Interview with Gary Newman aka Mindrot

[benclark]

Today we bring you an exclusive interview conducted with Gary Newman aka Mindrot ( http://www.unearthedart.com/ ) who is currently a Character Artist at Eurocom Entertainment! He's been in the 3D industry since the beginning of the century and has a wide variety of experience ranging from environment assets to now character art. Ben aka Alchemist from the Game-Artist Staff spoke with Gary....

Game-Artist.net: Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions; first off can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Eurocom?

I moved to the UK, on a British passport in 2004 with my lovely wife. We’ve been here for just over two years now.

When I started at Eurocom I was originally employed as an Environment artist to work on Batman Begins (The racing part of the game). Once I was finished on that project, I was requested to work on Ice Age 2 – The Meltdown. Towards the end of that project, I requested a move back to my old (Batman Begins) team, but this time as a character artist.

So, at present I am back with my old team, working on a yet undisclosed next-gen project as a character artist. I do both modelling and texturing (thankfully not rigging, which is left up to our technical animators).

My tools of the trade are 3D Studio Max, ZBrush and Photoshop and Diet Pepsi.

Game-Artist.net: How did you land your first industry job?

I’d wanted to make games since the 80’s when I first got my Commodore 64. And then… it all kind of past me by.

I was doing graphic design at a very small print company when I first saw an advert for a local game company that had started up in South Africa. I’d also just gotten into 3D Studio Max at the same time, so finding out that there was a local games company around got me interested in getting into the industry. But that never happened purely because I never had transport to travel the 40 kilometres. I also though I wouldn’t be good enough having only just started using 3D Studio Max (before that I had been using Truespace and Bryce for a couple of years).

About 4 years later, whilst I was running my own multi-media company, I got into doing some contract work with a friend of mine (who now works a few hours away in Newcastle at Midway). We saw a job placement at that same company I mentioned earlier. So, to cut a long story short, we both decided to apply and got in.

I was there for almost two years working on countless projects that went nowhere. It can be quite disheartening putting all that effort and time into something and having it thrown away, only to be replaced by another project that would end up going the same way. It all boiled down to shoddy management.

Almost two years and many nightmares later I got a job offer from Eurocom. This came about by one of the directors seeing work I posted on CGTalk (and on my website) - a definite must for anyone trying to get into the industry. It’s an invaluable resource for exposure and self promotion, as well as invaluable input and critique from people in the industry and other artists.

It’s quite funny actually. I had just renewed my British passport about two and a half years prior to getting the offer. I new that it would be way easier to get work in the UK having a British passport. So, I decided to take advantage of this by changing my signature on CGTalk to something like;” Looking for work in the UK. I have a British passport”. It definitely paid off because I got two immediate job offers.

… the rest is history.*

It’s been really great for me, because in less than two years I already have two titles behind me, and I’m already working towards my third one.

Game-Artist.net: Talk us through a typical day for you at work

It’s amazing what a difference actually enjoying your job can make. Getting up in the morning and having something to look forward to can make the world of difference to one’s life.

Anyway… I usually get to work at around 9am (I live just over two miles away from Eurocom). It’s a really pretty part of Derby – very picturesque countryside. I also get too see lots of farm animals on the way to work which is quite a change from the city life I was use to in South Africa.

I tend to quickly check my e-mail and then get something to drink, usually water- I’m not much into hot drinks. I would then usually carry on with what I was busy with the previous day. Occasionally my art lead will pop in to see what we’re up to (I share a room with a talented German guy who started at Eurocom about 3 months ago).

We’re generally left to do our thing without anyone hovering over us (unlike my pervious work place… ahem) which really makes things much easier and enables me to get on with what I need to.

Lunch time arrives at 12:30 and I start up a Call of Duty 2 server. I also like to try and get some of my own work done at lunch. 1:30 arrives too quickly, and it’s back to work.

During the course of the day I will sometimes pop into see what some of the environment artists are up to- it’s nice to see what the other half get up to. I’ll also go visit the other character artists on my team and also chat with my lead, who’s a really great guy.

Around 5:30 I pack up and get ready to head on home.

Game-Artist.net: How much personal input do you have into a character model? Do you have to stick 100% to the concept art, or can you put your own interpretation on certain things?

It’s really left quite open to us. We do get a reasonable amount of guidance in terms of the type and style of the characters we need to do. But ultimately our lead will get input from the producer and pass that onto us- of course adding in what he thinks as well.

