M•azing Creations

Welcome! My name is Mario and this is M-azing Creations.
I am a freelance digital art creator in the fields of 2D & 3D animation,
illustration, character design and everything in between.
Here is an impression of my work.
Enjoy!



Animation

•brought to life•

Over the years I've worked on a whole range of animation projects.
How it all started is a rather terrible story though...
During a school trip, when I was about 11 years old, I saw a girl slip and fall from a tree log. I drew images in frames of this event on a piece of paper. When I skipped through the frames rapidly, I realized that the image came to life. This is what the word 'animate' also means; to bring to life. (The girl was also alive, don't worry).




Hence my animation journey began. I drew my first animations in small paper notebooks. One of them was based on the Japanese tv series Dragonball Z, with simple stick figures. Then the computer came and everything changed.Many doodles and productions later I have learned a wide variety of techniques and accumulated a lot of knowledge in this field.
What you see above is a small collection of the results.


Explanimations

•knowledge in a nutshell•

Explanimations are 1:00 to 2:00 minute long explanatory animation videos and are an excellent way to convey a large body of information to your audience quickly and effectively. It is my most requested type of job and I produce them like a baker bakes bread!Skillset
• Storyboarding
• Illustration design
• 2D Character rigging
• 2D Animation



The work displayed above is not solely my own, but is the product of great team effort. Over the years I've had the honor to work with some really talented people. Great illustrators and art directors with whom I've combined my own talents. My role in these productions was to bring the images to life.




Illustration

•from the pencil•

Animations start with illustrations, in many nations. During most productions I usually collaborate with specialized illustrators, but every so often I also pick up the pencil... or mouse :$I make logos, characters, mascots, infographics and whatnot in a variety of styles such as organic, hand-drawn or smooth vector based graphics. Everything is possible really.

ServicesSkillset/Styles
• Logos• Vector
• Characters• Tablet
• Portraits• Isometric
• Mascots• Digital drawing
• Infographics 
• Backgrounds 
• Concept art 

vector based graphics

My most preferred style, when it comes to illustration design, is vector based graphics. Instead of brushing pixels onto a canvas, mathematical shapes are drawn that comprise the illustration.The result is a smooth and neat looking image that can be scaled up endlessly without losing its sharp edges.

Weblish

My very first official client is Weblish. From all the way back in 2012 I've been taking care of their branding, designing vector based illustrations for their many services.


3D Character Design

•journey towards realism•

Recently I have taken an interest in designing virtual 3D characters.
No AI, no generators, but pure good old handcrafted stuff.
The process involves a combination of digital techniques such as sculpting, texturing, shading and even hairstyling and tailoring. To strive for realism is an unending journey. But the study of anatomy is truly mesmerizing. The master of art is of course nature itself.The force that drives it all is the need to bring my imagination onto the screen in a believable, almost touchable picture for all to see.

Kerel

He started out as one of my many sculpt doodles. But I liked the way his eyes turned out and so it was decided to texture him and give him a nice haircut and something to wear.He kinda reminds me of someone I knew from a previous life for some reason. Then again, I'm not sure where some of my ideas come from.

The Owner

This character is part of a music video that I created for a friend. It's one the first 3D characters that I've worked on.There was no sculpting involved with the design. The entire head and body were modeled instead.I had to go to some dark places to bring his cruel, evil expression to life.
Hopefully he's terrifying :P

Kayleigh

Don't know why I gave her that name. Maybe I played Marillion's song a little too often while designing her.With this project I focused a lot on the hair. I started out with a few manually crafted strands and used Blender's hair modifiers to shape the hair and add volume to it. I kinda sound like a shampoo commercial now, don't I?

Mr. Heppie

A more goofy kind of character.
For this one I made a rig to create the different poses and facial expressions.






blue man alien

Why design humans if you can design aliens? Then at least you can get away with some anatomical mistakes. This one also started out as a simple doodle. But I wrapped up the texturing process rather quickly by using a simple procedural texture. The eyeballs were done with the Tiny Eye addon for Blender, which is a really incredible tool.So what do you think is the reason he came to Earth? He still isn't sure himself, I think.

Cottage

Although characters are just more interesting to me, I design other things in 3D as well. Here's a cozy cottage in a grassy meadow.
With 3D anything can be recreated from the physical world and more.






3D Skillset
• Modelling
• Sculpting
• Retopology
• Texturing
• Shading
• Rigging
• Animation
• Particles
• Physics


3D Programs
• Unreal Engine
• Element 3D
• Blender



Creator

•Mario Smit•

And who am I?
Well here you have it.
I am a creation that creates.
And visual art is my argument.
It goes beyond the limitations of words.
But I am only an observer that passes on
the gift of creation.

I work mainly with Adobe's software,
including many plugins and extensions.
For 2D rigging I use Rubberhose and DUIK in After Effects.
For my 3D workflows I mostly utilize Blender along with many addons
and recently also Unreal Engine.

Pricing: I believe everything is negotiable. Most projects require a manually determined offer. Please feel free to contact me for any inquiries.




Contact

•get in touch•

I collaborate with other freelancers and animation studios here in the Netherlands. If you want to hire me or work together with me, please do send me a message! :)


© M-azing Creations. All rights reserved. Chamber of Commerce number: 70416494