Artist Showcase: Zeljko Mihajlovic

  23-year old Zeljko Mihajlovic from Serbia started learning 3D just 1 year ago, but you wouldn't know it from looking at his realistic textures and stunning models. Here is what Zeljko says about his work, Blender and his inspiration.

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Who is Zeljko, why does he call himself Soady and what does he do?

I'm that guy that everyone calls when they have a problem with their PC! I call myself Soady because most people can't pronounce my name right, even after hearing it a bunch of times. It actually stands for System Of A Down, which is one of my favorite bands. I added the Y to turn their initials into a name about 10 years ago and I liked how it sounded. And my mission...I am trying to get better at 3D art every day. I like to stay out of my comfort zone at all times and always observe my current position as a starting point.

What is your ultimate dream?

Being surrounded with easy-going, hard-working, ideas-having, brainstorming talented artists with a sense of humor that are also my best friends and colleagues. [caption id="attachment_173404" align="aligncenter" width="640"] "Rocky Crystals"[/caption]

What is your professional experience?

I am completely self-taught: I finished High School of Economics and am now attending a first year of college on the subject of Computer Multimedia. It has very little to do with 3D specifically, or not at all. But here is what I believe: you need to surround yourself with art that impresses you and eventually your art will start to impress you the same way. I bomb myself with useful information because I think knowing that something is possible is the first step to implementing it in your work.

How did you get started with Blender, did you use another 3D software previously?

I wanted to try working in 3D a long time ago, but I always thought that 3D programs were very demanding and that I wouldn't be able to run them on my laptop. About 2 years ago, I searched for the most light-weight 3D program and I was shocked to find out that Blender was free - plus, at that time it was only 30MB! I downloaded it instantly and started playing around. My laptop was painfully slow to do any rendering so I was mostly focused on simple animation and the game engine. Last year, I decided to put all my efforts into learning 3D and I would spend a couple of days following a 1-hour tutorial. Soon enough I bought a new PC and I could finally do everything I knew in theory. Andrew Price really kept my spirit high when I knew nothing at all, his positive attitude and his teaching style backed up my decision to learn. [caption id="attachment_173405" align="aligncenter" width="640"] "Buddha's Spiral Garden"[/caption]

How did you come across CG Cookie, what do you like about the site and what is your favorite tutorial?

I came across CG Cookie when I was browsing for tutorials about a year ago, but I only recently became a citizen. And why am I here? I love the CG Cookie staff as well as the community! They are always ready to help, give advice and answer questions. My favorite tutorial is "Creating Antelope Canyon - Blender Procedural Workflow", because I love anything that's done procedurally.

It seems that displacement textures are a big interest of yours: do you photograph and create your own displacement textures or do you find them online?

Yes, I love displacement textures! I am always looking for shortcuts for modeling rather than doing it traditionally, and being able to simply draw in black and white and turn it into a 3D object is what I like the most about it. I create my own displacement textures, but I make them from images that I find on Pixabay or by searching through CreativeCommons.org. Sometimes, I use my own photographs but I am currently using an iPhone 4S which isn't really great for that purpose. My goal for next year is to buy a professional camera and spend a lot of time in nature creating tons of high-quality, high-res textures. [caption id="attachment_173406" align="aligncenter" width="640"] "Icy Spikes" with wireframe[/caption]

We love your "Icy Spikes" scene. What was your inspiration and how did you construct the scene?

What does your workspace look like?