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Interview with Pior Oberson

Pior Oberson has worked on titles including World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, and is now flying solo with his own projects. We talk to him about UGC, Dota 2, and creating great characters

Pior Oberson has worked on titles including World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, and is now flying solo with his own projects. We talk to him about UGC, Dota 2, and creating great characters

In-game model of a character from IronSight!, Piors personal project. Rendered in Marmoset Toolbag

Pior Oberson is a 2D and 3D character artist from France. Over the years, he has had the opportunity to work on various projects within teams of all sizes in Europe and the US. He recently returned from a seven-year stay in Southern California, during which he worked as a senior character artist for Blizzard Entertainment, with his duties split between digital sculpting and concept art.

Working in this industry gave Pior the chance to meet and discuss with countless people from all backgrounds, which inspired him to actively share his knowledge and experience with others as much as possible, either online or through the release of educational material.

Pior is now self-employed, putting his focus on User Generated Content for the Steam Workshop and other digital marketplaces.

A ZBrush sculpt of a Capcom-style fighter

Youre skilled with a wide range of media, but what first drew you into the world of digital 3D?

It started when a friend introduced me to a now discontinued 3D software called TrueSpace. I had no idea what I was doing back then, but this package actually had very solid Booleans and metaball primitives, making it fun even for the most inexperienced user! Later on, I heard that it was possible to mod character models for games like Quake III Arena and Unreal, so I started to get into that, first using MilkShape 3D and then Gmax.

What's fascinating about this time (early 2000s) is that creating custom content for games was, to an extent, a bit of a niche thing meaning that I personally had no clue that some of the tasks involved were actually quite complicated. Everybody involved in the scene was learning how to model, texture, rig, and animate because it was simply necessary! And that's actually a great way to acquire the skills required for an in-house game studio job.

Strength of the Demon Stone, a Dota 2 set for Earth Spirit. Modeling and texturing by Brent LaDue.
Concept and additional modeling by Pior Oberson

What do you think a 3D artist can learn from being able to draw and sculpt traditionally?

The first and obvious benefit is the confidence one can get from being able to iterate designs while away from the computer. Not only is it satisfying at a personal level, but it can also make the difference during a job interview: an art director is likely to gravitate towards the candidate with the most varied approach to his or her own art.

Besides that, traditional art has the advantage of immediacy, which often translates into faster iteration: quick thumbnails are often faster to throw together on paper than in Photoshop. And lastly, traditional media has an inherent notion of scale to it, which digital has not. It allows you to clearly establish the amount of detail to be put in a design without overdoing it.

Treasure of the Deep, a Dota 2 set for Naga Siren. Modeling and texturing by Andrea Orioli. Concept and additional modeling by Pior Oberson. Done for the Dota 2 pro player Arteezy of the Evil Geniuses

What software, tools, and media do you prefer to use, and why?

For traditional, I usually use pencils on regular A4 copy paper and felt tip pens on toned newsprint sketchbooks that I carry everywhere. For digital 2D art, I use Photoshop CS5 pretty much exclusively. For digital 3D sculpting, I use both ZBrush 4R6 and Mudbox 2012. For low-poly modeling, I used to use 3ds Max, as this was the tool I used at game studios but Ive now moved to Blender, which turns out to be an awesome piece of software. I wish I had known about it earlier!

Spirit of the Howling Wolf, a Dota 2 set for Sniper. Concept, modeling and texturing by Pior Oberson

Could you please describe your usual digital 3D workflow and process for us?

I always start with a complete 2D model sheet. It can contain some roughly sketched 3D elements or even photo collages, but I think its very important to establish a precise target right from the beginning, and straight-on 2D line art is unbeatable for that. Guessing or improvising in 3d is almost always a frustrating waste of time!

I then do a blockout model, using any tool best suited to the job with no regard to topology or continuity. I later DynaMesh this blockout in ZBrush and sculpt over it to establish finer forms and surfaces. For organics this is often the last step, but mechanical pieces need a retopology pass, snapping to the rough sculpt underneath to create a clean subdivision model. And of course for game content another round of retopo is required, along with baking (xNormal and handplane) and texturing (Photoshop).

The second version of Piors stylized female anatomy statue, released in 2013

Youve made a lot of great content for Dota 2. Could you tell us more about your UGC work?

User Generated Content is still a very new field of CG art, and as such is still limited to a handful of marketplaces and games: Unity and TurboSquid for straight-on CG content, and Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 for purchasable game items. I decided to focus on Dota 2 partly because of its wide audience, but mostly because of the incredibly rich art style of the game which is a real pleasure to work with. UGC is a great opportunity to reconnect with what made me interested in CG years ago: building fun characters for people to play as in their favourite game! I mostly focus on concept art, illustration and texturing, collaborating with other CG artists for modeling and game export. It's a lot of fun.

What opportunities can this kind of 3D community offer to a budding artist, especially one interested in character design?

Even before UGC became monetized, creating user-made content for games has always been a very interesting experience. A 3D artist is required to learn the essential skills required for game asset creation, like setting up models and textures in compliance to the specifics of environments like Unreal Engine, Source or Unity. But most importantly its a great way to understand and comply to the artistic values of different games, each with their own distinct styles. This can be very beneficial for anyone wanting to work at a game studio, from concept artists to modelers and animators. And with monetization, it is also becoming a viable to support oneself while building a portfolio.

A character model built for the music-based Unreal III mod DM_Spectrum, in collaboration with Matthew Bradley

What do you think is the key to a good character design?

Story and relatability. Story in the sense that a design needs to suggest something about the character beyond just looking cool; and relatability, because this is the hook that nitially draws the audience in. Now that doesn't mean that a character should look as if it was designed by committee for a focus group; but rather, that some elements should be somehow recognizable by anyone. Like elements of a well-known historical costume, or even just a subtle hint of an object that everybody knows. For example, sci-fi armor reminiscent of a samurai, or a robot with an old TV for a head.

One of your recent projects is a brilliant stylized anatomy model. Could you tell us more about this project, and how it came about?

This started a few years ago when I noticed that none of the art reference statues available on the market were covering stylized anatomy, which is something often needed in game production. After discussing the subject with friends and coworkers, it became apparent that a physical statue that one can hold in ones hands could also be a great way to explain subdivision topology, so I decided to combine both. I created and released two versions of the T-posed stylized female (gray and colored), and I am now starting on the design of a male statue, this time in a pose that is suitable for concept art.

Finally, what are you currently working on? Any upcoming projects we should look out for in future?

Most of my time is spent on UGC creation in order to maintain a consistent flow of releases. This year I am hoping to finalize the stylized male anatomy figure, and if time allows I would love to prototype some ideas I have for a neo-90's shooter in Unreal Engine 4.

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