Recently we got the opportunity to talk to an amazing artist, currently working in Athens Greece, Antonis Kotzias. We were on the web looking around at sites and what caught my eye was the Ignition Entertainment logo (I am a big PSP Mercury Fan). I got looking around more and saw more and more great work.
Ignition entertainment logo
Not only is he a 3D Artist, he is also a musician. Antonis is the lead singer of Horrified, a death metal band that he started back in 1989.
CGF – Tell us a little bit about yourself, where were you born? When did you become interested in art or computers?
I was born in Athens Greece in 1975. I remember as a young kid I was hustling my parents to buy me a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, that started everything, then it was the Atari, the Amiga, etc.. I lived in Greece until I was 18 and then I went to London to do get my bachelors degree in computer graphics programming. 4 years later I went to Glasgow Scotland to do get my masters degree in computer graphics in Glasgow school of arts. Since then I have been traveling working in Athens, Glasgow, London, and lately in Animal Logic at Sydney Australia.
CGF – If you could pick one thing in computer programming that you feel changed your direction artistically what would that be?
Unfortunately for me CG programming took the magic out of 3D. Before I got into that industry I projected in my head ways of how things are done, I was very young and the way I imagined it to work inside the computer was far more “romantic” and I have to admit very naive. As soon as I started college, C++, Fourier transformations, rendering, rastering, although fascinating subjects they had no magic into them.
Luckily for me we did several courses on advanced mathematics in fractals, numbers describing chaos, infinity and uncertainty, specially the work of Benoit Mandelbrot. This prompted me to appreciate even more the quality of talent, drawing, expression, and of course 3d creation.
CGF – What about the Art degree, what is one thing that you feel changed the way you look and create art work?
First of all the school, Glasgow school of arts is one of the best art schools out there. I was very lucky to be taught be Chris Rowland and others very talented lecturers and artists. Technical stuff didn't matter that much it was all about inspiration. The building was amazing as well, designed by Macintosh it’s a world renowned building, we had tourists visiting every day!
The one thing that made a change to my perception about art was the diversity of people, I learned to open my mind and be able to accept everything. Madness, nonsense, and modern ideas made all sense to me.
