Interviewing Idols: Raphael Rau
Germany-based 3D artist and educator, Raphael Rau, is a designer who has likely educated most of the C4D industry. Raphael, known mostly as SilverwingVFX, has taught us so much about the software we use on a day-to-day basis. His YouTube tutorials are amazing, he’s a massive asset to the 3D community, and it was great to chat with him!
Ever since I started using Cinema 4D, I've had a keen eye for recreating realism. As someone who loves photography, and got paid for it as a side job, remaking this in CGI is fascinating to me. I started my career in 3D using Octane Render, a paid plugin from Otoy. This was 5, possibly 6, years ago now — and guess whose work I was in awe over. The man himself, Raphael “Silverwing” Rau.
If you want a quick overview of his work while you’re reading this, take a look at his Behance page and you’ll see the incredible detail that Raphael puts into his work. Emulating real life is a real talent, and being able to do it with such precision is truly a mastery of the software. He’s done a bit of everything, from logos, opening credits, architecture visualization, and just general CG. It’s an absolute pleasure to interview this genius, and I truly wouldn’t be where I am today without his artwork for inspiration.
Why does he inspire me?
As a junior 3D designer, learning how to be ‘good’, in the massive world that is the 3D industry, you can be swallowed up pretty easily. You need to learn, fast. Really fast. Sometimes you don’t know where to start, and the first thing you do is start watching tutorials. I don’t make content myself, and I would genuinely be lost without the amazing creators on YouTube. They kick-started my 3D/Motion journey, and Raphael was certainly one of them. He had a tutorial on placing labels on objects in Octane — and guess what was in my university portfolio? Some sticker 3D renders, that were born from his tutorial. There are so many little things I’ve learned from Raphael over the years, and I’m thrilled to see him posting so much on YouTube.
It’s great having videos that are actually thought out, spoken well, and genuinely interesting. It’s so frustrating when you think you’ve found a great tutorial, to find out that it’s in actual fact not that useful. I love a tutorial from Raphael when it goes 20+ minutes, you know you’re going to learn something cool! Not only is he teaching us about the uses of software, but also how to actually use it! The amount of times I've forgotten how to do something, and knew a SilverwingVFX video that’d solve the problem.
Along with the tutorials, Raphael is an extremely active community member. He’s always replying to questions on his videos and — basically, he’s an extremely helpful guy! It’s clear that Raphael immerses himself in the 3D space, connects with other creators, and has become a great contributor to its growth and success. Happen to know he’s good friends with Cornelious Dammrich, another legend in creating real life in CGI.
The Interview part
I was lucky enough to be able to ask Raphael some questions about himself and his career. I hope that’ll give you a little bit of an insight into his life, personal and commercial as well as his design process. It’s not every day you get to interview an idol!
1. Who are you, and how did you start your journey into the world of design?
Hey! My name is Raphael Rau, also known as Silverwing online.
It’s almost impossible to pinpoint where my journey started, although my half-brother, who is several years older than I am, was a big influence. He was a graphic designer and whenever he came to visit, he would show me something cool. We didn’t have a computer at home, so I drew on paper — and he was the one who introduced me to technical aspects of drawing i.e. perspective.
When we finally got our first computer, a WANG IBM clone with a 30386 processor and 2MB of RAM, I recently rebuilt the system in 3D, Behance link here, there weren’t a lot of available design tools to use, so I had to make do with what was there.
The tool we all know and love Paint!
The first artwork I was really proud of was the rebuilding of the Jurassic Park cover of the VHS tape.
I explored all of this until I eventually had a good enough computer to start with 3D, around 20 years ago. Back then almost no one I knew had internet, so I learned C4D from the manual and by furiously clicking around the interface trying to see what every button was doing. All I wanted to do after school was learn 3D, but that was difficult as there were barely any universities that offered it.
In the end, I decided to go to school for graphic design, and over the three years continued to learn 3D in my spare time. After graduating I became a freelance artist right away and offered my 3D services to anyone I could. It was still a long long journey to today. But I somehow managed to make it work and make a living pushing polys, shooting rays, and managing pixels.
2. Could you give some insight into your creative process?
I’m going to answer questions two and three as one since they overlap quite a bit.
3. Where do you get your inspiration for projects?
What’s really important for me is consistency, rhythm, and discipline.
Those are essential for me to achieve a bit of inner peace and therefore quiet and inspiration. If there is a lot of noise and buzz around, it can throw me off balance.
My creative process is relatively rudimentary though as I mostly get inspired by everyday life. For me, life is a bit like watching a Studio Ghibli movie. Looking at those “Pillow Shots” of life (eye level, minimal movement, 50mm lens). Looking at material, objects, and lighting. I also get inspired by core memories e.g. the Gameboy that I bought with my own pocket money. Here’s a project I made dedicated to it!
