Sebastian Riant
Celebrating Environmental Month
Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Hello! My name's Sebastien Riant, and I have worked in 3D/graphics/web/vfx for over 20 years! I have done work for large and small companies in gaming, automotive, music, and food industries. I've worked on projects as a graphic designer, web/motion designer, and 3D/concept artist.
How did you get started in your field, and what inspired you to pursue this career?
The motivation began when I found out (in 1998) that I can do 3D in my own home! Knowing that 3D was accessible to me, and not just for the people in the movie industry, was huge!
It lit a fire in me, and that fire still burns today.
Lightwave allows me to not only create anything I can imagine, but also lets me walk around my own subconscious.
Who or what are your biggest influences and inspirations in your work?
Back in the day, it was whomever was on the cutting edge of graphic design (gmunk, designgraphik) or concept artist like George Hull, and 3D artists like Pascal Blanche.... incredibly talented people. Nowadays though, I like to look at painters like Shishkin, John Martin, Beksinski etc...
It's always good to see what's out there and what others are doing, but at the end of the day, I just want to make the things I see in my mind, or better yet, discover what's in my mind by roaming around my imagination, using Lightwave!
What Projects have you used Lightwave 3D on?
Visualizations of restaurants, products, monuments, logos, characters, and even simple animations that explain how things work. I've created images for print magazines, concepts for web-interfaces, and even objects for 3D printing! From two-dimensional graphics, to 3D-printed objects you can hold in your hand, Lightwave allows me to create it all!
What is your favourite piece of work you have created using Lightwave 3D? Oh, I don't know, all my pieces are heavily infused with whatever I'm feeling at the time when I create them, so they all have a special place. This one's cool.
When it comes to using Lightwave, do you have any tips for creating environments?
One of the most helpful things I discovered when creating environments is having a sense of scale. If you're going to create in 3D, begin by placing a 3D scanned person in your scene. Free "3D-people" scans can be found on websites and marketplaces. Once you do this, everything kind of snaps into place because it's easy to get lost in your scene wondering why it's not working, only to find out your mountain is 200 miles high and your car is the size of a cat. Having a 3D scanned person at the right size really guides everything.
What is your process for creating an environment scene?
As most artists may tell you, be as simple as possible. Things will complicate themselves ( like life)
It's tempting to load in all the trees and all the objects all at once... but try to make your vision work with just 3 objects.
If you can make 3 texture-less objects look amazing from the get-go with the right lighting and cinematography, It's only going to get better as you fill in the details.
What initially attracted you to LightWave 3D software, and when did you start using it?
There are many programs out there, but for whatever reason, some just resonate with you. I think it was 2001, I downloaded various 3D programs to try out, but Lightwave made the most sense to me ( I think it was Lightwave 7). I really appreciated how organized and precise lightwave was (and very much still is). Everything felt intuitive.
What are your favourite features of LightWave 3D, and how do they enhance your work?
This may sound silly, but one feature I can think of that truly enhanced my work is when noise-filtering was introduced. When heavy noise-filtering is applied to a quick render, it makes my scenes look like concept/sketch art. I love that look, and it really helped me to develop my scenes. It's such a simple thing but it really impacted my work. Instancing in Lightwave also really helped. All-of-a-sudden, creating large forests and lush landscapes became very easy and fun.
Sebastien Riant.
