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3DTotal: Your website states that you are a Lighting Artist / Generalist. Can you tell us a little about what your job entails and the kinds of tasks you are required to do on a regular basis?
Sanjay: My work-week can be fairly varied. For example, at the place where I currently work I was
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lightingandrendering out passes during the first week, modelling a set of characters, texturing them, and lighting the final shots during the second week, and re-topologizing a character during my third week. I was then tasked with a texturing and lighting assignment that required a small amount of modelling as well. However, this isn’t always the case. At my last job, I was strictly a lighter and compositor and spent most of my time inside of Nuke.
3DTotal: A bit of an all-rounder then. Do you feel this is important nowadays or do you think specialisation is still an equally viable option?
Sanjay: I think being able to specialise is very important, especially if one wants to work at a larger studio such as ILM, Pixar, DreamWorks, etc. As a general rule, the larger the studio, the more specialised each artist is. I’d say a good route to take is to be very good at one thing, while being good in some other areas too. This makes an artist more marketable. |
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3DTotal: Your portfolio comprises a fair percentage of creatures. What is it that interests you about this subject in particular?
Sanjay: I’ve always loved movie monsters and movies with monsters in them. I was also fascinated with comic book characters and superheroes when I was a child. There is just something that is very “cool” about seeing a creature or a monster that is unique and that has never been seen before. Even if one looks on major CG sites such as 3DTotal or CGTalk, it’s usually the characters and monsters that get the most attention from people, as there is this universal appeal to a well-designed character or creature.
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3DTotal: Creatures and monsters are certainly a popular genre, as are characters as a whole. What do you feel are the most difficult problems that need to be overcome when you’re designing new life forms?
Sanjay: The most difficult problem is creating a monster that is believable. This relates more to following the principles of anatomy, as even the most fantastical (yet successful) creatures are grounded in reality. There are anatomic principles that must be followed in regards to muscle flow, ligaments, skin folds, etc, in order to make something look realistic.
3DTotal: It is clear that much of your work is made up of a number of different render passes. What is your typical workflow in this regard and can you describe the main components that make up the final composites?
Sanjay: In the case of the creatures, I start by importing medium-res ZBrush sculpts, and I assign a gray Lambert shader to the mesh. I then proceed to light the model, mainly with spotlights for the key light(s) and some of the fill lights, and directional lights for everything else (rim, bounce, etc). I then assign the skin shader, plug-in the texture maps, and proceed to tweak the shader. I render out each light separately (with shadows, usually), as well as Specular, Reflection, Zdepth, Occlusion, and cavity passes. I then take these passes into a node-based compositing app (suchas Nuke or Fusion) and spend a
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considerable amount of time colour correctingeach light pass, as well as the Occlusion. One can achieve some nice fake-GI/Final Gather effects simply by colour correcting passes to simulate bounce light.
My process for my creatures is detailed further in Digital Art Masters: Volume 3. |
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