Meet Roni Rosenstein, an 18-year-old UK-based 3D artist making waves in the realm of 3D art and animation. From enrolling in prestigious courses to participating in noteworthy competitions, Roni's artistic journey is nothing short of inspiring. As he forges ahead into his undergraduate course in Computer Animation & Visual Effects, Roni recounts his exhilarating experiences, including his 1st place win in Kaizen’s Perfect Products Challenge.
In an exclusive interview with Fox Renderfarm, the industry's top cloud rendering service provider and leading render farm, let’s uncover deeper insights into Roni's creative journey, motivations, and future aspirations.
Fox Renderfarm: Hi Roni! We are honored to have you here! Please introduce yourself first to our readers.
Roni: Hi! My name is Roni, and I’m thrilled to be here. I'm an 18-year-old 3D artist from the UK, and I've been passionate about creating 3D art and animation for the past two years. My journey began with an interest in the behind-the-scenes process of 3D artwork for films and games, which is how I discovered Blender. I spent months learning from the online Blender community, experimenting with small projects, and steadily climbing the learning curve.
As I became more serious about turning my hobby into a career, I took significant steps to deepen my expertise. I enrolled in Epic Games and Unreal Engine 5’s 2023 summer animation boot camp, an intensive one-month scholarship program that introduced me to UE5 at an intermediate level. During the boot camp, I created a 30-second animatic, which was a challenging but incredibly rewarding experience.
From there, I went on to participate in various courses and competitions, such as CG Boost’s "Robotic Wildlife" challenge, Pwnisher’s "Eternal Ascent" challenge, and CGMA’s "Intro to Prop Modelling" course, even making my own YouTube tutorial series on hard surface modelling. These experiences have been invaluable in building experience, and I would highly recommend all intermediate artists to participate in challenges that force you to work with a strict deadline, in a competitive, feedback-oriented community.
Currently, I’m working on a large-scale character animation project, and I am excited to start my undergraduate course in "Computer Animation & Visual Effects" this summer. I can't wait to learn more about the 3D pipeline and work with accomplished artists and animators.
Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 1st place in the Kaizen’s Perfect Products Challenge! How do you feel about it?
Roni: I’m overjoyed to have won 1st place in Kaizen's "Perfect Product" Challenge! This is my first competition win, as well as my first time attempting product rendering, so winning has made me feel more confident as a 3D generalist, able to apply my knowledge to any challenge I’m faced with. It has also been an opportunity to connect with other talented artists, giving and receiving valuable feedback.
Fox Renderfarm: What inspired the unique design of the Moose stereophones, and how did you come up with the name?
Roni: The design of the Moose stereophones was largely inspired by the KOSS porta pro headphones. I was instantly drawn to the unique silhouette of the product, as well as the colour scheme and overall retro aesthetic. As for the Moose branding, whilst sketching and designing the product, I found that I could connect two consecutive letter ‘O’s to create a headphone icon, and I brainstormed names around this concept, ultimately falling on "MOOSE". I followed that up by incorporating a moose logo into the branding, taking inspiration from how many high-end products, such as Apple, emboss their logo into their products with a metallic finish.
KOSS porta pro headphones reference © Roni Rosenstein
Fox Renderfarm: How did you select the materials and color scheme to convey the brand's aesthetic through the headphones?
Roni: Having a selection of references helped me study and replicate the materials and colours commonly used in retro-styled headphones, which I found mainly consisted of opaque and transparent plastics, reflective metal and foam. However, to add my own twist, I enhanced many of the materials with strong subsurface scattering, a prominent feature of all my renders, as well as adding glass panels to keep up the high-end representation of the product. This showed huge potential in areas where the glass, plastic, and metal interacted, such as in the outer ear cups, so I refined the materials and lighting in these areas until I achieved the current refractive effect.
I knew from the start that I wanted the signature bright orange foam pieces of retro headphones, followed by a less saturated colour for the plastic. I picked platinum white and raisin black for other elements of the render, knowing that I would need a light colour to differentiate the product from the background, and a dark colour for the infomercial text. One of the most important things I’ve learned about choosing colour schemes is to never use pure white or pure black, especially when going for realistic results such as in product renders, keep your main colours close to the center of the colour wheel, as this will allow you to add brighter highlights and darker shadows to your renders.
MOOSE stereophones colour scheme © Roni Rosenstein
Fox Renderfarm: What role did the geometric pattern background play in presenting the headphones, and how did you decide on this particular visual styling?
Roni: Just like strong subsurface scattering, 2D geometric patterns are something that has become a signature to my renders. When done well, they tend to add a layer of depth, acting as a creative flair that serves to frame the subject of the image.
In this case, I decided to add the arrow patterns to my scene very early on, as a means to fill space, demonstrate depth, add visual intrigue, and enhance the retro-infomercial aesthetic that I had seen in my references. For a long time, I struggled to find a balance between having the patterns vibrant and overbearing. A lot of the feedback I got was very helpful in this, leading me to a perfect result, in which I get the best of both worlds. The final step to ingraining the patterns into the render is to place them in before adding compositing effects. This means that instead of being flat 2D shapes, they are affected by the lens distortions and imperfections, solidifying them believably within the image.
