3DTotal: Ah, so what was your first encounter with CG?
Hao: I got my first very own computer in 1999. About a month later I produced my first piece of complete work. Before that I had been using the school’s old computers to practice modeling and lighting.

3DTotal: Ok, I think I confused us both there, sorry! What I love about your work, Hao, is that every one of your images tells us a story, giving each of your artworks a soul. The pieces in your portfolio often seem very personal. Can you tell us about how you go about seeking your inspiration, and what kind of life experience and events you find work best when described through your art?
Hao: Throughout my childhood I was wild about collecting gadgets: broken clocks, Matchbox toy cars, and just about anything else I could find to fill my drawers! At the time I believe that all those little objects had their own souls, their own lives. When I felt lonely I would talk about it with them, and arrange them into different combinations depending on what it was I was feeling or talking about. It was here that I found my love of still life.

3DTotal: I love this story! Do you still collect gadgets even today, or do you have any new passions for collecting things that we might start to see revealing themselves in your future works?
Hao: Collecting things was just something I did during childhood. I don’t really have enough space to keep things like that anymore. But I guess I have a new collection method now: gathering images! I always take my camera to take photos on the street, at the market, or in a museum. And all I need to store those is a good hard drive!

3DTotal: [Laughs] That’s great, I love how you see collecting images as a step on from your childhood hobbies. Brilliant! You are clearly inspired by the Masters, and indeed your CG works are Masters of your own trade, too! Can you tell us a little about the Masters that you most admire, and what it is about their work that you find most useful and transferable with regards to creating your CG concepts and interpretations of some of the greats?
Hao: The 17th Century Dutch still life painter, W.C. Heda, Willem Kalf, and Pieter Claesz are my favorite Masters. Other painters such as Vermeer, M.C. Escher, and Vincent Van Gogh are also amongst some of my favorites in other categories of painting. In my own work you can find reference to some iconic content and techniques from these Masters. For example, some of my works’ compositions, the layout of object in scenes, are referenced from Vermeer’s paintings. And material detail, glass and metal reflection/refraction detail, was learned from Heda’s still life paintings.