Featured Member - Wiek Luijken aka kiwi123

[bmckain]

1. Hi Wiek, thanks for taking time to do this interview. I’m pretty sure most members will know who you are but for the record and of course, sticking with my format; would you mind introducing yourself and tell us something about you, your hobbies, favorite movie, where you work, that sort of thing.

Hi Bob, my name is Wiek Luijken, a director for commercials and game cinematics working at Axis Animation in Glasgow, UK.
I like movies, photography, exploring Scotland, gaming and creating aviation art, all of this of course besides entertaining my two young boys with Lego and wooden traintracks.
The movie I've seen most in my life would be Pixar's Cars (about 200 times at least as my boys love it) but my favourite list of movies in no particular order: Ronin, The Gladiator, Heat, Guns of Navarone, Lawrence of Arabia, Leon, anything by Ridley Scott (my favourite director).

2. When did you decide you wanted to be an artist and what inspired you to that end?

Well, the biggest inspiration has been my grandfather who was a professional artist and infected me with the art bug from a young age. Seeing him at work in his studio was amazing and left a lasting impression. Besides being a gifted artist he also cofounded and taught at one of the better art academies in the Netherlands, I guess he was always ready to explain when I wanted to know things. My mum and dad were both very keen for me to follow the things I found interesting, which helped a lot as well. The other thing that was inspirational was reading European comic books (Don Lawrence, Vincente Segrelles, Francis Bergese and many others), I found them amazing (and still do). But I never had the intention to become an artist, it just happened.

3. At what point did you get involved with the 3D medium and what motivated you?

Well, I got the arty stuff from my mother side, the technical stuff from my dad's. My parents had their own business when I was a kid, engineering and designing machines for the steel industry. My dad is a bit of an inventor with a very strong technical grounding. From a young age I had access to technical drawing tools, first in the traditional sense and later in the CAD sense. When I was a teenager I would help out in the summer holidays with the creation of CAD drawings. Quite early on I saw the possibilities of using the technical drawing tools and computers to do more than just technical stuff. This then turned into an interest into creating games and using raytracers like Polyray and DKBtrace. Later on I started using 3d to make some money as an illustrator for various companies which was very new territory in the days of airbrush. In those days I would make an illustration in 3d, have it printed, then an airbrush artist would put in some highlights and it would be presented as airbrushed art. In those times (and for many years after) people thought that computer art was as simple as pressing a button and wouldn't pay for it.

4. Did you go to school for a 3D/CG degree and whether yes or no, what do you recommend to those entertaining the idea of working in a studio?

I studied Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Technology in Delft, the Netherlands. A very interesting education in various aspects of product design in a very broad sense, that included Design, Presentation, Marketing, Ergonomics and Construction/Engineering. A tricky one because you have to have a good ability in both the artistic sense as well as the technical sense. That suited me perfectly. Part of it was product presentation for which I was one of the early adopters of 3d (besides loving using markers, pencil, fineliners etc). I could already draw well, do my own technical drawings as well as 3d modeling and rendering before I even got to University. In my second year I ended up being an official university instructor teaching 4th year students on courses that I hadn't even done myself. Anyway, it was a fun time and I managed to make some money with the teaching and freelance jobs. The use of 3d became more and more important for me as a way to design and present my ideas, from which ultimately my 3d career came forth. I started my own business halfway through university and as a result I took 10 years to finish my M.Sc degree as I had no time for exams due to project deadlines.

Anyway, to get back to your question, I'm pretty much self taught in 3d but times were very different then, you had no magazines, no tutorials, no internet ! It is so much easier now, you can get good courses on DVD or online from experts in every possible field. Make use of that, learn from the best !

For those entertaining the idea of working in a studio the most important thing is to create a portfolio that is absolutely kick ass. When I look at hiring people their education is of almost no importance to me whatsoever except for work permit reasons. If their work is great I don't care if they were trained as a potato planter or a heart surgeon. Education and training is a way to get there, although I find a lot of courses and schools in 3d mediocre at best.

What is important is that you push yourself at all times and constantly improve. Never get complacent and think you're really good. You're not. An artist can ALWAYS improve and get better. So get out there, get criticism on your work and learn from it. See what other people are up to and pick their brains. Places like foundation3d are great for that.

5. Can you tell us about your progression into the professional arena, how you got started and where you are currently?

As mentioned for the previous question, I started freelancing as a 3d artist in my first year at university for various companies. That grew from the odd job here and there to a nearly fulltime thing until I started my own business a few years later. After 5 years of running a reasonably succesful business I decided to try a new challenge, went to work for a big games company to set up their animation department and run the team to do all the cinematics work (something I already did for them when I had my own business). When that company went bust I moved to the UK to work at a games company for a year, then back to Holland to work on Killzone as Lead Cinematics and Lead Artist after that on a later project with an art team of nearly 30 guys and girls. After 2 years I moved to Scotland to work at Axis Animation, first as head of production and then as a Director. I've been doing that for 4 years now. Here is a link to my page on the Axis Website with the projects that are out in the public (quite a few under NDA still):

6. What was your most enjoyable project?

I can find a real love for most projects I work on, so many things interest me which makes it easy to find something special. I can't really say what was most enjoyable. I loved the creative process on CMR DIRT, the camera work on GRID, the mocap and action of Flashpoint 2, pushing the grading on FUEL, choreographing Rogue Warrior and directing the mocap for that and Flashpoint and so forth.