If it’s a bit more complex scene, I start out with a quick couple of sketches on paper. If it’s simple enough, I begin right away and gather references. Mostly looking for materials and lighting but also measurements of the objects. Reference is a really important part of my work as it guides me through the creation process. So when I did the Gameboy for example, I dusted the machine I bought all those years ago, unscrewed it, and had a close look at all the parts. After that, it’s usually starting the tedious process of creating everything. Geometry, mostly through subdivision surface modelling, materials, and lighting. I rarely use asset libraries. So everything you see in my artwork is usually hand-crafted.
Of course, I am looking to other people's works to when it comes to inspiration. There are contemporary legends like Cornelius Dämmrich and Ash Thorp who I’m lucky to call my friends. I love artists like Jason deGraaf & H.R. Giger, as well as great movie directors like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. And of course, the old masters that brought realism to the canvas with a brush like Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn and so many more.
4. What are some of the largest challenges you’ve had to overcome during your artmaking process? How did you come to terms with these difficulties?
As probably every creative can attest there are a ton of difficulties all the time. My latest challenge has been to find peace and quiet to let me be creative and thrive. It feels like ever since the pandemic started, the world’s become wildly chaotic. So much happening everywhere, and it’s never static. It became really hard for me to find a space that shields me from all that and lets me hear my own thoughts and therefore be creative and work on my own things.
There’s also the technical side of this too, with endless developments in software and hardware. Lately, I’ve been researching diffraction grating and am still hoping for a breakthrough when it comes to an opal material with parallax mapping. Here’s a link to where I’ve gotten to! https://twitter.com/RaphaelRau/status/1640735543267819526
Saying all this, the past has shown me that persistence and time will solve most problems.
Charlie here! Just wanted to add that everyone should take a look at the Twitter link above. It’s such an interesting project, and I can't wait to see more of it!
5. Do you have any big projects in the works or anything that excites you about the future of your career?
I think I am at a turning point in my career. I want to tell it how it is: I am fed up with client work. I’m always fighting to show so my experience, only to be ignored later.
It’s a fight against windmills and I honestly don´t know how other artists have the stamina to keep it up. Huge kudos to them!
I therefore began focussing on alternative income strategies such as YouTube and Patreon. They are not there yet, but I am working on it. They let me be more creative and the response is much more appreciative. So the project I am pursuing right now is my YouTube channel, giving seminars, teaching, and creating artwork. Growing those directions and expanding my revenue in other ways than said client work. So in a certain way,
this is my big project right now. Getting more independent to be able to create art.
6. Your YouTube channel is an asset to the 3D community! Are there any other creators whose tutorials/work you think everyone should watch?
If you read the former answer. You know this means a lot to me and I highly appreciate your kind words. When it comes to other creators, there are of course a ton of them out there. I very often recommend John Dickinson's YouTube channel because I am asked about Subdivision Surface modeling quite a lot. I don’t currently have any videos on the topic, and this channel is a really really good source of information. He began his modeling journey after me and quickly advanced to a modeling master. He seems to have the same mindset as I and shares his knowledge freely on YouTube.
I frequently recommend Blender Guru's “Understanding” video series. He has some great videos on topics like Understanding Composition,[Understanding Color] and [Guide to Photorealism] which are really good.
When it comes to non-learning content, I have been very impressed by Ian Hubert lately. His wildly creative “Dynamo Dream” series is something to behold. There are so many other great creators out there that we could have an interview just about that Charlie, but for the moment this is a good selection of the ones I like and return to. If you read that last answer closely you might have recognized that there are a lot of Blender artists in there. While this is not on purpose. Something just resonates within me when it comes to Blender's versatile and highly creative community! Lately, I have the feeling, that Cinema 4D is losing more and more easy-to-access content, with Patreon and courses becoming ever more frequent.
7. What is your passion besides Animation/CGI work?
I am heavily invested in 3D / CGI. It’s my full-time job, and I spend a lot of time learning new things staying on top of the news — and of course, creating videos and artwork. You need to keep making, it’s the best way to make sure you stay noticed. So I don’t really have too many other passions! Though there are a few which are for the most part rather closely related:
Computers: As you might know from my tutorials I am a rather technical guy! So of course I’m also interested in the hardware that drives my work, especially in news about the newest components. What are the best parts to make my work more streamlined and of course how does it all fit together? I was never able to understand artists who work in 3D but don’t have a clue about what computer system they are working on.
