Life as a Project: Nako Baev on ARC, 3D Art and International Success

Atanas (Nako) Baev (22) is a digital artist working in the field of 3D computer graphics. He has worked for global giants such as Apple, Mastercard, Deloitte and AMIRI. He led a team of eight artists in creating the interactive visual environment for Gwen Stefani’s concert at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
His short animated film Till This Day has received awards for Best Young Director, Animation, Sound Design and Visual Effects from the Independent Shorts Awards and the Reale Film Festival. His digital museum, Homecoming Exhibition – a finalist in the Immersive Media category at The Rookies – was showcased on a billboard in Times Square.

Nako Baev also organizes the Bulgarian edition of the international initiative Fight for Kindness, which toured Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas and attracted a record 760 artworks by 600 artists from 75 countries. He graduated from ARC Academy in 2021 in the Game Development Advanced program.

How did your journey into 3D and visual art begin?

From a very young age, I was strongly influenced by the aesthetics of the early 2000s. Whenever my parents took me shopping, I would head straight for the DVD and computer sections. Video games, films and even products at the time felt bold, thematic and genuinely innovative. Naturally, I had a lot of toys from that era and the visual language of that period stayed deeply imprinted on me.

When I was 8-9 years old, we had a laptop at home and I spent hours watching animations, playing Flash games and following reviews of new and interesting technologies, cars, architecture and much more. Access to the internet felt like a rabbit hole that led you somewhere new every day and I couldn’t wait to dive back into it again and again.

For a child from a small town in southeastern Bulgaria, this early internet culture was a window to a much bigger world. Today, I realize that the aesthetics and digital culture of those years shaped a large part of who I am and motivated me to think and dream beyond my immediate environment.

In Topolovgrad, my uncle worked at the local internet café and after school, we would literally run there to play until our eyes hurt. Counter-Strike 1.6 LAN parties, GTA: San Andreas and Vice City, Half-Life, Serious Sam, Warcraft, Heroes III, Halo, World of Warcraft and many more. He gave me a 50% “family discount,” and to this day, I don’t know whether he paid the rest or simply didn’t care – because in a small town, everyone knows everyone.

I recorded myself playing different games and uploaded the videos to VBOX7. Later, when I was 13–14, I started creating animations in After Effects to customize my Steam profile just for fun. I did it for friends as well and that’s actually when things started becoming more serious.

As a teenager, I continued in an even more intuitive and focused way. Along the way, I went through personal mistakes, bad relationships and betrayals, which, instead of stopping me, pushed me to go deeper and rediscover myself. For me, negative experiences significantly accelerated the process.

Which project so far is closest to you and why? What did you learn from it – as an artist and as a person?

The project closest to me is myself. I’ve been working on it since my early years of self-awareness. No one really teaches you how to build a sustainable mindset – how to maintain focus, choose rational thinking over momentary emotions, develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence or structure your values and worldview. There’s no ready-made formula for this work; you have to build it yourself, regardless of the industry you’re in.

In that sense, I am the project, and everything else is a result of my actions and the choices I make. You choose whether to commit to your own project and whether it will succeed. The most important thing I’ve learned is to accept mistakes as part of the process, even when they’re painful. There’s no point in avoiding discomfort – it’s exactly what pushes you forward the most and changes you.

As an artist, this taught me discipline and honesty with myself. Not to rely solely on inspiration, but on consistency, clear principles and continuous work on my mindset. As a person, it taught me to take responsibility for my direction and to turn experience – even negative experience – into fuel. Ultimately, whether you’re an artist or not, we all “make” something out of our lives. Some call it art, others don’t, but to me, there’s no more meaningful project than life itself.

You’ve worked on projects with global reach. What is the biggest challenge at that level?

The biggest challenge is almost always a combination of extremely tight deadlines and difficult communication. The reality is that many projects are financially undervalued, overburdened and pass through many people who view the same thing through different lenses. This creates a “broken telephone” effect, where everyone pulls in their own direction, sometimes with completely unrealistic expectations.

At this level, there’s also a serious issue with work ethic. When working with teams from different countries, cultures and backgrounds, standards and communication styles can vary drastically. This forces you to rise above your personal reactions and biases, think more rationally and learn how to set boundaries.

Another major challenge is the structure itself. Large projects often mean large hierarchies, heavy and slow workflows, many daily meetings and additional tasks that aren’t always planned or paid for – even when there’s a clear contract. At some point, it becomes critical to know how to say “no,” assess risk and choose carefully who you work with.

