Hi Nicolas, please introduce yourself to 3DM3 readers

Hi I am Nicolas Ferrand, born in France, I studied fine arts and graduated with a higher certificate in ceramic design, which is far from the digital world, but still in a concept mood.

How do you get started in concept art and cg?

I have always been a video game geek, started on the Amstrad cpc, commodore 64 and gamewatches. I studied multimedia and 3d in a high school started to start working as a level artist for different games companies in france, until I moved to a new destination: Canada

It was a great and important choice in my life, because it gave me the opportunity to met so many talented artists as: sparth (Nicolas Bouvier) David levy (vyle), Thierry Doizon (barontieri), Joel dos reis Viegas (feerik), Sebastien Larroude (rainart) herve groussin (nuro ), david giraud (mojettte) and all the steambot team & friends. I did one more project as a level artist then I chose to return to my artistic roots: concept design.

I did many great and  challenging projects at ubisoft: Splinter cell, Prince of Persia, assassins, Avatar (from the James Cameron s movie) then I moved to my current employer: Eidos Montreal. At the moment I am working on a new and “secret game” (to be announced soon).

By the way I have always been very active on every concept art forums, like cfsl, sijuns or concept art.org, that's how I could change my position level artist to concept artist.

Internet is a great tool, I still remember when we had to move with giant leather traditional portfolio or when we had to send letters by the post, to be recruited … But yes  that why internet is fantastic, all the knowledge, the opportunity to share your pictures, ideas and techniques with great artists around the world, this is just incredible, big and fast.

What are your favorite styles? Do you prefer fantasy, SCI-FI, realism, etc?

I don't have a favorite style, like we learned at school, we have to be curious and open minded.

When I like something, I like it, the style doesn't matter. Sometimes I am more in a sci-fi mood, sometimes its fantasy. But I also really like to mix universes and styles, to create and to try to have my own worlds, I think the idea, the concept is the main thing, I like to surprise people.

Where do you get the inspiration for all of this amazing artwork?

From everywhere and from everything, my formation in fine arts, opened my mind to a lot of style and artists. Its good to look around and to be curious, there is always a part in a photo, a picture, a sculpture  that can be reused.

Sometimes it's a shape, that I will transform into a photoshop brush, sometimes it's a color for an unusual mood. I really like tribal art, African jewelries, textile design and fashion shows are also good for dynamism and rhythms.

Medieval and religious related things is a good source of inspiration for me, I like to add a mystical touch into my concepts. Music is essential for me. I cant work without, it helping me a lot . The brain is good to translate songs into visuals, its just an important part of my process, I need it!