Vladyslava Torhonska

1. Tell us about yourself. Why did you choose 3D graphics.

Hello everyone, my name is Vladislava, I am 23 years old. I am from the city of Kharkov, Ukraine and my diagnosis is 3D visualizer)

As a child, I was very fond of drawing, went to the artist for private lessons, and a little later I entered the Repin school. I painted always and everywhere: from the walls in my room, to the asphalt near the house. Favorite theme for the drawing was a house with a courtyard. I really liked watching the housing problem, the repair school and others. I reviewed several times the magazines with furniture that we had at home, probably then I thought about the profession of designer, and later a 3D visualizer of the interior.

2. How did you learn 3D visualization.

In 2011, I entered the Kharkov Art School and there I discovered programs such as: SketchUp, Artlantis, Archicad and 3Ds Max. The learning process took a long time. After 2 years of working at Archicad, which I really liked, I switched to 3Ds Max, which seemed complicated to me. It had many functions, but at the same time, much more features. Initially, we were asked certain tasks in computer design. We worked mainly with geometry, later we began to connect 3D visualization. After I worked in 3Ds Max, I never returned to other programs.

I tried to do my first high-quality 3D visualization in Vray, the result was so-so, but then I did not understand it. I worked on my brother’s laptop, I had to wait for a few days for renderings. The program often crashed, but over time I learned to optimize the scene. And a couple of years later I discovered Corona Renderer, and it was a new love. A good result is much faster than in Vray, everything has become much easier and more understandable, the topic of 3D visualization has become very interesting for me.

3. Why did you choose freelance instead of work in studio.

After defending my diploma, I began to look for work, made a small portfolio and sent my resume to everyone. After a long time of searching, I finally got an answer and after the interview I became an assistant to the designer and we began to work together. My work consisted of visualization according to TK, but sometimes connecting my imagination (I didn’t suspect that this work had a separate name for the 3D visualizer).

Six months later, I began to feel much more confident in the program and began working in parallel for the Lebanese studio, as time became less, I decided to work at home. I had much more time, I felt left to myself. After some time, I worked with the Kharkov 3D visualization studio, and after that I completely went into free swimming.

4. Tell us how you are looking for clients.

At first I collected a more or less decent portfolio, again began to send it to everyone. So I took my first personal order, after which I completely joined the freelance sphere. I began to exhibit works on Behance, 3ddd, Instagram and I no longer had to look for work, customers wrote themselves. At first I did not focus on anything, I took all the work that was offered. Then I stopped taking styles that I didn’t like or were not interested in. For me, in dealing with the customer is important attitude. What attitude to me, the same will be with me. Sometimes the project is interrupted in the middle, the relationship did not work out and the project did not finish, although I try not to bring it to this.

It is also important, in my opinion, that the designer understands that the result is 50% design, 50% 3D visualization. With a bad result, all the blame falls on the 3D visualizer, with a good one - the designer is well done, and thanks to him such good renderings. I strongly disagree with this, therefore, attitude is what I emphasize in choosing a customer. However, more often than not, it is difficult to predict in advance what will be the attitude.

5. Do you know foreign languages? Do freelancers need them today?.

What is the plus of Western customers, they (basically, but not always) have a completely different attitude to work, a different design and price is higher. If you want to work with a European customer, of course you need knowledge of the language, but there are exceptions. I have a customer with whom I communicate in Russian, and his studio is based in London.

My knowledge of English leaves much to be desired, but nowadays this is not such a big problem, only if the customer does not want to talk to you via Skype, as I noticed this is a frequent practice, in which case I say directly that my English is not so good, to talk directly and I use a translator, they calmly react to this and we continue the conversation in Messenger.

6. Tell me an interesting case related to work.

Once, there was a customer who asked to make a waterfall on the entire glass wall adjacent to the bathroom for his iguana named Valdemar. Maybe this was not the most interesting case, but I remember it better than the others.

7. What projects do you like to do the most?.

Most of all I like to work in some style for the first time. Or in a new type of room for me, for example, a hotel lobby or a liquor store. I won’t take some styles in the future, but when you try it for the first time, it really fascinates me. I love it when the deadlines are not tightened, so that it would be time to work on detailed angles (showing details), it’s better to work out the materials.

8. Where are you looking for inspiration?.

If we talk about my personal projects, then I find inspiration everywhere. It can be a movie or a walk / trip. Or just a picture that got into Instagram recommendations, after viewing which an idea and a desire to create appear. And this is not necessarily connected with the interiors. Just pictures that you liked by color or general mood. I like to create my own mudboards or collages. Sometimes I just distribute pictures into folders, from which a new project can then appear.

And if we talk about orders, very often inspiration comes directly during work, or at the stage of viewing a task, when you see only a sketch of an idea, but already imagine what kind of light, what cameras, what decor you will do.

9. Do you continue to improve your skills?.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we are working in a field in which you cannot stop, new functions and ways to achieve the best result appear, you need to constantly improve. Unfortunately, in the process of work, I rarely manage to find and try new interesting things, because short deadlines for projects most often do not allow experimentation, so I try everything new on my personal projects.

10. What is a freelancer in Ukraine? Advantages and disadvantages.

Honestly, my projects with Ukrainian customers can be counted on the fingers. It just so happened that my very first project was with a Ukrainian designer of Italian origin, and for the next two years I worked with Russia and Europe and only twice again with Ukraine in the following years. But it seems to me that a freelancer is a freelancer everywhere, it’s important to determine comfortable conditions for yourself and not to deviate from them, because you can get negative experience both in Ukrainian and in any other market.

11. Have you had any suggestions to leave to work abroad? If so, why did you stay.

There were suggestions, but there was still no one that would really interest me. Not sure if I want to leave my country or even my city.

12. How do you prefer to spend free time from work? Sports, travel.

I have practically no free time, when I am free from work, I can do a project for myself, and if I want to travel, I arrange my time so that a free window appears for certain dates. Weekends usually go to movies, TV shows, meetings with friends, and at the moment I’m still fond of driving.

13. What do you strive for in your work. What peaks, results?

I strive to make me and the designer like our projects and to receive more interesting projects in the future.

14. Wishes, advices and parting words to the audience.

I think the most important thing is to love what you do. If you love your job, there will be a desire to develop and do beautifully, create a mood in each project and it will be read, they will see it. Find your presentation style, and do not copy other artists, we are all individual and each has his own unique style .

All works of Vladislava are available in her portfolio: https://www.behance.net/torgonsky