Hi Alex, it's great to chat with you. To begin with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be an artist?
Firstly, I want to thank you for your interest in my work and for the fantastic product that helps me bring my creative vision to life.

I'm 34 years old, born in a small town in western Ukraine. Since childhood, I've had a passion for creativity, surrounded by artistic individuals like painters, musicians and athletes. However, I found my outlet for creative potential in 3D art.

In my country, I couldn't acquire sufficient knowledge in this field when I started getting interested about 8 years ago. YouTube became my savior, proving that even basic tutorials on the platform could be instrumental. There were days in the first year when I dedicated up to 10 hours to learning, unable to stop myself.

And that's how my journey, or what one might call a career, began. It's more like a part of me and my life. Overcoming the lack of formal education in my country, YouTube became my classroom, laying the foundation for my venture into the world of 3D art.

We've shared many of your projects on Instagram recently, ranging from Taiao to fluid sims and particle dispersal. What is your favorite type of simulation to work on?

Thank you for showcasing my work. I particularly enjoy working with water and granular simulations, as well as constraints. However, it's not in their standard forms, like a water flow; I like to use these simulations in more abstract forms, such as melting or the various movements of particles shaping or deforming objects.

Can you tell us, from the INSYDIUM Fused collection, which is your favorite to use and why?

I particularly enjoy X-Particles. Even in my free time, just playing around, I can achieve interesting results that might be useful in the future. Especially now, with the advent of NeXus, particle work has become very fast and enjoyable. I see great potential in nxQuestions.

In the short videos that Bob shares on your YouTube channel every Tuesday, I discover unexpected applications of various methods combining your products. This often proves to be helpful in my projects.

I also love using mtSplineFX with MeshTools and, of course, Taiao. Taiao provides significant freedom in generating plants and, more importantly, in animating and interacting with particles.

Looking through your portfolio, we noticed a project you'd worked on with the Ukraine flag. How did this come about and how did you create the effects within this project?

It was a personal project during the challenging times my people and country going through war with Russia.

In this project, I used X-Particles and TerraformFX. I created a simulation of a flag with the initial layer of particles attached to the flag, taking color data from the flag's texture and scattering small stones using RS Scatter. I then added a spawning emitter influenced by wind and turbulence. Additionally, I used constraints to ensure that particles flowed in streams without dispersing randomly in space.

For generating the landscape, I employed TerraformFX and rendered the entire scene in Redshift Render.

Thanks again for taking the time to chat with us, Alex. Before you go, could you please give one piece of advice for an aspiring motion designer.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about my work. From my experience, I can say that the key is to love what you do; then, it becomes easier to navigate the initial stage when learning tools may seem too challenging.

The best motivation is to be satisfied with the result of the work you've done, whether you are following a tutorial or implementing your own idea.

Books on composition, lighting, color theory, and art history have also been helpful to me. They provide a deeper understanding of various aspects of creativity and contribute to improving one's skills.

Instagram: @ashonchick

YouTube: youtube.com/@rockmotion770