Kareem Soliman: Interview with 3D artist

Kareem Soliman, the author of the “Military Warehouse of Robotics”, will answer six questions and give us a look behind the scenes of his work.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do and how did you become a 3D artist?

The first time I discovered my love for 3D was when I watched Avatar in 2009, I was 9 years old and I was in awe of how people could make something so beautiful with a computer. When Minecraft came out in 2011, I loved spending hours creating worlds, I would always recreate places I visit but soon enough I wanted to create more realistic stuff. Fast forward to when I was 16, I took a game design course and that was the first time I tried Maya and Unreal Engine, where I made a simple Olympic Sprint Game, after that I knew I had to do this forever. So after finishing school, I went on to University where I learned Art and Film, and during these years I realized my love for 3D even more, however, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to specialize in, because I loved everything so much and still do. However, as of recently I have fallen in love more and more with creating environments and specifically I aspire to become a professional 3D environmental artist/level designer.

Where did you find the inspiration for your latest challenge entry? What’s the story behind its creation?

When I first discovered this challenge, it was 2 weeks before the deadline, and I became nervous because I loved the challenge idea and wanted to participate but I wasn’t sure I could make something good in the time frame. So I started cycling through references and ideas on Pinterest, mainly searching for “Sci fi” and “Sci fi Environments”. I was then starting to get ideas for Industrial Military Robots so I did another reference collection pass of “Military Warehouses” on Pinterest and I opened Maya and started the blocking process.

What software and plug-ins did you use to create this image? Did you face any difficulties, and how did you overcome them?

I used Maya for blocking, Unreal Engine for environment design and rendering, and After Effects for a bit of color grading as I am more used to it. The original idea I wanted to submit was this one, however, there was something about the composition that I did not like, even though I tried many different angles and focal lengths, so I took the hard decision to discontinue the idea and retry from scratch. That’s when I went back to Maya to create a new block out and this time the idea felt better, so I took the pre-existing 3D models (because I knew I wanted to use the same models) and started creating the new environment. After that I felt a good momentum and pretty quickly I was able to visualize the final product faster. It was very important for me to create a cinematic image but also create clear separation between different objects to make everything in the scene visible.

How often do you do personal projects and keep your portfolio up-to-date? Which one is your favorite?

I work on personal projects everyday but I definitely don’t update my portfolio as much as I should because like many I am not satisfied with my work most of the time. However, most of my work can be found on my Twitter or Instagram, I am very focused on creating animations because I believe real time cinematics are the future, and obviously as I continue working on it I am improving my workflow and my skill, but for now, I would definitely choose the “Military Warehouse of Robotics” for the Hum3D challenge as being my favourite.

Who or what has inspired or delighted you recently? Maybe it was a book, a movie, or an artist.

As of recently I’ve been heavily inspired by Pasquale Scionti and Wiktor ?hman who are both exceptionally talented at 3D environment design and I recommend every 3D artist to check them out.

Please tell us your five short tips for creating 3D art.?

My 5 short tips which I am trying to always follow are:

– Discipline. When starting a project it’s always fun in the beginning but halfway through when you are struggling you can choose to either quit or push through and most of the time pushing through is going to be the best option.

– Reference Collection. In the beginning when I started 3D I always thought I didn’t need references at all, I can just imagine it in my head. However, as I progressed I realised the importance of reference.

– Make it easy for yourself. A lot of people want to 3D model everything in their scene when in reality most of the time you can use premade assets made by professionals to speed up your workflow.

– Don’t fall victim to sunk-cost fallacy. Just because you spent so much time on an idea, does not mean it’s a good idea. Don’t be afraid to start over. I learned this from Wiktor Ohman on one of the Quixel streams.

– Perfection does not exist. Unfortunately, even I still struggle with this, but as an artist you want things to be perfect when in reality nothing is ever perfect. Aim for good enough.