Living life in Central Europe, coflek-gnorg, whose real name is Dominik Lenardo, Renderosity’s Vendor of the Month for May 2024, is well known within the Renderosity Community for outstanding spaces, characters and machines.  

His 3D modeling days stretch back to the mid-1990s, and he’s been a member since 2003.

“I love to create something new and unique. Something in 'Coflek-Gnorg' style,” he said. “That way I can use my imagination and I'm not limited in creation. Inspiration often comes out from nowhere and these ideas are the best.”

Dominik wanted to speak in his own words, in his own way to share his background and passion for 3D creativity, so, for this month, we are pleased to turn this space over to him.   

Vendor of the month, May 2024

By Dominik Lenardo (coflek-gnorg)

I was always interested in everything that had anything to do with science fiction, and reading comics and books, watching movies and TV series was an essential part of my growing up in mid ’80s Croatia. At that time, my biggest wish was to own a Commodore 64 and play video games. Home computers weren’t cheap in those days, so my parents really came through and got me a now legendary C=64 (to this day, my father still says that it was the best investment of his life).

One of the “side effects” of playing games was my growing interest in computer graphics and animation, especially when the PC era brought incredible 3d modelling possibilities. I first started using 3Ds Max while doing interior and exterior 3d concepts at the company I worked for at the time. Back then there were no YouTube tutorials, so I resorted to ordering books online and learning from them.

I first heard of Renderosity from a friend who posted images in the Gallery, so I followed suit and took it up a notch by publishing a few free 3D models in order to share them with the community. The models piqued the interest of Renderosity’s members as well as its editors, so I was offered to become a seller. I published my first product in March 2004 – 20 years ago! Fun fact: it was a .3ds model of a kitchen oven.

As my store grew, so did demands of Renderosity’s customers, and I decided to fully dedicate myself to 3d modelling and improving my knowledge of the graphics software and the quality of my models. Nowadays, it is what I do for a living. As much as I like modelling everyday objects, it gives me even greater joy to create something from my imagination. It is a bit more complicated because the things I come up with in my head aren’t always easy to bring to life in a 3d program, but it makes the satisfaction after a well-made model that much greater.

I like to offer models that will stimulate the customer’s imagination for their own creations – like ‘Here is the finished 3d model, now tell me a story involving it.’ I am often delighted by the images in the gallery where someone used my models in the most imaginative stories and situations. This is, in fact, the most powerful driving force during my creative process.

Even now, 20 years later, I’m still learning and working on improving my models, looking for new and imaginative things to bring to life through rendering. Ideas that come by themselves – without my looking for them – are always the best. I know that it might be more difficult to become a seller today than it was 20 years ago, but what I also know is that imagination and originality are the key factors for success now as they were then.

For me, Renderosity is not just a site to sell my 3d models, it is a place where I communicate with my customers/friends. I highly appreciate it when they suggest a way to improve my models or give me ideas for new products. These are the reasons why modelling is more a passion than a job for me.