Marcin Paweł Klicki began his computer graphics journey with an Atari in 1993, going through all the generational steps of the evolution of CG. At first he was interested in games and their development. In May of 2005, Marcin started the ‘Digital-Aktimel’ group in his native Poland in 1985, along with friend Jarosław Handrysik. This was the biggest influence of his life, and since then they have won many CG contests.

Marcin Klicki is skilled in polygonal modeling and texturing. He enjoys compositing, lighting and rendering his images, both as a hobby and as the freelance artist. “Since then I started to learn a bunch of new stuff and techniques very fast, everything just started to come together faster then ever,” he says. Marcin tends to use open source software mainly, in fact he uses Wings3D for almost every model he does. Sometimes he also uses 3ds Max, Photoshop and DeepPaint 3D. For several years he's been a freelancer doing mainly game-art objects for companies like Farm51, CD-P RED and Animationfarm. Currently he works for Platige Image as a freelancer and is also an editor for the biggest Polish CG portal.
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Daniel Dociu was born and raised in Transylvania, Romania. He studied for and obtained his Master’s Degree in Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj, Romania in 1982. He emigrated to the States in 1989. After working as a toy designer for two years, Dociu wisely jumped ship to interactive entertainment. “I’ve been working as an Art Director in the games industry ever since,” he says, “for companies like Squaresoft, Electronic Arts and Zipper Interactive. I have done consulting for Microsoft and freelance work for Wizards of the Coast, Digital Anvil as well as a fair share of small developers who have come and gone.” For the past three years, Daniel Dociu has been with ArenaNet, a fully owned subsidiary of NCSoft, in an art director and lead concept artist role, currently working on the fourth chapter of the GuildWars series.

Daniel Dociu is featured in Ballistic Publishing’s “EXPOSÉ 4,” for which he won two Master Awards, one for his ‘Crab Fort’ in the Environment category; and also for ‘Urban Canal’ in the Cityscape category. Both winning images were given the full double page spread treatment. His work is also featured in “d’artiste: Concept Art,” and “EXOTIQUE 2”. His style was an instant winner for depth, color work and the concept styles he adopted.
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Jussi Lehtiniemi made a short excursion into the world of 3D a couple of years ago, determined to become a 3D artist of some sort. “I’m from Finland where I first attended a university course leading to MA in Architecture –degree,” he says. “Although architecture interests me partially, I always felt that it takes too much time from my true calling, which is telling stories with my pictures and designing stuff for and fleshing out non-existent worlds. At the moment, the architecture degree is on hold after getting three years into it and I’m doing a BA in Illustration course in England. So, I still have the opportunity to draw and paint all the time and hone up my story-telling skills and discipline. And of course, I have brilliant friends on the course who have the same interests as I have.”

“So, I can relate my work to that of a multitude of artists who were working towards the same goal as I was, and also to the works of so many revered masters of digital media whose skill and creativity gave a focus for my own efforts. The torrent of inspiration was, and still is, overwhelming. While painting by hand, in traditional or digital media, I love the energy of brushstrokes and the way I can intuitively make decisions as the work proceeds. At the moment I’m aiming to improve my workflow and develop my style allowing me to concentrate more on the creative side of art. It is an interesting process although slow, but luckily I get to paint all the time while I’m at it! ”
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Gareth Thatcher is a self-taught 3D artist who started in the industry at the age of 23. He specialized in architectural images, and progressed from there into animation in the same field. After three years working on architectural stills, Gareth Thatcher now works as Lead Animator at AHD-Imaging, a well known architectural firm specializing in architectural previsualizations and display animations.

“I’ve also lectured in Autodesk Maya at Manchester College of Arts and Technology as part of my extended career,” explains Thatcher. “I aim to bring my own style to my work while keeping detail and realism—an approach that has seen my work featured in many publications and web sites.”
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“I learned architecture with a ruler and pencil for several years, and only afterwards at a course in university did I have a chance to with 3ds Max,” says Jun Zeng. “I began to enter my work into several online competitions and won the attention of several companies like GGC Designers Associates Ltd and Steve Leung Designers Ltd. At the universities, I gained the friendships from graduates in CG, and they suggested I show my work on the web, which I did.”

