Interview with 3D artist Henrik Lein

Hi everyone! We continue a series of short interviews with the best artists from Hum3D competitions.

Henrik Lein, the author of amazing work „Sabotage“, which got Hum3D team choice on Car Render Challenge 2017, will answer on five questions and give us a look behind the scenes of his winning entry.

– Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am Henrik from Germany and work since 2005 with various 3D applications, favourably with the 3D Software Cinema 4D. Most of all I enjoy the free, creative work of modelling concocted objects, e.g. spaceships, vehicles, robots as well as the lightning of scenes.

– Where did you find the inspiration for your latest entry?

The inspiration for the submitted entry reached me long before I entered the contest, it happened when I saw the movie THX 1138. Back then Robert Duvall drove during a car chase a white 60s sports car through a long tunnel. I researched the sports car and spotted that the specific type was the 1967’s T70 MKIII by the American car company LOLA. The movie car’s futuristic redesign appealed to me and so the idea for the entry emerged.

– Could you please show us any additional images from the work process with a short description.

My first two LOLA designs: on the left one silver-coloured custom variant and a red sport sedan variant to the right.

At first I rendered my LOLA GB in a night scene, the tunnel was modelled later, as I perceived a background with futuristic details as more appropriate.

When modelling the vehicle, I began with the body shell, making use of blueprints and photographs of the car.

The strongly battered LOLA got hindered by the blocking stones from driving on and the little sabotage robots sniff their chance to pitch into the car parts.

The tunnel stage.

The robots joined in at the end and contributed to the idea.

– Please tell us your five short tips for creating realistic renders?

1) I always start with the main lightning, e.g. the dome and then work through slowly by making use of more lightning sources to get the desired outcome.

2) To gain a better understanding for physical conditions, I recommend to pay attention to photography, especially to aperture settings.

3) Photos are also perfectly suited for the use as backgrounds. HDRI-images for global illumination are powerful instruments for realistic reflections on the surface of objects.

4) Practise the camera settings and perspectives.

5) The physical renderer allows in the settings to set the sampling quality to proceeding. Consequently, the user may decide for himself, at which point the desired image sharpness is reached.

– Could you please share more of your works? Which one is your favorite and why?

Here you’ll find a little selection of some of my personal projects. More you will find at my webpage. My favourite work is always the latest work, currently I work on a flying car.