ABED SABEH

Abed has over 20 years of experience in photo retouching, 3D animation, rendering, design and graphics, mostly concentrated in the advertising industry. During this time, he has worked with numerous companies on many large-scale projects and has collaborated with all the major international advertising agencies.

Abed is renowned for his ability to consistently deliver high-quality work above and beyond industry standards. With extensive past experience working in the Middle East, he is currently based in Italy and has expanded his work to include collaborations with more European and American companies.

Xpert Tip: How to make a 100% reflective glass from one side and 100% transparent from the other side, using the back culling enabled on the 100 % reflective object: it can be applied onto a thick plane with 2 separate faces.
This is useful when you have reflective windows for architectural rendering, offices/buildings, security rooms, or maybe any other purposes like sunglasses, or 100% reflective ski sunglasses, etc.

Contact:	Mulazzo, Italy abed.sabeh@me.com
Website:	www.abedsabeh.com
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ANITA BROWN

Anita is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and is the founder and owner of Anita Brown 3D Visualisation. With an Interior Design background, she has 5 years experience working with Maxwell Render and SketchUp to create visually captivating photo-real interiors for the Interior Design, Wedding Planning and Event Design industries. A selection of Anita’s photo-real interior renders were showcased at Grand Designs Live in London and she has had numerous expert articles published in 3D World Magazine.

Xpert Tip: Due to the various settings, available in Maxwell Render for Maxwell Grass, it’s possible to produce very delicate strands that look like fur, in no time at all. Perfect for cushions and rugs!

Contact:	Belfast, Northern Ireland hello@anitabrown3d.com
Website:	www.anitabrown3d.com
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ARTEM PARAMONOV

Artem came originally from the Film and TV industry. Throughout the years he has worked in game studios, post-production studios, different TV channels, design and marketing agencies. Now he is in the advertising industry. Currently a Senior 3D Creative at Iris Worldwide in Singapore, Artem is specializing in art for various VR and 360 projects.

If you’ve got any questions regarding his  visuals or techniques used – please feel free to ask – he is always open to share his experience!

Xpert Tip: From basic to complex. From generic to specific. Maxwell Render has an extremely logical material creation pipeline. This is unique among other render engines. The Maxwell Material Editor allows you to build materials layer by layer just like it would in real life. It, basically, encourages you to focus first on your main attributes, like color, or base roughness, and work your way up – by adding extra details, like scratches, decals, coating, cavity, dust, and what not.

Contact:	Singapore, Singapore paramonovtema@gmail.com
Website:	www.paramonov.me
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ARTHUR MAMOU-MANI

Arthur Mamou-Mani is a French architect and director of the award-winning practice Mamou-Mani Architects, specialized in a new kind of digitally designed and fabricated architecture.

He is a lecturer at the University of Westminster and UCL-Bartlett in London and owns a digital fabrication laboratory called the Fab.Pub which allows people to experiment with large 3D Printers and Laser Cutters. Since 2016, he is a fellow of the The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

He has won the Gold Prize at the American Architecture Prize for the Wooden Wave project installed at BuroHappold Engineering. Arthur gave numerous talks including the TedX conference in the USA and has been featured in The New-York Times and Forbes.

Mamou-Mani’s clients include ARUP, Buro Happold Engineering, Karen Millen Fashion, The Burning Man Festival, FoodInk and Imagination ltd. Prior to founding Mamou-Mani in 2011, he worked with Atelier Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid Architects and Proctor and Matthews Architects.

Contact:	London, UK arthurmani@gmail.com
Website:	Company: Mamou-Mani.com  Space: Fab.Pub Teaching: WeWantToLearn.net Hobby: ProjectSilkworm.com
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CARLOS ALBERTO DANA

Carlo Alberto Dana has had great interest in 3D CGI and architectural visualization ever since his architectural studies at Politecnico of Torino. In 2006 together with two partners he founded his Segnoprogetto S.r.l. company, specialized in advanced 3D visualization (still images – movies) and real time 3D web apps with AR & VR. He is also a co-creator of Udine 3D Forum in partnership with Confartigianato Udine since 2011 . The Udine 3D Forum is an event dedicated to all 3D, digital imaging, design, and 3D printing enthusiasts.

