Yuditya Afandi: "I Still Believe in Heroes"

Looking at his stunning character models, it's hard to believe Yuditya is only 19 and started modeling just a few years ago. We talked to him about his love of superheroes and the unique connection he has to his characters.

Your favorite subject seems to be famous people: why?

I draw inspiration from many places, usually movies or concept art. Sometimes, famous people inspire me as well. For my Wonder Woman project, the movie was my inspiration, though I didn't only use Gal Gadot as reference but also Wonder Woman from Injustice 2.

'Girl' based on character concept by Yungun Y 

Why do your fictional characters  come with a back story and personality profile? 

I always come up with back story and personality first, because that's going to impact the final look of the character.

Some of your favorite characters are also superheroes.

I'm always inspired by their good vibes. Especially Spiderman, whom I think we all can relate to him and his personality: fun, friendly, doesn't care what people think about him. 

One thing that really got me into superheroes is their passion to stand in the middle of madness and always believe that they can save the world. I still believe in heroes.

'Wonder Woman'

You are a concept artist as well as a modeler: is drawing an essential modeling skill?

I believe that drawing absolutely helps in 3d modeling. When you're drawing you really have to think about the silhouette, otherwise your drawing won't be readable. And one the thing that is really hard to do in 3d is shilouette, because you have to deal with angles and perspective. Of course, there are more benefits from learning both. You have to watch the Concept Art videos at CG Cookie! I learned a lot from there even though I don't do much digital drawing, at least for now.

'Mawar'

What is it about characters that motivates you so much creatively?

What I really love about character creation is looking for something that we can connect to. And it's fun to sculpt human anatomy from scratch. Even though we know all the anatomy names and shapes of muscles, sometimes you just can't get it right. Because when you go out there and see the massive variation of body types, you can feel like things are off, when they are correct. That ambiguity and uncertainty is always there with every new 3D model I make, and that challenge is the best part of the process for me.

Check out more of Yuditya's art on CG Cookie or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.