D Art using CINEMA 4D, 65 Days a Year

To learn CINEMA 4D, Mike Winkelmann created a mini project every day, 365 days a year for several years!

Mike Winkelmann had just started 4th grade when his family bought their first home computer. That 386 PC with phenomenal 4 MB of RAM would shape Mike's future: he decided to study computer technology in college. Over time, Mike drifted more an more towards computer graphics and into the world of digital art and commercial graphics.

After completing college, he started working as a commercial artist to make ends meet. In his spare time he followed a series of other interests. He worked with various types of software, including those that went beyond everyday applications, which he used as an artistic medium.

Mike first got his hands MAXON CINEMA 4D in 2008. Friends had told him about it and how easy to learn and powerful it was. Mike had wanted to work in 3D for quite some time and finally decided to take the step into the world of 3D. With the help of numerous tutorials, Mike was able to quickly master the first steps. The friendly CINEMA 4D community was always willing to help when Mike needed it most. In just a few weeks, Mike had learned how to use CINEMA 4D and was working on increasingly complex projects.

To this point, Mike had started his projects with no real planning or organization. This changed as he stumbled across the work of Tom Judd - an illustrator with a special project. Tom wanted to improve his illustration skills by illustrating one complete page per day. He saved these illustrations in a sketchbook and made a video of them, which he posted online on Vimeo. And this is where it was discovered by Mike!

Inspired by this video, Mike also began to create one project per day after work to improve his skills. Each project had to be started and completed on the same day. Following Tom Judd's example, Mike first completed one drawing per day for one year, after which he dedicated himself to working with CINEMA 4D for several years, which resulted in him becoming a CINEMA 4D master of sorts. Over the years, Mike also taught himself other skills, and dedicated an entire year to Adobe Illustrator and digital photography, among other skills. Mike also makes time for his family, who has supported his activities from the very beginning. In fact, Mike's wife is herself motivated by Mike's drive and has initiated her own small art project and her own cooking program - a new recipe is tried out each week.

Everything Mike used in his daily projects, with the exception of textures, he created himself. Mike prefers to get his textures online, for example at CGTexture. Otherwise, Mike's projects are entirely his own creation, from modeling to lighting, animation and rendering.

As if his days weren't packed full already, Mike also finds time to make music videos under the alias Beeple', for which he also uses CINEMA 4D extensively to achieve fantastic results. How fantastic? Two of his videos have already been named Staff Pick' by Vimeo.

Working so intensively with graphics software and specifically with CINEMA 4D leaves its mark. The daily training program may not have anything to do with Mike's regular job but the positive side-effects on his 9-5 can't be overlooked. Mike has turned into a veritable graphics virtuoso who can meet any challenge thrown at him.

Beeple at Vimeo:

www.vimeo.com/beeple

Mike Winkelmann's website:

www.beeple-crap.com/

LINK:	http://www.maxon.net/en/news/singleview-default/article/3d-art-using-c...
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