Post by $Visigoth on Apr 14, 2006 1:38:31 GMT
SolidSnakeDesigns: Hi Chris, thanks for taking time to talk with us.
Tigaer: No problem, thanks for asking
SSD: Then let's get started, shall we? To get it out of the way, tell us a little about your history.
T: Well, my name is Chris Hecker. I was born in 1982: former East Germany in a town Wolfen. When I finished school I had no idea what I should do in my life. It took me quite a while to find it out. Then in 2000, I started to explore Photoshop... and never stopped doing that. So I take that as a sign that this is the right stuff for me to do. In 2001, we moved to nuremberg and here I am now answering these questions.
SSD: So fate brought you Adobe. How did Terragen come about?
T: The first time I played around with Terragen was 1999. I was on the search for a program that could render me some nice landscapes. Unfortunately my computer power back then was not the best and I gave up on Terragen. In 2001, I had my 3D phase. I played a lot with Bryce, and Terragen came up again too. This time I had a more powerful machine and more enthusiasm to really try it.
SSD: A more powerful machine? Care to divluge the details?
T: My current machine is a 3200+ AMD (good old 32bit one), 2gb ram and a 19" lcd. I work out my art with Photoshop CS. It's a very versatile program, and since my work is a mixture of digital painting and manipulation, it covers everything I need to create my art. Oh, and music: I often listen to music when i sit on my machine and work on something. I'm a rock fan. from Metallica to R.E.M. - it really helps sometimes to slip into some sort of flow... more efficient work.
SSD: Your work often displays a very down to earth feel, while still retaining a feel of mysticism. Where do you pull your inspirations or ideas from?
T: Well I was always interested in creating worlds I always wanted to visit. I do visit them, just in my imagination, and I want to share these places with others. So when finding a way to do this, Terragen was, for me, the only way to go. I learned the basics and played around with it. Because I never got too in-depth with Terragen, I started to rework my renders in photoshop. I added rock textures, clouds, etc. The first pieces were a weird unrealistic mix of different elements.
SSD: So you could say you've adopted matte painting into your technique, maybe even helped pioneer such a movement. Where exactly did the idea for combinging 2D with 3D come from?
T: I started to use Terragen to create basic picture to which I could apply my photoshop work. Soon I started to model terrains in photoshop to render them in Terragen. This was a very complicated technique that allowed me to create buildings, but I don't use it anymore. My pieces "Artificial", "The Wall" and "A New Hope" were created with that modeling technique. The pieces "Awake" and "Elysia" are created with paintings. Yes: paintings, a completely new thing to me. Why am I painting now? Simple: it's much more efficient. Modern digital matte painting actually is very complex photo manipulation. I got myself a Wacom tablet not long ago and started to explore the possiblities. My latest big project was "Back to the Future". While "Awake" and "Elysia" were pieces on which I worked with matte painting techniques, "Back to the Future" was my first real matte painting.
SSD: I'd advise our readers to check out those pieces, none of them will disappoint. On a somewhat related note, you've become quite a popular artist on deviantART, a massive online art community. As an artist, what do you think you've acheived?
T: To be honest, not too much. Of course a lot of people enjoy my work and that's a very cool thing! My target, however, is it to become a kind of mixture between Dylan Cole and Gary Tonge. Both are masters in what they do, Dylan as a matte painter and Gary as a regular painter. I've got a long way to go.
SSD: Do you have any plans for making it down that road?
T: I would love to get a job where i could work with my love, Photoshop. No matter if it's some advertising stuff or even as a concept artist for some studio, I would love to learn from people that have experience.
SSD: How about a little advice for our readers?
T: Patience: that's the key. If you're really interested in creating something that makes other peoples' jaw drop, then you need patience and passion to reach that artistic level.
SSD: Thanks again for your time, Chris. We all appreciate this little insight into your life, and wish you the best.
T: No problem! I hope I've not bored you, and hope you will all check out my work. Thanks!
Chris' work can be found at tigaer.deviantart.com and www.tigaer-design.com
Dylan Cole's website can be found at www.dylancolestudio.com/
Gary Tonge's can be found at www.visionafar.com/
Tigaer: No problem, thanks for asking
SSD: Then let's get started, shall we? To get it out of the way, tell us a little about your history.
