Tell us about yourself. Who is gmlab?

gmlab: My full name is Gert-Jan Mudde, 51 years old, and I come from the Netherlands. I started at a very young age with electronics and also had drawing as a hobby. I learned from my grandfather to make the drawings in depth, the well-known isometric lines. Later I got my first PC at home and learned a bit of basic programming. The games soon bored and wanted to make creative things. So I learned a drawing program with pixel coordinates. Years later I came into contact with Bryce and other graphics programs such as Adobe software, 3D Max, Carrara, Vue, DAZ Studio, Cubase VST.

During this period I was a music producer in the electronic music genre. I made a success in the music world and so my music went all over the world. I had a large network of DJ friends and we organized our own parties where I was active both DJ and VJ. I did my own projects in my own studio, but I also worked as an audio & visual art director as a service provider. Unfortunately, 5 years ago the sound studio came to an end because I was moving to a smaller house. I have continued in graphic design and still experience a lot of fun and gain new knowledge every day.

How did you develop such creative skills?

After 30 years I have learned quite a few skills, but I still learn something new every day. How do I come up with an idea? Just jump in at the deep end and see where it ends. I like to call myself an autodidact, someone who wants to get started right away without a manual. All my renders are created from the inspiration that may be taken from real life. So I like realistic scenes and that’s what my focus is on as far as I can get that done.

One of my favorite scenes of yours is the “Abandoned Living Room”. Can you tell us how you created this scene?

What kind of software/hardware do you use to create your scenes?

In your bio you mention your great love of music, tell us about that.

At a very young age of 3 years, I knew how my father’s record player worked and loved to listen to Jazz, Funk, African Gospel, and the Blues. Later I started saving for my own stereo installation and so I created my own music room. Because I was involved a lot with electronics, I built my own light and sound effects. In addition, I had knowledge of transmitters and receivers of different radio frequencies and I played my music as a pirate in the air. Later came a studio where I had neatly installed all my equipment such as midi keyboards, drum computers and synthesizers linked to the first Sound Blaster Pro built-in 1988. Then, and still, I am a lover of electronic music but also the old genre long before my birth year. In short, I am a music junkie at heart.

How has Renderosity made a difference in your life as an artist?

Let me be very honest about this. I had an active account on Renderosity for a long time but never paid any attention to it until I read about Renderosity on social media and remembered that I still had an account. Now I already had many other places where I post my art so I thought this was enough but I logged in again and decided to start posting my artwork. I was also very surprised at the reactions I got after posting my renders and decided to continue with this. I’m already part of a network of creative people, but I found it interesting to have Renderosity among them.

Any suggestions for digital artists just starting out?

For the novices I give the following advice: Be patient, it may take years but one day you will achieve your goal as long as you are happy with your art, but don’t obsess about it. Do not hesitate to ask others for help, but also try to find it yourself on the valuable information source: The Internet. Furthermore, I do not criticize what I see from another person unless it is asked.