Below you can read the interview with the 3D Valley Featured artist of December 2005. Sven has some outstanding work in our gallery and specializes in detailed medieval scenes.

Click here to visit Sven's Gallery album
Click here to visit Sven's website
Click here for interviews with other artists

Q1.
Christa: Can you tell us a bit about yourself: Who are you and what do you do in your daily life?

Sven: My name is Sven Dännart, I'm 31 years old, and currently living near Hamburg, Germany. Since 2 years now I'm working as a freelance 3D artist. In my free time I like doing sports (fitness, wing-tsun Self-defense), playing chess and Stronghold2, reading, making music (keyboard) and discussing abstract philosophical theories.

Q2.
Christa: When did you first notice you had artistic talent?

Sven: I really can't say from myself that I had any artistic talent as I started doing graphics. It has taken a very long time of trying and trying before I got some good results. But the very first time I noticed this "urge" to do creative things, was as I have been 15 years old. In this age, I started with comic drawing, graffiti's and doing 2D graphics with my c64 and Atari st.

Q3.
Christa: Do you have traditional art experience?

Sven: While I was on art school, I learned much about oil painting, scribbling & comic drawing, color theory, art history and much more... But I'm really not good in drawing/painting, so I decided very early to work with the computer.

Q4.
Christa: Which software packages do you use for your artwork?

Sven: Currently, I'm almost working with Lightwave 3D and Photoshop. In my free time, I'm using Blitz3D for programming small games or "tools". In a few days, I will start working with Vue Infinite, too.

Alcazar Castle (El Cid)		Knight

Q5.
Christa: Can you tell us a bit of the way you work on your art?

Sven: Often, I'm at first writing down a list of ideas, make a brainstorm or simple scribbles. Sometimes if I need inspiration, I'm looking for good motives at Google or in one of the illustrated books about medieval architecture I'm collecting now for a couple of years. When I have decided what I will do, I start with modelling at first more simple models. Then I start to setup the scene, set the lights and environment and make some test renders with to compare which lighting/pov is the best.
After this, I'm most of the time only staring at the last rendered preview and comparing it with the one before. Then I change some details, render another preview, and compare it again...

Q6.
Christa: What and/or who inspires you?

Sven: I like the works of M.C. Escher, Dali, Picasso, Rembrandt and Karl Spitzweg. Authors who have inspired me are; Tolkien, Goethe (Faust), Wolfgang Holbein, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, E.A. Poe, Lovecraft, and Herrmann Hesse. I like the graffities of Daim, Loomit, and Can2 very much, too. Good music is of course also inspiring.

Q7.
Christa: Do you have a favorite piece of your own artwork and if so, why?

Sven: Not very easy to say. I like my medieval marketplace and most of my Winjard images.

Marketplace		Winjard witchmarket

Q8.
Christa: What is your goal as an artist?

Sven: For the near future I just want to have enough time to visualize my own ideas and to learn new techniques. Because of I´m currently working almost for computer games, I also would like to make something more formative (documentary films), or at least something that has more "substance".

Q9.
Christa: Besides 3D Valley, which other CG sites do you visit regularly?

Sven: I'm often visiting Renderosity, 3Dkingdom, CGsociety, deviantART, and Spinquad (LW-forum).

Q10.
Christa: Do you have any tips for the artists who admire your work?

Sven: If someone gives you hard critic, take it serious. The best help you can get, is helping yourself. Start modeling simple objects (apples, glass of water, watch, etc.), and try to make them as realistic and detailed as possible. Check out tutorials from: Newtek, Flay.com, Amaan Akraam, worms-of-art, 3Dtotal, and Jeremy Birn.

Learn about color-theory, Fibonacci, arranging elements in an image ... shapes and negative-shapes, HDRI [High Dynamic Range Illumination], Fresnel, and Nurbs modeling from a box.

Ensmark Castle	Book & parchment

Christa: Thanks for the interview Sven!

Click here to visit Sven's Gallery album
Click here to visit Sven's website
Click here for interviews with other artists