Peter. ~ Akhbour
By the age of 15 I started to work, money was tight, so I had to help. Later I took evening courses to have at least my ?Abitur? (Baccalaureate), always hoping to study arts later, but that never happened. Life decided otherwise.
I bought my first computer when I was 22 or 23; a Commodore C64. Two years later I really dived into photography, never went out without my Canon A1, or later T90. I even managed to have an exposition in a local art gallery, did a couple of adds. But then, for reasons unknown to me, the ?rising star? in photography couldn?t get enough work to live by it and I returned to ?honest work?! ;-)
I had a couple of love affairs without happy endings and fell in love with the Commodore Amiga 500 and Deluxe Paint II, upgraded to Amiga 2000 with 4 mb of memory and a 100 mb hard disk. By this time I also get my first copy of Maxxon?s Cinema4D.
I started to work for a travel agency as a canoe- and mountain bike guide, working every summer in France. And that?s when I met a lovely French woman in 1995, who, one year later became the mother of my daughter and my wife! :-D
We stayed in France, went through some really dark moments, both unemployed due to the bankruptcy of the enterprise we were working for. Finally I found a job with a national transporter, where I am still working, hoping for the lottery win! ;-)
Akhbour about Akhbour !
Did you work in any field of art before?
Yes, I was quit good as a photographer, as mentioned above, I even had one exposition in a local art gallery, but somehow it slowed down and stopped later. People were always asking for the same kind of work, the sunset, the awakening morning by the lake side, the fair by night. Not my kind of pleasure, I always tend to do what pleases me.
How and when did you start with Daz Studio ?
I think the first DS I installed was 0.7 ??? two or three years ago, I am not sure about the time. I used it mainly as an import tool for C4D. I learned about it in a ComputerArt issue. I have been upgrading since and really started to use it last year. One reason for this were the arrival of Dreamlight and his products and all these shaders.
What are you missing in Studio, what would be a good addition to have?
Certainly volumetric lights! The only reason now for me to import a DS-scene into C4D is when I feel this image needs some volumetric lights!
One thing I?d love to see in DS is a Bryce-import, to make it work in both directions! To be able to render an image with a decent landscape and atmosphere (I don?t like the Bryce-UI!).
Well, I think it is ?sad troll?. For one, maybe this has been unnoticed ;-), the troll is one of my favourite characters and I think I got the expression and camera-angle just right, used the right way (I did one pic with postwork tears and didn?t liked it at all) to get the final picture.
Are there any other artists you could say they have inspired you?
The Hundreds, even thousands! :-D
There are quiet a couple of people, let?s start just here! A lot of DAG-members posting their images had some influence on my work.
For example Michael ?theSea??s Broken directly ?provoked? Last Man.
There are also a couple of movie directors, John Woo, John Ford, Spielberg who certainly had some influence on my way of placing the camera.
There are Frazetta, Vallejo, Miller, Lee, Kirby, Lichtenstein, Aubrey, van Gogh, da Vinci ?.
As I said, thousands!
How do you come up with ideas for a render ?
Like this! *snaps his fingers*
Honestly! It?s not me having an idea, it?s the picture jumping at me. When I start working, the picture is already done, all I do is take the pieces of a puzzle and put them together.
These images are provoked by real life events, books, films, dreams, very often music, even tv adds.
Home made pizza! :-D
I think working with clichés, take something known by everyone and show the contrary. Let?s take the troll (again, I know!), everybody believes to know that it (he) is a bloodthirsty thug without any brains, put him into a picture with a highly mathematical quotation or reading ?The little prince? to some small animals and he gets a completely different personality.
What causes you the most problems? What would you say is your biggest challenge?
The biggest problem I face regularly is to keep my political and social believing out of my work. I did some pictures like Nightsong, Homeless or Soldiers but I don?t feel that they are very welcome and honestly, it pisses me off that any pin-up quicky, even my own, gets more views, comments and favs. But that?s live!
My biggest challenge is to be patient! Render times go up! The more I learn about DS, the longer the render takes.
Gone are those happy first days, when I rendered an image with the default light, no shadow, now reflection, two minutes and boum!, the image was done.
Today I use Dreamlight?s light sets, MaskCreator and MoodMaster, pwSurface shaders, omnifreakers light shaders, AO, reflections, subsurface scattering, displacement maps, IBL, shadow maps, light maps, layered renders etc. Renders take up to 32 hours!
I am trying to convince my wife that I need a second computer, just to be able to create another picture while the first one still renders, but she will not listen to me!
:-p
My genre!
I really can?t tell, that depends the day, the mood, the last ?toy? I bought.
But I feel quiet happy when doing a rather funny image, or maybe is it the other way round, I create a funny picture when I am happy?
What are your future plans in art, anything to look forward to ?
Future plans? Getting better every day, finding a job where I can create.
Redoing and carry on with the Rainworld series, but since I have so many pictures in my head which need to burst out ?.
Have you ever won an award for your 3D art?
If that counts, I have made a first place in a Dreamlight Club contest, but since it was a C4D render ?
I made a third place here in December challenge and have made one entry into the DAZ-gallery.
Oh yes, and I am very proud to be the only triple ?artist of the month? champion of the official French City of Heroes/villains forum! ;-D
I have never sold any 3D picture! I happen to sell some internet pages every now and then, but never any 3D art work.
For the right price all my works are for sale, even more if this allows to make a living by it! :-D
Is 3D an addiction for you and how do you deal with it? Does your family and friends support your DAZ addiction?
I am not addicted! No sir! Guardian, could you please open the door? Guardian! I have to go back to my DS, please open the door!
Well yes, I guess for me it is an addiction, when you go to bed nearly every night between 1 and 2 o?clock in the morning and you rise at 6 o?clock to breakfast in front of the computer just to do some more tweaking of a surface or light before going to work ?
I don?t deal with my 3D addiction; I am a happy camper with it! I declared at least two days a weak as days without computer, and man, that is hard! I get up in the night to have at least a look on the forums! ^_^
I am not sure if I am the right person to give advice, but there are a couple of people who have a very personal style, which makes them unique. All I want to say is: Carry on like this, it is always a great pleasure to see your work and to be surprised with every image!
And just one small thing for the beginners amongst you, I noticed that there are a couple of images with the ground nearly dark, giving the impression of a render without shadows. Tilt your camera a bit down to be able to see a well lit ground with shadows, this will always add to the image!
And just one other thing: Don't run after a place in charts of any kind, do what you love to do and do it as good as you can! When you are happy with your work, the rest will come, but first and then the others!
Just my 2 cents euro! ^_-
Dream ~ Creativity ~ Render ~ Reality