T: Well, my name is Chris Hecker. I was born in 1982: former East Germany in a town Wolfen. When I finished school I had no idea what I should do in my life. It took me quite a while to find it out. Then in 2000, I started to explore Photoshop... and never stopped doing that. So I take that as a sign that this is the right stuff for me to do. In 2001, we moved to nuremberg and here I am now answering these questions.
SSD: So fate brought you Adobe. How did Terragen come about?
T: The first time I played around with Terragen was 1999. I was on the search for a program that could render me some nice landscapes. Unfortunately my computer power back then was not the best and I gave up on Terragen. In 2001, I had my 3D phase. I played a lot with Bryce, and Terragen came up again too. This time I had a more powerful machine and more enthusiasm to really try it.
SSD: A more powerful machine? Care to divluge the details?
T: My current machine is a 3200+ AMD (good old 32bit one), 2gb ram and a 19" lcd. I work out my art with Photoshop CS. It's a very versatile program, and since my work is a mixture of digital painting and manipulation, it covers everything I need to create my art. Oh, and music: I often listen to music when i sit on my machine and work on something. I'm a rock fan. from Metallica to R.E.M. - it really helps sometimes to slip into some sort of flow... more efficient work.
SSD: Your work often displays a very down to earth feel, while still retaining a feel of mysticism. Where do you pull your inspirations or ideas from?
T: Well I was always interested in creating worlds I always wanted to visit. I do visit them, just in my imagination, and I want to share these places with others. So when finding a way to do this, Terragen was, for me, the only way to go. I learned the basics and played around with it. Because I never got too in-depth with Terragen, I started to rework my renders in photoshop. I added rock textures, clouds, etc. The first pieces were a weird unrealistic mix of different elements.
SSD: So you could say you've adopted matte painting into your technique, maybe even helped pioneer such a movement. Where exactly did the idea for combinging 2D with 3D come from?
T: I started to use Terragen to create basic picture to which I could apply my photoshop work. Soon I started to model terrains in photoshop to render them in Terragen. This was a very complicated technique that allowed me to create buildings, but I don't use it anymore. My pieces "Artificial", "The Wall" and "A New Hope" were created with that modeling technique. The pieces "Awake" and "Elysia" are created with paintings. Yes: paintings, a completely new thing to me. Why am I painting now? Simple: it's much more efficient. Modern digital matte painting actually is very complex photo manipulation. I got myself a Wacom tablet not long ago and started to explore the possiblities. My latest big project was "Back to the Future". While "Awake" and "Elysia" were pieces on which I worked with matte painting techniques, "Back to the Future" was my first real matte painting.
SSD: I'd advise our readers to check out those pieces, none of them will disappoint. On a somewhat related note, you've become quite a popular artist on deviantART, a massive online art community. As an artist, what do you think you've acheived?
T: To be honest, not too much. Of course a lot of people enjoy my work and that's a very cool thing! My target, however, is it to become a kind of mixture between Dylan Cole and Gary Tonge. Both are masters in what they do, Dylan as a matte painter and Gary as a regular painter. I've got a long way to go.
SSD: Do you have any plans for making it down that road?
T: I would love to get a job where i could work with my love, Photoshop. No matter if it's some advertising stuff or even as a concept artist for some studio, I would love to learn from people that have experience.
SSD: How about a little advice for our readers?
T: Patience: that's the key. If you're really interested in creating something that makes other peoples' jaw drop, then you need patience and passion to reach that artistic level.
SSD: Thanks again for your time, Chris. We all appreciate this little insight into your life, and wish you the best.
T: No problem! I hope I've not bored you, and hope you will all check out my work. Thanks!
Chris' work can be found at tigaer.deviantart.com and www.tigaer-design.com
Dylan Cole's website can be found at www.dylancolestudio.com/
Gary Tonge's can be found at www.visionafar.com/
Seeing as I am a terragen user I already knew some stuff about Tigaer. Nice interview. I would like to point out that he has some very nice interviews on his website 
.
