J-Century is a male 3D artist from Malaysia that has traveled to various countries around the world. His collection of 3D renderings of everything from beautiful females, to dangerous weapons numbers over 700 and such an enormous gallery of work was just begging to be explained and explored, so an interview with this talented man was requested and agreed to.

Toonari Post (TP): How and when did you first start practicing your art (are you traditionally trained or self-taught)?

J-Century (JC): That’s a long story. I’m a self-taught artist, I think. I’ve loved to draw since I was 3-4 years old; my dad told me that. I started with pencil and paper, drew everything I wanted to draw. I never stopped drawing until now because I wanted to focus more on 3D art. For 3D stuff, I consider myself as half trained and half self-taught.

I actually learned 3D studio Max during my college life. I was a multimedia course student back then, around 2006, and 3D lessons were the last lessons of the course. I learned about the basics there; just stuff about how to make something in the 3D software by using the built-in default tool. And yes, modeling and animating are included as well. But I did not learn all of it because of shortage of resources and 3D was not really popular in my country at that time.

After that, I did not use 3D Max anymore since I worked as a graphic designer and my jobs are 99% graphic related. I have been practicing 3D since April of 2011. I am searching crazily for tutorials on Google and Youtube in order to make my rendering look nice. I started researching and developing render settings, too.

TP: What mediums do you use for your artwork? Which is your favorite and why?

JC: For the majority, I use Autodesk 3D Studio MAX 9 for modeling and rendering, and Adobe Photoshop 7.0/CS5 for post working and also texture making. Why still using version 9? Because my own computer is old enough and it can’t support the higher version of MAX. Besides, MAX is expensive.

Besides 3D stuff, I am also involved in some digital art production: photo manipulation, graphic design and some personal signatures. I use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW for digital art production.

TP: What piece of your work is your favorite and why? Which one are you most proud of?

JC: Alot! But my most favorite would be this one. It’s my OC (Original Character) based on the method of Miranda Lawson of Mass Effect 2.

The art which I am most proud of is “Alisa Bosconovitch J-Tune“; the “J-Tune”, stands for Jack’s Tuning, Jack is my name and I custom-made a gothic lolita outfit for her.

TP: When you first started did you ever hit any bumps in your art process. What were they and how did you overcome them?

JC: Yes, of course, I always hit a lot of bumps during my process. It’s the material issues for the models. I want my models to look like figurines, so I have to make their clothes, skin and accessories look realistic. I have to add some textures to them and adjust the tiling very carefully to make sure they’re suitable.

Generally, I will search for some solutions on Google, or ask my master-level friends. It’s feels good when we need help and a friend is just around to provide it for you.

TP: Who or what are your inspirations and why?

JC: Hyperdivine and Energise. Why? Check out their gallery and you will know why.

TP:  Have you ever had to deal with a situation where someone else took credit for your work? If so, what did you do to resolve it? How did this art theft make you feel?

JC: Sure, it always happens to me. I found a lot of people using my art without my permission and some of them steal my art, make some modify and claim as their it as their own.  I report that as a violation and usually in DeviantART the staff has a high efficiency of reaction for the report I make. Honestly, I feel quite happy when someone steals my art because no one will steal my art if it looks bad.

TP: What is your favorite subject to draw and why?

JC: Mostly the stuff I love: games, girls, cars, and military stuff. No reason to explain, I just love them. You will see a great amount of pretty girls in 3D rendering in my DeviantART gallery, and of course if you browse the rest of the gallery you will find some other stuff like sport car photos, firearms in 3D rendering, and some pretty girl photos (I have quite few pretty female friends, hehe).

TP: If there was any art medium that you wish you could master, what would it be and why?

JC: That will be digital painting. I’ve seen a lot of awesome digital painting and I often blame myself because I can’t draw and paint that kind of stuff! If I master digital painting, there are a lot of things I want to draw!

TP: Outside of art what is your life like?

JC: Outside of art, I am just an ordinary guy. I love cars, movies, music, outdoor activities, Airsoft guns, and superbikes. Sometimes I love to DIY stuff too. For example, a car exhaust system; work it together with friends who love cars just like me. I love to travel too; you Westerners called it backpack travel? I went to Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, India, Paris, London, Korea and Japan before. My next destination is California.

TP: What are your goals in life? Do you plan to continue art as a hobby or make it a career?

JC: My goals are easy, get a stable job with steady income, buy a nice car, settle down and get married, get a dog, that’s all.
Art is my career and also my hobby, I will continue them no matter what.

TP: Do you feel that your culture has influenced you in some way that makes you different than other artists?

JC: Certainly, I am of Chinese descent from Malaysia and it’s a multicultural country. I get to know so much about different cultures of various races. That makes me different from others because I can make varied arts based on different culture, or combine them together.

Here are some examples:

• A panda (it’s categorized as Chinese culture).
• Miu Mitsuki, a fairy/succubus that can manipulate themselves between human-form and animal-form (Chinese, Japanese and Korean culture).
• A mermaid, yes we Thai people have a beautiful story about Mermaids, too.

Image Courtesy of   http://j-century.deviantart.com/

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About the author

Kala Istvanek
Presently, I am attending Carthage College in Kenosha, U.S.A. I will be graduating with a degree in Asian Studies, with a minor in English and Studio Art. I have been a bookworm ever since I could read and I can never turn down a book. Art is also one of my loves and discovering new artists is always a thrill for me.

17 Comments for Artist Spotlight: J-Century Interview

Doc

It might have been important to say that he didn’t actually model or texture any of this. He ripped it from games and rendered it.

