Studio Visit – Fvckrender

Post working with Fvckrender on MURAL 2018’s main stage design and the MURAL Live Sessions, we met up him at his studio to learn more about his inspirations, his personal challenge to create renderings everyday and his transitions between 3D design, VJing and stage design.

Can you present yourself in a few words?

I skateboard and 3D design. In fact, I don’t know exactly what I’m doing, I’m working on so many different projects; album covers, visuals for shows, ads for companies, it varies all the time and that’s what I like.

You challenged yourself to create a new 3D rendering everyday and you have now surpassed the 1000 days you originally wanted to obtain, can you tell us more about this challenge?

This challenge is how I got so passionate about 3D. It allowed me to learn and produce continually until this day. It’s now part of my routine, like brushing my teeth. It’s been 1062 days since I began and I’m probably going to continue until I die from a cancer or something. I can’t see myself stopping! I always have at least 15 minutes in my day, there is nobody who doesn’t have 15 minutes in his day to be creative, you just need to take the time.

Were there moments when you were close to giving up?

No, I’ve never missed a day. The only time where I stopped was when I obtain my 1000 days initial objective. I was supposed to stop then, so I took a 2-days break and I told myself “Fvck off, I’m continuing.” I’ve never even tried to cheat. The challenge I gave myself was to work and try every day, that’s what allowed me to learn by myself with a certain self-discipline. My only teacher was Youtube, working by trial-and-error.

Were you expecting so much success so fast?

Not at all. It all started when I was still working in the restaurant business, and I was doing this for fun, as a pastime. I also hurt myself at the time, so I gave myself this challenge at first simply to pass time.

What’s your artistic approach? Do you go by from a picture or a render that you’ve already done or does it all come from your imagination?

Often, I start with a blank canvas and I use an inspiration, something from my daily life. For example, there are time where I’ll take 3 things I saw during the day and I merge them together: I’ll take a plant, a light reflection effect, a stone and I create a render from this. I also sometimes start with a sphere that I begin sculpting before I integrate it to an environment and then I work on it until I’m satisfied with the result or until I don’t have any more time. There are event times where I’ll wake up after a dream and I think to myself “Oh shit, this could be look awesome in 3D”.

Where do you find inspiration to create your visuals?

Previously, I was inspired a lot by what I saw online, but it was saturating my creations with basic elements and it didn’t align me in the direction I wanted to take. Then, I unfollowed all 3D artists I was following on Instagram to follow only dog and skateboarding accounts. Now, I’m more inspired by what I see in the streets and the elements from my daily life. I had a big phase where I was really into mangas and anime and regularly in my artworks I would try to create an in-between. I would take environments that you could find in mangas and bring a realistic, almost surreal aesthetic to it.

I also really like construction sites’ aesthetic. It may sound a bit weird, but I’ve been liking it since I was young. I like daydreaming about construction sites; its tools, its machinery, its yellow and black colour palette. I think that Tonka tractors with which I was playing as a young boy really have marked my present visual universe. Then, when I got older, I would often go take pictures on construction sites. I still do it now, in fact!

How did you get the idea of transposing your digital creations in reality with all your stage design and VJing projects that you’re accumulating?

It started all with Boycott, who introduced me to VJing with a party organised by the Moonshine Collective an evening where the special guest was Kaytranada. I helped out and it made me want to continue VJing and doing more of these types of projects afterwards. I got interested in all the possibilities I was offered. It was almost a revelation to me to see that all of the ideas I could create on my computer could take on an all other dimension. Then, this year, I launched Fvckrender Studio with my friend Félix Poirier who’s more manual and knows how electricity works and what the security norms are. We designed Joe Rocca’s show together. Since then, we’ve teamed up for everything stage design related.

Is there a project you’re particularly proud of?

To this day, I think  the 3D visuals I created for Flying Lotus’ 3D tour in collaboration with Strangeloop Studio, was really one of the most interesting projects I have conceptualized even if it wasn’t my biggest project. Creating content dedicated to be broadcasted on a 3D screen when you don’t have the equipment to visualise the final render at home was one of the biggest challenges I have faced.

As for the stage design project I managed for MURAL, I had a lot of fun with fences, chains and neons, satisfying my obsession with construction sites. I then took the same concept for the MURAL Live Sessions and reused the same components for the pop-up shop I designed for Snails, recently.

What’s your next challenge?

Getting a million followers for Techno Steeve, Lil Miquela’s future soulmate. He’s a virtual influencer. A 37 year old dude who doesn’t realise his age, and wants to become the hottest guy of Montreal’s nightlife. Unfortunately, he’s having a hard time as he’s not from Montreal and has difficulty introducing himself to the world, but he’s making efforts to work on himself, dress well, and being good with everybody around him. I think he has a bit of a problem with respect.

More seriously, at the Fvckrender Studio, we have big projects coming up. I’m lucky I have a good notoriety with my Instagram, so there are more and more people contacting me and I have the luxury of being able to choose my projects and do more of what I like.