EVOLUTION
An interview with heal.bell
heal.bell is a Chicago based 3D animation artist creating high fashion artworks of powerful women appearing as monsters. The self taught artists has been featured in Felt Zine, Superchief Gallery and is rising to rapid success across the industry.
"Tell us a bit about the person behind the Instagram account heal.bell."
I'm a 3d artist with a background in motion graphic design.
"What is your creative process?"
I have developed a workflow for my artwork that starts off with a base-mesh that I have modified for my "signature" styling which is a mix of realism and anime style. So it goes from DazStudio to Cinema 4D in which I build the lighting and environment and that gets rendered out in Octane Render Engine. From there I take the assets and move it into Adobe After Effects where I will do color correcting and add special effects. For animations I tend to need to do a little bit of sound design which I score and mix in Ableton.
"The programs I use follow this order: Daz>Cinema 4D>Octane>After Effects."
"Your 3d work feels very much about fashion. What is the role of 3D art in fashion's future?"
Yeah it's been a way to express my enjoyment of fashion and have control over it and my imagination be my only limiting factor. I believe 3D art in fashion has already arrived with tons of digital influencers paving the way for fashion trends and the ability to prototype in an eco-friendly structure.
"Where does the inspiration for the clothes in your work come from?"
Inspiration comes from my love of alternative fashion and cosplay and anime. I always enjoyed the counterculture and mixing of styles from many different niches. It's fun to be inventive and to experiment with different colors and styles and make a hybrid of something new and intriguing.
"The characters in your work have elf ears, fangs, horns, tattoos. Why are you fascinated by body modification?"
I don't have much of an answer but, I simply like monster girls. I always enjoyed outlandish characters in anime & hentai. As for tattoo's I personally do not have them but I see many bad ones in real life so I try to execute (in my mind) good and tasteful ones.
"Why do you use animation in your art instead of more traditional artforms?"
It's very difficult and I aspire to create cool animations. It's what keeps me interested otherwise I would have simply become a tattooist or an illustrator.
"What is the future of art?"
The future of art simply plays into how quickly our technology continues to evolve. That's our limiter for now.
"Thank you."