October 2, 2017
We’re glad to introduce the interview with Sebastian Kraus, a SOA student from the Masterclass#19 and the Lighting Masterclass#2.

We’re glad to introduce the interview with Sebastian Kraus, a SOA student from the Masterclass#19 and the Lighting Masterclass#2.

Could you present yourself to our readers and tell them the position you currently hold?

Hi everyone, thanks for having me! My name is Sebastian. I’m a self-employed 3D-Artist currently living near Frankfurt/Germany, mostly working on residential Stuff.

Why have you chosen to become an Arch-Viz Artist?

I started my professional life as a technical drawer in an architecture office. I did that for some years, till I decided to study engineering. After facing some private issues, I thought about reinventing myself professionally. While being a drawer, 3D was always some sort of “myth”. You did hear about it, the software had it more or less implemented, but you were not able to get into it on a daily business.

So when I finally had time for it, I downloaded a student version, bought my first 3dsMax book and  started. I realized ArchViz had the perfect balance between constructive work and creativity to me, so I wanted to learn more about it! Some months later an architect said: “The stuff you do isn’t THAT horrible… why don’t you found a business and do pictures for me?” And that’s what I’m doing since…

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What were the biggest difficulties you faced at the beginning of your career? How did you handle and overcome them?

Probably the most overwhelming issue was the huge amount of tutorials, workflows and ways to do things. It’s tough to read, view and learn, without getting confused and insecure. That’s where the Masterclass made me understand: there’s no right or wrong in particular. It’s about finding a way that suits your task and makes you achieve the wanted result.
No project is the same… so there are no guidelines – simply go for it and try your best!
Besides workflows, insecurity and dissatisfaction play big roles to me. In my opinion there is no way to overcome them as an artist. You have to like what u do – and hate it 3 days (or even hours) later. It helps me getting better with every picture and forces myself to learn.

Is there a work/ an image/ a project that you created which is most valuable to you? Why?

In fact there are several “milestones”.

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In this one I felt some sort of compositional balance and “realism” for the first time. It’s kind of old and I would do lots of things differently these days, but that’s it, what I mentioned earlier…

Later on I worked on several pictures, which taught me the importance of composition and lighting over fancy materials and crazy details. But these experiments are still an ongoing, never ending process to me. BTW: Thanks to Peter Guthrie and Lasse Rode for “forcing” me into Corona – before and at the PG Lighting Masterclass 😉

Another milestone was working on the first project with other 3D Artists: gathering ideas, approaches, sharing knowledge and finally having results everyone could relate to.

What do you do in your free time after work? Can you balance your working life and your private one?

Well… honestly? Right now there’s no such thing as a healthy balance. Businesswise I’m facing very exciting and exhausting times. My workload pretty much doubled over the last 6 months and I’m trying to keep ahead of it. There are ideas about founding a studio, but let’s see, where it goes from here on.

I’m a passionate US-Series junky, which helps me distracting. Beside this, I’m doing sports (more or less frequently), have dinners with friends and sure…. drinks from time to time 😉

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Thanks Sebastian, we wish you the best with your career!

All images are under Sebastian Kraus copyright.

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