Conch

Artist Mateus Kurzhals software 3ds Max, mental ray, Zbrush, Photoshop, Mari

Brazilian creative Mateus Kurzhals is a selftaught 3D artist who learnt about the medium through books and the internet. Now based in Vancouver, Mateus is currently studying animation and visual effects, and hopes to break into the entertainment industry.

Outside of his freelance work, which mainly focuses on advertising, marketing and packaging, Mateus works on personal projects such as Conch. Completed over roughly two-and-a-half months during his spare time, Conch takes its inspiration from William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies.

“I’m inspired by music, art and books in particular,” Mateus explains. “Because they force the mind to use a visual library in order to imagine the story, the environments and the characters.”

Conch is the first time that Mateus used Mari to texture a scene. It also saw him creating the character’s hair using the curves from Zbrush’s Fibermesh. “Since this was a personal project, I had no boundaries for exploring,” he says. “I like to model every element in great detail, even though some of them will be blurred in the background later, for example the rifle in the background of this image.” To finish off the piece, Conch was composited in Photoshop. To explore more of Mateus’ portfolio, go to www.behance.net/mkurzhals

I like to model every element in great detail