Why do I do what I do & the power of imagination!

Being an only child is an interesting experience. It makes you improvise, imagine, visualize, observe and be a good listener amongst many other things. Yes, it's a little bit quiet & crickets sound like highway traffic, but I did not know anything better at that time. I created many fictional situations and vivid characters in my mind. If you have watched the film "Inside out" you would know what I am talking about. Tho I wish I had a little pink elephant as my friend. It wasn't just imaginary characters, I developed a unique ability to breathe drama and life into the G.I. Joe toys. I made many DIY castles, mountains, and locations (today such artists are called "Environment Artists" in Game studios). These contraptions were made out of cardboard, sand and other broken toys. Creating situations, environments and stories was my thing. If you saw, what I saw, you wouldn't need to buy a movie ticket or waste time on Netflix... haha. I think when the brain is exposed to emptiness at that age, it starts making up things just to fill the void.

Since I nurtured this imagination, it led to many fascinating outlets. I sketched weird and

Abstract art created at a desk daydreaming

quirky characters, wrote many short stories and took an interest in reading many adventure comics. My favorites were "Tintin", "Asterix and Obelix" and "Supe

rman" to name a few. My parents had a travel bug and they took me to many places. I must say travel changes you as a person, it widens your thoughts. It exposes you to things and people you have never seen before, and forces you to adapt to new environments. The old saying "Travel is the only thing that makes you richer" is absolutely apt in my view. It made my imagination and creativity richer!

Everything wasn't as rosy as you might expect. I wasn't good at school, didn't have too many friends and rarely met my relatives. Growing up, video games were the new thing. I remember playing the Atari, the Nintendos and Segas. Being an 80's kid, I saw the evolution of video games right in front of my eyes. From the Atari 2600 to the 8, 16, 32, 64 and beyond Bits. The word "Bits" is a portmanteau of the word Binary Digit, for all you young readers.

Gladiator Hulk, Created in Zbrush and Maya. Textured in Mari and Photoshop.

For me, video games fit like a glove into my lifestyle. It had imaginary characters, bizarre themes and you could interact and take part in that world! Video games made me dive deeper into the fascinating world of Computer Graphics (CG). This fascination took me places and its been my livelihood for more than a decade. I had the opportunity of working on several films like "How to Train Your Dragon 2", "Madagascar 3", "Puss in Boots" and many other short movies and TV shows like "The Expanse", "Into the Badlands", etc. If you are interested, you can check out my CG website here - www.rohanoka.com

Having worked in the CG industry for several years, I felt the need to expand on to other creative outlets. What excites me the most, is communicating through art and design. Creating artwork for T-shirts and posters is what I chose, and I am loving every moment of it!