We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Asill Tantush a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Asill, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

To be an artist is to be a risk-taker, experimenting with possible failure, ugliness and the feeling of paint wasted, for the potential discovery of something completely new, amazing, unique and original.

Growing up in Libya ”North Africa”, under Muammar Gaddafi dictatorship we were so Isolated travel was restricted and learning other languages was forbidden, between the harsh living environment and restrictive cultural values and traditions, as a little boy my only outlet was my PlayStation 1, I was mesmerized by the visuals and the character designs, I want to be a video game designer but I was very aware even as a little kid that those dreams weren’t meant for us, we live in third world countries, where war is the norm and dreams are limited, I gave up on my dream very quick and decided to purchase a more realistic career, so I moved to Serbia to study aviation, there’s no flying schools in my home country so I had to learn a new language and study abroad, I chose aviation because I remember asking my mother when I was younger what’s her dreams job and she told me that she wanted to be a pilot, obviously at that time there where no female pilots in Libya my mother wasn’t even allowed to finish high school.
“2011” The Arab Spring happened, followed by a civil war, and After finally getting my degree and going back home, our main Tripoli airport was burnt to the ground, which Rendered my pilot license useless, that was so devastating for me where it felt like every time you progress in life reality hits you back to let you know that you live in an endless war zone where all you can do is sit and watch, the war never stopped tell this day, I lost friends and family to it. I don’t know a single person who hadn’t lost a beloved someone death is so normalized out here that people don’t even react to it appropriately any more.
I didn’t want to give up tho so I took the risk and decided to become a video game artist, so downloaded some video game design and rendering softwares and started to binge-watch YouTube Art tutorials everyday I had zero background in this field, and all my friends and family thought I was wasting my time, I didn’t know a single person in my life who works in the video game industry not even on our Libyan media or television, but I didn’t give up and through trials and tribulations I finally managed to book a job at a gaming studio in Canada (VOLTA a Keywords Studio); completely online I worked there as a concept
artist/character artist, and after that I got hired as a VFX artist on a Hollywood film (Wetiko film) also online, from there on I
worked with multiple video game studios remotely as a freelancer and haven’t left my home country sense.
If I hadn’t taken the risk and invested all that time, money, and energy into my current and future self, I would have never known my full potential, so take every risk and drop every fear because we only regret the chances we don’t take. If you win you will be happy, and if you lose you will be wise. Either way, it’s a win-win.

Asill, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Asill Tantush. I go by Axill TNT online, and I’m a digital artist specializing in 2D and 3D game art. Like a lot of people in the game industry, I grew up playing video games. I started posting my original work online on my Instagram and Artstation until one day I was approached by a video game company recruiter that had interest in my work, and offered me a position at VOLTA studios as a concept/character artist, I obviously accepted his offer, I started working on a video game called POPULATION: ONE on Oculus Quest; a First person shooter online VR game, it was my first time working on a big scale project, all my previous works where freelance gigs from fiver or Instagram Dms, Working in the game world, there are a lot of social and managerial dimensions to the job. Sitting down in your office alone, creating something, is one way to get things done. But in a large organization where you’re building a platform and building a system, there are dozens—if not hundreds—of people involved. Getting an organization of that size all heading in the same direction presents a lot of challenges.
In the end, what you’re responsible for as a character artist is whether the character is presentable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing; getting to that point in the design is challenging.
People also have a misconception that when you become a video game designer you play games all day. It’s a very demanding industry specially working on online games where your constantly updating and changing the designs, so you keep things fresh and the players interested.
I’m honestly most proud of my personal work my Cyberpunk characters because It got me my recognition and my start in the game Industry, I’m planning on releasing my own video game it’s still a work in progress but I’ll keep everyone posted on my social media.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Harnessing the power of social media sites like Instagram and Artstation are definitely a resource I wish I knew about earlier creative journey, I wish I had more confidence in my work to show to people online and build my platform. Social media is redefining how the art world does business. Never before has as artist had the power to get into a conversation directly with their audience, artist no longer have to rely solely on galleries and the art world elite to validate their success, today artist can use social media as their own art gallery, playing both dealer and curator while their fans become critics and collectors…

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos.

Physical money and cryptocurrencies are “fungible,” meaning they can be traded or exchanged for one another. They’re also equal in value—one dollar is always worth another dollar; one Bitcoin is always equal to another Bitcoin. Crypto’s fungibility makes it a trusted means of conducting transactions on the blockchain.

NFTs are different. Each has a digital signature that makes it impossible for NFTs to be exchanged for or equal to one another (hence, non-fungible). One NBA Top Shot clip, for example, is not equal to EVERYDAYS simply because they’re both NFTs. (One NBA Top Shot clip isn’t even necessarily equal to another NBA Top Shot clip, for that matter.)

It can be a great opportunity which has made people who never thought they’d ever achieve so much they’ve achieved already in Crypto in their entire life. So yes, NFTs can have a great positive impact on it investors.

NFTs can also be to many people merely a ticket to a community of desperate folks in search of a golden coin, while sucking in true artists, doing all the work and getting rewarded with copyright fights.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/axilltnt
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/axilltnt/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/axill-tnt-8140b2252
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2_bk2smHPdeEwjQRtjzXlw
• Other: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AxillTNT