Mania Carta

Since I was a child, drawing had become my passion and especially in Manga and Japanese anime. by growing up I decided to follow my passion and enrolled at the High School of Arts. I realized I wanted to express my creativity even more, so continued my studies. I learned as much as I could in order to have a much wider view as a designer. So, I chose to learn more about the fundamentals of art and design. four years later I put myself to the test and started my career right away. Nevertheless, I had prior professional experiences while I was studying. Such jobs were not all design-oriented, but they lead me to be the person I am today, and I'm very proud of that. However, I started my job as a graphic designer right after I finished my studies. Back then the company I used to work with designed displays for brands. I got a promotion and then rejected it. I felt I had to change again and start another job path elsewhere. I was contacted by another company and became their main designer, but after all the experiences working with different companies in different places, I decided to found my own company sandstorm. and today I can say that I am very proud to have won the Gold A ’Design Award in the Computer Graphics, 3D Modeling, Texturing, and Rendering Design Award Category which gives me more motivation to offer new ways of character design to the world that they can enjoy and be an inspirational key for future young designers.

I am the founder and CEO of my company sandstorm I established in Tokyo I specialize in triple-A Character Production and other services. I specialized in making High-End Digital Characters using the latest technology. My main production tool is Blender and Unreal Engine. As the Blender industry is growing I am focusing on making Blender as the image the best production tool for Film Production and Gaming Industry. I am dedicated to outsourcing and managing digital art production, sandstorm is capable of delivering cutting-edge virtual human and digital characters for a huge range of CG projects. I also specialize in Motion graphics, Anime Celshading, Environment, Compositing, Projection Mapping, Real-time Rendering, and more. My goal is to create the best character quality design that has soul around the World. Fusing Blender and Unreal together, we aim to create the most distinctive designs and styles in real-time in the World. You can know more about my company and what we provide in the link below. https://www.sandstormstudio.com/

Design for me is the way I communicate with myself through others, it's my real soul's native language I believe design is a bridge connecting art and our daily life. It improves our living utility and happiness by transforming amazing thoughts and ideas into reality. For me, the design represents creativity, responsibility, challenges, and evolution for the next generation, and each design piece creates a unique object either in the virtual world or the real world that influences the way people think and behave to promote a healthy community and innovative thinking. By taking advantage of both the experience and knowledge from the past and the capability and potential from the present, we will be able to discover more of the beauty and infinite possibilities of this world and make it move forward to be an inspiration for future generations.

I like working on fashion, graphic and character design because they are all closely related to my daily life. At the same time, I also keep learning, improving and challenging myself on some other design categories, especially those related to new technologies. My recent interests are digital humans. I love to work on different creative projects with ideas and inspirations from the daily life. I believe different design categories are somehow connected with each other. With the constant improvement of technology, we are now able to design things that could be useful and functional for multiple occasions and different scenarios.

It's Luna the Night Witch of Linerma that who got many awards on different platforms and social media. As also won the Gold A ’Design Award in the Computer Graphics, 3D Modeling, Texturing, and Rendering Design Award Category which was a true surprise for me.

Some graphic prints, flyers and advertising artworks for TV channel

I used to work with Adobe and 3D Max a lot for graphic design artwork, stand designs, and packaging projects then I hone my skills to learn different software and techniques from Maya, cinema 3D, Modo, Lightwave, Softimage, and many others but once I discovered blender I switched completely to it and it became my main production tool for anything I want to make.

I always make sure that my character I design feel alive and want to come from my screen, as also I make sure the core ideas and concepts of the characters and final look are transmitted clearly.

Pleased and satisfied but still I want to bring more and more creative styles.

A good design should be able to transmit its core concept clearly. It should be functional and practical. I believe a successful design can bring satisfaction and happiness to people.

A clear interpretation of its concept and value can usually leave a good impression at the beginning.

As a designer, my intention is to become a pioneer and pathfinder. For me, design is the outcome of critical thinking and exploring. By taking advantage of the power of design, I believe we can find better solutions to the existing problems in our society and environment.

am glad to see the design field has become more diverse and inclusive these years. Rapidly developing science and technology give us more flexibility in forms, methods, and platforms. In the future, I think “Metaverse” concept may become more popular and we may expect more relevant art and design works appear in the field. Another trending technology is the Artificial Intelligence. I have seen art works created by AI robots on the news. The AI robots were surprisingly creative and productive. They might become strong competitors of human being not only in production but also in creative industry. The good thing is this pressure of competition can transform into motivation that urges us to keep thinking, exploring and moving forward.

usually find inspirations in my daily life. Things I have come across or people I have met. My brain is most productive at night. I like staying alone, letting thoughts and ideas flash by. Traveling to new places and experiencing new things are good ways to look for inspirations and feed creativity as well.