Contact:	Tarcento, Italy c.dana@segnoprogetto.it
Website:	www.segnoprogetto.it
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DANIEL HRUBY

Daniel Hruby the owner of Visualize It Built and is a licensed California architect specializing in high-end residential design. VIB provides 3d modeling and rendering services for anyone needing photorealistic images and animations of their designs. Daniel provides customized Maxwell Render training services for ArchiCAD and SketchUp and Modo users.

Xpert Tip: Get more out of your render time! Use Multilight to create several lighting variations of your scene. For interior scenes, you can have a day shot and a night shot by disabling or lowering Sun and Environment values and turning on some lights.

Contact:	San Diego Area, USA danielhruby@mac.com
Website:	www.VisualizeItBuilt.com
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DAVID DE LAS CASAS

David started working in the world of Fine Arts over twenty years ago. Years later he decided to change the brushes for technology and become a 3D modeler. Over the years, he has taken a passion for modelling and has devoted himself completely to 3D world. David’s specialties are: modelling, texturing & lighting. He works in several sectors – animation, film, ArchViz, games and advertising.

Xpert Tip: I use the plugins for SketchUp and 3dsMax only for testing purposes, but I always do the final rendering within Studio because it provides full control of all the parameters, including textures and lighting. I would recommend users to give Maxwell | Studio a try, as you can import/export from most 3D platforms even if you don’t have the respective plugins.

Contact:	Madrid, Spain 3dcs@3dcs.es
Website:	www.3dcs.es
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EVAN TROXEL

Evan Troxel, AIA is an architect, educator, maker, problem-solver, author, blogger, podcaster, father, adventurer—he never slows down and is a true lifelong learner. He is forever curious and always testing and adopting new concepts and technologies to work smarter. Evan shares what he knows through his podcast, book, and online tutorials and articles for 3d designers.

Contact:	Los Angeles, CA, USA evan@getmethod.com
Website:	evantroxel.com getmethod.com
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FEDERICO BIFFI GENTILI

Federico started his independent job experience in 2005 as a freelance designer. In collaboration with Alessio Zampolini, he founded his own design studio in 2009 in Florence, Italy. Un-real Studio creates original and innovative products, through the development of transversal projects connected to all the business sectors of design, retail, interior, communication. Un- real is also an Authorized Training Center which offers two different professional services – 3D computer graphics training and training to applications with high technological content such as parametric 3D modeling, advanced rendering, lights simulation, 3D animation.

Xpert Tip: I love the Maxwell “Multilayer” Material structure. With great simplicity, you can create a single material, with a different layer, where it’s possible to diversify the surface finishes, integrate some lighting, and control the holes, starting from a texture. A very useful way to obtain high-quality complex materials with a low impact on render times.

Contact:	Florence, Italy federico@un-real.it
Website:	www.un-real.it
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JASON MARANTO

Jason Maranto has been a professional commercial artist for 20 years. Starting with Maxwell Render 7 years ago, he quickly realized that mastering the Maxwell Material system was a key to getting the desired results. As a result of his extensive studies he released several video training series through VTC: Maxwell Render 2 (2010), Google SketchUp to Maxwell Render Workflow (2011) and Maxwell Render 3 Materials (2015).

Xpert Tip: When using additive layers for low roughness clear-coat effects (plastic, wooden floor, etc.) it is important to set the proper reflectance falloff for the material. Once you have set the roughness for your additive layer, you need to enable the Force Fresnel checkbox and set the Nd to a realistic value. For most acrylic clear-coats a good setting for Nd is 1.491.

Contact:	Tampa, Florida jason_maranto@hotmail.com
Website:	jasonmaranto.blogspot.com.es
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JOSEPH FRANCIS

Joseph Francis is a creative problem solver who brings to his work deep technical knowledge and a strong creative eye. An award winning computer animator, he is equally at home with turnkey systems or in a sophisticated proprietary environment. Skilled in painting and photography, he applies an understanding of traditional color and composition to his digital work. An experienced writer, he explores the challenges to storytelling posed by non-linearly structured interactive media. A popular speaker, he has entertained and informed audiences from SIGGRAPH to Showbiz Expo to major universities. Mr. Francis graduated from Duke University in 1985 with a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Studio Art.

