“Seamless, sophisticated & whimsical”
THE ARCHIVE: What steps did you take to get where you are now?
ANDREAS: I’ve been doing animations for almost 20 years now, it all started with Flash animations back in 1999, and I’ve been focusing on 3D for about 12 years. All practical skills are self taught and it’s really my passion for digital art, in combination with a lot of practice and patience, that has taken me to where I am now.
TA: How do you come up with the ideas for your Oddly Satisfying series?
A: Most of the time, inspiration comes to me when I’m not in front of the computer. The starting point for a piece of work can come from an object, a motion or a situation I see in the real world.
Sometimes however, if I’m stuck, I just start to experiment – playing with shapes and different motion patterns, and then something usually comes up pretty fast.
TA: When did you create your very first digital creation? What did it look like?
A: My very first digital creation was an image I painted pixel by pixel in MS Paint, it must have been in the early 90´s or so. This was before I stumbled upon Photoshop a couple of years later. Can’t really recall the outcome but I’m pretty sure it looked like crap (in 16-bit).
TA: If you could work together with a fashion brand to create their new collection and make 3D experiences for their customers, what brand would you like to work with? Why?
A: I’m actually working together with COS right now, which is one of my favourites fashion brands for sure. I always loved their sleek and minimalist aesthetics, so I’m very excited about this. It’s purely 3D artworks at this point though, I can’t really see myself creating a new collection for a fashion brand.
TA: What was your greatest challenge among all the projects you have worked on so far?
A: I worked on a quite challenging project for Google last year, where I designed a 3 meter diorama filled with hundreds of small buildings and trees etc. This entire diorama was then 3D printed and hand painted by a company in L.A. under the course of 6 weeks. Most of the buildings had some moving parts, like conveyor belts or spinning signs, and there was an electrical train and moving cars… So I had to design and animate everything in a way that it would be possible to recreate with mechanical riggings in the real world.
TA: What is the biggest difference to you between working on a personal project and a commissioned one?
A: The biggest difference is the creative freedom that comes with personal projects. I really like to be in full control of everything from concept to art direction and rendering. Some of that control usually goes away when working on commissioned projects.
TA: How would you represent sustainability in one of your works?
A: I think that sustainability is a quite difficult subject for art to tackle. I would probably try to illustrate and play with the possibilities of where we might go for alternate scenarios.
TA: What is technology to you? Do you think it could help improve our lifestyle to a more sustainable one?
A: Technology to me means opportunities. Nothing I do would probably be possible without it. When it comes to sustainability, technology is a tool after all, it is neither good nor bad. The way it is used determines its attribute and I think it could definitely help improve our lifestyle to a more sustainable one if we use it right.
TA: What can you tell us about the project(s) you are currently working on?
A: As I mentioned before, I am currently working on a series of animated loops for COS, and also some fun social content for International Delight together with Fallon in Minneapolis. Can’t tell you much about the projects at this point though!