In my design, I always focus on details and give life to my characters but also put them in a story and give them life, personality, and characteristics. When designing something I focus on not making the same things many times as me It will be boring and will never help me move forward so I try to get as much as I can from repeating things and focusing on bringing new styles and creativity to my works but keeping my creative touch.

I live in Tokyo, For me I can live anywhere even in an island and it will never affect me but when designing my characters I free my mind from anything related to real life and just dream and imagine in my new fantasy world, but discover and travel to other countries and culture help me also gain more experiences and learn new thing's.

When a company reaches me, I always try to give them more of what they ask for and surprise them with something they never expected and let them come back and use my services for their vision and production again.

A good designer is someone who has the passion to share his skills and knowledge with others so they can learn from it and use it in their business marketing, for me a real creative designer is someone who listens carefully and translates his idea and vision through images and motion. It's a way to communicate with others in a creative way.

When I want to make characters it can be fantasy dark witches, demon hunters, or dragon knights I try to imagine what I want to make, and sometimes I get myself rid of searching for pictures on the internet to make something similar, I always try to limit that most of the time and focus only on my imagination. So with all experiences and skills I had I put myself to the test to see what skills I gained and how I can implement them properly in my design and what other elements are missing and how I can raise the level bar again more in a creative way. And this kind of process makes me challenge myself every day because repeating things the same each year is boring and the way to break that is to bring new things. Sometimes I am looking for failure so I can get up stronger. In life if you don't fail you will not succeed, you must fail and get up, trial and error will lead you to more growth and success.

A normal day of mine starts at home with a cup of hot chocolate milk and a bagel or sometimes an egg. I do not usually wake up early because the most productive and efficient time for me starts my work is in the afternoon. Dinner time is around 8 pm. I usually spend 1 or 2 hours after dinner talking to my friends and surfing the Internet. Then back to work at around 10 pm. I am a real night person. My bedtime is usually between 2 to 4 am depends on the progress of my work. And that will be a random workday for me.

Never stop learning! Keep updating yourself with everything design related, even if it’s unrelated to your specific design field. Always work on improving your skills and challenging your abilities. 2. Pay attention to every detail during your design process. 3. Always be proactive. Keep tweaking your business model and your process to keep up with the rapid global changes.

The positive to be a great designer is you learn through your experiences to make something that others will enjoy but the negative side of it is you need to sacrifice more of your time and life to achieve your goal.

Follow my passion, be brave, keep bringing new things, and never ever give up.

Imagination, listening, and learning from a Master's is the key that will open any designer to the real path to success.

I use Blender for all my character productions, rigging, animation, and environment and marvelous designer for clothes productions, Zbrush or 3D coat for sculpting and retopology, substance painter for texturing then Unreal Engine for final production.

Usually I am more productive at night, so I push back my schedule and start working in the afternoon till 3 am. Then the rest of the time I will make sure I get a good rest for my health and my brain.

In general, it takes from 1 to 3 months to design a Triple-A character production style but also it depends on the character's final quality.

How and where do I get inspiration from making realistic life fantasy characters and what techniques and tools I used to achieve such a result?

My three years of working experience in a Japanese gaming company was my first paid job as a cg artist-designer in Tokyo. These experiences got me prepared to create my company sandstorm.

For character production, my clients are some startup gaming companies based in Japan, USA, Korea, China, France, Indonesia, Qatar, Dubai, and many other places so mostly my clients are companies, organizations, and individuals who have needs and demands in digital human, character production, cg animation or other product's.

I am an artist and character designer. I love designing witches as also their clothes styles design and accessories. I also like making creatures such as dragons, minotaur, behemoth, as also cinematic animation. When making clothes design and hair's for fashion or fantasy character style Blender and Marvelous Designer is my main tool it's a very robust tool for clothes production. It allow artist to design, create, fit and present garments on the computer in real-time. With this technology, we can create and test and simulate any styles design with real materials and textures. It's a very robust tool to do fashion design or any fantasy style design for male and female characters. Blender also have it's own clothes productions and I also use in my work-flow when making clothes for my characters.

