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Vichar B N: character and prop sculptor interview

Vichar BN

Department Director

The extremely talented traditional sculptor turned ZBrush maestro Vichar B N discusses his workflow and his latest projects...

The extremely talented traditional sculptor turned ZBrush maestro Vichar B N discusses his workflow and his latest projects...

3dtotal: Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you, what do you do, and where are you located?

Vichar B N: Hi, my name is Vichar B N and I live in Bangalore, India. Having realized my interest in art from an early age, I received a Masters in sculpting from the Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, and started my career as a traditional sculptor. During this time I had the privilege to work as a personal sculptor for the King of Mysore. The craving to learn new things sparked in me the fascination towards CG. The idea of bringing your sculptures to life using technology was very alluring, almost like playing God.

I joined the animation industry over ten years ago, and currently work as supervisor for the gaming division at Technicolor India Pvt Ltd. Over the years, I have pursued my career in art in various different genres and roles - Assistant Art Director for Tele-Serials, Illustrator for magazines, Interior and Exterior Designer and freelance artist. I have been lucky to get opportunities to work on a wide array of projects in terms of style and media (from cartoony to hyper-realistic assets).

The Kiss was inspired by Agustin Rodin's Kiss sculpture

3dt: Where did you find the inspiration for your latest gallery entry? What's the story behind its creation?

VBN: Like they say, the world is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. The inspiration for this work came to me one day while watching a show on a wildlife channel about an animal being brutally hunted, for their skin, and its effects on the ecosystem. Species were going extinct due to this careless behavior. This provoked the idea in my head, and I decided that I would create an artwork to try and make people stop and rethink their behavior.

3dt: What software and plug-ins did you use to create this image? Did you face any difficulties, and how did you overcome them?

VBN: The go-to software for me is ZBrush, where I create almost everything. I rendered in Renderman and comped in Photoshop. The biggest challenge for me was the composition. Not having underwater swimming experience made things a little difficult. However, I overcame that by collecting images and video reference of underwater swimming.

3dt: Do you normally use this software in your workflow? What other software and plug-ins do you favor?

VBN: Yes, I usually use ZBrush in my workflow. However, it may differ depending on the final result/output that I am looking for. In which case, I try other softwars and go with the one which supports the desired look.

Some of the other favorite software I use are: Marvelous Designer, Photoshop, Mudbox, KeyShot, Marmoset Toolbag, and Substance Painter. This is an ever-changing list though, as I keep learning new ones and adding them to it.

Likeness study

3dt: Are there any particular techniques that you use often?

VBN: My approach is like that of a traditional sculptor. I start with armature (zspear) and then add clay layer by layer to try to achieve the silhouettes, subtle variations and the volume changes. Once the basic form and shape is achieved, I pose the sculpture and work in asymmetry to add more weight and tension, to attain the more realistic look. Usually I don't use alphas and instead I try to reach the final goal by manual sculpting. This helps me to learn the strengths and limitations of the software in depth.

Likeness study

3dt: What are your artistic ambitions?

VBN: My ambition is to keep improving my work and sharpening my skillset, and to be a humble artist and help and contribute to build a better artistic world. Also, I want to create my own short movies.

Anatomy study

3dt: What software would you like to learn in the future to expand your portfolio and skillset, and why?

VBN: I would love to learn MARI next. The reason being, it allows me to work with massive numbers of large and highest resolution textures for the most complex assets, eliminating the frustrating and time-consuming multi-application workflows with Arnold, V-Ray and Unreal shaders. When you have numerous UV tiles per object, software like Photoshop can be really inefficient in dealing with such texture sets. MARI, on the other hand, is specifically designed to resolve this issue. The toolset is very innovative as well. Its painting toolset is very robust and intuitive. I think of MARI to be the best texture painting software and would love to master it next.

Likeness study

3dt: How do you keep your portfolio up-to-date? Any tips?

VBN: I believe and try to follow the saying, 'Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.' And life for an artist is nothing but art. I try to create personal projects every now and then. Even with twelve-hour-long work days and hectic schedules and deadlines at work, I spend 2 to 3 hours every day learning and working on my personal projects. It is important to update the portfolio as it helps track your self-progress, and makes you aware of your areas of improvement. When exhaustion hits and motivation is low, I watch and follow forums like 3dtotal and ZBrush Central for inspiration to get started again.

3dt: Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?

VBN: I have many favorites, as each artist has an attribute that speaks to me. All the great masters are my favorites, for their body of work, mind-blowing sculptures, inspiring metaphors and most importantly subject matter. It's difficult to name one but the ZBrush masters in today's time are very inspiring as well.

It's a traditional sculpture done in Plaster of Paris

3dt: Do you like to experiment with your personal works, or do you prefer to stick to tried-and-tested methods?

VBN: Oh yes! I do like to experiment with my personal projects in terms of software and techniques. This helps me keep an open mind, learn and at the same time reinvent myself with the ever changing and developing industry. To me personal project give the freedom to try different approaches to achieve the desired look and test them against the tried and tested methods. They help me infer and come up with the best methodology to attain each different output.

This a WIP of my next project

3dt: What can we expect to see from you next?

VBN: I have been working on a couple of personal projects for a while now. I am hoping to finish them soon and present them. They are related to my previous work.

Related links

Check out Vichar's ArtStation
Head over to Vichar's personal site
Buy a copy of ZBrush Characters & Creatures

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