Yamal Kahel: Wise and Forthcoming
Only 26 years of age, Mr. Yamal Kahel Marambio is already an established Animator and 3D Modeler. He was educated in the Universidad de las Americas and had been producing amazing works of figures from Pop Culture.
Mr. Marambio’s products are indicative not only of his interests but his originality in his take of the characters he interprets. He recognizes rge importance of the knowledge of Human Anatomy and is able to apply it effectively on his works. When asked about his view on the benefits of ZBrush, he answers with wisdom,
ZBrush is an excellent work tool, but it does not define a good artist on its own.
Mr. Marambio is an artist that we should all be keeping tabs on. Get to know him through this short feature.
Xeno Creatives (XC): ZBrush technology brought a lot to the industry. What processes did you have to learn to be skilled in it?
Yamal Kahel Marambio (YKM): ZBrush is a digital modeling tool that has revolutionized film production, videogames, sculpture, etc. It is a very intuitive program for modeling characters with which we can start working with a base figure such as a sphere and sculpt with the tools of brushes. We can know all the tools of the program but this is not enough to do a good job. An artist must be constantly learning everything to work his imagination and technique, based on much study and practice. For example, learning anatomy is fundamental for the creation of characters, while general knowledge gives you content and imagination to improve your work. ZBrush is an excellent work tool, but it does not define a good artist on its own.
XC: What specific ZBrush features do you employ in the production of your art? Has it helped you in improving your art better?
YKM: Before, the work was much more technical in other modeling programs to have to work at the level of vertices, face and edges. ZBrush is highly intuitive with the possibility of sculpting with digitizing tables—this contains tools that have streamlined work times. For example, Dynamesh recalculates the polygonal Maya of the object by keeping the volumes of model-worrying more about general forms. The ZRemesher tool, on the other hand, allows us to reorganize Maya into loops to have our object in an organized lowpoly in which it can be exported even to other programs. In this way I have greatly improved my pipeline along with my models to be able to work with such an intuitive program.
XC: How did you start being involved in the digital craft?
YKM: I liked drawing since I was a child. I always had the covers of my notebooks drawn at school. When I left high school I found the possibility of studying digital animation at the University with the hope of creating my own animated series. However, when I was studying, I discovered the world of sculpture and digital modeling, thus awakening a great passion for the 3D world.
XC: What do you think is your edge as a 3D artist? What do you think makes you stand out from the rest?
YKM: When studying digital animation, I believe that, in the industry, I have an advantage in having technical knowledge in different areas of audio visual, projecting them into my work may it is focused on film, videogame, sculpture or even if it is within realistic modeling or cartoon. So I’m not closed to a single work style.
XC: Whom do you do you consider your influence(s)?
YKM: When I was studying I took a course of only 4 classes with Carlos Cruz, a modeling of characters that inspired me deeply, knowing him and his work was the impulse that made me take 3D modeling as a profession. He has been my greatest influence as a modeler. I’m also inspired by artists like Claudio Saavedra, Francisco Javier Caceres, Gilverto Magno, Daniel Bel, Rodrigué Pralier, among other very talented artists. Many times I rely on the work of other artists to refer me while others I consult with to enjoy and inspire me.
XC: So far, what were the challenges that you had encountered working in the 3D industry?
YKM: To this day I continue to work on the challenges I encountered at the beginning to model better, study, be faster and more; challenges will always accompany you. However, within all, creating a versatile workflow has been the most difficult. Until now, it was quite frustrating not knowing how to continue in the middle of a project just for not planning from the beginning the stages to follow and thus falling into many errors. I remember projects that stagnated me and that took me weeks to overcome. Today I worry a lot about planning before I start working.
XC: What is your most exciting project to date?
YKM: The project that I liked the most was making a sculpture of Superman One Million. I applied much of the knowledge I learned with previous projects so that I did not fall into obstacles that were difficult for me before to solve. Thus I saw an improvement in my pipelines. However, the most stimulating was the positive corrections that were given to me by different people when sharing the progress on the internet. It was the first time I shared my work in progress, thus getting rid of the fear I had to expose myself.
XC: Do you have any advice to aspiring artists?
YKM: Study a lot. There are many tools that we can take advantage of. However, in my opinion, the artist not only copies but also creates. And thanks to his knowledge and experience can be expressed in his works. Studying about different subjects gives us much more content to help our imagination. It is important that our works share a language that we can all understand.
Want to see more of Mr. Marambio’s awesome works? Click here!