Have passion, don't be lazy, Keep moving always. Keep developing new skills, practicing, and challenging new projects in different categories is the key to becoming a more successful designer.

I am trying to design a new style of work using new technologies and techniques and with the help of leading 3D technologies, many companies have started to present their products on very true-to-life virtual characters in their campaign. So my aim is to focus on high-quality live beautiful digital humans that have strong characteristics and personalities and can interact with anyone through the metaverse or any platform in the coming future.

For me, design and art is the way to communicate with others, it's a unique ID that you keep with you wherever you go.

Since I was a child, drawing had become my passion and especially in Manga and Japanese anime. by growing up I decided to follow my passion and enrolled at the High School of Arts. I realized I wanted to express my creativity even more, so continued my studies. I learned as much as I could in order to have a much wider view as a designer. So, I chose to learn more about the fundamentals of art and design. four years later I put myself to the test and started my career right away. Nevertheless, I had prior professional experiences while I was studying. Such jobs were not all design-oriented, but they lead me to be the person I am today, and I'm very proud of that. However, I started my job as a graphic designer right after I finished my studies. Back then the company I used to work with designed displays for brands. I got a promotion and then rejected it. I felt I had to change again and start another job path elsewhere. I was contacted by another company and became their main designer, but after all the experiences working with different companies in different places, I decided to found my own company sandstorm. and today I can say that I am very proud to have won the Gold A ’Design Award in the Computer Graphics, 3D Modeling, Texturing, and Rendering Design Award Category which gives me more motivation to offer new ways of character design to the world that they can enjoy and be an inspirational key for future young designers.

The things that really drive me to be a designer were my passion for art and manga, since then my motivation for art started to grow more and more and when I got my first computer everything start to change. 3D tools were the first challenge for me to learn before taking my journey to another level, then from there I start to learn everything on my own morning and night even though sometimes I start to don't count the time and my only goal was to grow my skills. Final Fantasy and especially character designer Japanese Tetsuya Nomura and Korean Artist Hyung Taei Kim was my true inspiration and my main motivation to become a character designer, with the style they were making and the unique touch I was mesmerized by all this kind of imagination they have and I want to learn it, since then I start to develop my own skills. I didn't want to copy their style and make it my own but either learn from it and bring a new unique style that I have never achieved in my life. And because of hard work and the passion I have, I could achieve it.

When i want to design something it can be character, environment, vehicle the first thing come to my mind is i want to make something unique, somethings never been done before so i start to imagine what I want to make, sometimes i like to go trough pinterest and look to arts just to open my mind then i close everything and start make things is like having a puzzle and want to build something from it, that's my style of work i really don't have one direction to follow, i will create a complex puzzle until I found the result i want and once i am happy i start to tweak it and add final touch.

When i start making character the first thing came into my mind is to live with them and give them a cool aesthetic and personality's and not just see them only as 3D models, if I feel such things I stop working and take a break. I always want to see emotion on my characters i design and give them a purpose of there existence.

Art and drawing was the key to becoming a character designer, with that in hand it connect me to different places, I never guess that such a skill I had since I was a child who will let me one day win awards.

Each day there is something to learn, making things the same every year is boring, as an artist I always like to bring new things and develop new images but I only show them slowly. Luna Lankastar The Night Witch of Linerma that I created has a deep secret within her and only one person knows and this will be revealed with time. The story will not stop there, there is something very dark and powerful awaiting the witches and much more. Other than the witches of Linerma there is another project I am making but I can't reveal anything yet.

If you want to be a great designer, the first thing is to have passion for what you doing, if you don't you fail. You should never give up no matter what obstacle you face, such things will make you stronger to face more obstacles like playing video games and wanting to beat the final boss. Design career is like that and more they will be always challenge awaiting so you need to be ready for them always. Never lose hope if you get rejected, rejection is the key to making you a beast designer, don't listen to others who said you can't do it, do what you want, and forget others because one day they will come to you. Always focus on your goal and always ask yourself what is the meaning of your existence. Never ever give up no matter what challenge you will face, smash everything in your path no matter how it is, learn from your master, understand how they work =, take such knowledge, and make something unique from it because those masters designers were young designers like me and you.

