Jev Belyaev: Nothing Fancy, Just Practice and Dedication
Mastery of a craft doesn’t require one to be a genius (although a lot of geniuses eventually became masters of their craft). For the simple guy who has considerable talent and just the right amount of dedication, being a master may definitely be in their cards.
This can be said of Mr. Jev Belyaev. He doesn’t boast of any special rituals or any life drama; he simply strove to become good at what he does through constant practice.
Here, Mr. Belyaev shares his experience in the 3D industry and how these shaped him to become a multi-faceted artist.
Xeno Creatives (XC): ZBrush technology brought a lot to the industry. What processes did you have to learn to be skilled in it?
Jev Belyaev (JB): Nothing fancy to be honest; it is just simple practice and an anatomy routine. When I started my sculpting journey, I didn’t use a lot of references. I relied only on my imagination. After some time, I realized that it doesn’t work quite well. I begun learning human anatomy and a little bit of beast anatomy via different online tutorials.
Also, references search became a basic part of workflow in each project. It is very important to seek for the right ones and determine basic shapes of your character, even if it is not real.
XC: As a dedicated artist how did ZBrush help you further your art?
JB: ZBrush is a very powerful tool, it could help you in your project’s many aspects, but in majority of my projects, I used ZBrush as a modelling tool only. It helps me visualize my first passes and final ones when I am working with high poly details. Usually, I start with low poly templates which I made earlier, I am playing with them and changing their initial shapes for some period of time trying to understand what I am looking for, when I am happy with it I am going for secondary shapes to get proper silhouette. The rest of details I am doing in third party software. Sometimes I use ZBrush to create some basic curves to guide my hair or fur in additional software.
XC: Was your craft really a passion to begin with, a hobby, or a mere job?
JB: Initially it was just a hobby, after some time, it grew into passion and became a dream job.
XC: Given your experience in the industry, what do you think is your edge as a 3D artist?
JB: It is really nice if you get a 3D Artist role while at the same time you are familiar with other fields such as rendering, rigging and animation. Knowledge of all these fields will help you and your team a lot. Also if you work in film or game industry it is good to be familiar with workflows as well, despite all of these industries related closely to each other in terms of CGI. The workflow is going to be various for them.
In my case I have sufficient depth of understanding in both game and film workflows, at the same time I am trying to develop as much skills as I can, expanding borders further than solely a 3D Artist.
XC: Whom do you do you consider your influence(s)?
JB: My family had a huge influence on me in the way that they have been always respectful regarding my CGI passion and were helping me whenever they can. In addition there are a lot of artists who are really good in what they do. Looking at their art I want to move on and improve my work within each new step. Those artists are: Ian Spriggs, Frank Tzeng, Adam Fisher, Maria Panfilova and Chris Jones.
XC: So far, what were the challenges that you had encountered working in the 3D industry?
JB: Every time I am working on new projects, I try to challenge myself; I try to learn and do something new that I haven’t done before. As such, I cannot really single out certain problems in my mind, I encounter challenges all the time during different projects. They could be minor ones or vice versa.
XC: What is your most exciting project to date?
JB: Few weeks ago we have finished working on a short film entitled, ”Revelation”. In this production, I covered the role of VFX Supervisor. I have never before worked with such huge amount of footage and CG shots. It was exciting and a pleasure to be a part of the ”Revelation” team. It is going to be realised soon, so you can find it through IMDB website.
XC: Do you have any advice to aspiring artists?
JB: I would say be patient, practice more, and despite all criticism, do what you are most passionate about.
Want to see more of Mr. Jev Belyaev’s works? Click here!