Xpert Tip: Particles can be emitters in Maxwell. With motion blur enabled you could make a shower of sparks that interactively illuminates its environment.

Contact:	LA, USA jfrancis@earthlink.net
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MARIA CHIARA VIRGILI

Maria Chiara Virgili is an Architect especially qualified in 3d modeling and in creating high quality visualizations for advertising companies, architects and designers.

Among all the work experiences she has collected during the years, the most important is the one with Fuksas Architecture, firm where she specialized in portraying unbuilt architecture for international competitions.

She is also a freelance 3D artist, founder of ReDome3D (online platform for CGI services), and authorized trainer for McNeel as well as expert user for Autodesk and other important software houses.

Thanks to these qualifications, she worked for several years as a professor for authorized centers and universities.

Xpert Tip: As a lover of DOF and Bokeh effects, I think that customizing aperture and obstacle maps as well as to playing with diffraction, are significant features which provide the artist with ultimate control over the shape and body of the aperture to create an extremely realistic variety of effects!

Contact:	Rome, Italy mail@chiaravirgili.com
Website:	www.chiaravirgili.com
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MARK STASIUK – FUSION CI STUDIOS

Mark Stasiuk and his team at Fusion CI Studios is committed to excelling at complex dynamic fx challenges. Realistic physical simulation is the core of their work – complex particle & fluid fx involving liquids, smoke, fire, explosions and rigid/soft body dynamics at uncompromising, photo-real, feature-film quality.

Fusion CI Studios typically work as a plug ‘n play fx team for other vfx houses when these need to expand their fx capacity for challenging custom fx work. Their clients find this working model invaluable since dynamic fx are still very complex to do well, especially within today’s compressed schedules & budgets. The years of expertise ensure Fusion CI Studios deliver outstanding dynamic effects both time & cost-effectively.

Contact:	Los Angeles, USA
Website:	fusioncis.com
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MATTIA SULLINI

Mattia is an Architect working as a freelance artist since 1999 for small studios providing wide-spectrum task-based visualization digital services ranging from archviz, to custom 3d modeling, to survey and reconstruction.  He initially used LightWave but eventually switched to Modo in 2005, and he has been using Maxwell Render since the beta version. He currently uses Maxwell extensively on almost every project he works on and he has completed around 400 projects so far with the software.

MICHAEL MARCONDES

Self-taught Brazilian artist in the field of Computer Graphics, working nationally and internationally over 15 years as a Creative Director, Technical Artist and Art Director. His expertise goes from Virtual Photography, 3D Productions for TV and Cinema to Product Viz and High-Eng Training for the VFX Industry, where he produced dozens of training videos for cmiVFX. In the last years he has been working exclusively with international clients, which brought an exponential growth in visibility globally in the art industry. Today he is the lead professor at the Motion Design Post Graduate program at ESAD and founder of the employment technology initiatives, which in two years of existence registered over 300 job offers in an innovative new platform inspired by the needs of his own students.

Contact:	Porto, Portugal bigbluecanvas@gmail.com
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MICHEL MANFREDI

Michel Manfredi is a professional photographer with more than 25 years of experience in general image (photography, graphics, 3D …). He describes himself as a 3D photographer.

In his work, Michel applies lighting techniques used in “classical” photography. He has worked for major luxury brands and advertising agencies, in the fields of automotive, jewelry, cosmetics.

Michel lives in France, in La Rochelle, a beautiful seaside town on the West coast. He offers his services remotely to agencies, photographers, and more. He also offers custom Maxwell Render training to Cinema 4D users.

Contact:	La Rochelle, France contact@michelmanfredi.com
Website:	www.michelmanfredi.com
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MIHAI ILIUTA

With a background in graphic/UI design, Mihai started diving into 3D and rendering over a decade ago and has been doing product and archviz for a number of years. He is a Maxwell user since its early beta days in 2004. From 2009-2015 Mihai worked for Next Limit Technologies where he was responsible among other things for quality control and testing of Maxwell Render, and collaborating closely with the development team on the implementation of new features and workflows. Now he runs the site MaxwellZone – a hub of useful information, materials, models and other goodies related to Maxwell Render.

