CGNetworks Artist Profile :: Luciano Neves
Digital Temples – Recreating the World's Greatest Architecture
Lisa Thurston, 8 November 2004

From London's Tower Bridge to the Basilique du Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, digital artist Luciano Neves, has recreated some of the world's most distinctive edifices in 3D. Master Award winner in the digital art book ELEMENTAL for his image Basilic, Neves is a consummate specialist in highly-detailed, CG architectural recreations. Lisa Thurston interviews Neves to find out who he is and what drives him to be the architect of these CG recreations.

Luciano Neves Born in São Paulo, Brazil, 29 year-old Neves is currently working as Production Manager - 3D Special Effects Team Coordinator at Brazilian computer graphics company Inutilia Truncat. In his professional capacity, coordinating a small and dedicated team, Neves harnesses his relentless attention to detail for visual effects for television and film. Professionally qualified in programming, Neves turned instead to art and design after he graduated and has now been in the computer graphics industry for just under a decade.

How did you get involved in CG modeling/visualization? What are you doing now?

In reality I never worked as programmer. I started working in computer graphics nine years ago when accessible information about this area in Brazil was very scarce – quite a different situation from today. I always liked art and design very much, and these make up my professional life.

During these nine years in the industry I've had the opportunity to work in many different companies including some in Europe. In 1996 I created a small design company for elaborate printed graphics. After two and a half years we ended our operation and I started to work for a company where I was a web designer responsible for the multimedia and internet department. I also did freelance work designing packaging where most of my works involved some degree of 3D.

Since then my determination to study 3D began to grow into a professional career. To improve my knowledge in CG, I did two courses: Discreet High-End of Movies and TV. I then began to send 3D images in to CG-oriented magazines and websites like CGTalk.

Working in Brazil in 2001, a European company came to know of my works through these publications. Then I was contracted in the same year by a prominent Swiss engineering company, Nüssli AG, which specializes in large temporary constructions such as stages, grandstands, and scaffolding. I was responsible for the development of many technical catalogues and for the development 3D presentations for special events.

It was there in Switzerland that I improved the observation technique for large structures and gained a more 'metric vision' of objects that compose large structures. Projects I worked on such as Olympic stadiums among others, increased my modeling speed because my workflow changed. I usually built pieces in 3D just through fast annotations and observing the models and pictures that I did, and when more details were necessary, I used technical drawings.