We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Mania Carta ("MC").
Sandstorm artist and the founder of Sandstorm, Maniacarta is a creative talented artist who she has 20 years of experience with variety of CG production content from Concept Art, Character Design, Environment, Mecha, Game Arts, Manga, Anime, Real-time Cinematics and more. She immerses herself in anything that related from fantasy to real characters, she always focus on giving soul to her characters, her works and touch are unique.
Mania Carta Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Mania Carta.
Mania Carta Design - Luna Lankastar The Night Witch
Mania Carta Design - Niferia Digital Art
Mania Carta Design - Soya Lankastar Digital Art
Designer Interview of Mania Carta:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
MC : 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.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
MC : 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/
DI: What is "design" for you?
MC : 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.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
MC : 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.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
MC : 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.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
MC : Some graphic prints, flyers and advertising artworks for TV channel
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
MC : 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.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
MC : When I am alone at night listening to music.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
MC : 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.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
MC : Devoted, delighted, dedicated.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
MC : Pleased and satisfied but still I want to bring more and more creative styles.
DI: What makes a design successful?
MC : 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.
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
MC : A clear interpretation of its concept and value can usually leave a good impression at the beginning.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
MC : 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.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
MC : 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.
DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
MC : I have never done any exhibitions in my life.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
MC : 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.
DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
MC : 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.
DI: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
MC : 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.
DI: How do you work with companies?
MC : 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.
DI: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
MC : 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.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
MC : 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.
DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
MC : Clock, Lighting Desk, Balcony, Colorful Lamps, futuristic Bed
DI: Can you describe a day in your life?
MC : 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.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
MC : 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.
DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
MC : 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.
DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?
MC : Follow my passion, be brave, keep bringing new things, and never ever give up.
DI: What skills are most important for a designer?
MC : Imagination, listening, and learning from a Master's is the key that will open any designer to the real path to success.
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
MC : 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.
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
MC : 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.
DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
MC : 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.
DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
MC : 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?
DI: What was your most important job experience?
MC : 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.
DI: Who are some of your clients?
MC : 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.
DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
MC : 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.
DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
MC : 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.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
MC : I am an independent designer.
DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
MC : 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.
DI: How can people contact you?
MC : You can reach me by email at maniacarta@sandstormstudio.com
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
MC : 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.