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DIGITAL ART 32 ■ CGW M ay / Ju n e 2 014 How does it feel to be a Disney artist? There is a tremendous amount of respect and responsibility I must take into account to make sure that every painting I create lives up to the vision, storytelling, magic, and quality that Walt Disney established decades ago. In short, it's the greatest job in the world. As a Disney artist, what do you do? My goal is to focus on the Disney classics and add my 'believable' angle to it. So, if Snow White's world were a real place, I imagine returning to that land with an HDRI camera to capture a little bit more detail, color, and lighting, while keeping the original flavor that we all fell in love with. How much latitude do you have in your work? Approvals are strict, but the studio has to be consistent with its branding and protect its considerable investment in the vari- ous characters. What are the disadvantages of being a Disney artist? It's not really a disadvantage, but their standards are very, very high, which makes artists work really hard, but then, not every- one can be officially painting Disney! Is it tough having the responsibility of upholding the Disney brand? Yes. It's a team effort – Acme, Disney, and me. How has your work been received? Feedback from fans have been extraordinary, and it pushes me to outdo myself with each one. Tell us about your pieces for Disney. I had to invent a new medium in order to achieve the look for my work. It's a combination of traditional oil painting techniques, where I paint all the textures and characters on small 8x10 mini canvases, then scan those hand-painted elements and apply them to 3D modeled scenes in [Autodesk] Maya. After exten- sive lighting, modeling, and texturing, I render that out and add more detail in [Adobe] Photoshop. Once that stage is complete, I bring the image into Corel Painter and add even more detail while blending the 3D hard edges the software created, getting them in line with the oil-painted textures. After all those steps are complete, it gets printed on canvas and then I add at least 50 percent coverage of real paint, providing even more detail to the painting. Yes, it's complicated. Each one takes about a month, sometimes two, to create. The result is a painting with more contrast, detail, and vibrant color than anything I could produce in oils alone, and yet still has that painterly feel to it. Is it difficult transforming traditional 2D characters (and some 3D characters) living on film and moving them to a 2D canvas? It's always a challenge making sure you live up to the quality Disney has presented to the world, but my struggle has been, and will remain, How do I tell an exciting story that lives up to what you felt when you fell in love with the movie? I try my best to continue that magic. What makes these pieces so appealing? Everyone tells me it's the level of detail and color. I'd like to think it's the attention to detail. I really scrutinize every inch. Where can someone buy your work? By searching my name at www.acmearchives direct.com. Do you have any advice for artists out there? I don't want this to sound like a cliché, but the truth is, if you set your mind to something, you really can achieve anything. The trick is, don't give up. This dream of mine started at age 5. I'm 42 now, so it took a while, but my dreams came true. As Walt once said, 'Stop talking and start doing.' ■ CGW Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW. HAPPILY EVER AFTER HOOKED May/June 2014, Volume 37, Issue 3: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published bi-monthly with special additional issues in January and July resulting in 8 issues per year by COP Communications, Inc. 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