Beauty, Decay and the Inner Child: Entering the World of Craves

Together with Braw Haus, RED-EYE spotlights the artists reshaping the future of visual storytelling with bold imagination and human depth. In this chapter, we enter the world of Craves, a conceptual 3D artist based in Athens, Greece, whose work stands apart for its emotional precision and poetic tension. His characters and animated portraits feel alive not just because of their realism, but because they hold something vulnerable and true beneath the surface.

Craves describes his artistic voice as a return to childhood wonder, a space where curiosity and excitement shape the world. Making art brings him back to that feeling, the rush of watching something form from nothing, guided by instinct rather than perfection. His work blends hyper detailed skin, careful lighting, and evocative composition with the lyrical beauty of Greek language and mythology. Growing up in Greece, a place both painfully beautiful and brutally worn, taught him that decay and radiance are inseparable. Beauty means more when it stands beside ruin, and that duality lives inside his work.

His tools are Cinema 4D with Octane Render, Daz3D, ZBrush, Substance Painter and at times Marvelous Designer. Yet he insists that technique is not his core. He learned 3D through YouTube tutorials, focusing on light, skin, photography and feeling. For him, the soul of each piece lives in concept, not software. Craves does not use AI in his workflow and never intends to. He sees it as creative emptiness, incapable of carrying human struggle or emotional weight. Art matters when something real is inside it.

If limitations disappeared, he would return to music. A hearing condition paused that part of his life, but one day he hopes to compose again, maybe even release an EP and merge sound with 3D worlds. Above all, he dreams of works that leave viewers shaken, moved and unable to forget.

Step into the full RED-EYE x Braw Haus interview with Craves below.

How would you describe your visual style or artistic voice?

I like to think that I create original concepts that resonate with the inner child in me. When I was a kid, I had so much curiosity and excitement for the world. Making art brings me back to that feeling, the rush you get when something beautiful is forming before your eyes.

What software or production tools are integral to your workflow, from modeling to rendering, and where do you let intuition or creative risk take over technical structure?

I mainly use Cinema 4D with Octane Render, Daz3D, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and occasionally Marvelous Designer. My workflow is very simple and basic. I’m not particularly technical, I learned 3D from YouTube tutorials and only scratched the surface. I focused mainly on skin techniques, and on studying light and photography. My background in art and design definitely helped shape my visual understanding. I believe the core of my work lies in my concepts, not in the technical side of each animation or image. I’d love to keep learning, of course. Houdini, for instance, could help me make my ideas more advanced. I’m always open to exploring new things.

Are you incorporating AI in your workflow? If yes, how, and in which step of your process? Which programs do you use?

I never have and never will incorporate any kind of AI in my work. I believe it instantly erases any artistic value, it’s creative suicide. I’ve experimented with most AI models because I want to fully understand what they can do, but the more I learn, the more I dislike them. Why? It’s simple. Show me one person in the world who has looked at an AI image and been so profoundly moved, so shaken by its beauty, that they cried. That person doesn’t exist. No matter how cool the results are, they can’t carry real emotion or human struggle. Because ultimately, the artwork itself is the least important thing in art. Beauty isn’t about beauty, it’s about the artist’s pain, soul, and truth. That’s what makes art unforgettable. I’m not sure everyone will understand what I mean, but if anyone wants to talk more, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram.

How has growing up and creating in Greece shaped the way you tell visual stories through your art?

Growing up in Greece, a country both painfully beautiful and brutally ugly at the same time, does something strange to your perception. It's like a dream that’s been badly maintained. It teaches you how beauty only exists because decay insists on being seen next to it. And somehow both end up inside you.

What’s the “red eye” moment in your work, the detail that might haunt or captivate the viewer?

I think the red-eye moment in my work is my wide range of concepts. Every time, it’s something new and different. That actually hurts me in terms of reach and engagement, people like repetition. They prefer seeing the same thing over and over again with small variations. That’s why the most successful artists are often the least interesting ones. It’s easy to play the algorithm game, but it’s hard to create real value and still succeed. I hope someday I’ll manage both.

If artistic limitations didn’t exist, what kind of project or medium would you love to explore next?

I’d love to pause 3D for a while and focus on music. I used to make music, but I stopped abruptly because of a hearing condition. Apart from small loops I make for my reels, I haven’t composed in years. So yes, it would be amazing to create new full songs, maybe an EP. If my ears allow it, I plan to start again soon. Well, maybe not completely stop 3D, just take a few weeks off to focus entirely on sound.

What would be your dream project?

In a strange way, every project I’ve worked on has been a dream project. I love each one deeply, from small to big. I suppose my ultimate dream project would be something that provokes a truly intense emotional reaction in the viewer. I don’t care much about likes or views, or rather, I do, but they don’t really matter. The things that truly matter can’t be measured.

With whom would you like to collaborate and why?

I’ll patiently wait to collaborate with my daughter a few years from now. That would be one of my greatest dreams come true. I can only imagine what treasures her precious little mind will uncover.

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