Introduction
My name is Daniel Merticariu, and I’ve been a 3D Character Artist for eleven years now. I’ve worked on various projects, both triple and double A. I’ve worked in game development studios, art outsource studios, and in advertising for a short while. I hope the film industry will be joining my list soon enough. Although so far, my favorite thing has been working with indies.
Zeniba is the last character in a series I started, based on the drawings of Patrick Gañas. The main idea behind choosing these three witches was to try and explore a new style consistently. Trying to make them from the same world, while also honing the style a bit further with each iteration.
After posting the first of the three witches, some people told me that it felt as if it belonged to the universe of Hayao Miyazaki, without knowing the intention behind it. And I, for one, don’t even know if she is indeed from one of his movies. But I’ve only seen six of his twelve full-feature films, so maybe I still have some exploring to do.
Although it is also possible that Patrick made a character who feels as if they belong to one of those worlds. What I can say is that it’s easy to recognize how genuine the worlds of Hayao Miyazaki feel if their style managed to pass from him, through Patrick Gañas’ drawings, to my own sculpts. I also hope that the process of exploration, and the progress in it, can be recognized from the first of the witches, Luna, and on to the last, Zeniba.
