Enter the weird and technical world of visual effects artist Şifagül

From warping film titles to bubbly shoes floating in icy water, good digital artists can just about make anything these days. Şifagül is proving this fact in her portfolio of works, spanning otherworldly campaigns for Bally and commissions for Iann Dior, Kraken Exchange, Riley Clemmons, New Balance and more.

Mature, refined and distinctively weird, you’ll be unsurprised to hear that Şifagül has worked hard to get where she is today. In fact, her journey into digital art began from the ground up: “My career path is really something I had to build from zero,” she tells It’s Nice That. It all kicked off after moving to London, during which she worked at a bar in Soho and took on projects for friends in her free time – mostly animated party flyers. In time, she built a portfolio of pieces and sent them out to design agencies, later landing a role as a creative designer. She continued to develop her practice on the side, though, and learnt how to use C4D in the evenings. “I always knew I wanted to work for myself because not long after I started that job, I took out a loan from work to buy my first PC and worked on projects with friends, which were usually visualiser-type music videos and 3D titles.” Eventually, she found herself in the position of getting paid jobs and was offered a three-month freelance contract at Vice. “From there, I’ve constantly been trying to take things further, learn as much as I can, understand all the different types of programs, and just work really hard to get myself in a better place.”

Şifagül flits between a plethora of projects, from the surreal to the more literal. What she adores the most, however, is the more experimental and conceptual – particularly when she’s on the same aesthetic page as the client. “It’s really important to be open-minded, adaptive and intuitive when I create anything,” she notes. When approaching a brief, it can go two ways for the artist: it all depends on the client and their vision. Some, for instance, might not have much 3D experience so she’ll need to ask the “right” questions and request references. Others with more 3D knowledge may be more open with the brief, and Şifagül will work up moodboards or storyboards to decipher the visuals. Once determined, she’ll open up her catalogue of tools to work with such as After Effects, PS, AI, Brush, Patrick, CC3, C4D and Houdini.

One of Şifagül’s most recent commissions – and personal favourite – is Breeze, a series of animated films created for fashion brand Bally, made in collaboration with FX artist Tabz and sound artist Red Lee. In this project, she’s crafted a cloudy brand logo that comes together as the words are blown across the screen; another film presents cracked glass falling apart as it reveals a metallic show and bag; and the third sees a puff of smoke emerge over another set of accessories. Elsewhere, Şifagül’s further highlights include the New Balance BB9000 series and a project made for Kraken. “For all of these, the colour, texture and the general post FX were really important to me,” she explains. “I felt that it really made all the difference in the videos and brought it to life.”

With plans to get more comfortable with Houdini in the future, we can only expect more technical evolution to come from this already flourishing artist – from FX jobs, larger team projects and more personal creations.