a Prison Break licence for the game. I stayed there for the first year of the production, but due to some differences in our point of view later on in the development process, I chose to leave the company and joined Actalogic instead. |
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3DTotal: Working for Zootfly must have been a dream job for a young man, still wet behind the ears in terms for work experience, so what tempted you to leave and go to Art College?
Blaz: My Zootfly experience was definitively a huge leap forward in my career. I got my first insight into the game industry, my first real cheque and, of course, a strong reference. But working for them before going to Art College was strictly freelancing, so when I got the opportunity to go to school and broaden my basic knowledge of art, I just couldn’t say no. At that time I wasn’t so confident and didn’t completely trust myself to work on such big projects. I knew my limitations and flaws, which I thought would sooner or later translate to my work. So I went to school to learn more about anatomy, art theory, spatial concepts, graphic design, etc. It helped a lot, not being just an illustrator at the end or trying to learn everything by myself. And as I mentioned before, I never fully left freelancing, which helped me to stay in touch with real world projects, and brought me back to Zootfly when I felt I was ready, with much more experience and greater self-confidence. |
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3DTotal: Not only are you an art director, you also dabble in doing freelance projects. One such project I would like to talk about is the illustration that you did for the rock band Siddharta’s album cover.
Could
you tell us how this project came about and what it’s like to produce work for one of your favourite bands?
Blaz: Just before joining Actalogic, I had also been contacted by Siddharta’s design team, Veto Group. We’d done some smaller advertising projects together before and when the “Siddharta – Saga” project came around, they called again and asked me if I was interested in being part of this epic journey.
I was totally thrilled, since Siddharta are one of my favourite bands ever, and I couldn’t have been
happier to join the team. The Saga Project was a publicly open journey for fans to monitor the development of their newest album, run under the production of a well known metal and rock music producer,
Ross Robinson. My part was to illustrate images for every single track from the album, which was presented through EP covers and later in the album booklet, as well as doing merchandise material illustrations for the band. It was a grand project, and to collaborate closely with a great design team, as well as the band itself, was a great honour to me.
Now that the album is out, all I can say is that I couldn’t be happier with the end result. The album is packed in a special hardcover booklet, containing a series of twelve panoramic illustrations, and the feedback from Siddharta’s fans as well as from those who don’t even listen to them was just amazing! You can check it out here |
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