7. Of all your 3D work what is your favorite and why?

This one will always be special for me. It is one of the first aircraft renders that I was and still am happy with. It depicts one of my favourite aircraft, is the first time I did matte painting for a background and a lot of photoshop post work to make the image better. Of course it's a bit dated now, but it still has impact.

8. You’ve focused on aircraft, specifically military. How has that come about and where do you see that going from here?

Well, they've always fascinated me from a young age (my dad might have had something to do with that ). Combining the love for art, 3d and aircraft was sort of a logical path. Since then I've started a dedicated forum (www.mil-art.com), an online gallery (www.aviation-arthouse.com) where I sell aviation art created by myself and other like minded artists, had an art exhibition, a calendar with aviation artwork, book covers and other things. Where I would like to take it eventually is directing my very own aircraft related motion picture, preferably about some aspect of the second world war. It will probably never happen, but I'd love to do it. It would combine my love for film, for directing, for aviation and art. Other than that I just want to get better and create more aviation art. There is no end to the list of aircraft and situations to depict.
Over the last few years I've tried different directions for my art and I'm still experimenting. I do not see that ending any time soon. I think an artist is never done evolving. (an example of the experimentation:

9. Any spoilers for us as to future projects?

As for directed projects no (NDA will do that for you). Aviation art wise, I'm working on so many things at once.... currently in progress: 2 more triplane images (many ideas for more), a B25 image, a low level shipping attack by spitfires, finishing the modo401 release Huey image. Also I have 2 spitfire related commissions currently.

Model wise I'm concurrently working on: B-25J (almost done), B-25G&H, P-38F-J, Ju-88A, Me110C and am ready to start on Hurricane, Do17Z, Ki-43 and others. I'm working on the preparation of a short film/sequence involving aircraft, a book about spitfires, creating various C++ composting tools and I'm sure there was more. As you can imagine the problem has been to actually get some focus recently

10. As a longtime member on F3D what advice would you give the serious hobbyist regarding 3D in general?

Have fun doing it !

Thanks Wiek, this has been a very informative and fun interview. We will look forward to seeing your future projects.

[Tenement 01]

The PBY Catalina shot is awesome........actually, they're all incredible but my favourite is the Cat.

[Andy M]

Stunning work ....

[denders]

Very nice, it's always nice to hear about the person behind the art, or is it behind the graphics tablet. Keep at it, your work inspires others.

Dave

[Rigel]

I've always loved your work Wiek and it was great hearing how you came to it.

[deg3D]

Great read my friend. Your work has always amazed and inspired me, and my Pops as well.

FYI for others, my Pops saw Wiek's G1 "Mowing the Lawn" shot and immediately fell in love with it and had to build a 1/4-scale R/C version of it.

Best of success going forward, and I look forward to anything that comes out of your studio.

deg

[Epiphany]

Excellent work here

[Tenement 01]

Originally Posted by deg3D

Great read my friend. Your work has always amazed and inspired me, and my Pops as well.

FYI for others, my Pops saw Wiek's G1 "Mowing the Lawn" shot and immediately fell in love with it and had to build a 1/4-scale R/C version of it.

Best of success going forward, and I look forward to anything that comes out of your studio.

deg

That's superb!

[Mikala]

Always some stunning stuff from you.
Keep doing what you're doing but....more!

[Treybor]

Great work! I love your aircraft images. Always been a favorite of mine.

[deg3D]

Originally Posted by Tenement 01

That's superb!

The instrument panel in it is actually a render of Wiek's own panel he built for his CG G1. He was gracious enough to donate the interior panel mesh to me. I then rendered it out and my Pops printed a hi-rez print of it and then glued it to the wood instrument panel piece. lt looks great! Peeps at shows always comment on it, thinking it's real.

Thanks, Wiek!

deg

[DeanH]

There's no doubt about it THIS man is No1 in my book!!

[Meurig]

I had no idea you directed the Mass Effect 2 teaser. That's awesome.

[Davide_sd]

excellent work!!!

[BillS]

Your work has always been hugely inspirational!

[lwgal]

Excellent work!

[CAClark]

Nice one Wiek!

Cheers!

[Andrew March]

Wiek has always been a massive inspiration to me, he's helped me out massively in the past, especially with a private project for a member of my family who flew desert Spits.

You're a true artist Wiek, keep it up mate.

[chrisken]

Very nice Wiek

[kiwi123]

Thank you all VERY much for your incredibly kind words !

Deg, the model your dad made is absolutely amazing, I checked his forum post every day and wow....that was such a great project to follow ! I hope he still enjoys flying it.

[deg3D]

Originally Posted by kiwi123

Thank you all VERY much for your incredibly kind words !

Deg, the model your dad made is absolutely amazing, I checked his forum post every day and wow....that was such a great project to follow ! I hope he still enjoys flying it.

Oh dude, Pops toured with it all over the US this last summer, and yep, it's a major crowd-pleaser, eh! Thanks for all your help and inspiration! And yeah, it's his favorite bird in his fleet right now. Flies like a dream!

He's building a big Hellcat for his winter project.

deg

[Sodonn]

Very very nice and impressive work!

[Warnerbros]

Awesome post and site.I really like the topic of the site.

[CAClark]

This one has taken too long to come round IMO, interesting read mate.

Cheers!

[mrys]

Wiek is absolutely unique aviation artist. One of few inspiring me most. I love his style and tendency to experiment with images look. Besides he is very friendly man. Cheers Wiek!

[CAClark]

Originally Posted by mrys

Besides he is very friendly man. Cheers Wiek!

You meant Wookie of course! If you beat him at table football, he pulls your arms and legs off!

Cheers!