“These people and companies have helped me greatly along the way, and I now have great opportunities and a larger development space at Steve Leung Designers Ltd. I’ve also had time while working with this company to do further personal research, as the work is not too demanding. I’d like to thank the people who continue to support me like my business associates, friends, and colleagues.”

“My career in CG is quiet young. Late last year, I started my first job in CG working for Visual Concepts in Novato, CA as an environmental artist,” begins Jason Godbey. “Before that I had just graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a degree in social psychology and a minor in philosophy. I have never taken any classes in CG—I am completely self-taught. I started off using Bryce, and then moved across to Vue d’Esprit, then on to 3ds Max.”

“In my creative artworks, part of my inspiration comes from other artists, like Thomas Krahn and Patrick Merminod, but the main inspiration is the world around me. Ever since I started in the professional industry of CG, the outside world has never really been the same. I always feel like I have to keep pushing myself in pretty much everything I do. Of course, this applies to my art as well. No matter how good I think a piece is I always know I can be doing better.”
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For such a young artist of 22, Viktor Titov has a richly mature painting style, garnered from generating a fair bit of work on the walls of his family’s flat, before moving onto a children’s art school and into graduate level in Russia. “While still a student I began working as a character animator in a game development team” explains Viktor. “I later worked for a video production firm also as a character animator and modeler.”

“I work in Photoshop mainly, and also like ArtRage as a tool to imitate oil painting,” says Viktor. “As soon as I got a Wacom tablet, about two years ago, I started painting CG graphics. I was inspired by the contest held at the Russian site CGTalk.ru. I took part in it and won the first prize, which was a good stimulus to go on studying digital painting. At the time my major work was not connected with 2D, so the only time I had for painting was after hours, usually at night. Now I work as a concept artist in the game development team at Nival Online.”

“While I think that being an artist is a life choice, I would say my professional career started in 2003. I earned my Bachelors Degree in Media Arts and Animation at the Art Institute of Phoenix, Arizona and shortly after was offered a position as a digital artist with an architectural visualization company in Laguna Niguel, CA called fOCUS360,” says Holli Alvarado.

“Being selected and published along with so many other great digital artists is such a privilege,” Holli continues, “and to be awarded a Master Award is beyond anything I hoped for. I see the EXPOSÉ 5 book as a jumping point in my career from which there is no return! Ballistic Publishing and EXPOSÉ has placed me in a position to share my art with a larger audience and that in itself is quite an achievement. Where my career will take me I am not sure, but as long as I can keep sharing my visions and art with people I will be happy. Thank you for such an honor."
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Dehong He is a Chinese artist who has been creating CG solidly for six years. As a personal challenge at home, he developed landscapes, cloud sets and atmospheres for use in future pieces. Ever since He first saw EXPOSÉ 1 in his office library, it was decided in his mind that he must generate the very best work so he would be selected in the future edition. “It's the best digital art book in the world. Each and every artwork brings inspiration and dreams to me for the CGChallenge. These amazing works helped me to always dream to be an EXPOSÉ Master in the future; and now it has arrived.”

Dehong He has won a number of prizes, including four prizes for his comics, three prizes for game illustrations, and one for ‘The Journey Begins’ CGChallenge on CGSociety. Most of He’s artwork is produced for game companies and book covers. He has also taken the first steps towards film work.
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“My work is about visual story telling with shape and light. They help the learning of visual languages.” Tae Young Choi was born in Korea in 1973 and grew up dreaming of becoming a comic book artist. After studying traditional and classical painting and exhibiting his works at several galleries in Korea, he moved to the USA to study computer graphics in 2000. “I open up the EXPOSÉ books whenever I need to get some inspiration,” he says. “I often visit CGTalk to see what is up there too. However, I love the feeling much better when I hold the books in my hands physically and look through them. That is why I have all the books to get more inspiration.”