Fox Renderfarm: Could you share some insights into your thought process in planning and executing your project for the Perfect Products Challenge?
Roni: I start by collecting references, from which I like to go straight into Blender and make a simple mesh. Throughout the conception and modelling process, I like to have some paper near me, where I can sketch ideas in real-time, which I find helps to improvise and visualize ideas, as well as relieving frustrations when feeling stuck.
MOOSE stereophones references © Roni Rosenstein
MOOSE stereophones sketches © Roni Rosenstein
MOOSE stereophones basic model © Roni Rosenstein
Fox Renderfarm: What were the primary techniques and tools you used to create this high-resolution, detailed 3D model of the "Moose Stereophones"?
Roni: My method for creating high-resolution models is to start by modelling out a low-resolution, basic form of the subject, not worrying too much about topology. I also like to create some basic materials early on in the process, helping me visualize the product and set up the camera and lighting. Once I have the base mesh, I begin the process of converting it to a high-resolution mesh through the crease + subdivision workflow, going in and working on each part separately, adding a subdivision modifier, and assessing where to place creases and holding edges, making sure the mesh has a neat quad topology. I use Blender’s native modelling tools, as well as some add-ons packed with Blender, for example, "Loop tools", "F2" and "Bool tool". At this stage, I revisit my materials to infuse more detail, and then venture into creating labels and decals. I either design them the traditional way or use image editing software such as Photoshop. Afterward, these designs are UV-mapped to planes and then shrink-wrapped onto the surface of my model.
MOOSE stereophones high-resolution model © Roni Rosenstein
MOOSE stereophones sticker design © Roni Rosenstein
MOOSE stereophones sticker design © Roni Rosenstein
Fox Renderfarm: What was the biggest technical challenge you faced while working on this project, and how did you overcome it?
Roni: The biggest technical challenge I faced was probably getting a realistic yet intentional lighting setup for my render. I struggled to get even lighting on my model, whilst highlighting the outer edges, as well as applying subtle lighting effects like a streak along the metallic logo and subsurface scattering in the plastic and foam areas. I overcame this struggle by identifying how objects might have been lit in my references, and attempting to apply this to my scene. I managed to create a controlled lighting environment, where most of the lighting came from the emissive plane in the back of the image, reflecting off of a plane underneath my scene and providing some underlighting. I placed a soft area light above my scene, perpendicular to my camera, to really show off the depth of the model, and highlight the outer edges, with another area light, thin and rectangular, placed behind the front end of the model, highlighting the metal logo and glass. Finally, I used a studio HDRI at low brightness to add some global illumination, filling in the crevasses with soft light, while introducing a slight warm tint that complimented the colour scheme of my scene.
MOOSE stereophones light setup © Roni Rosenstein
Fox Renderfarm: What is your proudest achievement in the creation process?
Roni: My proudest achievement is the composition of the render. I iterated on the composition dozens of times, messing with the positions and rotations of the model, geometric patterns, and text elements. However what ties it all together is the camera, which I used to create a fisheye distortion focused around the front ear cup, by lowering the focal length dramatically, and adding a strong depth of field effect. All this together created the illusion of a layered image, with the stereophones tilted to face the camera, occupying the foreground and midground, the geometric patterns filling in the background, and the infomercial text layered in between the two.
MOOSE stereophones render iterations © Roni Rosenstein
Fox Renderfarm: What advice can you offer to other designers on how to effectively utilize feedback in the design process?
Roni: My advice regarding feedback is to always follow up on it if possible. Reach out to whoever gave you the original advice, ask them if they think you’ve improved the render, and if there is any other feedback they have. Repeating this cycle with multiple people is not only an efficient way to quickly improve your art but is also a way for you to interact and contribute to discussions in the art communities, ultimately benefiting everyone through your work.
Fox Renderfarm: Have you tried or heard about Fox Renderfarm’s render farm services before? What is your impression of our services?
Roni: I had heard of Fox Renderfarm’s services before. My impression is that it is a reliable, cost-efficient, high-quality platform, that helps artists and studios get the best results out of their work. I am highly thankful to Fox Renderfarm for their cloud rendering services, and I think they are an appreciated part of the 3D art and animation community.
Fox Renderfarm: What were some of the most significant improvements you made since your last participation in a 3D challenge?
Roni: The last challenge I participated in was Pwnisher’s "Eternal Ascent" challenge. It was my first of his challenges, and being on such a large scale, with a huge range of artists, my experience was almost overwhelming. I am extremely proud of my submission for that challenge, however in the months since then, I’ve learned so much, not only about each step of the 3D pipeline, but also about planning, time management, feedback, and submission. With everything I know now, I was able to approach the "Perfect Products" challenge in a more structured way, which I think ultimately helped me win.
Eternal Ascent render © Roni Rosenstein
Roni’s Social Media:
- Instagram: Instagram | roni.rsnstn
- YouTube: YouTube | roni.rsnstn
