An Interview with Marek Denko

3dtotal: Hi Marek, thanks for your time. Can we start off with just a quick introduction and a bit about yourself for the readers, please?

Marek: My name is Marek Denko. I was born in 1980 in a small town in the central part of the Slovak Republic. I’ve been interested in many different forms of art since I was a child, when I did painting, drawing, played the guitar and even tried to compose music. When I was attending high school in the historic city of Banska Stiavnica, my mother bought me my first personal computer and it wasn’t long before I started to discover the secrets of computer graphics.

I went on to study at Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic and after I graduated I got married. During my studies I also started to work with several companies doing CG in the Czech Republic. This was followed by a move to Italy, where I worked on the CG movie, Dear Anne, The Gift of Hope. After my son was born, I decided to work as a freelancer from home, so that I could see him grow up and spend more time with my family. Nowadays, I'm living in Prague running a studio, NoEmotion with Peter Sanitra.

3dtotal: What are the main differences going from studio work to working from home, in terms of finances, motivation and self-discipline?

Marek: I get to spend more time with my family; I get to decide what I work on and how much time I spend on what … I’m being careful with my schedule, looking for freelance work and so on. Everything has positive and negative sides – nothing is just black or white. But for now, I’m happy at home. Maybe in two months time I’ll be somewhere in a studio with lot of people around – who knows?

3dtotal: You have so many great images which have been published in different CG books and galleries. Which ones really stand out for you, and why?

Marek: Thank you. It’s not an easy question to answer, to be honest. Each of my images is connected to a particular time in my life, so each one is special in some way. But if you really force me to choose one, it would be Street of Memories. I put more from my personal life into this one than people realise. It contains lots of elements that reflect the times and places from my life.

3dtotal: So would you say your personal gallery is almost a way of expressing a diary of things that have happened in your life?

Marek: Some of them, yes – but I wouldn’t call it a “diary”. When I look at my images I know exactly what I was doing at the time when I was creating them; I know where I lived, what music I was listening to, what projects we were working on at the studio, etc.

3dtotal: What has been your greatest artistic achievement in your life so far?

Marek: My little son, of course! You know, I never think that way ... artistic achievement … I really don’t know what to say. If you asked me about my career achievement it would be that I was chosen as the Autodesk 3ds Max Master 2007, or that Blur Studio and ILM invited me to work for them. These things have been a huge honour for me.

3dtotal: You seem to enjoy recreating beautiful lighting to great effect, such as dramatic skies and rich sunsets. Can you tell us some of your secrets in producing these and what software you favour for your lighting work?

Marek: Most of the dramatic skies and sunsets are done in post production when I’m playing with the images in Photoshop or Fusion, or whatever. There really aren’t any secrets about it, or at least I don't feel like there are any … I just make some colour corrections, play with the colours, and then I make another one – another two more, and at the end I have 15 layers of corrections! It's nice to play with an image full of details.

3dtotal: Yes I see, but do you have to make the initial render with the final result in mind? Or can you really change the whole look of the image in post if you want to?

Marek: Usually I know from the start what look I’d like to have at the end, but I also know what it’s possible to do with images in postproduction. Someone can ask me, “But why are you putting so much detail into your models even when they are in the background?” My answer to that is because I want them to be detailed. I’m using my models in other professional projects and sometimes I just don’t know exactly where an object will be placed – I just know that I want it there.

3dtotal: Can you tell us a bit about how photography plays a part in your CG? Does it help you in general with things like perfecting compositions?

Marek: I use a lot of photographs as references. For me, personally, photographic references are a really important starting point when I’m creating my images. Usually I spend several hours searching through the Internet and my photo library, trying to find the best references. If necessary, I’ll often just go outside to take new pictures. I never underestimate this part of work. In reference photos you can find lots of interesting details that are harder to realise if you don’t see them directly. They’re also very helpful when it comes to modelling, texturing and shading.

3dtotal: We always seem to ask the question, what advice do you have for our student readers? But I would like to ask if you have any recommendations for things art students should not do?

Marek: They shouldn’t be spending whole days on some CG forum asking questions. They should use their own resources, really think about what their struggling with and do their own research to find the solutions to their problems.

However, in the end, I’m not a teacher or someone who is in a position to lead someone. Everyone is different and that’s what makes the wonderful world of art so interesting!

Re-printed with permission of 3dTotal.com

An Interview with Marek Denko

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