Vietnam VFX:  Tell us a little bit about you? Your name is Mai Van, are you Vietnamese?

Mai Van: Well technically I’m Chinese, but my parents grew up in Vietnam so we have a lot of Vietnamese culture in us (as you can tell by my name). I grew up in Chicago and moved out to the west coast for college and then stayed for work. I have a wandering spirit though, as my mother calls it, and rarely stay in a city for more then two years. It’s another reason I love what I do! I freelance part time if I’m working at a company and full time when I’m not. When I’m freelancing full time, I can be on the road and still get work done. All I need is my trusty laptop and an internet connection and off I go! =)

By seeing your works shown in your website, you possess a very good modeling skill. So how did you get into this career?

Thanks =) I wasn’t one of those kids who always knew this was what they wanted to do. In fact, up until my freshmen year in college I was all set to become an astrophysicist! Even so, I had always loved writing stories, especially science fiction and fantasy. I began drawing and painting more seriously to bring these worlds from my mind to the paper in a way that was beyond words and 3D was just a natural next step. Once I realized that I loved the freedom that art allowed me to express, I decided it was what I wanted to do for a living, so I enrolled myself in an art/film college and got my Bachelors in Animation and Visual Effects. Hard work was definitely a major factor, but also networking. It was through an old teacher who remembered the quality of my work and dedication in his class that landed me my first job out of college. It’s been one crazy adventure after another since then, and I love every minute of it =)

Talk about your recent works, how did you come up with the ideas of creating such complex models? Personally, i like the mechanic fish ;) How long you spent for each?

It really varies depending on the project. Most models take about one week, on and off, usually during the night time when I have some free time after work. Models that were completed for a client are usually completed in an even shorter time. As for ideas, it depends on what’s inspiring me at the time =) I love complex models, so when I see something that has a million moving parts I just think about how fun it would be to model it. I also have several ideas for personal short animations in the works, so there are whole worlds I get to dream up and create. These are the best, because I’m not restrained by any guidelines or set images out there. It’s a world I created, so I can design it any way I like =)

What is your main tool?

I mainly use Autodesk Maya for modeling, Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter for 2d painting and texturing, and Adobe AfterEffects for compositing. I’ve used most major 3D programs in existence and a fair number of the “lesser” ones as well. Every program has its strengths and weaknesses, and knowing when to use which really helps speed up the production process. Plus sometimes a client wants a job done in a specific program, so it pays to mess around with as many as you can =) 

What is your objective in work?
I want to create an image or a movie that tells a story that sticks in people’s mind, that makes them think, makes them laugh, makes them cry. I have these rich worlds filled with all these characters that dance around in my head and I want to give them a life of their own by making them exist in a world apart from myself. When I was in elementary school a teacher once told me that poetry is like shouting; you have to say what you need to say in as few words as possible, or you’d run out of breath before you finished. If you look at all the great artists out there, they’re able to do this in a single image. That’s what I hope to achieve every time I start a new piece.

Thank you Mai for answering my questions. Keep up the good work and hope to see your upcoming projects.

Thanks for the interview =) I have a lot of fun projects in the work, so stop by now and then to check it out!