SR x MDC: aeforia

The exhibition features Gavin Shapiro, aeforia, beyondbola, Blake Kathryn, Sasha Katz, Adam Priester, Steven Baltay, James Owen, smeccea, Esteban Diacono, Alessio De Vecchi, and Render Fruit (click links to view interviews)

Co-organized by SuperRare and Motion Designers Community.

aeforia – 3D Illustrator and Art Director from Montreal, Canada. His work is all about colors, balance, and emotion. Blending surreal landscapes and digital portraiture, he has managed to craft a distinct style over the years and develop a keen eye for details, while focusing on the emotional impact.

I don’t think one should refrain themselves from buying assets, but I do think it’s important to use assets in a unique, unexpected and original way. As an example, Beeple said multiple times that he buys 3D models for his work, but he uses these resources like no one does. Same goes for tutorials; it’s absolutely fine to use what you’ve learned to create a new piece, but it’s important to make sure you turn that knowledge into something new and unique, not just a copy of what was presented in the tutorial. 

I don’t think there’s a universal way to distinguish good and mediocre. Art is subjective; you might love a piece so much because of the impact it has on you, but the person next to you could have absolutely no interest in it and might think it just isn’t good at all. However, personally, a good piece of art is one that can transmit an emotion, that can convey an idea or a message… A good piece creates an impact and stands out from the rest. As trends keep changing and evolving, it’s not too difficult to spot a copycat. Some artists jump on a visual trend to quickly gain visibility, but I think you can really feel when someone’s work is true to themselves and authentic. 

Most importantly, it’s the kind of work that you can resonate with and that makes you feel something different. Value can also be determined by the artist’s reputation and genuine authenticity in my opinion. 

To me, developing a style is something that takes time. It personally took me years to refine my style and it came naturally, with trial and error, with experimenting. My advice for someone who wants to find their own voice would be to gather all your inspirations together and find elements that you like in each of them. It could be the way a photographer treats their lighting, the style of textures used by a 3D artist you love, the color palette of a piece that had an impact on you, etc. When you have all those elements, pick some of them and try to combine them together and see what happens. You might create something unique and different from these inspirations, who knows! Lastly, to be able to develop your own style, you need to be your own critique and figure out what you can improve in your work. If you feel like you already found your style after your fifth piece, you’re probably doing it wrong. 

I mostly use Cinema4D, Octane Render, Marvelous Designer, DAZ Studio and the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. 

My work is very surreal, and abstract at times, but it can be also very introspective. When I create, I feel like the piece has to convey an emotion. If I don’t have a visceral connection to the image I am creating, I don’t consider it as finished and I keep working on it until I get that connection. That way, hopefully, the viewer will be able to feel the same way I did when seeing my piece for the first time.

With the ever-increasing importance of digital mediums (TV, projections, mobile phones, computers, etc.), I feel like motion design definitely has its place as an important field of work. Moving images are taking advantage of all these mediums and have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, making them undeniably necessary in our contemporary culture. 

Social media had such a huge impact on my career as a digital artist. When I first started creating art on my phone, I felt compelled to share with my friends on Instagram, since I had the app but no interest in sharing pictures of myself or my personal life. So I literally started sharing my work the moment I began my journey as a visual artist. Eventually, I found great communities of artists over time and it reinforced my motivation to share my work and improve myself along the way. I’d say that social media truly helped me so much in getting my work out there and it brought me to meet so many amazing people.

To me it can be both, visual design, in a simple way, is communicating a message through a visual. We could say that the majority of people has to understand that communicated information for the design to be effective. On the other hand, art is more subjective, it doesn’t need to convey a specific piece of information or communication. It can be visceral and anyone can interpret it in a different way, and motion design can absolutely produce such effects on people. However, the beauty of it is that it can be both art and design at the same time, the spectrum is so wide!

ecause they truly use the full potential of the medium they are being viewed on. Moving images can really strive on the Internet because screens allow us to appreciate them as they are. 

I think that crypto art is a revolution for motion designers and digital artists. Now, there’s a way to sell a digital piece just like a painting or any traditional medium, which wasn’t possible before. 

It has been great honestly, I learned so much about this space in the past few weeks and I met great people in the process. Really grateful for that! Also, big shout out for the crypto art community for the warm welcome when I first joined the space, much love!