Laura H. Rubin - Many Visual Effects Are So Brilliant Because You Can't See Them (Digital Artist)

One of the most beautiful experiences I had was when I realised that other people felt addressed by my art. I always thought it was very clear what I wanted to say with a painting, but suddenly I started receiving more and more messages from people who saw something completely different in a painting.

1. Tell us about your background and journey. How and when did you realize your passion for digital media?

I was always very interested in drawing and handicrafts, so as a teenager I decided to seek a creative education.

I studied film and visual effects in Zurich, where I learned a lot about visual art in films. We learned a lot at this institute and gained insights into many different artistic areas. 

Among other things, we were taught digital drawing so that we could draw the storyboards for our film projects properly. I fell in love with digital drawing when I realised how many possibilities I have with this medium.


2. What would you say will be the future (or) next milestone of digital creation editing and design?

Probably the VR Design.

You put on VR glasses and find yourself in a virtual world that fits the artist perfectly. You no longer draw on canvases but in the "space" itself, which means you no longer have any limits.

There is already the possibility to draw with VR, but from my point of view, working with VR glasses and controllers is not yet very mature yet. I hope that will change soon :)


3. What are the basic software that one must be aware of in your field?

For drawing, I use Procreate and/or Adobe Photoshop. For editing my Making of's I use Adobe Premiere and/or Adobe After Effects. And to create my drawing study books, I use Adobe InDesign. Of course, there are many great alternatives to Adobe such as Affinity, but for my workflow, these programs fit best.


4. Share one of your favourite experiences as a digital creator with us. 

I think one of the most beautiful experiences I had was when I realised that other people felt addressed by my art. I always thought it was very clear what I wanted to say with a painting, but suddenly I started receiving more and more messages from people who saw something completely different in a painting. 

They gave my paintings multiple meanings that fit their situation in life... and that was wonderful.


5. What has been the biggest learning from your job? 

That you have to learn to deal with negative criticism. With art, the whole "criticism thing" is a bit more complicated because art can and should be interpreted differently, which usually leads to different opinions.

So you have to learn to focus on constructive feedback which makes you leave your comfort zone to discover new things, while harmful criticism just makes you dislike your work.


6. Describe your favourite visual effect from a movie or any of your projects. Why do you like it? 

Since I graduated, I have only very rarely had anything to do with film productions. Here in Switzerland, unfortunately, there are hardly any jobs in this industry unless you want to produce commercials.

However, when I think back to the film productions of my student days, my favourite visual effect would probably be the invisible cuts in a one-shot short film we did back then. 

A one-shot movie is a film without any visible cuts. It looks as if everything was shot in one piece, which increases the effort on set massively and also makes it enormously complicated at times. A well-known example of such a film would be "Birdman" by Alejandro González Iñárritu. 

The visual effect was to make the cuts invisible so that no one would notice that there was a cut somewhere. I know that sounds a bit strange, but many visual effects are so brilliant because you can't see them. ^^


7. Which is your favourite book and why?

That's a difficult question... I love books in general. Dystopian stories like "The Mortality Doctrine" by James Dashner or tragedies like "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck...

But I think there is one book that fascinates me the most right now and that is the poetry book "The Strange Death Of Oyster Boy" by Tim Burton. I love how incredibly crazy, "lovingly" and also a bit disturbing the stories are in it.


- Laura H. Rubin (Digital Artist)

Website: https://www.laurahrubin.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la___aura/


Interviewed By Akshaya Rathinavadivel