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Interview with Julianna Kolakis
A recent graduate from Vancouver Film School Julianna Kolakis talks about growing up in a family of artists, using different mediums as an artist and women in 3d.
June, 4th, 2007, by Raffael Dickreuter, Bernard Lebel, Ed Harriss
 |  | Julianna Kolakis
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Tell us about growing up in a family full of artists
I was really fortunate to grow up in such an artistic learning environment. I learned very valuable skills starting from a very young age. How to collaborate with other artists, accept critiques, listen to ideas, and participate in friendly competition. My brother, sister, and cousins all draw and we were all heavily influenced by movies, games, anime, and comics. We inspired each other with different artistic styles and taste, and it really broadened our perspectives. The best part was learning from each other, strengthening our ideas, and working as a team. My mom has also been a huge support and encouraged me to stick with my love for art. She is a painter and started teaching me at an extremely young age, encouraging me to explore different mediums. Even introducing me to digital art by getting me the old school TV tablet for Christmas. I’m sure someone must have seen one of these things before…they were these fat tablets for kids that came out in the early 90’s that were used to draw on the TV screen. It was the coolest thing ever.
Everything I look back on has really helped prepare me in some way or another. Now I’m getting the opportunity to do what I’ve always wanted in an industry I love. It’s a great fit, and I’ve always felt at home amongst artists.
How much time did it take to create "Portrait of The Demon Guard"?
I quickly created a base mesh in XSI and then sculpted him in Mudbox; which took about 2- 3 weeks. I used an additional few days for rigging, posing, and tweaking and textured him in 1 ½ weeks. I spent 2 weeks rendering, compositing the still images, and putting together the final shots for my demo reel. So in total it took about 6 weeks.
What can you tell us about the creative process?
I was aiming for character contrast within one world. I decided on a hero, which would be a female, a demon for a villain, and a quadruped for the victim. Creating a background story for my characters helped them become more believable and connected them all. I created a scenario where the Demon became the guard who held the Goddess’ ancient pet beast captive. He secretly intends to lure her into a trap so that he can finally destroy her. Simple but effective. This made the character design process much easier. It also helped me put the whole reel together and decide how to manage the shots.
How do you achieve the "illustration" style of a lot of your work?
In my demo reel I hand-painted all the textures and painted over the backgrounds. I also added layers of fog or blurred paint on top for a softer look.
Do you work completely digital now or do you still use traditional mediums?
Lately it’s all been digital, but I have a few oil paintings and sculptures I’d like to finish.
What features of XSI are very helpful to the kind of work you like to do?
XSI is just awesome for modeling in general. It’s great how all the tools
are incorporated to make the modeling process so fast and efficient. The
proportional tool is probably every modeler’s love.
Which areas should be improved?
The UV texture editor and procedural texturing.
You got to an advanced level of 3d in a short amount of time, taking about a year to study 3d. What do you think made it possible for you to get to such a level that fast?
A few things helped. I found that the most important thing was having a strong 2D foundation. Learning 2D helped me develop an eye for detail and taste for what looks aesthetically pleasing. This greatly influenced the way I learned 3D and how I created characters in 3D space. There are some obvious yet essential parallels between the two: I believe studying and exploring different areas of art enhances your overall ability because of the focus on details, compositions, and colors. Even 3D has changed the way I approach my illustrations.
The artists I met at Vancouver Film School had a huge impact on my progression as well. I was inspired by a lot of very talented people and we all learned so much from each other. Seeing a lot of high quality work is great motivation to try harder. What ultimately kept me going was my determination and dedication. I put in a ton of effort, made sacrifices, and worked many, many hours to achieve the results I wanted in such a short amount of time.
Why do you think 3d is less appealing to women than for instance 2d illustration/graphics and what would help to change that?
I think it could be based on interest, level of awareness and influence. As for me, I grew up loving characters and adoring creatures that were anything from beautiful to morbidly disgusting. I think you really need to have a passion for this stuff at a younger age in order to even consider it when choosing a career path in the arts. I chose 3D because it was the next step to bringing characters to life. Having enthusiasm to learn is essential. I know some artists who find it tedious to create a model when illustrating their ideas can be executed with more proficiency. Working in 2D is just a way for some to better express their ideas. Others just never really considered it. If you don’t grow up playing video games and seeing these 3D worlds, how can you know if you’re interested? Any potential interest may never get sparked if there’s no exposure. An early introduction to 3D could change that, but that usually lies in the hands of others.
Related Links
Julianna Kolakis
Vancouver Film School
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