I have a very special artist feature lined up for you today, it’s none other than cubik or cubiko. I only know him from his amazing work over at Renderotika but apprently Deviantart is where most of his portfolio is to be found. His signature style is rendering picture perfect girls in a very realistic setting, more pin-up in nature, so I asked him whether he had intentions of going into more of a hardcore direction. Check out the interview and that beautiful art style!
Give us a bit of a background on yourself and how you started out creating 3DX.
I´ve been doing photography for a few years and I always wanted to work with it. So I invested heavily in equipment and set out to learn all I could about composition, light and so on and I´ve enjoyed doing it ever since. However, things don´t always turn out the way you think and today I work in the software industry and basically have photography only as a hobby – one I enjoy very much. Not successful in landing a job as a photographer I don´t have access to models, so my creativity simply found a way to express what was on my mind via 3D. I went through a whole lot of software and methods before I found what I was looking for at the end and I never give up (or publish anything) before I feel I´m at the top of the game – so here we are. I´ve somewhat combined photography with 3D and the results can be viewed in my gallery. Indoor and outdoor lighting techniques used for photography can be mimicked excellently in the best 3D software around today and that appealed to the dirtier part of my mind I guess.
You’ve got galleries at both Renderotika and Deviant Art?
That is correct. I´ve been struggling to find a “home” on the net where I can post everything I do, and still feel like I haven´t found what I´m looking for so I ended up posting in galleries here and there. I feel Renderotica is far to focused on “extreme” fetishes for my taste so after a round posting my stuff everywhere else I ended up settling down at DeviantART. They have strict rules for adult material, but it´s rules I can live with. For the more risky stuff I still think Renderotica is the only serious alternative, allthough mainstream stuff have a tendency to get swallowed up in all the fetish oriented material.
You preference does appear to be pin-ups. Do you prefer artistic over pornographic and why?
I do. I would say I´m more comfortable doing glamour and pin-ups than pornographic material. I do enjoy that too aswell and I´m open for doing pornographic material, as long as it´s kept tasteful and sexy. I´ve had a great deal of requests for torture/alien sex/amputees etc. but it just doesn´t appeal to me.
You do very rarely feature actual sex scenes, any intention of exploring that direction more in future?
Sure, I´m open for it. I´ve done quite a few projects involving sex scenes but not many have been published. There hasn´t really been much interest or requests for straight sex scenes to be honest. I think people often look for the things they cannot do in real life or explore their “darker” side when they are looking for 3D erotica – things that are only visually attainable through 3D.
On thing that stands out is the realism with all your images. Is this something you go for specifically and how do you achieve these results?
Both yes and no. I often use fantasy/anime bodyshapes and faces and put them in a “real” environment – I feel that is part of my signature. I´m not really trying to achieve real looking persons (unless otherwise specified), but rather a character out of my imagination inserted in a lifelike setting. The realism is attained by spending more time on light and surface/texture settings than on anything else. I fall back on my experience with natural and studio light when I setup the scene.
Tell us about what tools you use and how you’d approach a new project.
People who know me and who have asked me the same question know I keep my cards close to my chest. The reason why is that the 3D scene is overflowing of people who look for a quick and cheap way to produce high quality 3D images and by sharing every little trade secret I know I am basically cutting off the branch I´m sitting on. In order to keep some tiny amount of originality I don´t really share much. The truth is that you need to invest huge amounts of time to learn and an equal amount of money to get the best tools (both hardware and software) and material in order to see good results. For those looking for an easy way to get great results I do however suggest the new Daz Studio – it´s amazing. Personally I stick with Poser 8, 3DS Max 2009 and Photoshop cause it´s the tools I´m familiar with and I don´t have time to learn anything completely new.
Which artists/ art direction inspires you?
I honestly don´t look at a lot of 3D art from other artists, but before I started out I spent a lot of time looking for good ones. The ones I feel stand out and inspired me greatly in the beginning were by far SaphireNishi, RGUS, Stimuli, 3DBabes, HitmanX3Z and others. All can be found on DeviantART, Renderotica or on both and are well worth checking out.
