Interview

website :

bluefley.deviantart.com

3DTotal: Could you tell us something about your background and, how you became involved in digital painting? Marc: First of all, I’m happy you have shown interest in my work! I’m currently working at a video game studio called Artificial Mind & Movement here in Montreal, Canada. I think my love for drawing started as soon as I was able to hold a pencil or anything I could draw with! I used to do really silly comics with my brother. We had two characters, Nic and Pic, and we made up crazy adventures together. I think the first time I tried digital painting was, when I tried colouring a drawing for one of my ex-girlfriends about 3 years ago, using my ball mouse. No need to say it was horrible, but I liked it a lot and ended up colouring all of my old drawings that way afterwards. Later I got into 3D animation classes, where I studied Maya for 2 years before I got hired. Practice and hard work got me to where I am now. 3DTotal: I take it from your answer that you also have an interest in 3D is this restricted purely to animation or are you keen on modelling and texturing too? Marc: I find it very exciting indeed, to be able to take my characters and bring them alive in three

dimensions. Our teachers goal was not only to teach us 3D animation, but everything we have to know to be able to create a short film at the end of the program. So we learn texturing, modelling, rigging, rendering, particles and everything else. I would say my favourite part was the modelling since it’s the closest to drawing and it’s also the part I’m best at. Currently, at work, along with illustration and concept art, I also do modeling and texturing of my concepts. I find it to be a huge privilege as I'm the only one in the team doing as many different tasks in the production pipeline. 3DTotal: What would you say are the subjects that you enjoy painting the most? Marc: Well let’s see, if one was too look at my gallery, he’d probably have to guess I like to draw pretty girls, since they are the subjects of most of my work so far. But it's not exactly what I like to draw the most. I find drawing girls to be quite hard, so I do it as much as I can to improve! What I’ve come to like painting the most, are environments. I have a huge respect for environment artists because I think it’s one of the hardest things to paint. You know, when you can pull off and create an interesting atmosphere, these are most impressive images.

3DTotal: Who or what would you describe as being the main influences upon your work ? Marc: Honestly, I look up to a lot of CG artists, but I think the ones who influenced me the most, were guys like Dodowa (Kim Young Sang), Kim Hyung tae, Steven Stahlberg, Bengal, Craig Mullins, Ed Lee and Feng Zhu, just to name a few. I learned a lot from their art. On the other hand, the inspiration for my pieces comes from everything around me, I can walk down the street and see something interesting, like a weird looking man or an unusual object and from things like this, I can start and create a few ideas in my mind. I’ll get back home and start working on something I’ve seen that had inspired me, add a few sci-fi devices and a new image is born! I’m a sci-fi freak and find everything related to robots, space ships and futuristic cities very inspiring.

3DTotal: Sci-Fi seems to be a hugely popular subject amongst many great artists. Why do you think this is and what is it that interests you particularly? Marc: I think what makes it popular is the fact it doesn’t exist, that it’s all fictional. Pretty much like fantasy, every time we create a Sci-fi scene it lets us express all the creativity we can have, since there’s no restrictions whatsoever. When I have an idea for a piece, I like it to be able to create every aspect of it from scratch, from the building’s shape, to the crazy devices my characters can have. I also like to have a lot of contrasts in my images and combining hi-tech armour with pretty girls is one of many examples I enjoy working on 3DTotal: Could you talk a bit about your favourite pieces and why you prefer them to your other work? Marc: Well I like all of my pieces; they’re my little babies, but indeed there are a few I cherish more. Pieces like “Impossible Love “ on which I've been working for a long time or newer pieces like ”The Great Arch" or my new spirits series for example. Actually, I will tend to say I always prefer my latest piece, since I look back at most of the old ones and think it's crap. What will really make me fall in love with a piece of mine is when I can acheive a very high level of details, that most people won't ever notice. I don’t know why, but I find it exciting to be the only one aware of these details; how weird is that? 3DTotal: Paintings such as “Impossible LOV3” seem to suggest a hidden narrative. Is this something you consider, when creating images? Marc: Oh yes! Paintings that let you wonder about the story behind them, have always been more attractive in my opinion. I always try to imagine a small scenario before starting most of my pictures as it gives them flavour, more depth. It’s also a lot more interesting working on something you get attached to, so characters with a psychological background are always a load of fun to draw. 3DTotal: Do you have any ambitions to follow a specific career path or just to simply wait and see what unfolds? Marc: I do have a very specific career path I’m following. Unlike most people I talk to, I know exactly where I want to be in a few years from now. I know it’s not exactly the best idea to set myself a very specific path, I might be disappointed - who knows what will happen in the future, but for now, it’s my motivation to move forward with what I do. Basically, I would like to spend a few more years working on both 3D and concept art in video games studios, as an art director eventually, then start my own studio concentrating on both concept art and 3D video game cinematic or the likes. Eventually becoming something as prestigious as Blur studios would be my dream! 3DTotal: Why computer games specifically? Marc: Working on video games makes you learns the best way to get the most out of everything, since you're always so restrained by performance issues. That serves as the best base in my opinion for any kind of project related to 3D. So when I move on to prerendered cinematics, I'll have the best workflow possible. It's also an industry that moves a lot faster than the movie industry in this matter. I will never find myself working several years on the same project as long as I work on games. I just enjoy variety and video games are perfect when it comes to this. 3DTotal: If there are any projects you wish you could have worked on given the chance, what would they have been and why? Marc: It you have been a dream come true to work on “The Matrix”. I think that movie really helped me figure out that I wanted to do more than 2d for a living. I really saw how far CG had gone and this drove me to it. If I had to choose which one of the movies of the trilogy I would pick the third one straight away. That scene where the city is attacked by all the robots, and the humans have to defend themselves using giant mechas had me drooling all over the place! I’d be the happiest man in the World if I could someday work on something similar. But I would have it my way and put girls in the cockpit instead!

Texturing The Ship Deck - Image Breakdown

'3D Studio Max'

'Texturing The Ship Deck - Image Breakdown' by Richard Tilbury

Web: http://www.richardtilburyart.com Email: ibex80@hotmail.com

The following example is a scene that has been textured using the Total Textures Colection as a resource. Images from a cross section of the 16 DVD’s have been used and combined to describe the scene below and utilise colour, bump, specular maps and in some cases, normal maps. Some general applications of these alongside common texturing techniques are explained visually in a way that aims to provide a concise and straight forward account of how the collection can be applied in a 3d scenario

The Kitchen

'Project Overview'

'The Kitchen' by Carlo Maura 'Boda'

Web: www.3dedintorni.com Idea : My intention with this image was to create a photorealistic place. The kitchen of this image is a Scavolini Mood kitchen that I found on a catalogue and the challenge was to give to the image an interesting lightning and a photographic shot. Modeling : The model is quite simple and created in box modelling. Toaster, tins and mixer are Archmodels objects that I put in the scene to add more particulars. Materials : Except the wood of the structure of the kitchen, all the other material are quite simple: metal and glass with variations on the reflection glossiness to differentiate them. Disturbs on the reflections are avoid using very high subdivision glossiness parameter both on metal and glass Click Image to Enlarge Lighting : The lighting is certainly the most complicated part. The scene rendering is done using Vray for Cinema4D and the light sources are: on the left a distant light simulating the sun (reddish and low with long shadows), two area lights and four 70 watt spot-light. The GI setting profile is the Vray Medium quality. Post-Production : The post production was very important to increase the visual impact. The colours are very saturated and I added a vignetting to create a dramatic effect. Finally I mixed different renders with different lightning and I created a new night scene.