Game-Artist.net: What specific skills should an aspiring character artist focus on when aiming for next-gen jobs?

I know some companies tend to state that a traditional art background in an advantage. I’d definitely agree that it can help- whether it’s painting, drawing or sculpture.

As far as digital skills, I’d say get to know how to work with ZBrush, or even Mudbox. Learn to work fast, but don’t sacrifice quality. Get your texturing skills up to scratch as well. Though there are quite a few companies that want artists to either specialise in modelling or texturing, which I’m personally not a fan of.

Anatomy is also a good thing to be familiar with. Again, traditional art skills can come in hand here, say for example life drawing, or even life sculpting can help train the eye on how to see the human figure.

Game-Artist.net: Can you give us a rough breakdown of your workflow for a next-gen character?

Well, I’d first create a rough low poly, quad based mesh with minimum detail (all to proportion). I’d then unwrap that as needed. Texture it up. Export it for ZBrush and then open it in ZB. Do all the needed sculpting in there, based on the texture that is applied to the ZB model- I’d of course have reference open and work from that as well.

Once I’m done with the sculpting, I then create the normal map in ZB using ZMapper, which I find really quick and easy to use. I then export the low poly mesh back to Max and the normal map to Photoshop.

I apply the texture’s (diffuse and normal map) to the new imported mesh from ZB. I then add in any extra detail that will add to the silhouette. I also optimise the mesh as needed, as having pure quads is a waste.

Somewhere along the way I’ll also create the spec, gloss and SSS maps.

And that’s about it.

Game-Artist.net: A topic that appears repeatedly on forums is the value of formal education vs. being self taught. What is your opinion on this for the modern games industry?

Of course a formal education is advantageous as during this time you are able to focus on learning the necessary skills and building up a body of work for a portfolio.
But ultimately I think the proof is in the quality of work and that’s it. It’s obvious to see if someone is capable of doing the job or not, so if you have the time and passion and are ready to set out on your own and teach yourself then go for it. But remember to be focused and set yourself goals and achieve them!

Game-Artist.net: The work you post on forums has a very recognisable style. Where do you draw inspiration from for your personal work?

I’m trying to develop a theme for my work inspired by the macabre and all things creepy, which are things that I’ve always been drawn towards since I was a kid.

That inspiration comes from many places: film, music, books, games, other artists, to people I see on the street.
I love gothic imagery. I’ve been quite inspired lately by classic vampire films and the dark art of Chad Michael Ward.
I also find a lot of inspiration from browsing various art forums on the internet. There are some truly hidden gems out there.
As far as my own style goes I tend to gravitate towards realism, as opposed to more stylised work. Though with my drawing of late has been more of the opposite. I also really like things to have a dirty edge. That is to have an aged, weathered fell. Whether it’s a building or a character, I want it to convey some sort of grittiness, if that makes sense. Almost like you can feel or taste where that person or object has been.

However I’ve been longing to get back into doing one or two works that are perhaps more cartoony or stylised. This would also give me an opportunity to create less realistic, more hand painted type textures- which is something I haven’t done in years.

Game-Artist.net: PS3, Xbox360 or Wii. Whats you pick to own and why?

I’m a huge fan of Sony’s PS2, as I find that there are way more titles on this platform that interest me as opposed to those on the Xbox and Gamecube, though all of them have their own great titles. *

So naturally I was really excited about the PS3. Well that has sort of changed now with all the fiasco that has surrounded the (delayed) launch of the console. The price is a huge factor as well. Though I’ll get a PS3 later down the line especially when the price has dropped and there are decent titles available.

The Wii is revolutionary to say the least, but at its heart it isn’t really next-gen in terms of graphics- it’s basically a souped-up Gamecube. Though it is next-gen in terms of game play. I like what I’ve seen it do, but doubt I’ll be bothered buying one at this stage. I must take my hat of to Nintendo, as they have always gone against the grain in terms of console development.

I wasn’t too hyped about the Xbox 360 before it was released (I was eagerly awaiting the PS3 at the time). It took me about a year to start getting excited about what was being released on this console. Its initial launch titles were quite dry and didn’t seem very next-gen. The power of this machine is only really starting to be pushed now. All you have to do is take a look at Capcom’s Dead Rising and Epic’s beautiful Gears of War.

So I guess I’d have to say that I’m in Microsoft’s corner at this moment in time.

Game-Artist.net: What do you feel is the most underrated tool in Max/Maya?

I can’t really think of anything here, but what does come to mind is projection mapping in Max, for creating seamless textures.

