Third Place but definitely not last, Carolin Köhn created an adorably heartbreaking masterpiece.
A modern take on an old tale, Carolin Köhns adaptation of the art of s0s2 won her Third Place in the Sketchfab Fairytale Challenge with an unfortunately topical 3D trash mermaid.
A fantastic way to work through complex or troubling concepts is through art, either exploring the limits of your knowledge or feeling out the depths of an idea it is a way to tackle things that may feel insurmountable. Though this art challenge was definitely not something built to do these things, Carolin’s choice of reference is exactly that.
Carolin Köhn is a phenomenal 3D artist who creates art in a lovely stylized way. It was this style that was able to perfectly capture the “Trash Mermaid” in the exact style to emphasize her emotional impact.
It is an impact that is made all the more relevant by the current environmental concerns we are facing. It is through art like the Trash Mermaid that we can face some of the tragedy head on, it helps to take the edge off and let us face things like this more head on. Art, both the original and Carolin’s beautiful iteration shows some harsh truth in a palatable way.
Now time for the interview!
Michael Haggerty: Have you gone to school for Art?
Yes, I studied arts (with focus on new media) in Frankfurt am Main from 2005 to 2011. In parallel I was very into 3D graphics and started teaching this to myself — also around that time. When I was nearly finished and was working on my magister thesis I started doing an internship at the game company ‘Daedalic Entertainment’ in Hamburg. That was in 2010 and I still work in the games industry today as an 3D artist, right now I am Head of 3D art at CrazyBunch, a very awesome and small games company here in Hamburg!
MH: When did you first know you wanted to be an artist?
I knew pretty early I wanted to do something creative. In school I was always best at arts and so I thought later I wanted to work in the advertising industry. But this was only because of my lack of better knowledge.
First of all when I was still in school, all the awesome jobs in the entertainment industry that I know of today didn’t really exist yet. So this was the only creative job I knew at that time. Today you have a lot more jobs and areas to choose from.
MH : What are your short term and long term goals as an artist?
Job-wise I feel very comfortable where I am right now. I like teaching my knowledge to other people as Head of 3D art and additionally teach casually at:
It’s a great way to share and learn new things myself at the same time.
When not at work I try to stay up to date. As an 3D artist there constantly is new software and ways to do things. I often start private projects and I try to tackle and learn a new technique with each one.
MH: Is there a link to your portfolio?
MH: I love your motivation for this piece, the artist S0S2, what motivated you to create something based on their work and how long have you been following them?
Since I am not a concept artist at all, I always search for funny or cool 2D artworks or illustrations to use as an inspiration. I saw the first comics of s0s2 one or two yeas ago and was instantly super hyped about it. I have been a fan of arielle since I was a kid and the cute design and twist of s0s2´s comics just were so refreshing and funny. I also love the style and expression of them. Recently I just found out that there is also a youtube channel with animated comics on it. go check it out:
MH: The basis for this piece has a very clear statement about the current environmental situation, is this something you hold dear to your own heart and is it something you would like to explore more in future work?
Definitely, that is something I think is really important to be aware of. Funny as they may seem, the comics do transport a serious message. We all know about the terrible conditions the oceans are in because of us humans.
To pick art as a medium to address this issue is a great way to help I think. And yes, I could imagine doing something similar in the future. But nothing planned yet.
MH: How long did this take you?
I worked on this about every 2nd or 3rd evening over 4 weeks a couple of hours after work and on the weekends. So my guess would be around 20–30 hours.
MH: You mixed Blender and Zbrush in this which is pretty awesome, would you mind giving us a brief overview of your workflow on this one?
Sure.
All the non-character things, like the pier, water, plants and rocks were all modeled in Blender with box modeling or curves.
Also the ocean modifier in Blender does a great job for water surfaces.
The characters I started in Zbrush, since they are more organic and I can texture paint them directly in ZBrush. I know that Blender can sculpt and texture paint as well. But since I use Zbrush a lot longer, I am more comfortable and also way quicker there. Also I really do not like Blenders functionality with drawing tablets yet.
After sculpting and texturing in Zbrush I quickly remeshed and UV´ed everything, also in Zbrush. Since this was not planned to be animated or used for games, I didn’t put a lot of effort into this step and just went with the auto generated stuff.
Then I exported the characters into the Blender scene I had set up and rendered everything there. Later I also exported the model to sketchfab.com. I love how you can set up all the materials and lighting there, it still looks super awesome and everybody can see your artwork in all three dimensions!
A great artist and challenge both, challenges like this are one of the best ways to test your skills and Carolin showed her strength in the process. I am looking forward to seeing what art they pump out in the future especially if they jump into any other challenges!
