Author: Gleb Alexandrov

How old are you?

I was born in 1988.

What do you do for a living?

I am a digital artist. A 3D geek. An open-source enthusiast. A blogger. I run Creative Shrimp website. Creative Shrimp is the place where artists go to learn the tips and tricks about computer graphics and digital art.

What’s your source of income?

I had been working in a game development studio as a modeler for a few years. Then I’ve been freelancing here and there, but never really liked it. Eventually, I started posting video tutorials on Youtube and running the blog, and eventually it became pretty successful. Youtube tutorials stuff turned into a passive income (check Realistic Lighting or Space VFX video courses for Blender). I’m really happy with how it is developing, thanks to the amazing Creative Shrimp community.

What’s your mission?

Helping other people to get better at 3D graphics and digital art. Changing the world of computer graphics.

What are your dreams?

To become a rock star, as popular as Lady Gaga. To wear the weird sun glasses while speaking at a conference. I dream of having an infinite freedom of movement, to not give a damn about borders. I also dream of creating a first-person video game with photoreal graphics.

Where are you from?

I’m from Belarus, a post-soviet country bordering Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania. The city in which I live now is called Brest. Though I feel like a global citizen.

Are you married?

Yup. My wife Lena is also a crazy artist. Though, she prefers 2D instead of 3D.

Do you have kids?

Yup. My son is 3 months old 🙂 He’s called Lev.

How many years do you think you have been doing CG work?

I’ve been doing CG work for at least 15 years.

For how long have you been using Blender?

I’ve been using Blender for 4 years. Before that, I was a 3DS Max user.

Why did you switch to Blender?

Firstly, it’s a free and open-source tool. No money has to be paid to get things up and running. 

Secondly, the Blender users happen to share their knowledge like crazy. This is a part of the open-source lifestyle. I’m still shocked to see the energetic, very professional tutorials popping out every day on Youtube.

And finally, if you use Blender it feels  like you are among the first few (millions) of people, shaping the future of computer graphics. You check Google Trends, and you see a huge rise of Blender popularity over the recent years.

Are you on Facebook?

You can hangout with me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (we also have the Youtube channel). In total, we have 70K+ followers.

Have you ever participated in a 3D contest?

Yup, I once won 3 contests in a row, at Render.ru, CG Cookie and Blender Guru. That’s badass, isn’t it.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Pat Flynn, Andrew Kramer, Notch, Andrew Price, Beeple, Slavoj Zizek.

Can you share your daily routine with us?

I wake up. I say “what a shitty day it must be”. Then I go to a coffee shop and get a double espresso, 100% arabica. After that I realize that life is very short, and I start working on the next big thing. Working, working, listening to music, working. That’s the backbone of it, everything else is a fluff.

What computer do you have?

MSI Geforce GTX 1080, for GPU rendering in Cycles. Core i7 4770. 16 gigs of ram. 128 GB SSD for a system drive, and a bunch of HDDs for storage.

Blue Yeti condenser mic for recording. Wacom Intuos A6 tablet.

Have you ever spoken at a conference?

I spoke at Blender Conference 2015 and 2016.

Where did you study?

European Humanities University in Vilnius, Lithuania. Visual culture.

Where did you learn computer graphics?

I learned it by myself. Mainly, by pushing buttons and watching what happens.

I have no artistic background except the guitar classes and rock’n’roll youth. Although, my wife was taking the art classes.

English isn’t your first language?

Of course it isn’t, you can hear it when I talk. My accent drives me insane.

My native languages are Russian and Belarusian. I also understand a little bit of Polish.

What’s your favorite drink?

Coffee. Double espresso. I’m addicted to caffeine, and I spread the coffee propaganda.

What’s your favorite music genre?

Heavy metal. I’ve been playing a guitar since I was 5. When I was in my teens, I’ve been playing guitars and singing in a rock band.

Do you wanna be famous?

Yes please. Like Lady Gaga.

Producing free tutorials and sharing them with thousands and even millions of people feels like you are shaping the future of computer graphics. I published my first video on Youtube a few years ago, and since then it became the part of my life.

Useful Resources For Artists, My Personal Uber Collection

Are you into digital art and at the same time, involved in blogging & social media? So am I, and here is a huge list of resources for artists. I can guarantee that pretty much every resource, that is mentioned here, is proved to be essential in my daily practice of a digital artist. It all comes from my experience and I’m sharing it so you can see all these pieces of the puzzle in one place.

Free Photo Scanning Workflow! (VisualSFM and Meshlab)

Discover a free photo scanning workflow for VisualSFM, Meshlab and Blender. After watching this tutorial you’ll be ready to generate the jaw-dropping 3D models from photos, for $0. That said, you still need a camera.

Texturing for Beginners: Top 14 Ways to Mix Textures and Shaders

Creating realistic materials is all about blending and mixing. That’s because every real surface consists of dozens of layers. So after you finish this Blender tutorial you’ll get a massive level up in realism.

Black Hole tutorial for Blender | From Space VFX

Have you ever wanted to create a super massive black hole? Watch this free tutorial for Blender from the Space VFX Elements video course then. Alternative use: create wormholes, Interstellar style.

Micropolygon Displacement Basics Part 1/2 – Blender Tutorial

This little feature, micropolygon displacement, gives you an immense power to create landscapes, planets, sci-fi patterns, asteroids and much more.  Watch the part 2/2.