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Kala Istvanek

I did put in the opening paragraph that he has a “collection of 3D renderings” and throughout the article he says that he looks on Google and Youtube as well for help with these renderings (i.e. textures and models).

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texelPainter

What if I took a photo of Monalisa painting and posted in on deviantart and called it my own “renderings”. I guess that would make it my “art” and make me a master “artist” ?

Anyways, I hear some of the studios are being contacted about the copyright infringement and and I am sure he will eventually have to take all of the images down. I would suggest that he takes them down before he gets in legal trouble.

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Duck

You can check out real artists talking about him here
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88598

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kim

@Kala,
assuming by your post, you seems don’t understand the concept of 3d rendering. it is not painting rendering just like most people usually do, 3d rendering is to process the model data into image.
the model itself is like a statue or sculpts, its already there. then you “photograph” it.
in this guy case, he never made the model, he didn’t texture it, even worse, he actually steal it , extract it.from commercial/copyrighted games. its like stealing statue from gallery and claim it as your own.
or steal image and took photograph of it. no Im not even talking about plagiarizing, this just purely -copy and paste kind of thing.

its funny how he lied to you that someone using his image without permission, what a hypocrite …

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łukasz

He is not an artist.

He is not even recreating the existing models, he just poses them, sets the light and rendering. Yes, it is damn important aspect, still cannot be mistaken for the process as a whole.

It is very misleading and he should feel bad.

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Quality Interviews

I look forward to more of this amazingly talented up and comers work, as new commercial games come out with art produced by other artists for him to rip and pose. It’s good to know that anyone can be a recognized artist by simply pulling other peoples work out of games and pressing F10 in 3DS Max.

Makes me feel silly for all those years I wasted learning how to sculpt and paint.

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kyle

thief – http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88598&page=3

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Owl

Let me just break it down into three steps.

1. He downloaded the model from somewhere (Most probably XNAlara)
2. Posed the model in 3DSMAX (lights, camera angles and model’s action)
3. He converted it to an image = Rendering.

The aforementioned three steps are what he did before posting the images of the models up on his website.
He is not a 3D artist, as he himself did not sculpt those models.

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Giga6

XNALara is just like Daz./Poser, why don’t you go and scold those daz/poser users?

Get a life, don’t jelly. Why don’t you use xnalara too and beat this guy?

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Brian

XNALara, just like Poser, is fine. Using Poser models that come with the program or models that you bought the rights to is also fine. Using models ripped from games, however, is not; doesn’t matter if you credit them and don’t use them for commercial purposes. Not only is it obviously breaching a game’s EULA, but you intentionally avoid stating exactly what you do to people on deviantart, leading those who are ignorant to believe that you’re a fantastic 3d artist (which obviously you’re not) and gives them false hope that they can learn from you (which of course they can’t, since the subject is actually far over your head).
When people comment that you did a great job on the model, why don’t you simply say “I didn’t make the model”? Why do you delete any comments on your deviantart that clear up that misunderstanding? It isn’t an issue about having a poor grasp on English, it’s simply because you want to take credit for others’ work, so you can feed your pathetic ego, despite knowing very well that you’re not a skilled artist (I would hope you’re not delusional enough to believe otherwise).

I’m sure that the majority of people here commenting are 3d artists, so there would be no reason to be “jelly”; and honestly, is there really anything to be “jelly” about here? No self-respecting artist is going to lower themselves to using XNALara and stolen models to “beat” you.

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Fail

I find this question hilarious:
“TP: Have you ever had to deal with a situation where someone else took credit for your work? If so, what did you do to resolve it? How did this art theft make you feel?”

He’s stealing OTHER peoples’ art by NOT crediting them in EVERY single “render” he does of them. He did not model, texture, or rig any of those assets. He rips them from games, poses them, then slaps BS copyright info in the description of the images.

He’s walking on thin ice.

Noob.

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Brian

Wow, this guy is an egotistical joke. I don’t think he realizes that what he is doing is copyright infringement, even if he doesn’t make money on the work. Of course the game companies that he uses stolen models from aren’t going to be bothered with pursuing someone so small-time, but I would really enjoy seeing someone humble this guy, as it’s long overdue. It’s kind of sad that he is taking the credit away from the actual 3d artists as well. He isn’t even using his own lighting setup to render, it’s a scene he downloaded from the internet; he can’t even speak intelligently about 3d as he can hardly even comprehend the subject. I like the line, “I started researching and developing render settings”, which we all may as well read as, “I adjusted some sliders in the render globals”.

On his deviantart page, he just deletes and blocks any comments that call him out on stealing work, then in this interview he has the nerve to claim that others have “stolen” his work? The irony behind that is amazing, and yet it seems as though he feels absolutely no shame at all. He can’t possibly be delusional enough to believe that he is actually good as a 3d “artist”.

Regardless though, I guess he isn’t much of a threat to the industry as he is a waste of resources; it isn’t like anyone is going to hire him to do anything, and if they do then I feel sorry for them, because he is just going to waste their time and resources.

In my best case scenario, I think this guy should gain tons of attention, that way he can go down really hard; makes for a great life lesson.

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Giga6

Stop making claiming here, idiots.

You all are just JELLY on this guy. Why don’t you all read his deviantID? He use XNALARA (which is almost same like DAZ/Poser) as the main program to pose those model and he use 3Ds max to render it. For those question, he is answering the questions being “asked” by her, the interviewer.

Why don’t you all get a life and stop being a stupid jelly here?

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Brian

Spoiler alert: Giga6 is J-Century

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Name (required)

Kala is too cute ♥

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anon

fun fact

j-century deleted the journal entry featuring this interview because he can’t censor the comments above

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