HELLO...

I'm glad you're here and I appreciate your interest in this project. Before you start browsing, I'd like to introduce myself and explain what this is all about.

My name is Marco Hayek, I am 46 years old, live in beautiful Munich and am an enthusiastic 3D artist and designer. Almost two years ago, I made an artistic change, away from game and concept art, towards architectural visualization. Since I wanted to become an architect as a child and since my childhood I had a higher affinity to architecture than my classmates at that time and from today's point of view also more than some of my fellow human beings. Basically, you could say that I have returned to my roots. 

I don't really want to go into the reasons that led me to make this change in too much detail. But one morning, when I was browsing the Artstation site as I often do, I realized that far too many people had jumped on the concept and game art bandwagon and that the market was already saturated in this regard. I also had the feeling that the works all somehow resemble each other too much and that everyone is copying each other, or that you see what feels like 50 variations of a top work, which were created with different colors and a slightly different workflow, but are still the same mush as the original.

Of course, I don't want to belittle or devalue the works of these mostly great artists, quite the opposite, but for me it was time to leave this overcrowded ship and set off on a new journey with a smaller boat. 

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I have been working in architectural visualization for almost two years, although I spent the first year learning more about the field without really producing anything noteworthy. Although I have been working with 3D for about 18 years and certainly have some experience in this area, I must also mention that until just under two years ago I had never worked at such a high level in 3D. This is because I only used Maya or Max for various Concept Arts or to create game assets. Since realism plays a rather subordinate role in the field of Concept Art, I didn't think much about materials, quality and perfection. Basically, in the past I used the so-called “photo-bashing” technique on the 3D elements, and in the end I painted over them to get more detail.

Now that I have abandoned this approach and have been working very intensively for two years on the topics of realism, quality, materials and imperfections in renderings and everything related to architectural visualization, I had the idea of sharing my acquired knowledge about it. Or, as in this case, to show you my individual steps and approaches in a larger project and to let you participate in it. 

This won't be a step-by-step guide or a tutorial in the broadest sense, I just want to show you how I approach things, from the original idea or inspiration to the completion of the project. I also want to show you the hurdles I encounter and how I solve them, or show you interesting content that could be of particular interest to beginners in this field. Admittedly, I haven't thought up a master plan for this and everything is still in its infancy. Where the journey will ultimately lead will be seen and I will also learn a lot in the process. Although I have my own website, I decided to use “Google pages” because this project will only be accessible for a limited time and, on the other hand, I can relieve my website. If everything goes well and I notice that there is a certain interest in it, I will create more such “accompanying pages” like this for my larger projects. But as already mentioned, everything is still in its infancy and I can't estimate how extensive it will all be, so please bear with me if things seem chaotic and disorganized at the beginning. Over time, I will learn what works and comes across well, or where there is more interest among you.

Well, that's the introduction, and I'd be delighted if you'd accompany me on this journey. Thank you for your interest.