Mr. Maycon Andrade and His Love for Learning
Here’s an understatement: Artists are defined by their talent.
But with the case of Mr. Maycon Andrade, it’s not just his talent that carried him through: it is his dedication to the digital craft.
Seeing his works online proves just that (and more) despite his humble protestations. And that we definitely appreciate. His humility to admit that he is still in the process of learning, despite the evident mastery in his works, is refreshing and completely inspiring.
When Mr. Andrade said that he had just come into loving the art upon discovery of ZBrush, we can’t help but guess: if he had seen other software tools through, imagine what else he can achieve!
Truly, Mr. Andrade is a digital artist we should all watch out for. We are completely honored to have had this chance to interview an artist who had learned such an innovative tool as ZBrush by himself through passion and active spectatorship.
Xeno Creatives (XC): ZBrush technology brought a lot to the 3D industry. What processes did you have to learn to be skilled in it?
Maycon Andrade (MA): I watched some tutorials on YouTube and enrolled in some classes as well. However, we can find a lot of good content for a lot of software on YouTube. I live in Brazil, and when I started, it was quite difficult to find good tutorials in Portuguese which is my primary language. Because of that, I had to learn English as well. It’s been 5 years since I started to learn the software. It was pretty much just watching things on YouTube and developing my own techniques.
XC: As a dedicated artist, how did ZBrush help you further your art?
MA: To be honest, I’m only an artist today because of ZBrush. It’s the main software I use. Before that, I tried polygon modeling tools like Maya and Blender. But only when I had my hands on ZBrush and all its features, it is only then that I feel in love with 3D. It gives artists like me a lot of flexibility; there are a lot of brushes, that you can customized to your need, topology tools, millions of polys, with that I was able to improve and also to create the things I love!
XC: What made you decide to focus on ZBrush as a medium for 3D art creation? Are you still planning on venturing into other software?
MA: Like I said before, ZBrush is my main software, and today I do a lot of statues, and not too much game characters. I still study texturing software tools, UVs, rendering software like Marmoset and Keyshot.
I love learning and for sure I’ll always be trying new tools to help me improve my workflow!
XC: Do you have to be good in human anatomy when working with ZBrush?
MA: Yes! I don’t consider myself a master in anatomy or anything like that, I consider myself really a beginner. I’m always trying to improve my anatomy skills through new sculpts for characters. Having a hold on Human Anatomy in working with Zbrush is a must have skill.
XC: Do you see yourself working in the movie and television industry?
MA: At the moment, NO! I’d love to work for the video game industry, it was one of my dreams for some time, making me focus on game models. But right now my portfolio is not focused on it anymore.
I’m working as a freelance artist on the statue community and I’m loving it. I still want to work on the game industry one day though. Television and movies maybe in the future but right now I don’t see myself working with it.
XC: Was your craft really a passion to begin with or just a job?
100% passion!
I never thought I was going to get pay to do it. My first paid job was about a year ago and before that I was still giving my best to learn only because I wanted to get better and improve as an artist. I don’t think I would have come so far with it if I didn’t love it so much!
XC: Your works over at ArtStation are true visual treats! They show your versatility in style and great attention to detail. But do you have favorites? What are these and why?
MA: My favorites are game and anime characters, it may not show on my portfolio now, but not long ago, I had some characters there. Because of professional work and not having too much time, I work on them as personal projects. I have many to finish and I am hoping I could show them to you guys in the near future.
XC: Whom do you consider your influences? Why do you look up to them?
MA: I have many people who inspire me, Rafael Grassetti a Brazilian, Rafa Souza also a Brazilian guy, Daniel Bel, Yosuke Ishikawa , the Keos Masons guys and many others. When I’m tired and not giving my 100%, I just look to their works to get inspired and continue improving and producing. As an artist, it is important thing to get your inspiration on point. I really look forward to meeting them all one day!
XC: What other pieces do you still want to create?
MA: I want to create my favorite anime characters in the future, specifically those from “One Piece”, “Hunter X Hunter”, “Full Metal Alchemist”, and many more! I would also like to do my favorite game characters from “Zelda” characters and “Street Fighter”. I already did some in the past and I think it was not so good like this Luffy that I don’t display on my portfolio anymore. I want to create them all in the near future!
XC: Aside from creating your own amazing character concepts, do you also see yourself being immersed fully in Game Character Design?
MA: Sure! As I mentioned before, it is one of my dreams. I erased many models and focused on game characters on my page. They were not so good since most of it were from 2 to 3 years. However, I still look and study texturing and rendering real-time models. I plan to focus more on it in the future.
XC: If you weren’t a 3D artist today, what do you think you’d be working as?
MA: Probably as a PC technician. Before 3D, I was kind of working fixing computers, building and doing maintenance. I consider myself a PC enthusiast and always loved it.
XC: What advice can you give individuals wanting to enter the industry?
MA: One advice I can give to people out there is, if you want to learn and be part of the industry it doesn’t mater if you are going to work on television, games, or collectables.
You already know that a lot of work and dedication will be needed, but my advice is: FOCUS ON WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO AND CREATE! If it’s rigging focus on it, if it’s modeling and sculpting focus on it. Don’t waste your time with things you don’t want to do when you get a job. I live and love my work because I love comics, manga, and related stuff, at the beginning I focused too much on rigging and animation and found out I didn’t love to do that.
Now, when I’m called to work on things I don’t like, I don’t accept them. I know I won’t be giving my 120%!
You are a true inspiration Sir! We are definitely looking forward to more of your works.
Want to see more of Mr. Maycon Andrade’s work? Click here!
