[Interview] Guilherme Henrique: the Art Director behind Blender Guru

Sometimes you are just living your normal life, doing your stuff, when everything changes completely. A post on internet and it’s like the whole world is looking at you. This is a little bit of what happened to Guilherme Henrique (aka Sepultura), who had his artwork stolen by someone who created a poster of World of Warcraft for fun. The whole internet made Guilherme aware of what was happening. After that, Guilherme received many proposals to work for some international studios, he made his choice and from a Brazilian 3D freelancer he became the currently Art Director at Blender Guru, an Australian platform where you can find tutorials.

Guilherme still lives in Brazil and this is how his story with Blender started:

BlenderNation: How did you find out about Blender and why did you choose it for work?

Guilherme Henrique: I have been 3D Max user since the 2008 release, back in 2007. It was the holy grail to everyone who wanted to work with computer graphics. Back then, 3D Max was the standard software for the CG industry, but I always felt frustrated because most of the really interesting features were only available through paid plugins from third parties.

So, one day I was invited to attend a talk about a “new software” called Blender. As a CG enthusiast of course I accepted right away. The talk started with a short presentation of Elephants Dream, Blender Foundation’s short film, and that was the moment that changed my entire life. They made a modeling demonstration - you could do the very same tasks I used to do on max (after pressing 20 or 30 different sets of buttons on different max windows), but this time using just a 3 or 4 keyboard hotkeys. What?!. And this was how Blender became my first option when it comes to 3D Modelling since it’s 2.44 release.

The Courtyard - Artwork made for Poliigon.

BN: This year, you were one of the artists exhibiting at Art of 3D Environments Exhibition, hosted by Gnomon Gallery in Hollywood. How it was and what happened after that?

GH: I never imagined that once in my life I would share the same space with such great artists as Alex Alvarez, Marek Denko, David Lesperance or Devon Fay. Since I started my career, those guys always inspired me, and having the privilege to be one of the 11 artists chosen to represent a whole category (Environment Art) it means the world to me. And, of course, it was amazing to see my works framed for the first time! That was the moment when I felt that all weekends I “lost” with my friends to study “horse topology” worth it.

As a result of the Exhibition,  I got some good contacts, invitations to work as a environment TD in two big vfx studios and even an interview on Vice. But most important than anything, the best part was to see my family and friends proud of me.

The Old Mill

BN: The possibility to work remotely opens many doors to professionals join companies around the world. How is it been this experience for you?

GH: Remote work is a mixed blessing. Having all the freedom to work from home and sometimes be able to create your own workflow is amazing - but not everything is easy as it seems. An example happened on the day after  my birthday: it was Blender Guru’s Pro Lighting Studio launch. We had a lot to do and not time, so I had to cancel the party my family planned to me and spent the whole sunday night moving omni lights and ventilators on my CPU to avoid burning it overnight.

Working with 3D is like any other job. People often romanticize this kind of profession thinking we spend all day playing with lightsabers and creating animations which samurais kills dragons - ok, sometimes it is, but most of the time no and we have the ups and downs as everyone else.

What made me give preference to continue my life this way instead of working from a studio headquarter is simple: work wearing flip-flops and spongebob underwear is quite wonderful! Having the office in the next room of your bedroom is very cool, just do not think it means less work (it is usually the opposite). You need a lot of discipline and self-control to keep focus, it is often difficult to stay motivated when you don't have someone at the next table to give a look at something new you're doing, or having to find a way by yourself when a problem appears - and it’ll appears for sure.

Opening the Dark Portal - Winner Image of the CGSociety Hardcore Modelling Challenge.

See more of Guilherme Henrique at:

https://www.artstation.com/artist/sepultura

http://sepultura.artstation.com/