3DT: Your work has a very distinctive look to it - what & who are your influences?

MS: I always loved to draw. In scool I drew comics and today I simply expanded this interest to 3d and animation. I am very influenced by french comic artists, but I am also interested in the japanese comic style.

3DT: Which do you place more importance on - modelling, texturing or lighting?

MS: I think apart from the design of a model, the modelling is maybe most important but it always depends on the situation.

All of Michael's characters ooze personality.

3DT: Your characters often look like 'real' latex models. How do you achieve this?

MS: Its all about shading and lighting. Often a good backlight conbined with a shader with sampler info is a very effective way to go...

It may be all about the lighting, but having a good model & textures doesn't hurt.

3DT: Maya's renderer, like Max's has come in for some criticism in the past. How do you get the best out of it?

MS: I think its always a question of how you use a renderer and how much experience you have. The maya renderer is maybe not the one with the most features but I worked with this tool for such a long time now, so that my expirience gives me the flexibillity to solve a lot of problems.

A nice example of using lighting to create a feeling of mood.

3DT: Are there any 'tricks' or preffered working methods that you regularly employ?

MS: No not really. I simply try to stick as close as possible to my concept art and try not to compromise too much during modelling. There are a few things I do but I am not sure if these are tricks. For example I use the sampler info node a lot to archive better shading results.

Theme Planet looks to be shaping up to be something special. It's not often you get to see a pig and an elephant sharing screentime with a mad scientist !

3DT: What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting out in 3d?

MS: Draw or use good concept art and practice as long as you are able to achieve the same look and feel in your models. Additionally there are some good tutorials on the web.

"Draw" says Mr Sormann, and he certainly can.

3DT: How much time do you spend in the design phase? Do you prefer to have everything planned in advance or tweak as you go?

MS: I always try to fix the design in the concept art and stick to it as close as possible.

Pinning down designs early on helps Michael to achieve results like this.

3DT: So far we've seen a pig, an elephant and a mad scientist in a walking robot. How does all this fit together in terms of your theme planet project?

MS: They are all parts of an idea for a film I had 2 years ago. Its all about a giant theme park that forms a whole planet and is full of funny cartoony creatures. At the moment I'm trying to create an animation of the main protagonists, (pig and elephant,) talking and interacting with each other to illustrate their character. I plan to finish a dedicated homepage in a month or so to give a full overview over the current state of the theme planet project.

3DT: What was the Oni advert like to work on?

MS: It was really fun. We had a very tight scedule, (2 Weeks,) and it was a good experience for me to manage a small team of artists working together. I did the managment of the production of the visuals and created the main character based on a exsisting design.

3DT: Thanks.

Despite Maya's renderer coming in for some criticism, Michael shows that any tool can be put to good use by an artist with a vision.