Illustrator Beyond the Realms of the Ordinary!
In a conversation with Creative Gaga, Vijay explained how he started his journey as an artist and explored new platforms like NFTs and Figma.
Please tell us all about yourself as an artist. How did it all start? What have been your related education, informal learnings, significant influences, projects, achievements, etc.
Hi! My name is Vijay Verma, but I usually go by the handle "Realvjy". I grew up in a small town in North India but moved to Delhi NCR five years ago. I am an illustrator and designer who also loves to code. I do not have a traditional art education but I do have a master's degree in computer science which is why I know how to code. I taught myself by watching a lot of YouTube videos and trying out everything until I succeeded. For years, I worked full-time for brands, but this year I quit my so-called 9-5 job to become an independent designer. Currently, I work from my studio as an independent contractor helping brands develop effective visuals and design systems. Other than that, I spend most of my time at the studio, experimenting and building what I love.
How did it start? Well, that is a long story, but here is a brief synopsis. Designing has always been a passion of mine since I was a kid and growing up, cartoons had a huge impact on me, and I subconsciously decided that I wanted to create those things one day. In 2008, I was drugged by Photoshop and it felt like magic. Since then, I kept working on digital design. Over the years, I have experimented with many different styles of illustration and now I am working on a 3D art style too.
I've always wanted to create something colourful and eye-catching. At the moment, I enjoy creating more realistic illustrations in Figma using techniques I've learned over the years by combining primitive shapes, colours, gradients, and masks. I prefer more vibrant colours, predominantly blues and purples as primary shades, as you can see from my illustration.
You describe yourself as "A design wizard voyaging into the metaverse." Kindly elaborate on the idea.
Haha! Before this, I had another title "design chef," and the idea behind it was that I cooked sushi (The name of a design system I created). Actually, the most important thing to me is not titles and designations, but rather what I do. I recently gave myself a design wizard title. The idea here was that everytime I create something, people always compliment it with like - wow, incredible, god love etc. When I illustrate design potions in Figma, I dig the idea of potions and wizards, so I chose a new title - "Design Wizard". I am very fascinated by the metaverse and web3. It's just like an endless sea with lots of options. The way I explore this new territory is similar to that of a voyager exploring a whole new world. So I’m like a design wizard voyaging into the metaverse.
How did you come upon Figma and decide to use it as an artist?
Figma is a tool I was waiting for, for a long time. Back in 2017, I began using Figma for UI design and quickly fell in love with it. I adopted it first at my company because of its collaboration feature. Eventually, I became a fan of Figma and started using it for most of my work, including icons and high-detail illustrations. It is such a simple but powerful tool.
My first detailed illustration in Figma was Soul, which I created after watching the Pixar movie. The simplicity of Figma makes it my first choice for illustration and design work. I also use other tools like Procreate for rough drawings and Illustrator for more complex illustrations but Figma is my top choice over others.
As an artist, I learnt that a tool is just a tool and it doesn't matter what tool you choose depending on your needs, just start creating. You will find a way to achieve what you want to create with what you have on hand.
Please highlight significant projects off your various works on Figma.
Back in 2019, I created my very first design system Sushi (Zomato's design system) using Figma, then Pixar's Soul was my first illustration with intricate details on Figma. After that, I created a lot of illustrations on the platform, from fan art to client projects. Some of my favourites are; Luca, Design Potion and Turning Red.
To help designers create better wireframes, I have created Contra UIkit and Bloo UIKit. Figma also allows you to create your own plugins and I love coding as well. So, I have recently published plugins for Figma for 3dicons, illustration, and UILogo to help the design community. I created 3dicons while learning 3D, which now has a plugin that helps insert icons into projects. uiLogos is useful for adding dummy logos and flags to designs with just a single click. Currently, I am working on 2 plugins and 1 UIkit for Fig
What's the ideal way to make the optimum use of Figma as a platform?
Initially, Figma was mostly used for UI design. It is not surprising that Figma is the fastest-growing design tool you have ever seen. Thanks to its plugin capabilities, you can customise the workflow and automate it as you wish. It is now being used for a variety of purposes, including icon design, illustration, presentation, poster design, and printing, as well as for many different types of visual and note-taking activities. With the prototyping feature, you can create animations and interactive user interfaces. So, the optimum use of Figma is very wide.
How did you get into NFTs and what has been your experience of the same?
I discovered NFTs through Twitter at the end of 2020. Soon, I became more fascinated by the possibility of NFTs and began researching them more. I remember Beeple 5000 pieces as an NFT project. It was all over the news and my Twitter feed. Foundation was the first platform where I started my journey in the world of NFT in march 2021. After waiting a few days, I sold my first NFT. The experience of selling my first NFT was very exciting. After that, I created a 3D character collection called Primitive. Design potion was one of my favourite 1/1 art I created using Figma. I also helped some other NFT founders with their visuals and art direction.
