Teo’s story of becoming a 3D artist is a bildungsroman (but I’ll try to make it shorter and with visuals), with mythological creatures to tame, finding one’s faith, powers, allies and, of course, overcoming great challenges to get to the garden of earthly delights that’s AMC.
We’re often asked by aspiring artists what it takes to get here.
Hopefully, her case study, the illustrated tale below, will speak to many of you.
UNArte Summer Practice with AMC - 2019
We met her at uni in 2019, for the summer practice session, in which we worked with 40+ students in the National University of Arts and introduced them to Zbrush, a tool we love tremendously.
We visually explored Dante’s Inferno and, being the first time when teaching Zbrush in such a short period of time, we were blown away by the students’ results.
This was Teo’s first time with Zbrush with a Character she designed:
Her own practice
Winning Forever Heroes Challenge - 2022
After a year, she got back into our lives a few minutes before our 2022 Art Challenge ended, submitting the entry below and winning the 1st prize with Desmond Doss’s statue, a historical figure we were honored to meet.
Zbrush Sculpting Bootcamp - summer 2022
By winning the contest, she received a scholarship to our Seaside Sculpt Jam, a boot camp for 3D artists wanting to improve their Zbrush skills alongside our Bulgarian neighbors.
She practiced realistic sculpting and this was her result with modelling her roommate, Andreea Visan:
The Internship - fall 2022
For a month, Teo finally got in our office for an internship and was assisted in her development by Alice and Flavia and the three of them became super accomplices and this is the result:
After this 3 year journey, she was officially invited to join our team as a Junior Character Artist.
I’ll pass the mic to her to speak about motivation and challenges in her own words:
How did you become a 3D Artist?
I got to practice 3D art for games by practicing in different artistic environments that were available to me in the current times. Drawing, painting, traditional and digital sculpting and always searching for inspiration from different sources. I’ve discovered in the end that 3D allowed me to make mistakes without too many consequences or costs.
Also, the world of videogames offered me the possibility of exploring my passions, such as scenography, tailoring, fashion design, music, film, illustration, history and fiction. Participating in the process of creating video games helps me learn things about the world I live in, from the way in which a pair of shoes gets old in someone’s feet to the history of when those shoes were created. For all these reasons, my affection for 3D and video games grew over time.
What was the hardest moment in your development and how did you get through it?
The hardest part was finding the courage to face the fear of failure and of the financial hardships I imagined I’ll have by choosing this career that offers me more pleasure than anything.
Once I got my focus on this thought, I managed to be more at ease with my mistakes in the learning process.
How would you introduce yourself on a stage on which you’re being awarded the Newcomer of the Year prize and the audience consists of aspiring artists wanting to also get there?
I’ll let them meet me as an artist that keeps on learning and also as a person that struggles with the fear of failure, but has the courage to try to follow a path on which that feeling of wasting your life doesn’t really exist. I’m very grateful to take on this opportunity.
Featured image with Teo’s 3D portrait made by Andreea Visan in the Seaside Sculpt Jam Bootcamp.