Nirena Gionanidi
CG ARTIST
ABOUT ME
Get a peek and find out more about myself and what I do! If you want to know more about my working process, please take a look at the FAQs on the bottom of this page.
I am a CG Artist graduate of University of South Wales in BA (Hons) Computer Animation.
Born in Athens,Greece i started drawing and sculpting at an early age. I have always been passionate about art and all creative things in general, which made it very easy for me to learn the art of digital sculpting and modeling.
One thing that has always fascinated me is movie creatures. Films like , Lord of the Rings and Lucy had a huge impact on my life, leading me to my profession today as a CG Artist.
I have always pushes myself to create unique props, characters and creatures. To reach my goal i invested a lot of time in studying the anatomy of animals and humans, as well as the form of hard surface objects. For me quality is the most important aspect.
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Whether traditional or digital media, i constantly try to advance my techniques and skills.
MEDIA
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Oil Painting
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Watercolor
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Pencil
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Pen
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Clay
SOFTWARE​
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Adobe Substance Painter
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Pixologic Zbrush
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Autodesk Maya
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Foundry Mari
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Epic Games Unreal Engine
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Adobe Photoshop
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Adobe Premiere
EDUCATION
Graduate of the University of South Wales in BA (Hons) Computer Animation.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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What is a typical pipeline you go through as a CG Artist, after receiving an initial brief ?
After receiving an initial brief, I always start with rough sketches. This helps me in finding a look that I would like to follow and getting an idea of the basic shapes that make the mesh. After that I start with more detailed concept art which I present to my client or my lead. If a sketch gets approved I start enhancing the design and colour it in Adobe Photoshop. After this gets approved, I immediately jump into Maya or Zbrush. This is very helpful since Zbrush is a very powerful tool, which I almost always use in order to get fine details on my projects. Later on if needed i move into Retopologizing and texturing.
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How long does a typical design job take?
That's very difficult to answer, since it depends on many factors. I like to have a fixed deadline, that way I can easily structure my working process. Depending on the project, this can range from one day to six weeks or even more. I like to have at least one day for sketching ideas and additional 1-2 days for concept art. Then the time needed for 3D sculpts varies depending on the level of difficulty of the project.
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Where did you go to study?
I am a graduate from BA (Hons) Computer Animation at the University of South Wales.
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How do you spend your free time?
Besides my jobs I also love to work on my own personal projects. It's very enjoyable for me to design complete worlds or creatures. When I'm not stuck to a computer screen, I'm doing sport such as Volleyball, Horse Riding and
Tae-Kwon-Do. I am a person who likes to try different things, so one day i might be scuba-diving the next day just relaxing watching a lot of films.
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