3D With Style

It may be hard to believe but the following images are not photographs. Although creator Bertrand Benoit has a background in traditional photography he is now a 3D artist specialising in Architectural Visualisation.  

In-between commercial freelance work, Bertrand produces personal projects, ususally interiors and most recently loft spaces in which is understanding of light, texture, fabrics, colour and style is impeccable. His latest personal project is a series of Eames plastic side chairs. While this series focuses on close-ups of "American-flavoured assets", Bertrand doesn't miss an opportunity to create a beautiful interior. The room is inspired by Copenhagen photography studio The Lab. If you still don't believe that Bertrands work is 3D, we've asked him a few questions and he also kindly shared a wire frame and clay render... seeing is believing!

Where do you call home? I've lived and worked in many different places but home can only ever be Berlin.

What was your childhood dream? To create entire worlds and civilizations, like Tolkien or Lucas. I did not quite make it - I merely create rooms, sometimes buildings.

What has been your greatest achievement? Without hesitation, my lovely daughters.

What are you working on right now? Aside from my commercial work, I am putting together some educational material for CG artists, which I will publish in the coming weeks.

Did you study photography? I never studied photography in any structured way but I have been practicing it for as long as I can remember. I had a dark room in my parents' home and was fascinated by every step of the process, from taking the actual shot to what you would call post-production today. Photography and figurative drawing were the defining pursuits of my childhood.

How has your photography background influenced your work? I was doing architectural shots long before I discovered CG. I still do. The influence of this background on my work has been enormous. I draw on what I learnt back then every single day. It is no accident that the corner of the CG market where I'm active is often referred to as "photorealism".

Favourite designer/design/style influence? I have so many I could not list them all here. In architecture, I'm an old Bauhaus fan but love today's Japanese and Latin-American scenes. David Chipperfield, Mathias Klotz, Toyo Ito are favourites among others even though they are radically different from one another. I'm more focused when it comes to furniture, with mid-century Nordic designers topping my list (Wegner, Juhl, Morgensen, Kjaerholm...). Casting the net a bit wider, I'm a big fan of Eames, of course, and Prouvé.

What do you covet? A winter flat in Buenos Aires, a first edition DSW chair and some serious computer gear.

Favourite blogs / websites?

Archdaily for architecture;

Ronenbekerman and Peterguthrie for architecture visualization;

It's Art for digital arts in general;

For interiors est, Emmas Design Blogg, Lovenordic Design Blog and many others.

And for food-styling Sibo Sibon, my little sister's blog