Xpert Tip: In the real world, almost no material is only diffuse. It always has a bit of reflective specs, or wider soft reflections. Use an additive layer to mimic this and play with the roughness and layer weight parameters.

Contact:	Montpellier, France mihai@maxwellzone.com
Website:	www.maxwellzone.com
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MIRCE MLADENOV

Mirče studied architecture where he discovered his passion for visualizations. He tries to take the skills learned from archviz to the field of product visualization and lately also VR. Mirče has 10 years of experience and has worked on a variety of projects, some of which can be seen on his website.

Contact:	Ljubljana, Slovenia info@renderji.com
Website:	renderji.com
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MOHAMAD SAIED

Mohamad Saied, is a CGI artist based in Hamburg, Germany. The 30 year-old artist’s main focus is product visualization combined with a passion for shading, lighting and rendering.

With over 6 years of experience Mohamad Saied has worked in multiple studios, as well as a freelancer in Syria, Turkey, and currently as the lead CGI artist at Scholz & Friends Hamburg – one of the major advertising agencies in Europe.

Mohamad’s photography-based approach to lighting in his CGI projects made Maxwell Render his preferred tool for lighting and rendering, and he has been using it for almost half of his career now.

Xpert Tip: While almost all other renderers use a simplified approach for setting the index of refraction (IOR) for materials with just one number, Maxwell takes the more physically accurate approach and uses a combination of two parameters to define the index of refraction of a material, the first is the Nd number which represents the index of refraction, and this is what’s used usually in other renderers as well, the second parameter and that is what’s unique about Maxwell Render is using the K number which represents the Extinction Coefficient. combining those two parameters will result in the most physically accurate representation of your materials IOR compared to any other render engine available.

Contact:	Hamburg, Germany mohamadsaied3d@gmail.com
Website:	www.artstation.com
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NIKOS NIKOLOPOULOS

Nikos began his journey as a lighting artist in 2004. He worked internationally across various sectors such as architecture, advertising and photography, before coming to London to work as lead 3D artist at Cityscape Digital, where he became CGI Director for 5 years.

With a substantial amount of projects and experiences under his belt, and with his homeland calling, Nikos decided to return to Athens, Greece to launch his new studio. However, he soon felt the need to share his knowledge with other artists, and as the bond with Cityscape Digital was too strong to break, teamed up with them to forge a new concept; creativelighting.co is a vision for CG driven by the philosophies of cinematic lighting.

Nikos travels the world to deliver workshops, sharing his Creative Lighting philosophy and helping all kinds of artists take their work a step further.

Contact:	Athens, Greece nikos@creativelighting.co
Website:	www.creativelighting.co www.creativelightingclub.com
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PAOLO ZAVALA

Pablo has over 12 years of experience in architecture, interior design, and environmental graphics. He is passionate about exploring and playing with new ideas, visions and concepts. Rapid visualization is the core of his work. His work ethics is based on parameters of questions that allow him to create a framework of possibilities in the visualization of ideas in design. Playfulness and processes are the core fundamental principles that give life to his creations and methodology of teaching.

Pablo shares a passion for teaching and mentoring younger designers. He has taught courses in environmental graphic design using Maxwell as a design tool to visualize the infinite arrays of ideas that can be imagined.

Xpert Tip: Keep your materials to a minimum, simplify the process, “it is real, but doesn’t have to be real, be playful with the process”. Be open to experiment with your ideas, touch and play.

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RAUL VALVERDE

Raul Valverde is a multimedia artist based in New York. His projects are mostly context-specific and often involve the use of appropriation, illusion and irony.