Your work features some amazingly beautiful girls, do you ever stick with a character, do you even have the concept of a character or do you prefer working on new girls?
I´ve worked with around 25 different characters (some still not published), and I do plan to come back to a few of them in time (if I´m still doing 3D stuff when that time comes). I guess my mind is filled with too many scantly clad women. I quickly get bored with projects if I´ve worked with them too long, and I let them sit for a while until I come back and finish them up later.
Do you do commissions, what sort of commissions do you like doing most?
I´m quite selective – as I mentioned I get tons of requests for almost anything you can imagine – and I´m in a position to choose projects I find appealing and projects that are within my skillevel. So far I´ve enjoyed making 3D models out of drawn or imaginary characters that others have paid me to do, and allthough it can be lots of work I enjoyed it. Price range differs (all from a few dollars to several hundred) and reflects the time needed and if I need to buy extra tools or similar. I haven´t advertised a lot to be honest and I don´t think that´ll change right now as I value my spare time too much.
What have you got in the works in the near future?
I do plan to spend more time doing real life photography, so I´m not sure how much the 3D work will suffer from that. However I have a few older projects that are 50% finished that I really wanna finish so look for more of the pin-up style you´ve already seen with a few spicier pieces thrown in here and there.
Where can we find out more about you?
I´m currently active on DeviantART (www.deviantart.com/cubiko) and the best place to get in touch with me is via their message system or read my journal. I´m also posting a piece now and then on Renderotica, and some of my older stuff can be seen over at Renderosity. I was also recently featured with two whole pages in the online (and maybe soon to be in print) magazine Sketchozine Vol 2: Sexy Things (www.sketchozine.com) and have an online portfolio on their website (www.sketchoholic.com).
RAMIRO
February 9, 2015BUENO
MUY REAL.
LOS COLORES DE LA PIEL Y LA TEXTURA EXELENTES.
spirit
November 16, 2011BRILLIANT
AMAZING.
heinz0r
September 22, 2011Great stuff as usual cubiko 🙂
Been following you for quite some time. Always great lighting and very clear looking scenes.
SquallLion
September 19, 2011Outstanding
NinjaConductor
September 16, 2011You have no idea how much I would pay for this person to make full length, animated hentai. Sad that he doesn’t like some more hardcore, unrealistic things. Seriously, that really disappoints me…maybe he’ll change his mind, maybe someone just as good will appear and have a similar art style and ability…I just hope that day comes soon.
kidopitz27
September 15, 2011do a pusooy.net games review next 🙂
miniori
September 14, 2011Excellent portfolio! The realism is indeed incredible!
Ryan
September 14, 2011hmm… I’m wrong about the last comment, but I’m almost positive I’ve seen a real doll or something similar to it that was almost identical. Oh well! Maybe it was something else!!!
Ryan
September 14, 2011It’s amazing how much the blonde looks like one of the Boy Toy Doll models featured on boytoydolls.com!!! It’s uncanny!!!
Cubiko
September 14, 2011Maybe I should send my portfolio over to BoyToyDolls and suggest I design their next series of dolls 🙂
miniori
September 14, 2011I think you should, the dolls look fantastic actually, but somehow for the most part the faces look a little off, maybe you can improve upon that!
riollo
September 12, 2011Beautiful work, my fav would have to be blond bottom row!
Luka
September 12, 2011These girls look amazing!
will
September 11, 2011Sadly, the links are broken. Interesting that he came from the photography world into 3d modeling. Fantastic lighting and of course, sexy ladies.
miro
September 11, 2011Thanks for pointing that out link is now fixed. Check out his entire portfolio!
gerico
September 11, 2011Brilliant talent! amazing realism and textures!
dovic
September 10, 2011Fantastic art, sometimes it’s more sexy to not go all the way, these images are just very erotic as is!
Amarantine
September 9, 2011great feature, seen his art on renderotika it’s awesome
Ryan
September 9, 2011I agree, this is really hot!!! Would love to see some completed videos!!!
frankosi
September 9, 2011wow, this is hot!