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Alexander Beim: CEO & CG artist interview

CEO and CG artist from Hamburg, Germany, Alexander Beim, shares work from his portfolio and his varied workflow for creating personal and client work...

Alexander's Website

3dtotal

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you, what do you do, and where are you located?

Alexander

My name is Alexander Beim. I live in Hamburg, Germany. Since 2001 Ive been a CEO of LotusArt. I also work also as CG artist, generalist.

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with Arnold

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with Arnold

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Tell us about your art: Your style, themes, genre, and some of the favorite projects you have worked on.

Alexander

Although I work as a 3D artist all-rounder in many areas, my core area is characters. My favorite projects were the ones that also included characters, liked my last project of Albert Einstein. Then also the baby for Karamalz, or the robot and bull animation for VW. I love them all. I always try to make my work as realistic as possible. This concerns modeling, rendering, or animation. I am not looking for easy ways, and try as little as possible to use ready-made photos or scans and as much as possible to draw or sculpt by hand. I admit that's why it's more difficult to get realism.

Albert Einstein wireframe

Albert Einstein wireframe

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Can you describe your typical workflow, and the software/hardware you normally use when creating your artwork?

Alexander

Computing power is very important for me. It gives me freedom for creation and rendering. So I built my computer from scratch. I have two XEON CPUs with 40 threads and two GPU Nvidia 1080 ti. At the moment I have 64GB of RAM. My workflow is sometimes unusual, depending on what project I get, but normally the first step is to storyboard. Next, I create sketches. I sculpt characters or model, and then the objects. Next up is texturing, rigging and skinning, animation, and at last rendering.

Albert Einstein wireframe

Albert Einstein wireframe

As a generalist, I can create a variety of different projects, and could use many different software in production. My favorite is ZBrush and Maya. For animation, I sometimes use motionbuilder, and Substance Painter for texturing. Sometime the customer wishes to have models prepared in a specific program. So I have to use other programs, such as 3ds Max for architecture, and so on.

Create in Maya, rendered with Arnold

Create in Maya, rendered with Arnold

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What inspires you?

Alexander

If I want to create something great then that is always a challenge. In the beginning I fill myself with impressions of the latest topic. For example, Ill look at the works of other artists who motivate me. But then, Ill try to forget everything in order to apply a completely new look or style. And, of course, the fun that I have when I create something new also inspires me.

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with V-Ray

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with V-Ray

3dtotal

How do you keep your portfolio up-to-date? Any tips?

Alexander

That is actually very easy. After completing a project, I always try to place references on my page. Unfortunately, there is not always enough time to exhibit work directly after the project has been submitted. Just as the customers have their own wishes and they do not always lead to the best results. In this case, I invest my free time to remake something and create it with my own feeling.

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with Mental Ray

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with Mental Ray

3dtotal

Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?

Alexander

When I talk about art, for me, the technique the artist used is not that important, or how well he did the skin, but the idea he wanted to convey or how alive his character is and whether his soul can be seen. This is especially difficult in 3D. But when I look at galleries on the internet, I see how many really ingenious artists there are that are not worse, but maybe better than the classics. They also inspire me and I can learn a lot from them.

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with V-Ray

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with V-Ray

3dtotal

What can we expect to see from you next?

Alexander

Maybe it will be some kind of character or a whole scene. ?t the moment, I plan to invest more time in the study of new tools and technical methods in the software. So I cannot say exactly, but I always try to find some time for creative art, and I hope that my new works will also be liked. In any case, something new will be in the future.

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with V-Ray

Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Maya with V-Ray

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