“It just makes me so happy that my works in EXPOSÉ will be shown to the other artists and hopefully inspire them,” says Choi. “Sometimes the images reach out at me from the page. I have a couple of friends who I've never met and don't know well personally, but we are connected by our images. We have been talking in the forum and sending e-mails about art. For artists, the images are our words and EXPOSÉ books are our letters to the world. Just like the title of the book, it is the best way of exposing our art works and connecting artists.”
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Laurent Ménabé is a senior 3D artist for Quantic Dream, a French game company. Originally from Marseille, he has been living in Paris for the last couple of years. Laurent began as a print/graphic artist, gathering prowess in the many applications while at home. He then began to take work as a web designer and art director for various companies. “I’ve always been interested in 3D, so I continued my personal studies and learned 3D-related software packages.” Equipped with a Masters in Sociology and a Post Graduate degree in Graphic Communication from Marseille, he started to work as 3D artist for commercials, architecture and a lot of different projects.

“When I paint,” says Laurent, “I like the massive environments— always very spectacular with a great sense of scale. After that I started working in the video game industry and am currently the senior 3D artist specializing in lighting and rendering for a company in Paris working on an AAA title.”
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Stefan Morrell is a freelance digital artist living and working in the south island of New Zealand in the city of Christchurch. “I’ve always been into art in one form or another, having tried everything from sculpting in stone to oil painting. I now find working in CG to be very liberating and while not as tactile as the other mediums it does offer a great deal of freedom in creating images. I am pretty much self-taught, as I discovered 3ds Max several years ago and was pretty intrigued. I haven’t been able to let go of it since.”

Stefan also works extensively in Photoshop, Deep Paint 3D and ZBrush. He would eventually like to move into matte painting work. “I feel this is an area where I can put everything I’ve learned to good use and one that allows me to create new worlds and environments. Imagining vast cityscapes and fantastic visions of the future are things I’ve always loved doing. There's no deep meaning or message to my art. They're just pretty pictures.”
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Maxime is an Environment Concept Artist working at Ubisoft, Montreal. “In 1996 I got my first professional experience as a 2D artist for a French video game company. I now concentrate on environment design and concept work. I am fond of artworks that give an impression of journey or provide a feeling of adventure—that is what I try to illustrate the most. As my work is often contemplative, I strive to give particular care to lighting and atmosphere.

“I like to illustrate fictional scenes taking place in imaginary worlds, usually dominated by nature. Using warm colors and daylight lighting is also a good way to give the pleasant feeling I look for scenes in general sometimes close to cartoonish style. I’m really proud to be showcased in EXPOSÉ among other such great artists. I’m convinced that being published this year through EXPOSÉ will allow my work to be discovered by the community and will help to create new contacts in the industry."
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Weiye Yin became involved in CG in 1997, working on various popular game, film, and TV productions. Yin began his career as a traditional oils painter and a sculptor. Being able to look back at a traditional background as his beginnings is a point of particular pride. “I enjoyed my experiences working in environmental design, character design, texturing and lighting, as well as 2D illustration and concept design. These projects also provided me with the most fun and creative control.”

“As a CG artist in China, I can share my art with the artists around the world using this bridge called EXPOSÉ,” said Yin. “My future plan is to fling myself into CG, to have opportunities to visit more places with more friends, then we can share the technique with each other. We would improve ourselves not only on the CG technique but also in our lives.” Weiye Yin is currently working as a senior lead artist freelancing for a game company and enjoys diving into many varied projects that require his team to cover all areas of production.
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Aiqiang Hao graduated from Fushun Teachers College in Liaoning Province, China with a specialty in fine art education. Eleven years ago, he also began to work in digital format and within a year or so, he felt ready to give away the traditional way almost completely. He has worked for the Beijing Primary View Architecture Advisory Co., and is presently engaged in architecture rendering at the same company but in a freelance capacity. This has given him a wider client base for his work, which is becoming very busy.

“I still like draw a lot of classic still lifes—of course I use 3D software to create them. There is always more room to learn while you work. In fact that is really all anyone should do.” Aiqiang Hao’s images range from depictions of products, to flotsam, to rustic 3D images of village life, showing rough natural textures in digital clarity.