Learn, work hard, don't be lazy, don't give up, develop your own skills, and always look forward and never backward. Have a purpose for what you want to do, don't listen to others who say you can't do it, you don't have the skills, do the hard work, and by the time all who rejected you they going to beg you to learn from your experiences.

A normal day of mine starts at home with a cup of hot chocolate milk and a bagel or sometimes an egg. I do not usually wake up early because the most productive and efficient time for me starts my work is in the afternoon. Dinner time is around 8 pm. I usually spend 1 or 2 hours after dinner talking to my friends and surfing the Internet. Then back to work at around 10 pm. I am a real night person. My bedtime is usually between 2 to 4 am depends on the progress of my work. And that will be a random workday for me. I also like shopping and especially fashion clothes as also see what new technology is in the market. Sometimes in my free time, I hang out with my friends and go for karaoke or play bowling and darts and other times we go for sports and play basketball and badmintons'.

Usually, I develop and design something on my own even if I see other styles and works from different artists I like to get rid of that copycat and make something unique and mostly 90 percent of I don't use references and only I use my imagination's on how i want to see the final design.

The most important thing when you design something is to have a fundamental of how to design, it can be character, architecture, vehicles, Understanding shapes, perspective, anatomy, colors, shading, and lighting is the key to good design, those kinds of elements when you learn them with trial and error will help you achieve your goal

To be honest, even Luna that I made and win awards i still want to tweak it and make something more better, a design can never be finished there is always for improvement but when the visual is right then you can say you achieved your goal but make tweaks and add touches to bring things to a new level style.

Luna of course. I was always fascinated by Korean fashion and its culture this is where it really all starts. at first, I wanted to create a beautiful digital human Korean girl but then my imagination start to take me somewhere else once I started to see Luna coming to life. From there I start to think about how can I give a beautiful touch and make her unique from there I start to get inspiration from witches and mystery fantasy characters to create her to a new level of creativity. Because her name was Luna I was thinking maybe if I create a lamp and a shape of a crescent it will be a good idea but then the way to make it and implement it was tricky from there I start to test and try everything like using Lego, it was for me like a puzzle to achieve what I want at the end from there I start to think about creating different lighting scenario for her and different hairstyle design. Luna motivates me to create more appealing characters with different touches.

My favorite character designer is Akira Toriyama, dragon ball was my main influence to becoming designer, the way how the character was shaped and designed was something I never saw in any art before,

My favorite city is Tokyo and especially Akihabara this is what drives me to come and learn the Japanese culture and became part of the society and established sandstorm in the heart of Tokyo. Music also plays a big role in my inspiration without I will always feel something missing, music is the key to opening your imagination and making your dream to reach your vision, I always listen to cyber-punk songs and fantasy choral, I also like metal songs such guilty gear, Castlevania and final fantasy. If you know how to design then you will bring something new to society. Because I founded and created Sandstorm I am going to bring it to a whole new level and image that has never been seen before. And with the passion I have and the vision I am aiming, I will do my best to bring something unique to the world.

I usually work by myself but when clients reach me I open myself to them and let them use my services to make their vision and business grow faster. I like always to surprise my clients and give them something unique so that I can help their businesses grow, I have worked with many clients during my experiences and to be honest, everything has an upside down but it's also a good experience and learning path to understand how to deal with clients and build a strong relationship with them. As an artist, I like to share my skills and knowledge with my clients and give them the right direction to make their business grow, I am a very expensive artist in the market but also I provide high-quality products to my clients in a short amount of time. I have skills I have developed for myself that help me beat the clock and especially deadlines, in my whole career I have never missed a deadline, I don't like to rush in my work but also don't like to focus on details first when designing I like to see the whole things together and shape it together to make it good then after I start to add touches to make it great. But in our World client is the king no matter what skills you have, but even that you can educate him to make something that he can be proud of as an achievement. That's how as a designer I work usually with my clients and business partners.