Apart from selling my NFT I also love collecting NFTs of my fav artist, Pablo Stanley, whose Robotos was the first NFT I bought. It's been a really wonderful experience so far. NFT opened some doors for me. It gives me financial freedom and also helps me meet people I now work with. People in this space seem to be very supportive. Together with my Dev friend Shivkanth, I'm currently building lilfrenz. group (a dynamic NFT collection), with a vision to connect makers, artists, developers, explorers, miners, and many others involved in the web3 and crypto worlds.
How is the world of NFTs going to impact the art world in the near future?
The future of NFTs in the art world seems quite favourable. As this trend continues, more brands will join it and it will become mainstream. Many brands have already taken up the idea of using tokens to earn money while playing (P2E) and by 2022, hundreds of such games have appeared on the market. One of the first evolutions in NFT use-cases came in the form of using non-fungible tokens as “membership passes”. To sell their products, some brands started using NFT tokens instead of a traditional subscription option. I heard one building was sold as NFT recently. With NFT music, movies, events, virtual lands, and even physical assets will be mapped to easily verify their authenticity and ownership. Soon, NFT will be used in the creation of decentralised marketplaces, where individuals can trade not only digital art but physical items using blockchain technology.
Based on your own experiences and observation, what are the advantages and disadvantages of NFTs as a platform ?
**Some Advantage**
Royalty/Revenue: Digital art has been undervalued for a while because its so effortlessly available. To help artists create financial value for their work, NFTs add the crucial ingredient of scarcity. It becomes the new revenue stream for artists.
Blockchain Tech: NFTs are created utilising blockchain technology, which is a technique for preserving information in a way that cannot be hacked, altered, or deleted.
Ownership: Using blockchain technology to digitally signify ownership makes an investor's ownership of an asset more secure and transparent.
**Some Disadvantage**
Environment: There has been harsh criticism of the NFT ecosystem since the blockchain technology used to enable it is often very energy inefficient. This means that it can be damaging to the energy when non-green sources of energy are used to power it.
Frauds & Scam: An NFT can be stolen if its owner's private key is compromised. Though the integrity of a blockchain is unquestionable, there is potential for fraud to occur and scammers within the space, so please be cautious.
What kind of works have you been doing in 3D, specifically? Do you prefer it over 2D or vice versa?
I do all kinds of work in 3D, from modelling to texturing and rendering. I am also learning animation. Having the ability to create 3D objects is very interesting.
When I was a kid, I discovered trial versions and Maya in a magazine and messed around with them to create things and couldn't do anything interesting because I didn't have high-end computers or internet connections. It was always my dream to learn 3D, so I decided to start learning it again in 2021 on a serious note to create something useful. As a result, I successfully launched a 3dicon library open-source project.
Currently, I'm working on two projects in 3D; a 3D character library and a game asset. I also created some NFT characters and environments, which I might expand in the future. For me, there is no particular choice; I create both 3D and 2D illustrations. In most cases, I create a 2D illustration before creating a 3D version of it, so there is no specific preference. Currently, 3D is widely used for several things. There are many tools out there that are easy and simple to use like a spline. Design, has led to people creating more 3D product illustrations. As AR and VR become more popular, 3D objects will be used more often in those interfaces than 2D objects. Therefore, I believe everyone should learn 3D and advance their skills.
Likewise, please shine some light on your 2D illustrations and projects.
It was around 2011 when I first began creating 2D illustrations to master the skill. The software I used at the time was Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW. Honestly, I was not very good at it. In 2015, I began making one illustration a day for 100 days to learn more about different illustration techniques. Eventually, it became an open-source illustration library, illustration.co. In my illustrations, I usually use bright, eye-catching colours. I created two illustration libraries for blush. Design, Croods and Allura, which anyone can use for their design project. I am a huge Pixar movie fan, so I designed some fan art illustrations using Figma like those mentioned above - Soul, Encanto, and Lightyear.
What's your personal vision going ahead, futuristically speaking?
My interest is shifting towards 3D art and game design these days. I am improving my coding skills and learning more about the basics of game design. It is my intention and dream to create a short animation video and a video game someday. I would like to do more experiments with web3 and metaverse technology to create my own virtual world or contribute to it.
The future is really exciting.
What advice would you give to fresh, emerging artists?
You must love what you do, or rather you must have a deep passion for what you do. Together with hard work, persistence and determination, you can achieve what you want to. Keep learning and practising to improve your craft, and never give up on your dream.
