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3DTotal: You mention ZBrush, I notice this software is getting more and more popular, do you recommend other 3ders who are yet to try it, give it ago? What do you find best about it?
Heber: ZBrush has gained a lot of popularity due to the fact of how organic and intuitive it is, traditional artists are able to make that transition to 3d a lot less painful due to ZBrush and that’s why we keep seeing a lot of great work.
Having said that, I highly recommend everyone try out ZBrush , but don’t get caught up in all the detail that you can put on a model and forget the base foundation of your sculpt.
I often see people completely blanket their model in useless detail while not paying attention to the underlying form or anatomy. What I find best about it is how loosely I can work out forms and shapes without having to commit to them. Being able to make changes at the base level of subdivisions and have them propagate up to the highest level is a very powerful feature.
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3DTotal: What projects are you currently working on and can you tell us a little a bit about them?
Heber: I am currently working on Turok for next generation consoles using the Unreal 3 engine. I am a creature modeller on this game, my job is to execute the 3d models against the concept images we are provided with. This also includes uv’s, texturing, normal maps, l.o.d creation, weighting, preparing the model for the skeleton and also making sure the model works in the game engine. Right now we are polishing the game and putting lots of finishing touches on it as well as
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squashing any bugs that come up. On top of that I also freelance on various projects from time to time and teach at local animation schools and of course work on my own models at home too.
3DTotal: Well it sounds like your company is making a great game. In the UK I often hear game studio employees complaining of long hours (we here a lot of good things too! But this topic does come up often) how do they treat you over the
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side of the Atlantic?
Heber: I can’t vouch for much of the industry in Vancouver in terms of work hours, but the people who |
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founded this company set forth a lot of ideas about how they wanted to run this studio. One of them was work life balance which is very important and is something that every studio should start thinking about. After all a happy employee is a productive one.
3DTotal: Do you have a dream project that you would like to work on?
Heber: My dream project would be my own, to start my own visual fx house or game studio and produce
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quality content. I suppose it will be a while before I get to do that as I am still very young in this
industry, still so much to learn but Its something to work towards
3DTotal: Away from the monitor what else do you like to do?
Heber: When I’m not burning my retinas pushing points around I like to snowboard play guitar and hang out with friends. Also lots of movies, games and music and when I get the chance I like to travel at least once every year.
3DTotal: Well I am jealous of your location! We settle for Longboard skating here in damp England because there isn’t any snow .. actually there isn’t really any mountains either .. It’s kinda flat and wet but we like it.
3DTotal: Thanks for your time Heber, it’s been great chatting with you . .do you have any one piece of advice for our upcoming student readers?
Heber: Was my pleasure, yes I do! Don’t compare the level of your work to your classmates, compare yourself to the industry and strive to achieve or surpass that, because that’s what you will be judged upon. |
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