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Arnaud Lonys: 3D character and creature artist interview

Belgian 3D artist Arnaud Lonys shares his character and creature workflow and discusses his inspirations and goals for the future...

Belgian 3D artist Arnaud Lonys shares his character and creature workflow and discusses his inspirations and goals for the future...

3dtotal: Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you, what do you do, and where are you located?
Arnaud Lonys: My name is Arnaud Lonys, I am a 3D character and creature artist based in Belgium.
As I finished CG school I began to specialize more in characters and creatures, and worked as a 3D character artist at Luc Petit Création.

3dt: Where did you find the inspiration for your latest gallery entry? What's the story behind its creation?
AL: This was a creation for The Game Challenge contest. I had to create a monster with less than 20,000 tris. I've watched a lot of animal documentaries recently and for this contest I wanted to create a creature based on the big cat's anatomy like lions and tigers. I chose a dynamic pose as if he was hunting and gave him a powerful beak to break thick bones. At the end you can see the 3D model in 360-view on my Artstation page:

3dt: What software and plug-ins did you use to create this image? Did you face any difficulties, and how did you overcome them?
AL: I mostly used ZBrush as my main tool. The most difficult part was the anatomy; I took a lot of references to get the anatomy right. Once everything was in place I then used 3D-Coat for retopology and UVs. I used a mix of polypaint and Substance Painter for the texturing. I also used KeyShot for rendering and finally Photoshop and Lightroom for compositing.

3dt: What are your artistic ambitions?
AL: I learn new things every day and I work hard to perfect my skills to be later working as a 3D character artist in the film or gaming industry, for a triple-A studio.

3dt: What software would you like to learn in the future to expand your portfolio and skillset, and why?
AL: In recent years a lot of cool and useful tools have come out. Currently I am using Substance Painter. More and more people do use a PBR workflow and Substance Painter is a great tool to do so. Also, I am playing with Marvelous Designer to get realistic clothing. 3D printing is also something I try to experiment with.

3dt: Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?
AL: There are a lot of artists that I admire both digital and traditional. I think both complement each other. I can't name them all, but here are a few: Ben Mauro, Dominic Qwek, Sandy Collora, Jordu Schell, Steve Wang, Feng Zhu, Aris Kolokontes, Kurt Papstein, Bryan Wynia and many more...Those artists among many others inspire me every day.

3dt: What can we expect to see from you next?
AL: Currently I am working on a scene from one of my favorite French comics: Sillage by Philippe Buchet and JD Morvan. I also got some creatures and characters in the back of my head for future projects.

Related links

Check out Arnaud Lonys's Artstation
Prey Hunt in the gallery
Grab a copy of ZBrush Characters & Creatures

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