Artist: Salmon

January gallery artist Jeff Selbig works in 3D Studio Max and Photoshop.

Background
I started out in high school, doodling on a Macintosh with a basic paint program. Back then (1986), computer graphics were definitely out of reach financially for a kid working at the local lumberyard. I studied art in college for a year, then switched to engineering. During that time, I continued painting and drawing and was increasingly awestruck at the computer-generated images appearing in movies and television. I really wanted to take some of the work that I had done in 2D and put it into a 3D environment. The flexibility of changing view angles, lighting, and textures was a very big draw after having wrestled with the snail's pace of oil painting. The last straw for me was when Jurassic Park came out. I ran out of the theater, scraped together my pennies, and took the plunge on a decent PC and a copy of 3D Studio Max.

Topics
I've always thought of natural subjects as the hardest to create convincingly. I really feel like I've accomplished something if I can come close to pulling that off. Also, I am a freelance artist currently living in Alaska, and most people up here are nuts for animals and nature, so I tend to create images that will help with marketing.

Inspiration
....the fantasy art of Frank Frazetta, wildlife artist Robert Bateman, every movie that comes out containing 3D graphics that I know I could do better (those shall remain nameless), every movie that comes out containing 3D graphics that are truly stunning or cool (Jurassic Park, Starship Troopers, Lost in Space, Titannic, Alien(s)....

Contact Information Web site: http://home.gci.net/~jselbig
Email: jselbig@alaska.com