All language subtitles for 2 Influences

Influences

In this lesson, I'll go through
the key inspirations for my own work,

starting with some
fantastic impressionist painters,

and then walking through history
to the modern time

with things like Reddit
where fantastic images are shared daily

by photographers
and artists around the world.

One of the biggest inspirations to me
is the painter Claude Monet.

He did fantastic studies of light
in different environments.

Specifically, many
of his impression sunrise paintings

were inspirational for my work
of the delicate soft lighting in there.

He often tried to capture
a mood or a feeling

with the scenes he observed
in the real world

as opposed to the actual thing,

which lent the name
of the movement itself, impressionism.

It gives the impression
of the environment.

He'd also do a lot of studies
at the same location

at different times of day
continuing to go back and observe

how light would impact the environment.

One series of his, which was studying
one cathedral throughout the day

was and continues to be
very impactful for my work.

I love looking at how the light
interacts with the environment

and how it changes throughout the day.

It changes the angle,
the softness, and the color.

When I create my own 3D renders,

I think carefully about the lighting
and how it impacts the environment.

Another painter from the same movement,
which was Vincent van Gogh,

is also very inspirational
to a lot of the work I do.

I had the pleasure of seeing
a lot of his locations in real life.

Juxtaposing that
next to the painting itself

is interesting to see

because you see a bit
of how he observed the world as well.

There's a series of paintings he did
in the South of France

observing nighttime in different areas
of this beautiful region.

Many buildings in the South of France
are very reddish, orangish

from the clay material
that was made there.

There was the fantastic stone material.

Having that stark built environment
in contrast with the natural world

where we have some deep blues
and greens is beautiful to see.

The use of color
is very important with our renders

to give a feeling
or a mood to our piece.

I often strive to create relaxing,
nostalgic environments in my work.

Van Gogh gave the same feeling
with a lot of his creations

where he very carefully designed
the palette to bring the viewer's eye

back to where he was in that moment
painting the piece.

Another surrealist artist
is René Magritte

who has a variety of different works,

all with a surrealist bend to them
if you will.

One series of his
that jumps out to me always

is one that he has with clouds
featuring the image in unexpected ways

that's often just there in the scene
in a place that you wouldn't expect.

That often inspires my work
because I add many such natural elements

in places
you wouldn't necessarily have them

like having a big palm tree
inside a cathedral

or having a field of grass
going through your living room.

I'm often inspired by his work

and always go back to look
at how he designed his scenes

in this surrealist
but still comfortable way.

When I'm building my work,
I always want that sense of comfort,

but existing very much at the boundary
of the real and the surreal.

Merging those two and existing

in that liminal intertwined space
between the two.

It's always exciting.

Now, moving forward to the modern world,

there's a fantastic subreddit
that I visit quite a bit

when I'm getting ready to put
the final touches on my renders,

which is our r/Analog.

It's a community entirely dedicated
to analog photography.

When I'm looking through the inspiration
from this subreddit,

I'm looking at the textural details
of the photos.

They're shot on film cameras,

which gives a very unique feeling
of grain and nostalgia to the images.

I try to recapture that
as much as possible with my 3D renders.

Often with 3D,
it's very easy to fall into the trap

of making things
that look too clean too perfect.

You get perfectly straight,
smooth edges by default

when you're adding in objects
like cubes or planes to your scene.

Hence, when you're creating
your renders,

it's important to infuse
a bit of that disorder or imperfections,

like you see in film photography
where there are imperfections.

I try to source
through a lot of that inspiration

and have that up side-by-side
as I start to make my final tweaks.

The last source of inspiration for me
that I'll mention is the real world.

Specifically, the South of France.

I've spent a lot of time
in the South of France

and I have a lot of that inspiration
infused in my renders.

You'll see
a lot of vibrant blues and greens,

like the ones
on the Calanques National Park

in Marseille, France,
right on the Mediterranean.

It's a beautiful place.

For me, it is paradise on Earth.

Whenever I'm stuck on inspiration,
I often look back at the photos

and relive some of my memories there.

For your project,

that natural inspiration
might be the countryside, the mountains,

the valleys, or wherever that might be,

but do source those real inspirations
as you start to build the final project.

In the next lesson, we'll go out

and gather real reference material
that we'll use to build our mood board,

and get ready
to start designing our final project.