Tamas Medve: architect illustrator interview

Tamas Medve trained as an architectural illustrator but constantly strives to experiment and improve check out his portfolio and more...

3dtotal: Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you, what do you do, and where are you located?
Tamas Medve: Hi, my name is Tamas Medve and I'm from Hungary. I work as an architectural illustrator based in Norway. I started to work with 3D at Uni to help my architectural presentations and have now been professionally working in the arch-viz field since 2011. In addition to this, matte painting is something that I enjoy to do for my own personal projects. This improves my skills in general and definitely shines through in the arch-viz work.

3dt: What was the workflow behind your latest gallery image? Where did the idea come from?
TM: The idea is based on an image that I made some time ago called Metallum City. Metallum City shows a future vision, where the citizens have started to create their own container structures to build up a new world. About a month ago I came up with the idea to make a series of images based on the same concept and the result is what you can see here.

When I do personal work I always have a preconception of how the image should look, particularly in colors and mood. Half of the work consists of brainstorming and collecting a bunch of references used for the matte painting stage. After that I make a rough sketch and the rest is basically the production of the idea.

3dt: What challenges did the image present? Did you learn something new?
TM: The largest challenge in this image was to add a hint of drama and motion to it. The background plate which I used is relatively flat. No skyscrapers, no epic landscapes just slums on the ground. It must be noted that this same flatness also has its own appeal as the eye can move very quickly over it.

This image was mostly a composition challenge. Creating a composition often feels like putting together a puzzle or solving a problem. Just by completing the challenge I have learned something, I came up with an answer at least.

3dt: Do you use any other software, either for work or personal projects?
TM: I only use 3ds Max with V-Ray and Photoshop. With these 2 programs I can do everything that I need to for my work and personal projects as well. My future plan is to learn a little ZBrush too.

3dt: How do you keep your portfolio up-to-date? Any tips?
TM: For artists it's important to create and expand oneself not just technically but conceptually as well. Making a personal work is a good way to tick those boxes. We learn new things, challenge ourselves on our own terms. So whenever I have some free time, I will jump at the opportunity to create a new artwork.

3dt: Are you a member of any social media groups? Any favorite hashtags you check on a daily basis?
TM: Yes of course. I visit many sites daily. Some that come to mind include; evermotion, 3dtotal, cgsociety and cgarchitect. Recently, I started to spend quite a lot of time on artstation as well. It's very important to keep yourself updated and personally I found very inspiring to see other people's works. Even if we aren't in the same industry we still speak the same language.

3dt: How important is the recognition of your peers?
TM: Even though I do a lot of my work for myself, I would be lying if I said it didn't matter to me what people thought about it. I really appreciate the positive feedback and the constructive criticism as well. This feedback not only ensures progression for me but it also gives me a bit of drive to do the next work

3dt: What are your artistic ambitions?
TM: I`m quite lucky because I'm working in a company where I have always wanted to work and I'm very happy with my current position. In that sense I already reached my goals. Perhaps the next step is to open a studio in the future.

3dt: Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?
TM: Well, thats a difficult question. At the beginning I admired those artist s whose works were based in 3D or related somehow to arch-viz, like Viktor Fretyan, Alex Roman, Marek Denko, and so on. Nowadays I prefer to watch concept art. My favourite artists are Juan Pablo Roldan, Paul Chadeisson and Simon Stalenhag.

3dt: What can we expect to see from you next?
TM: As I mentioned earlier I am planning to do a set of images using container structures in different contexts. Last week I completely demolished my street and maybe next time I will destroy the whole Grand Canyon to build up a new city on top of it. We will see.

Related links

Check out Tamas website
Tamas Medves gallery images
Grab a copy of 3ds Max Projects