With THU 2017 in full swing this week, who better to feature than THU Golden Ticket Challenge winner, Te Hu? In addition to his roundtrip ticket to attend the event in Portugal, he was also awarded with a 1 year subscription to ArtStation Pro and you’ll be impressed when you see how fantastic his portfolio looks!
Check out Te’s ArtStation-powered website.
Hu studied at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Melon University and currently works as a technical artist at ILM. He describes his distinct style as “inspired by traditional Chinese expressionistic sensibilities and western technology”.
What do you think are “must-haves” for a portfolio to be considered?
I think “must haves” are pieces that show your essential skill, and what you are really good at. People are always looking for your best pieces. For example, if you are really strong at hard surface modeling, you need to make sure you show your expertise in what you present to people. At the same time, you can also show a certain degree of other area you are interested in creating or learning in, or some mix, to show your potential.
Tell us about one of your most exciting projects.
As you can see in my portfolio, my most exciting project is “my fantasy imagination around the world”,u can see I imagined my self touring the world, and add my own fantasy on it. I always a huge fan of human history, religion, technology and culture. I believe it is the difference between us made us interesting and vivid. And that’s the really essential thing of us as human I think. The other reason is that I’m being stuck at work all the time, so I barely travel, but I want to see around the world, so that’s why I do this and it excited me.
What kind of practice do you think is most helpful to improve?
Honestly I don’t really know. Ian McCaig once told me: Exercise and Draw. I guess there are always different ways to practice, or do all kinds of training but it really doesn’t matter. It’s the persistence and hard work that is important. Try learning a bit of something new everyday, and always try to find the true self.
Advice for aspiring artists:
It’s hard to get into the industry, but these days it’s much much easier than it was. Keep drawing, keep practicing, keep solving problems. Just do it and there’s no try – just like Master Yoda said.
Sometimes it also helps to attend some conferences like GDC, SIGGRAPH, or THU to make friends and connections. Listen and learn and I think this will help a lot to get you going in the right direction.
See more of Te Hu’s work on his portfolio website. To learn more about ArtStation Pro websites, click here.
