Contact Report: Alex McLeod

A few months back i wrote a post on a piece of Alex Mcleod's 3D work, called Terror Twilight, discussing how well it was done, from concept to finish! It never entered my mind that he might actually ever read the little essay, but he did, and very kindly offered to answer any questions i ever had. I gratefully took him up on this offer and asked him some questions that i was interested in finding out about, and McLeod didn't go back on his word! Here it is below!

Hey there,

I recently wrote a mini essay on one of your pieces, Terror Twilight. I never expected you to ever read it but i really hope I did you justice because it is such a good set!

Anyway, it would be really good to gain a little more information from you if that's ok? Also if it would be ok to put the information on the blog as well, that would be great!

1. You have so many models and sets now on your site, i have no idea how you find the time to make them all! Is there a system you go through before the production that saves time? I can imagine it getting quite confusing if there isn't much organisation involved before!

AM: The buildings are just cubes, they just have good materials applied to them. some models are from turbosquid or 3d warehouse, but i re-use everything a lot so it helps.

2. You have some very tranquil sets, and then some that are based on destruction, quite a contrast! Where do your themes come from and do you have a particular favourite?

AM: All the work is about the process and recycling of mater, like life cycles, so death - decay - new life

3. The system of creating a whole city or land seems really fun, but i can imagine the process becoming quite tedious at times. Are there any techniques you use to keep you motivated and interested in one model? For example, working on two at once and swapping between the two maybe?

AM: I do a lot of things like that, i usually have advertising illustration at the same time so i bounce back and forth to keep interested.

4. Can you ever see yourself moving away from this style in the foreseeable future, or would you see anything you produce now more of an evolution?

AM: I dont know what else i would do :D

5. How important would you consider the other elements of the work, like lighting and photography, in contrast with making the models?

AM: They are all equally important, if they didn't look convincing then they would fall flat.

6. And finally, any advice for anyone that wants to break into the world of art and illustration?

AM: Just work a lot and try to model things you like to find your own style. once you have a body of work you are really happy with you should send it to blogs that you like, or that feature similar work and cross your fingers that they share !! :D

Thanks for your time, much appreciated!

If anyone would like to check out any more of his work other than the piece i put up, you can find his site here.