“I'm a self-taught artist. I started as a freelancer 3D generalist in 2007 and now I'm an art director and co-founder of Seven Pictures, an Egyptian media production house,” says Mohamed Halawany to Bored Panda. In his latest series, the artist, who is also known as Halawany.m to his 19.4k Instagram followers, mixes up the heads of cartoon characters with real bodies, giving them a human-like look. These characters look halfway between animation and reality, and the result is bizarre, but surprisingly interesting!
Halawany started creating art by mixing 2D and 3D realities into amazing works of art. However, only recently did he come up with the idea of his "Real Toons" series by visualizing Homer Simpson, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Mario as heavy lifters. “I started making daily 3D renders in my free time since 2017, just for fun, inspired by many 3D artists that do the same. So I'm trying to find a new idea every day and Real Toons are one of them.” The series was a real success, so he created human-like versions of characters like Buzz Lightyear, Donald Duck, Rick Sanchez, and many more!
When asked how long it takes for him to make one illustration, he says that “it takes about 2 hours.” The artist says that it’s a simple process. “The body is 3D scanned and I model the head with cinema 4D or a brush and that's it... It's like photo manipulation, but with 3D objects,” he explains. “It's all about having fun so I'm enjoying every step.”
In this series, these classic characters that we grew up watching in movie theaters and on TV change their usual appearances in a completely different way. For instance, Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story becomes a sophisticated gentleman with an expensive suit, Super Mario grows some muscle and decides to go shirtless, Donald Duck becomes a fashionista that you could put on the cover of a fashion magazine, and Homer Simpson ditches doughnuts and beer to lift some weights.