Post-processing for Dummies in Under 12 Minutes (Blender and Krita Tutorial)

Discover a super easy post-processing workflow in Blender and Krita. You’ll need just 12 minutes of free time to watch this tutorial for dummies.

Lighting and Baking Workflow: Blender Tutorial

In this tutorial we’ll be setting up lighting in an outdoor scene, then bake the lightmaps so you can benefit from an amazingly low render time. Learn how to bake light for a blazing fast render (14 seconds per frame compared to 8 minutes!).

Volumetric Lighting in Blender

Want to impress the viewers with volume lights? Watch this tutorial to discover how to create godrays, light shafts, thick fog and other stuff related to volumetric lighting. 8 minutes 34 seconds and you’ll know the tools, I guarantee.

GLEB ALEXANDROV’S MEDIA APPEARANCES:

Interviewing Gleb Alexandrov about his blog Creative Shrimp.com – Rebus Farm

Gleb Alexandrov Blender Interview – 3D Artist

Realistic Lighting Hacks in Blender – Gleb Alexandrov’s talk at Blender Conference 2016

Realistic Lighting by Gleb Alexandrov: Course Review by Brandon Hix – Blender Unleashed

Digital Mayhem 3D Machine Techniques, Creating a Steampunk Air Fleet

READ THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

DOWNLOAD MEDIA KIT

Here are some projects which are enjoyed by many geeks across the globe. Each of them is a big milestone for me, and the new exciting projects are coming soon.

Creative Shrimp Website & Community

Running the Creative Shrimp blog has been my biggest passion for the last 3 years. And it is still! Sharing the Blender tutorials makes me feel like we’re doing the big thing. Especially the Youtube part of it rocks (the channel is called Gleb Alexandrov), I’m really proud about it. 55K shrimps, an amazing community! We, Blender nerds, will change the world.

Learn more about CreativeShrimp.com

Realistic Lighting in Blender: 11 Tricks You’ve Probably Never Tried

I’m a huge fan of lighting, for me it’s the most enjoyable part of the 3D workflow. As if there is a photographer inside me. So I thought that it would be cool to share the tips and tricks about lighting in Blender. This 2-hour video course got a super positive reviews from the renowned artists and Blender users.

Learn more about Realistic Lighting in Blender

Space VFX Elements: the Ultimate Guide to Creating the Galaxy in Blender

We’ve been working with Aidy Burrows from CG Masters on this mega-course for Blender. This is a guide to creating the galaxy, so it’s pretty ambitious, you see. How to create planets, nebulae, asteroids, black holes and other space phenomena of the Hollywood quality. All of that in open-source software. The reaction to this course is astounding, we’re thrilled by the amazing reviews.

Watch the Space VFX trailer

The Lighting Project

The Lighting Project is a manifesto of a think-different approach to digital lighting. When I learn something new about lighting, I write a new chapter. So this is my diary, the ongoing project which will become a book one day.

Read more about the Lighting Project

Gleb Alexandrov is an award-winning artist with 100K+ following on Youtube. To live his life as an independent creator and to help others to get better at computer graphics, he founded the Creative Shrimp blog.

Now Gleb is one of the most popular Blender tutors. He supports the open-source movement and digital freedom. Spreads the coffee propaganda. Has a wife Lena and a kid Lev.

Gleb’s Story

As a youngster, I played computer games a lot. Doom was the first game that made me think “Hell, Gleb, you should be doing this”. I thought that you can go all the way to the Martian mountains lingering in the background.

When I was 13, I tried creating something by myself for the first time. I started with the teapots in 3ds Max. It was devastating to not know the f#ck about computer graphics, and learn it by trial and error. Back then we had no internet. I thought, I would never be able to make anything.

So I got back to playing guitars in a rock band, filming video, drinking beer and doing other stuff that teenagers do in a post-soviet country. But I was dreaming about 3D nevertheless. The games like Myst and Half-Life were reminding me, that I should get back to teapots.

It was back-and-forth of taking a few steps forward, then losing interest, then moving again.

Luckily, after a couple of years of working the shitty jobs not related to CG, I made it. I got a job in a gamedev studio. It was fun and it was relevant. I was learning like crazy, because I was surrounded by people who knew their stuff. I thought “That’s the ticket!”.

But still, something didn’t felt right. I wanted to do my own stuff. My head was buzzing with the crazy ideas. I started to use the Friday evenings, then Saturday and Sunday evenings, then all other evenings to make my renders. Incidentally, I also started to watch Blender tutorials. This bunch of nerd friends seemed like a great company.

It all exploded at once.

I met my wife Lena at the office. A month later, we were laid off from the job.

We didn’t have any income for some time, and that was driving me and Lena nuts. But somehow I knew that I do the right thing. I was free to do it my way, without the gate keepers and bosses. The money pressure made me drink lots of coffee, to the point of extreme anxiety. Imagine Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

The real shift took place when I downloaded Blender. One of the first renders won us the first place in the big CG competition. Yes, Gleb, we can! Then I started a blog to tell the world about it. I was so inspired that some days after, the Youtube channel was brought to life as well.

Imagine my surprise, when I saw 10, 20, 50 views under the tutorial that I uploaded to Youtube. And there were comments! And they were positive! That’s how it started.

Now I feel lucky to run the Creative Shrimp blog which is becoming more and more popular. It allows us to do what we love. Without you, guys, I wouldn’t make it.