Every design competition is a good choice and path to test your skills, it's a good opportunity to open up to the World. I never thought I will an Award in my career and especially the Golden Award, because of my busy work I hesitate to participate and was overwhelmed with all the pieces of information received but then I got many replies from the staff to participate especially when I uploaded Luna, this driven me a big motivation to participate in the competition and test my skills and it was truly rewarding as experience. A' Design Award is not a simple competition award this kind of award will open you so many things in your career once you understand how it works, it's so well organized and professional comparing other awards competitions. Winning awards drive me to work more and design new unique styles so this will help me contribute to society. Being the Designer of the Day gives more passion and freedom of imagination to bring news images and touch to the World that can other young artists and designers learn from it.

I have more than 20 years of design experience in the industry, I enrolled first in the department of the University of Science but thought that it didn't suit me, dropped out and re-entered the graphic design department of a School of art. I learned there for 4 years. After purchasing a personal computer, I learned how to use CG tools my really first 3d software was 3D max from there I started to develop my skills in CG graphics then after I move to study 2D/3D animation and with the skill I had I jumped two years and get my diploma with an excellent score in 1 year only

I choose to become a designer for the passion I have for fantasy characters and especially witches.

I focus mainly on creating life-like portraits for characters, but I also focus on creatures, environments, and character animation.

To be honest I still can't call myself a legend I still have a lot to learn even with everything I have achieved I am looking for more challenges and new unique styles to bring to the world, so for any young designers who want to succeed in their design careers. Have passion first and learn from master's, understand their techniques but take that knowledge and apply it in your own work, work very hard, and never ever Give Up.

In my opinion, a good designer is someone who makes something that really exists, and people see it many times but a great designer is someone who can take that good design as a first step then mix it, combine it with other elements that it's not related to the design he making, and bring something unique that no one was thinking of. It's like making a Lego and in my opinion, it's the way to make a really great design.

You can evaluate a good design when it's original and has never been seen before but also the way it was made and created is also important. The touch, style, lighting, compositing, and how it was integrated it can be digital art or cinematic game art. The thing it attracts more looks to a design can be character, environment, and gadgets is when the whole package is merged together to make the final piece, everything is linked, and when you have such thing the design will show by it self.

Making a good design will help you boost your productivity and your career in the future because the world is always looking for originality something has never been seen or done before and when you invest in that then many doors will open after.

With my experiences and the skills I gained learning many tools and techniques and developing my own style, if I will have time I will design for big fashion industries, Automotive companies in the World, such as Gucci, Prada, Nike, Lamborghini, ect

Making video game, but this dream is no more a dream as I am on my way to achieve it soon.

I really don't have any secrets, the only secret I have is my passion for what I want to make. Since I was a child I always like fantasy stories such as dragons, witches, demon hunters, etc But I wasn't skilled enough to achieve what I enjoyed the most now after I gained a lot of experiences and many high-quality skills I decided to create everything that I saw in my childhood from Japanese animation, games, etc

They are many designers I got inspired by and I respect the most but once I was very mesmerized by Tetsuya Nomura character designer of Final Fantasy then Hyung-Tae Kim the creator of Magna Carta two designs influenced me a lot to learn why their design look beautiful and unique, then once I learn to work in the CG industry I learned that what I was influenced by will take me to something I never imagined I will be and this is where my real adventure starts.

It's very hard to mention all designers as in our world they are so many talents but the most I like and respect is Mr Akira Toriyama the creator of Dragon Ball, and the way he brings his story and characters to the World only geniuses can do, I also like Tetsuya Nomura's works of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Heart's touch and style are beautiful and even his sketch art has soul in it. As I mentioned before I like Hyung-Tae Kim the way he designs the clothes for his characters and how he put accessories to them is beautiful and unique.

This is very hard to answer as they are many great designs and it's really hard to compare which one is the greatest. For me, a great design is when you put soul into it and make something unique and will start as a touch for future generations to learn from it.

If you want to become a good designer and want you to improve your skills, learn from others masters designers artists, respect them and never compare your self to them, after you gain experiences and learn from them, don't copy them take that knowledge you gained and make your own identity, and identity that few people have in the World this where you can be a better designer.

I will still work in the art industry because everything else I have failed, I have never liked a school and what they teach and i want to find something that make me dream and imagine.

Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular goal.” Meanwhile, the meaning of design depends on the context and can also mean a variety of other things. Design is the creation of an experience.

Learning from other master's artists, and challenging myself daily helped me achieve these heights. My parents were my big supporters when they saw me draw Majin Vegeta when I had 5 years old, I wish they were still alive so they can be proud of me but even with the lost it give me more strength to challenge myself every day.