The paradox is that this is exactly what gives you the most experience. You learn to communicate more clearly, protect your time, prioritize yourself and understand which partnerships are worth it. Not all big projects are like this, but when you find the right team and the right client, you feel it immediately – and then everything is worth it.

What did ARC Academy give you for your development?

Above all, it taught me how to work in a team and changed my perspective. At the beginning, I was very confident that I could do everything on my own and that I “knew better,” but over time, you realize something important: there are always people who are stronger than you in areas where you’re not, and that’s a huge opportunity if you approach it the right way. ARC encouraged me to be more open, more curious and more willing to keep learning.

ARC is an environment that gives you the chance to understand what works best for you – if you’re genuinely engaged and actively involved in the process. You have to accept that and work for it, because no one will hand you knowledge on a silver platter.

At the same time, the more you learn, the clearer it becomes how much more there is to learn. That can sometimes affect your motivation, shake your confidence and slow your progress if you don’t manage it properly.

While at ARC, I worked on my own FPS indie horror video game, as well as in parallel on our team’s graduation side-scroller adventure project. This constantly confronted me with real problems and the most valuable part was that whenever I struggled – especially with programming and technical aspects – I could turn to the community and there was always someone willing to help.

In this context, I’d like to give special thanks to Simeon Balabanov for the time he spent helping me late at night on Discord, outside of working hours. That says a lot about the people and the culture at ARC Academy, and I’m truly grateful for it.

How do you think education influences an artist’s path to the international stage?

Education can accelerate your path to the international stage, but ultimately, everything comes down to what you’re capable of and how you present it. Its most valuable aspect isn’t the diploma, but the environment it provides.

On an international level, no one really cares how talented you are or where you graduated from, “in theory.” What matters is whether you can consistently deliver high-quality work on time and collaborate well with others.

Education exposes you to real processes and teamwork, which are a huge part of the international environment. There’s more communication, more responsibility and tasks go through many iterations and revisions. That’s why you need a solid professional discipline, rather than relying on momentary motivation or waiting for inspiration. Being a good artist alone is not enough.

Over time, you also start thinking on a larger scale – not only creatively, but toward the more practical, business side of the work.

And last but not least, education gives you a network of people: teachers, peers and future partners. Often, that’s what opens doors – someone recommends you or sees how you work in a real environment.

What does being included in Forbes 30 Under 30 mean to you – as recognition and as responsibility?

To me, it’s more of a media signal and a form of public attention than an objective measure of value.

It can give you momentum toward your next goal and remind you that someone has noticed the work, the hours and the consistency behind what you do. But if you interpret it the wrong way or feed your ego with it, the effect can be the opposite.

Honestly, on its own, it doesn’t change anything. The value lies in what you do afterward. The most positive thing for me is that, sometimes, the process leads to rare encounters with people who genuinely bring value.

Over time, you realize that such rankings are often used as positioning tools. Some people invest heavily in PR and marketing around their name, which gives them visibility – sometimes more than their actual contribution.

When you see how the process works from the inside, part of the perceived value inevitably fades. Truly impactful people – the ones who actually drive change – aren’t always the loudest and don’t always appear in such formats. Still, the experience remains useful because it provides context, connections and an opportunity to use the attention wisely – if you stay focused on the work rather than the label.

What advice would you give to young artists who are just starting and wondering whether “this is possible from Bulgaria”?

Everything I’ve talked about so far, I started and developed in Bulgaria. You are the one who sets your own limits. Yes, at some point, the environment may start to feel restrictive and you may sense that opportunities are limited – but Bulgaria is a very strong place to start if your goal is something bigger and international.

To go far, you begin with a small step and that is absolutely possible here. You have the freedom and space to experiment, try, fail and repeat without everything being under maximum pressure from day one.

The pace here feels slower and that can be an advantage. You can enjoy the process without carrying some of the stress and problems typical of Western countries. You have time to reflect and appreciate simpler things that have already become rare in many places. Yes, it’s a fact that we’re about 20 years behind others – but if you use that wisely, it gives you time to develop your own thinking and style instead of copying ready-made formulas.

Don’t be afraid of failure. Use your time and freedom here. Create things, share them, seek feedback, improve and keep going. And when you’ve built skills and stability, stepping onto the international stage becomes much more realistic.