Paul Hatton speaks to the masterful archviz artist about his start in the industry, and the tools behind his work

Pérez’s work is so realistic that it’s hard to tell whether it’s a photograph

Gabriel Fabra Pérez began his journey in 3D by studying architecture at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. At the end of his studies he began working as an architect, and a photographer’s assistant. During that time he first entered the world of 3D visualisation, before moving to Cuenca, Ecuador, where he lives and works as a 3D artist creating visualisations for furniture brands.

How has your background within architecture and interior design helped you to create beautiful 3D artwork?

Architecture really gives you a technical knowledge about construction, at least it did with my education. It’s important from the point of view that you need to understand how the space works, how it should be dimensioned, and also some notion of how any materials work and interact with each other. More directly, it’s also important to know how to read a plan, and understand the documentation that the studios send you to create a project.

ARTIST BIO

Gabriel Fabra Pérez

Gabriel Fabra Pérez is a 3D artist who specialises in interior visualisation. He was born in Barcelona, but has lived most of his life in Valencia. behance.net/gfabra1

Shots like this show a beautiful eye for the ideal furniture to suit a space

But to generate images of an interior space, I think it’s more important to know about photography and decoration, to have a sense of taste and composition, to understand colour, and to combine textures. I think the combination of these three professions is key in the work of interior visualisation.

How has committing yourself to personal projects enabled you to improve your skills?

For me, it has a major impact. My mindset with personal projects has always been to do the project to the best of my ability, no matter how much time I invest. Trying to maintain this standard has helped me develop quicker than just doing commercial projects. In my opinion, the difference between commercial and personal projects is largely down to time and client constraints. So with personal projects you learn how to do something, with commercial projects you learn how to do it efficiently.