Raul Valverde received a BFA from Complutense University, Madrid, an MA from London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, and an MFA from SVA, New York. Since 2011, Raul Valverde teaches new media, video and photography at the Fine Arts Department of the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Contact:	New York, USA gomezvalverde@gmail.com
Website:	www.valverderaul.com
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RICCARDO CECCHINATO

Riccardo is an Italian freelance CG Artist, now based in Paris – France. In the recent years he has been working and teaching in the fields of photorealistic rendering for interior design, 3D modelling, photography and post-production. After having successfully accomplished a Master Degree in 3D Animation and Visual Effects at the prestigious Bournemouth University, he is now actively working as Lighting Artist in relevant movie productions, focusing now on Feature Animation films such as Despicable Me 3 (Illumination MacGuff – Universal).

Riccardo is a passionate artist, displaying a strong willingness of knowledge-sharing and constantly aiming for new exciting ideas and higher goals. Do not hesitate to get in touch with him!

Xpert Tip: During the set-up of a lighting rig, instead of using an additional low-light to brighten up specific areas of the composition, just use a lambert plane as a reflector. It will give an even more realistic and natural feeling to the final image!

Contact:	Paris, Francia riccardo.cecchinato@yahoo.it
Website:	ramonesfan.cgsociety.org
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ROB REDMAN

Rob is Creative Director at a boutique VFX and animation studio, working across print, film and TV. As well as being a regular writer and contributing editor at 3D World and 3D Total, he is also often found presenting at various events, such as FMX and THU.

Contact:	Frome, England rob@pariahstudios.co.uk
Website:	www.pariahstudios.co.uk
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ROCH

Roch is an experienced user who has been working with Maxwell Render since 2005. He is part of the Maxwell Render beta testing team. Roch is also a certified trainer and a well-known face in the French Maxwell Render community.

Contact:	Marseille, France roch@maxwellrender.fr
Website:	www.maxwellrender.fr
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ROSHAN MARTIN

Roshan is a digital prototyping and 3D visualization specialist and director of VOXELPICTURES International. He has been working professionally in the design-, manufacturing-, and high-end 3D visualization industry since 1999. He is also an instructor for basic to advanced Maya and Maxwell Render courses in Geneva, and won the international Autodesk Ahead of the Curve award in 2007.

Contact:	Geneva, Switzerland info@voxelpictures.com
Website:	www.voxelpictures.com
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TOBIAS NIENTIEDT

Tobias Nientiedt is an international awarded art director and CGI artist from Hamburg, Germany, where he is Head of CGI at Scholz & Friends, the largest German advertising agency network. After studying Communication and Media Design at the Marquardt Advertising Academy in Dortmund, he began his career as an art director specializing in CGI and image creation at a number of agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather or Leo Burnett.

Tobias is more passionate about images and creation than technology. CGI is simply his preferred tool to realize his ideas independently, quickly and effectively, in particular Maxwell with its easy to use and physically correct approach. Tobias sees himself less as a 3D operator and more as a creative with the skills to successfully execute his ideas.

Xpert Tip: I find the “ghost material” very important – to be able to have an emitter that has no influence on other emitters or objects (like shadows for example) when you switch it off via Multilight. In this way, I can render especially cars in one rendering and do all exposures I need afterwards via Multilight.

Contact:	Hamburg, Germany tobias.nientiedt@gmail.com
Website:	www.tobiasnientiedt.wordpress.com
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TONI FRESNEDO

Toni is an extremely talented and experienced CGI/3D Artist dedicated to Architectural visualization and Product visualization. He is an expert modeler and texture artist and his main tools are 3ds Max and Maxwell Render. Toni lives and works in beautiful Barcelona, Spain, and provides visualization services as well as distance/online training.

Contact:	Barcelona, Spain toni@tonifresnedo.com
Website:	www.tonifresnedo.com
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WIEGER POUTSMA

Wieger is the lead artist and founder of FISK-imaging – a boutique post-production studio. The studio specializes in high-quality CGI and Photoshop work creating stills, matte paintings, fluid simulations and animations. Wieger has more than 25 years of experience in the field of digital imaging and post-production. He has worked for many international companies, photographers and artists over the years and has become one of the leading artists in the business.

FISK-imaging also organizes workshops, training and seminars in collaboration with its business partners.

Contact:	Amsterdam, The Netherlands info@fisk-imaging.com skype: wieger.poutsma Phone: +31 (0)20 4198612 Mobile: +31 (0)6 53898054
Website:	www.fisk-imaging.com
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