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3DTotal : Hi Sebastian, did you have any prior interest or schooling in the art world,
before gettingyour first computer?
Sebastian :That’s an interesting one. Of course I always had an interest in art and I made many feeble attempts at drawing, envying all the real artists. In fact I am coming from a more technical background. The one thing I knew, once I got a computer (and after playing some Monkey Island, Ultima and so on...) was that I wanted to create video games! The only way back then was learning to program - so actually I’ve been a “coder” for many years. All I managed to do however was small little games with my big ideas never getting done. That was about the time when the first “mods” came about so I decided to get into art to make games that way. Now after so much modelling even my drawing has improved somewhat!
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3DTotal : You have work for one of the biggest names in the UK’s games industry. So what made you take the leap and head off to Milan and work on the animated movie ‘Dear Anne’?
Sebastian : I spent around 3 years at Lionhead Studios working on Black & White 2 before I left for the “Dear Anne” project leaving the game unfinished. This was a very tough decision for me but there were just too many advantages to the new environment! First of all it was to be my first “Film-Project” (even though art in films and games are very similar these days it’s still a different league). Then of course there were many BIG names on the project.. Steven Stahlberg, Jonas Thornqvist, Ulf Lundgren just to name a few. So a great opportunity to learn and improve myself (and looking back I must say I never learnt as much anywhere). The last is, well, I love good food and wine and the “dolce vita” - it made a great change from fish and chips .
3DTotal : Can you tell us what you’re working on at the moment?
Sebastian : Mainly my character!! I’ve been travelling the world for about half a year now, making one of my biggest dreams reality. The only time I “did 3d” was 3 months back in New Zealand where I gave a modelling-talk at the Wellington University of Art. I had to do it just now to get too rusty - in fact while travelling I miss work a lot, as crazy as that sounds. There’s so much I see and inspires me but I can’t do anything! Poor me, what? Well I’m taking as many photos as I can
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3DTotal : Do you see there being any benefits or effects on your work from taking a break and travelling the World? |
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Sebastian : I think personally that everybody should do what I am doing if there is a possibility. Even this half year has immensely broadened my perspective and I’ve seen and learnt so many things. Exploring the world yourself is just a different thing than watching stuff on TV or reading it up. The down side might be that you kind of get out of touch with what is going on in the “3D World” but in the end it never changed that much anyway. More useful tools of course, things get easier but more complex |
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at the same time. And I bet there’s still no complete rewrite of 3ds max... (can’t wait to get my hands on Mudbox though!)
3DTotal : Looking over your portfolio, you have created a host of interesting characters. How do you come up with the initial concept for them?
Sebastian :
I love fantasy! I guess you can see that - Elves, Orcs all that. I read Lords of the Rings and many, many other fantasy books. I also like hiking and going into nature, that’s where I think and ideas come to me. Anyhow – once I have an idea I normally start with sketching around (my skill is sufficient for that!) And once I’m sure I like it I start modelling pretty quickly and “design in 3d” with simple shapes and play with proportions. Once the character has taken more shape I often take screen-grabs and make over-paints in Photoshop - I also love the “Liquify Tool” for quickly experimenting with form. Maybe not
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the most straightforward design process - but I like it!
3DTotal : What is it about character modelling that has lead you tobase your whole career around it?
Sebastian : I love modelling, that’s for sure and character modelling especially. The great thing is that I can fully concentrate on one entity and finish it off - nudge and push it until it’s perfect! I didn’t do many mechanical things and I don’t enjoy it that much too be honest. Too many bits get me confused (and characters are far more interesting anyway!) I am not, however a modeller only. The small size of the team on “Dear Anne” required everybody to do a host of things and I enjoy all of them! Probably the best job description would be “Technical Artist/Director”. I wrote many pipeline/modelling tools, worked on Mental Ray shaders, did some rigging, shading and lighting. My programming background always helps a lot with this and I can recommend to everyone to learn some scripting at least. It gives you power!
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