Biography

Meet Balazs Kiss – Bio and Work History

By Brenna Kimber – June – 2006

Even if you haven’t seen his name, you’ve probably seen his artwork. Have you seen the movies “King Kong,”  “Kingdom of Heaven” or any of the “Harry Potter” films? Then you have seen Balazs Kiss’ talents in motion.

Born in 1975, this young artist has quite a resume. He started in game development and moved to TV  commercials before hitting the big screen with The Moving Picture Company (MPC) in 2003. With the MPC he indeed played a key role in several major motion films.

In “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, Balazs did the lighting and rendering in several complex  computer generated (CG) scenes and painted textures for the Whomping Willow. He created Harry’s and Hermione’s digital doubles as well.

In “Kingdom of Heaven,” Balazs worked with the lighting and rendering of the complex Jerusalem siege shots and army formation shots. He painted textures for soldiers, the Dome of the Rock and other Jerusalem buildings.

Other films he worked on with the MPC include “Alien vs. Predator,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

At the end of 2005, Balazs took on a bigger project–“King Kong.” Once again, Balazs worked on the lighting and rendering of complex computer graphic scenes. In an interview with 3DValley.com, he said his time working on “King Kong” with Weta Digital Ltd. was extremely busy, but he enjoyed working with and learning from so many amazingly talented people.

Balazs is currently working at Framestore, where his latest project “Superman Returns” is in theatres. // currently working at MPC on 10,000 BC – 2007 //

Recent Update:

Balazs is working at Weta Digital in Wellington New Zealand for over 7 years now, overseeing the following blockbusters:

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,Tin Tin, James Cameron’s Avatar, and many others

Art techniques:

Balazs uses a variety of software programs in his work. Most of the time he uses Autodesk Alias Maya with Mental Ray or Pixar Photorealistic Renderman for his own work. He also uses Apple Shake for compositing and Adobe Photoshop or Right Hemisphere’s Deep Paint for texturing.

Balazs encourages artists to pay maximal attention to details. He also considers lighting one of the most important aspects of a good model or CG scene. Good lighting enhances the mood and theme, creates feeling and emotion, and makes not–so–good models look good. He also emphasizes that bad lighting can undo hours of hard work invested in models, textures and animation.

Balazs also points out the need for passion in an artist’s work. In the field of computer graphics, endless hours and relentless attention to detail is a must. Having passion about your work will take you to the finish line as you realize your goals whether your dreams are in games, movies or freelance.

References:

Published Biography