Game-Artist.net: What are your top 3 Photoshop filters? The ones you couldn’t get by without

When I started using Photoshop back in about 1996/97 I went mad with them because it was something that was totally new to me (I hadn’t even started thinking of 3D back then). But in general, I tend to stay away from filters because they can have very random results.

Well I’d have to say of the few that I use: Gaussian Blur, Sharpen and the normal map filter from NVIDIA are my most used. The NVIDIA filter is great for adding subtle detail to skin, etc. and I know it’s especially useful for environment work, though I find that a lot of artists tend to rely too heavily on this filter and not actually generate a proper high poly model to create their normals from. The filter doesn’t handle depth very well so there is a lot that can get lost in the translation.

Game-Artist.net: What is your favourite game character of all time and why?

This is probably the toughest question yet… hmmm… I really like Heather, the main character from Silent Hill 3. She’s great in so many ways (you’ve got to love that outfit… ooh and those freckles). Ahem… for one she’s a rather cute female character fighting off all kinds of twisted creatures. What more could you ask for?

A few others that I really like as well are, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, Abe (form Abe’s Odyssey) and another character from the Silent Hill series, Pyramid Head. Some of the characters for the Soul Calibre series are fantastic as well.

There are probably a ton of others, but these are a few that I can think of now.

Thanks for this opportunity Ben. It’s been a pleasure and fun to do.

Gary.

We thank Gary for his time and wish him the best of luck in the future both personally and professionally !..

[mindrot]

If anyone has any questions please feel free to post them here

~M~

[SureShot]

You speak about your daily routine in the article, but I can't help but wonder if it's really that much of a relaxed working environment? I'm studying to get into the industry, and quite possibly into a similar field that you're working in (provided I can get my head around zbrush ), and the guest lecturers from companies such as Codemasters have given the same image of it being everything but what you've mentioned. I know you can't speak for all departments but do you feel it's your general field that allows for more freedom in the workplace?

addendum: I assume closer to deadlines it gets pretty intense?

addendum 2: I love that lighting/rendering setup you have for the Hitch-hiker model on your site, any chance of more info on that :P

addendum 3: Coca Cola > Pepsi

[mindrot]

Hi SureShot.

Well, it varies form company to company. I know some are a lot more relaxed than others.
I know from others who work at certain larger companies (I can't really mention names ), who complain quite a bit about the extremely bad overtime, etc. Though, that also only tends to be during the final stages of a project. But then again not in all cases, where some companies operate in a cruch period for most of a project

From my experience at Eurocom, it tends to only really occur around important milestones, which tend to be in the latter stages of a project. And generally you only need to stay late if you have work to do.

As I mentioned I think there is quite a bit of freedom with our character department for this project. I think the environment guys get a similar amount. But we still get a reasonable amount of guidance, but not enough so as to limit our own freedom and imput. Obviously things need to follow a certain style-guide you could say, but as long as we don't deviate too far from that we are okay.

Thanks, I wasn't too thrilled with the lighting and rendering of that character (it was quite a bodge ). I'm hoping to use better shaders with my next lot of models. As far as the lighting is concerned- it's a simple 3 light set up. One strong contrasting light in front, a second more subtle light in the front but on the opposite side and then a third coloured, stronger light from behind acting as the rim light or back light. There might have even been a fourth light now that I think of it: a very subtle ambient light (at about 0.2 intensity) to soften things up a bit, but not enough to kill the normal maps.

I hope that answers your questions

COKE!!!

[SureShot]

That answers my questions more than adequately, thanks

[LOOM]

cool insight to your day to day workfow

[zortech]

Nice interview, delivers a great insight to your life.

Game-Artist.net: What do you feel is the most underrated tool in Max/Maya?

I can’t really think of anything here, but what does come to mind is projection mapping in Max, for creating seamless textures.

Great choice!

[SureShot]

Max wins, Maya sucks olololzol.

I'm not biased :P

[phantom]

Hey Mindrot, great interview. Been a fan of your work for some time now. I'm curious if you have any training (books, DVDs, online tutorials, etc.) that you'd recommend for learning to model a Game Character on your own. Thanks!

[mindrot]

Thanks phantom...

The last time I looked at any training books were years ago. All I can recommend at the moment are the Paul Steed books (though they are quite dated by now).

As far as online tutes I can't really say as I haven't really used any in ages, but a decent resource as far as I know is Ben Mathis' website http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm.

Hope that helps.

~M~