Cinema: I’ve been a long-time admirer of the art form that is cinema. A good film can immerse you in a way I’ve experienced with no other medium. You forget about your surroundings, transcend time and simply lose yourself in the story. It’s a fascinating feeling and therefore I love experiencing a good movie. This is also the reason I have my own little home cinema as well as a mid-sized Blu-ray collection.
Last but not least there’s cycling. I’m not sure if you’d call it a passion of mine — I say this because I do not have a driver's license so I travel by bike all the time. I suppose it’s more a necessity than a passion for me! But since I enjoy cycling, and revel in the feeling of “getting there all on my own” it sort of falls into the passion category I guess!
8. I’m always amazed by your attention to detail. Do you ever have to stop yourself when doing a project and say “That’s it, I’m finished!” or do you always go back and tweak?
For me, the detail in my work developed over time. It wasn’t my ‘main’ focus in the early years, but the more you learn about it the deeper you can go. And there is no end to this rabbit hole. I always refer to my projects as “table-top sized”, since they usually fit on a regular table. When I work on these sorts of projects, I have a natural feeling when it´s time to stop. I have my workflow and a good understanding of what would be seen on camera and therefore contribute to the scene's realism.
Saying this, when I work on other projects with bigger scenes that expand the bounds of a table, I noticed I sometimes end up in that tweaking hamster wheel.
I want to try and put as much detail into those bigger scenes as I would in my usual ones. And that exponentially extends the work that needs to go into those. So in other words — in bigger scenes, I’m not always clear which details will translate to the render, so it’s generally a bit of trial and error until I’m satisfied. I usually render my scene after I’ve spent a few hours on it, and go watch them on my TV while I lay in bed. I glance over and note little things down things that I want to change the next day. When I find fewer and fewer things to tweak I know I am nearing the end of the process.
9. Have you got any advice for young people trying to get into the world of Animation or 3D Design?
This has always been a tricky one for me to answer, as there are so many different aspects to it. Things have changed so much since I started in the industry. Back then the internet was just starting out and there was not a lot of info online, with generally 10–20 3D renders posted into forums a day globally. So it was really easy to be recognized if your work was good.
The more you posted, the more people saw it, and the more traction it got. On top of that, you would get job requests and inquiries from studios.
Today, social media is a just noisy mess, and it’s so much harder to stand out.
It’s also all now algorithm controlled which was not the case back in the good old forum times. Spam and other ‘related’ content are on the top of your feed, polluting the good work! I do honestly believe that quality still stands out if you learn, improve, and put out quality work. A great thing to do is collaborate and speak to experienced people. You’ll learn so much from a handful of experienced people.
Despite the internet being full of mediocre content, there are some good parts to it. I would not have been able to learn about diffraction grating (one of my latest tutorials) that quickly, if at all, without it. The noise makes it hard to start out, and you can easily watch tons of uninformative tutorials just trying to find that one good one! But the more you learn the better you will be at judging which then again helps you learn faster.
To simplify this:
If you have a deep passion for 3D, Animation, CGI, and you have the strength to push through the initial mud and noise, you will highly likely see light at the end of the tunnel. If you’re in it for the money, forget it. Become an engineer, doctor, advocate etc. you will be better off!
Here’s a small list of tips that I wish someone had told me when I was first starting. Maybe that’ll give someone some hope and inspiration!
- Don’t just learn about the artistic side of things, get a foothold of the business side of it.
- Know your worth. Talk to fellow artists about it. Get an honest opinion from them.
- It’s OK to turn down projects if: You feel the client is not valuing you, does not want to pay enough, or have a gut feeling that tells you it´s not the right client
- With new direct clients always ask for an upfront payment. 50% is a good start.
- When doing interviews at studios, do your research beforehand. Talk to other artists at your level, and if you’re bold on the day of your interview ask them if it’s ok to walk around and talk to other artists. Let them give you a good idea of what the studios like other than the boss!
- Eat Healthy. Get away from the screen from time to time. Do something physical (some sport)
- And most importantly for me:
It's OK if learning takes time. We are all humans.
10. Thank you for taking part in this for me Raphael! It’s been great having the chance to talk to you and learn more about you and your process! For the people who will read this interview, what are your social media links for people to follow your future work? (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Websites etc…!
Thank you very much for including me in this series. I am honored I was considered to be part of that among those other legendary artists!
If you are interested in my work/tutorials they can find me here:
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/silverwingvfx
Portfolio:
See my Artwork here! Stills and Videos with some nice breakdowns:
https://www.behance.net/silverwing-vfx
Twitter:
See what I am up to and chat with me:
https://twitter.com/RaphaelRau
Patreon:
I post all scenes that I use in my tutorials here, no matter what tier. So you can dissect them or use them for your own projects.
https://www.patreon.com/SilverwingVFX
