Today we’d like to introduce you to David Ariew.
David, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I took a very weird path into being a creative. I was on the science track at The College of William & Mary in undergrad, and I ended up getting a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and then continuing on to a Ph.D. program in Neuroscience at the University of Virginia in 2008. As it turned out, I liked learning about science, but when it came to actually doing the lab work, I hated it and felt like a fraud. All the nerdy bio kids were going off and reading science papers for fun and meeting up together to talk about their respective labs. I was avoiding it all like the plague by swing dancing, reading sci-fi novels, and meeting my future wife. Really, I was there to humor my parents, who were academics themselves and thought it was the safest track towards building a satisfying life. In undergrad though, I found that I was passionate about filmmaking, especially the software side, but I didn’t think it would be anything more than a hobby. Once I finally got it in my head that art could be an actual career, I switched down to a Masters program, got the degree and went out on my own, interning with a documentarian in town and collaborating on projects with him.
From there, I got hired at a company called Filament Productions in 2010, creating the visuals that go on the screen behind Dave Matthews Band, as well as several music festivals and country music artists like Tim McGraw and Zac Brown Band. I used the three years I was at the company to train myself like crazy, learning the crafts of editing, color grading, visual effects, and motion graphics, as well as spending all my extra cash on filmmaking equipment and going out on shoots with friends, participating in 48 hour filmmaking contests, and all-in-all immersing myself. When the company lost business in 2014, and they didn’t have much interesting work for me anymore, I took the jump into freelance and immediately found myself making 2-3 times as much money as previous years.
For a long time, I took on any and all post-production jobs I could get my hands on and worked mostly on commercials, but my passion was always in music videos and intensive solo 3D work. It was a long road from being this uber-generalist to telling clients I only do 3D work, but in 2016 a project fell into my lap that made the transition happen. I was given the opportunity to create a four-minute full-CG music video and worked on it over the course of four months. The brief was “I want to see an astronaut drifting through derelict space environments, seeing Tree of Life-esque visions,” and was left to my own devices to run wild. It was one of those projects that rarely (almost never) comes along that allowed me an extended timeline, full creative control, and a decent budget. It really elevated my career and put me on the map with my community of 3D motion designers. From there, I moved to San Diego, got to work personally with Deadmau5 on his concert visuals at his house in Toronto, created the intro to Katy Perry’s Witness tour, the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards opening titles, and many tutorials on the software I use called Octane Render, which have made a huge impact on the community and helping others learn the same craft.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I create 3D animations and still images (renders), sometimes combined with live action, but more and more I’m creating CG worlds that exist on their own. Often the look is dictated by the client, but as my style has become more defined, I’m finding clients are approaching me for my look rather than the other way around. My art is ethereal and other-worldly, and I focus on lighting and camera movement in my animations to create moody and cinematic pieces. Sometimes the work is goofy and light-hearted, and other times it’s more somber, or just surreal. Often, I’m just trying to create something awe-inspiring and vast, while other projects are more intimate and sad, but I’m always hoping to at least entertain the viewer.
I’m inspired by the visuals of my favorite sci-fi films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Looper, and Blade Runner, but there’s often a disconnect because those are created by thousands of artists, each performing a specialized role. I’m even more inspired by solo artists like myself, or the work of small teams, that take on the herculean task of creating a CG short film. Pushing that envelope of what’s possible as a solo artist is really what gets me excited.
What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
The internet is becoming a huge place of support for artists and building community. In my community, there are tons of slack channels out there, as well as subreddits, more facebook groups than you can count, discord channels, sites to take classes together and bond with your peers through the process, and the simple power of direct messaging fellow artists on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
That’s not to say online interaction is enough though, and it’s extremely important to put yourself out there and meet up with members of your community. I travel all over the country to go to events every year, and they’re a blast. For me, the big ones are NAB, Siggraph, Half-Rez, Motion Plus Design, and a local meetup in Orange County every month. Meetup.com is a great place to start, but ask artists that go out to events more than you, and you’ll get the inside scoop. Often, the info for meetups exists only through facebook because Meetup.com charges a membership fee.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
To see my portfolio of work, including my reel, full projects, tutorials, the podcasts I’ve been on, and the resources I recommend to follow a similar career path to my own, check out my site arievvisuals.com.
You can also follow me on Instagram or Twitter with my handle davidariew
Contact Info:
- Website: arievvisuals.com
- Phone: 757-561-8227
- Email: david@arievvisuals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidariew/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.ariew
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidariew?lang=en
Image Credit:
All images created by David Ariew
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