Interested in drawing from an early age, Ali Eser is a largely self-taught freelance concept artist who has worked on the award-winning animated film Flow, so it’s probably no surprise that Blender is a 3D modelling software he leans on heavily in his workflow, and like many artists starting out he’s had to figure out his own path through a mix of trial, error and plenty of searching for the best Blender tutorials along the way.
He’s also worked across video games including We Kill Monsters, Yami, Gecko Gods, and an unannounced project for ArenaNet, while more recently moving into Unreal Engine 5 for Rytma, the upcoming puzzle project that the artwork in this interview is drawn from, all while navigating the usual questions artists face around the best 3D modelling software for different kinds of work, and even something as simple as finding the best laptop for 3D modelling that can actually keep up with the ideas.
Across film, games and personal work, there’s a consistent thread of worldbuilding, of places that feel half-remembered rather than fully designed, built through iteration rather than grand gesture. In the conversation below, Ali talks through how he got started in concept art and 3D modelling, the influences that stuck with him, and why staying interested in the work might be the hardest part of all.
Creative Bloq: What is your main source of inspiration?
Ali Eser: I think my main source of inspiration is my country, the land I grew up in and travelled around, every sight and sound of it floating around in my unconscious, forming images that communicate some specific and unique feeling about here. My goal in art is to explore this realm and bring back what I can to show to other people. Of course, I have other things that interest me and attract me to attempt to create images, but they tend to be secondary.
CB: When you were a young artist, what you a desire to create your own worlds?
AE: I remember my father bringing home a collection of Tintin books, which mesmerised me endlessly, and I would re-read them every week for years. As I grew up, I found other European comics like Moebius, Manara, Schuiten and Heavy Metal stuff became the bedrock of my taste. Along with that, I found a lot of inspiration in old paintings: artists like Sorolla, Sargent and Mucha polished my taste further. Beyond visual taste, I think it has always been books and games that triggered the joy of creating imagined places and cultures for me, and there are too many of them to name.
CB: What plays in the background while you work – music, podcasts, movies or something else?
AE: If I’m doing something cognitively demanding, like design work, solving some visual problem, exploring something, or I’m learning something new, usually silence, or ambient music from someone like Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Porya Hatami. If I’m doing something that’s purely habit-based, where I can leave the work fully to my body, then an audiobook, usually something about history, science, philosophy, politics, etc.
CB: Is making a living as an artist all you thought it would be?
AE: Honestly, it turned out better than I thought it would be. Maybe I’m really lucky, but I’ve been fortunate to work on some great projects, with great people, learned a bunch from all of them, enjoyed working for (almost) all the projects that I’ve worked on. I’ve switched to freelance after four years of in-house work and that also has been such a joy, having the freedom and choice of managing my time the way I want to. When starting out, I might have consciously lowered my expectations as to not get disappointed, but that hasn’t happened yet.
CB: If you were starting out now, what words of wisdom would you most appreciate?
AE: I think it would be to be patient, that the progress I sought will take a very long time, and it is the only way to get there, and the real challenge is to stay interested in the work for all the years and decades to come. Additionally, that sometimes the best way to understand why you love something is to get as far as possible from it for a while.
CB: Do you have an ongoing passion project?
AE: I’ve been working on a passion project called Rytma for some years now; it’s something I always come back to and keep developing. It’s a puzzle game project about music, truth and beauty – inspired by Anatolian mysticism and impressionist art.
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