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Sergey Musin: senior concept artist interview

Riva Studio senior concept artist Sergey Musin creates detailed sci-fi concept art for games, film and virtual reality – check out his interview...

Riva Studio senior concept artist Sergey Musin creates detailed sci-fi concept art for games, film and virtual reality – check out his interview...

3dtotal: Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you, what do you do, and where are you located?

Sergey Musin: Hi, I'm Sergey Musin. I was born in Russia in a small city called Vologda. Before I was working as freelance concept artist for different videogame studios around the world, but now I'm busy with film and virtual reality projects in Riva Studio (Mumbai, India) as a senior concept artist.

3dt: Where did you find the inspiration for your latest gallery entry? What's the story behind its creation?
SM: It was based on my personal project called Time Tombs. I imagine that this project is a videogame, so I always keep adding more concepts or ‘promo art' in that universe. This videogame would have lots of different planets in its own universe in which players can travel between worlds and explore areas like an RPG, so on every planet there's a player camp where he can items, recharge weapons or speeders, or go into orbit. This image is the landscape viewpoint at that camp and the inspiration was a space opera novel by Dan Simmons.

 Concepts for Time Tombs

Concepts for Time Tombs

3dt: What software and plug-ins did you use to create this image? Did you face any difficulties, and how did you overcome them?
SM: I started with some doodles to understand what I really wanted to see in this image, what design elements should be there. Then I used Maya to build basic props and parts of the building, then I used Vue to render some beauty terrain to understand how the light and shadow is cast. After, I overpainted the image in Photoshop, continuing to add elements.

Vehicle concept art for personal project titled Time Tombs

Vehicle concept art for personal project titled Time Tombs

3dt: Do you normally use this software in your workflow? What other software and plug-ins do you favor?
SM: Well, it's fifty-fifty depending on what kind of result I need to get. The most important thing to know (to get in your brain) is how exactly the final result will look. Keep in mind the shape, colors, detail and so on. Sometimes I use 3D to build basic models to make it faster just to catch the idea quickly, so it's more detailed and more finished (it's easy to make concepts this way, especially for movies because you can adjust the details such as camera lenses very easily). I like to do fast sketches; maybe 2-4 hour sketches.

Paladin concept for Time Tombs project

Paladin concept for Time Tombs project

Concept art of the ozone generator for Time Tombs

Concept art of the ozone generator for Time Tombs

3dt: Are there any particular techniques that you use often? Or do you like to experiment?
SM: Mostly, I use this workflow and these techniques for my client work; my concept art and designs. But If you check my portfolio, you'll get the idea that my whole experience of art is one big experiment! There are groups of different styles.

Sketch for indie game from LoFi Games Ltd

Sketch for indie game from LoFi Games Ltd

3dt: How do you keep your portfolio up-to-date? Any tips?
SM: I use software that is designed specifically for photographers to build their portfolio quickly with many different options and even scripts; check their app called jAlbum – they also have free version.

Concept art for old factory era on the planet called Sokol

Concept art for old factory era on the planet called Sokol

Space ship for paladin class hero

Space ship for paladin class hero

3dt: Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?
SM: Daryl Mandryk because his artwork content looks really alive, and with volume. And Vitaly Bulgarov – he has given so much great advice and is an amazing designer and good friend! In traditional art I like mostly Russian artists like Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya Repin and Vsevolod Ivanov.

Concept art for speeder aka Catamaran for Time Tombs

Concept art for speeder aka Catamaran for Time Tombs

3dt: What can we expect to see from you next?
SM: I'm planning to work more traditionally in style for personal work, and also some more concepts from some interesting movie projects!

Sketch for indie game from LoFi Games Ltd

Sketch for indie game from LoFi Games Ltd

Related links

Check out Paladins Cruiser in the gallery
Head over to Sergey's website
Grab a copy of Beginner's Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop

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