As a technical director for computer graphics, Greg Vilk has worked in Hollywood for PDI/Dreamworks and Digital Domain. His long list of credits include: ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Shrek’, ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, ‘X-Men’, ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and ‘Aeon Flux’. His experience in the film industry has helped him develop a unique combination of artistic talent and programming skills. He writes his own shaders and graphics networks, a little like how the Master artists of old would mix their own paints. In recent years, Vilk has been devoting more and more time to his personal paintings.

“My own creative goal is the marriage of high-end computer graphics and fine art. Stylistically, I want to explore my lifelong fascination with the art of the Northern European Gothic: the monstrosities of Bosch and Breugel, the dark imagery of Grünewald, Baldung, Schongauer and Dürer. I’m intrigued by the contrast between the fantastic, modern subject matter of my works and their aged, weathered appearance. In a way, I view them as artifacts of some strange, alien civilization, in which advanced technology co-existed with a grim culture resembling our Dark Ages.”
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Jerry LoFaro’s formal art education was spent at S.U.N.Y., New Paltz in 1980-81, while his most important lessons came later in figure drawing classes at the Art Students League of New York. His art can be seen on the book covers of most major publishers including: Random House; Harcourt; Ballentine; Avon; Bantam; Time Life; and Viking Penguin. Jerry has also created advertising and promotional illustrations for a wide variety of clients such as: Coca-Cola; Pepsi; Barcardi; Conoco; Haagen-Daz; Levi’s; Disney; Claritin; National Geographic; Discovery Channel; Time Magazine; Nike; Panasonic; Air Canada; Minolta; San Francisco Ballet; Kellogg’s; IBM; AT&T; The MGM Grand Hotel; and Jacksonville Jaguars. In addition to being selected for 12 Society of Illustrators Annual Shows, he has also exhibited many paintings in Communications Arts Annuals.

“I've been fortunate in my career to have been widely recognized for the traditional paintings created for the advertising and publishing industries,” says LoFaro. “Learning to use the computer just a few years ago was very challenging, and the possibilities it opened up have been endless and exciting. Just being part of EXPOSÉ 5 (never mind the honor of receiving a Master Award!) is a wonderful validation of my digital progress, and I'm thrilled to be among so much talent and able to reach an international audience.”
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Sergey Priymuk trained as an architect over several years in Penza, a small town in central Russia. “I am an architect by training. After that I worked for some time as an architect, and as an architecture teacher at a Lyceum for the industry,” explains Sergey. “I also worked as an interior designer, as a florist, and even made maquettes for art forgings. Presently, I am a designer for a company that produces and sells shop equipment. The work submitted for EXPOSÉ is my hobby. I give it almost all of my free time and probably more, once it becomes my full-time job, which is my dream.”

"The publishing of my work in EXPOSÉ 5 and being granted the Master Award has given me confidence in my abilities and talent. I am very glad to see my work among the art of other talented and interesting artists. I am proud of the Award and hope it will play a remarkable role in my further career. It will hopefully help me make my dreams come true to take part in making animation films or visual effects and to realize myself in a new and exciting art in CG. Thanks to EXPOSÉ and to the people who publish this brilliant book.”

After working for over ten years in the area of CG and animated TVCs, the creation of free abstract images is a great balance and extension to the commercial work for Tim Borgmann. “I gather a lot of deep inspiration from what occurs during the creation of my abstract works,” he says. When working on free images, Tim doesn’t plan the shapes before he begins. “I like to catch it for a moment to focus on a fragment, to freeze it, and to take it out of its original context. I isolate it and try to accentuate the beauty I see in it. I enjoy the pure concentration on aesthetic aspects.”

“Since I have had images published in the EXPOSÉ book series, I got a lot of interesting feedback from all over the world in the past years. Not only from the commercial point of view but also from people and magazines who are interested in Art. Because of the outstanding quality of the books (the content as well as the print itself) it's simply amazing to be published in such a great environment."
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