Kitchen Interviews: Chef Cecy, The magical 3D artist making fluffy bunnies
Hi everyone! For those who don’t know me, I’m Chef Fran🧉, PancakeSwap’s Spanish Community Manager. Today I introduce Chef Cecy, who is in charge of designing delicious things for the project and more importantly, the 3D artist behind the much loved PancakeSwap generative NFT series: Pancake Squad! Join us in this series of interviews touring the entire kitchen and getting to know more about those behind PancakeSwap.
Chef Fran🧉: Hi Cecy! Tell us about yourself. What is your role in PancakeSwap team?
Chef Cecy ⛸ : Hi! My name is CECY aka Chef Cecy, Mexican by birth and the only non-anonymous chef of PancakeSwap. I am a 3D Artist and I work in the design team with Chef Bugs and Chef Yuna.
🧉As I always said, it is very nice to know that I am not the only Latin Chef in the team. PancakeSwap transcends borders, I have no doubt about that. What I think we all want to know is: how did PancakeSwap come into your life?
⛸: I’m going to show you the illustration that started it all and the story behind it. One day I posted on Instagram this axolotito that I had just done when I received a message from a mysterious account with a logo of a rabbit / pancake or hotcake as we say here in Mexico.
The message was from Chef Bugs who told me that he liked my illustration and that if I could do something for a project they were starting. Bugs told me about NFT and crypto. I knew very little about it at the time but it was enough to know that the illustration would include a rabbit and a pancake to get my attention. And so it was that he commissioned me to make my first NFT gen 0 known now as Sparkle and then many thousands of rabbits later I am still here and very happy to work with this great team.
🧉Sparkle! I didn’t know much about this world at that time (not that I know it much now either haha). To you as an artist, what do you think of this whole universe?
⛸ Well, for me it has been very interesting and refreshing. I am impressed by the strong and loyal community that exists around PancakeSwap. I have met great people and I am also surprised how fast the time moves. This year has felt like 5 years!.
🧉Yes, it’s as if a week in crypto is like a year from the outside world. I love the stories of how we all got here. We are all very different, but we form a great team with everything that each one is contributing day by day.Talking about contributing, the designs we have been seeing these days: how long does it take you to make one?
⛸:The part that takes the most time for me is the first stage to create something, the planning prior to the creation of the character or design that I am going to do. I usually do a sketch and between Chef Bugs and I we discuss it and go through some feedback stages. Sometimes changes are made and this process can last from just a few days to weeks. It clearly depends on what we are going to do, for example for the PancakeSquad collection we took a good time deciding what was best and giving a lot of love to each of the parts that were made to generate the NFT. For me to have a good idea well polished from the beginning facilitates the work later, since the technical part, that is, working the 3d, is relatively fast. Although many times, we start with an idea, and during the execution I realize that other things work better and I apply them.
🧉And boy were all those ideas well received, the numbers don’t lie! But I want to hear it coming from you. What are your expectations about the NFT Market and the New PancakeSquad Collection?
⛸ It has far exceeded my expectations. I am very happy with how people welcomed the bunnies and enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them. In fact since I finished them I joke that it gave me depression post collection. I enjoyed working on this project too much and it’s a bit difficult to let them go. The good news is that as soon as the Squad was wrapped up, I could already get started on the next tasks! I also look forward to seeing more talented and inspiring people join PancakeSwap’s NFT Marketplace to fill the NFT world with cool creations.
🧉You can see the dedication, the work, but above all the love you put into your creations. But there are many, so I wonder how you come up with your ideas? What are you doing to expand your creativity?
⛸I like to carry a kind of doodle diary where I keep sketches of things I can think of, which I might use later. But basically inspiration can come at any time and leave without warning. It is important to always be observing everything and find inspiration in what surrounds you: Music, colors etc. .
🧉I have to ask you the typical question that a non-artist has to ask an artist when he talks about inspiration, what do you do when you have a creative block?
⛸ There are times when you can not avoid having a creative block and in this case what I like to do is try to do something different from what I should be doing. For example, if I have to design something like a 3D character and I’m blocked, I start doing things with fabric since sewing is another thing I like to do.
It is also very necessary from my point of view to go for a walk or skate for a while every day to accommodate the ideas that come to mind and be able to shape them.
🧉I think we all saw you roller skate many times, more than I’ve ever ridden a roller (and more than the times I’ve fallen haha). And also super active on social networks. Besides that, what do you do to have fun when you’re not drawing or making 3d models?
⛸Before the pandemic my hobby apart from drawing was hiking or camping, as I love being in touch with nature. This year after being locked up for a while I decided to see how I was skating, which I haven’t been doing for a while. However, I wanted to resume it and, despite suffering from some falls from time to time, I don’t regret it. Another important thing for me is music. At least 2 out of 5 artists are going to tell you that they are frustrated musicians lol. I have a large collection of digital music but I also like to collect old records, and occasionally hang out with friends.
🧉A question is coming to me from the kitchen from a colleague of yours, Chef Bugs🐌. He wants to know who Chef Cecy is in simple words?
⛸¿Who is Cecy? Mmm…hard to answer. But answering for me and how I perceive myself would be something like this: I think I’m a person who tries to keep the curiosity about things in general and learn from all kinds of people. I also seek to enjoy as much as I can of what I do, and I feel that, up to this point, I have been very fortunate that my passion is my work.
🧉How nice to be able to say that and carry it as a banner. Work is a passion. Even if you don’t know it or want to believe it, you are a great inspiration for many designers or artists in general. The crypto ecosystem is very new and full of opportunities for all of them. That’s why I’d like to ask you two more questions, one more technical and one not so much.. I know that a lot of users want to know: What software did you use to create those arts? And after that, What would you say to artists who, like you, want to start working within this world and don’t know how to start or are afraid to do it?
⛸I use a 3D software called Blender as the main tool to create the assets or parts that make up this collection. But as I said, it all starts with the idea: pencil and paper. Blender is an excellent tool that I recommend. It is open source and free. On the other hand, the render engine I use is called cycles and is native to Blender. Something I love about using 3D as a tool is that you never stop learning. There’s always something new and that excites me a lot.
And to everyone on the other side, I would say, dare to try. Do not be intimidated by not knowing how to use software, since ideas are more important than technique. Everything has its learning process and the only way to find out is by trying.
🧉Thanks to you for taking the time to answer all the questions, it was a lot. I hope you will continue to delight us with all your art for much longer!
⛸To say goodbye, I thank you for reading this far. I hope I haven’t bored you too much, and keep waiting for more rabbits (which reproduce quickly).
🧉: That’s all for the interview with Chef Cecy. Thank you all very much for joining us in this third edition of PancakeSwap’s Kitchen Interviews. If you have any comments or requests, please let us know with the hashtag #InterviewWithChefs on twitter.
And, don’t forget to follow PancakeSwap official and Cecy’s twitter /instagram accounts!
Chef Fran 🧉
