Artist Focus: Aidin Salsabili
3D Designer – IRAN
Aidin Salsabili is engaged with a new branch of art in Iran; Making 3D characters and 3D printing theme. Creativity, ideas, and great effort are evident in his art. One of Aidin’s masterpieces is designing characters of Ferdowsi’s everlasting treasure, Shah-Name. In this massive project, Aidin and a designing team have studied Shah-Name and other authentic resources to discover these characters and create theme in 3D.
Virtual Museum of Persian Heritage is another highlight in this artists’ career. In this project which has been unveiled in Iranian Artists’ Forum, Aidin has simulated Persian antiquities from all around the world. Aidin’s project is a great achievement since it is aimed to picture Persian ancient history and characters of Shah-Name and introduce theme to the whole world. His creativity in designing 3D characters and accurate implementation in programs and 3D printing them are signs of Aidin’s pure thinking and indefatigable spirit in preserving the ancient history of Persia.
Tell us about yourself and describe your idea development in creating 3D characters
I was born in the 80ies and grow up with my Legos which were sent to me from America and Germany. Legos let me develop my creating skills and build different things with different stories. My childhood was full of stories and images. I used to draw all the times, and I was punished for that in school. Cultural and economic changes of the 90ies were so fast that teen expectations from games have been evaluated.
I used to design 2D in order to be able to make money from advertisement and website designing. I was so frustrated from the atmosphere of my job that I decided to make a change and get back to my childhood 3D games. I was familiar with three dimensional objects and anatomy due to my experience in sculpture. I’ve started to practice on work on 3D designing and at the same time get familiar with ZBrush with the help of one of my friends which has speeded me up a lot.
After a while, I found a job in newspaper and became a character designer of a game in a private company, which was very first professional experience. At the end of this project I decided to follow this path and continue with character developer and 3D modeling.
Tell us about your project on Shahname and its origins
At first I prepared a plan for the project, including all information and details needed for character development and visual creation. I have decided to specify a form to every single character in which I can gather all the necessary information from Shahname and other related books. This part of the project which has been performed by literary experts lasted for one and a half year. We surveyed every single character by considering every piece of information we had from them in order to have an accurate perspective of the character. After that, we have prepared our second forms with submitted information.
I used every piece of information in developing the characters- I knew every single details about their clothes and weapons. I finished the initial characters and made the premium samples. Easy access to 3D forms of Persian’s heritage would help the scholars to have access to the information they demand. These are the exact recreation of ancient heritages of Jiroft, Ilam, Ikamanian.
Tell us about Visual Museum of Iran’s Antiquities project
This project was aimed to recreate Iran’s historical and cultural heritages, exciting in museums all around the world, in 3D, which is available in a full archive and is organized in way that it would be helpful for both common visitors and history experts; also strict rules for preserving these heritages is not an issue for scholars anymore. In this exhibition, we present all antiquities of ancient civilizations of Persia including Halil River of Jiroft, Elam, Achaemenid Empire, the Parthian Empire, Sasanian Empire and other ancient civilizations kept in museums all around the world and have been hidden from Persian viewers due to this distribution. 81 antiquities of this collection were chosen merely for their beauty, prodigious, function, historical period, exploration place, verity of material and craftsmanship technique.
In 3D Shahnameh, I showed my creativity in picturing elements considering stories and references which ended up coordinated characters; but in Visual Museum project I had to recreate the objects duplicate the original piece exactly. I had to recreate every single detail of the antiquities without any difference, considering the picture I have gathered from the museums all around the world. A crack on clay, damage on a metal piece, materials, dimensions, proportions and every single detail must be considered and applied; therefor creativity was not a point, it was just the matter of creativity in applying the right tool.
Tell us about the cost of 3D printing, considering its current presence in Iran
I did the whole project of antiquities with my own investment, but I had sponsor for Shahnameh project. My approach is to design a project in the best way possible, then estimate its financial demanding and its possible approaches. In this way, I won’t wait for investment before the execution. 3D printing is exactly the same. It helps me to flourish my projects; therefore I surely invest on it.
Tell us about your plans for the future and your perspective for this profession
I always believe that outer factors are less efficient on one’s success and growth than inner factors. I believe that this profession will change soon with upcoming foreign investments while digital products’ education and stock improves. I do believe in marvelous talent of Persian artists and dynamic world of this profession; so this is my plan for future: new ideas, creative images and an elegant spirit.
More About Aidin Salsabili at: Linkedin