I was lucky to get in contact with Ringling alumni Joe Stachnik and ask him about his experiences as a character artist. His answers were absolutely terrific and I'm extremely thankful that he took the time to give them thoughtful and thorough responses.
This is the Presentation,
and here is the unedited interview with Joe:
What is your workflow and how do you stay productive?
I tend to approach every project, and sometimes individual phases of a project, with 5 *easy* steps (they even have the same first letter so you know it’s fun, haha):
- Planning - relevant research, reference gathering, creating a schedule
- Prepro - establish art direction, create orthographic image planes, and sketch anything that may still be confusing
- Production - sculpt, model, bake, texture... probably fall behind on your schedule :P
- Polish - crunch… oh, and add those finishing touches
- Portfolio - present that shit!
I like to front-load my workflow; I'm most excited / sleepless / crazy in the beginning of a project, so I might as well use that to my advantage. Therefore, I always throw the most at myself in the Planning and Prepro stages. The more I plan, the better the final result usually turns out.
I'm a big supporter of the "fail-fast" mentality, but when I rush into things, I usually have regrets. Plus, there’s a lot of benefits to the front-loading / Prepro combo: you learn a ton! Sure, you learn by doing, but you’ll find stuff that you never knew even existed if you dive into Google for just a few minutes longer (notice how I said "minutes" there - don't get sucked into the black hole that is the internet. Set a timer!).
All in all, if I can stick with this structure, I tend to feel better about everything along the way. If there's one thing I know about myself and my workflow, it's that feel-good goes a long way in art-making.
Where do you find inspiration, and what character artists/sculptures do you admire?
I go on Artstation.com every day. It's riddled with incredible work, and more and more keeps appearing. Not only is the work inspiring, but the people and profiles are real - conversations start, the network is booming, jobs get posted... I'm hyperventilating, Miles!
Just know it's the perfect database. Make a profile and post your stuff. Get active and get noticed.
Something similar is DrawCrowd.com, but it's mainly for concept art.
Polycount Forum is an incredible community, too! Do the same thing I said with Artstation. Participating in their monthly challenges is a real thrill :D
While I have a bunch of artists and reference I look to for inspiration and learning, I tend to be very opinionated. I respect all artwork and artists, but admire is a big word.
That being said, check out Gilberto Magno:
I don't say this often, but: this guy is a FUCKING BEAST. I'm currently trying to figure out what his secret is / what drugs he takes / what devil he sold his soul to so I can emulate.
For more, check out who I follow on Artstation. I try to keep a good database for myself:
What creative freedom do you have once you receive the character
concepts/designs (if they aren’t your original designs)?
This really all depends on who I’m working for, so client to client varies.
I've had clients who came to me with existing designs that they didn't even want followed (weird, right? They spent money on those!).
Other times I get praised for making it match the concept perfectly.
This really has to be communicated up front (as everything *should* be), but you need to know your client's / boss's / teacher's expectations before you dive into Production - ideally before even the Prepro stage.
Are there other parts of game design have you had a role in, and how did you feel about them?
At this point, I’ve had my hands dirty with everything but the audio side of things.
Game Design is the biggest “other” role that comes to mind. Coming up with interesting game mechanics and incorporating them into a "fun" system has always been a bit of a frustration for me.
My idea of fun is different than yours. In fact, I feel like everyone's idea of fun varies, right?
I like linear, story-based Role-Playing Games and you may like twitch-core First-Person Shooters. Nothing wrong with that, but the “fun” system I throw your way might be a bit different than what you want. Vice versa.
Do you see yourself as a character artist/sculptor for your entire career or what would be another path you’d take?
I'm always gonna be doing character and sculpting work.
Anatomy is an incredible challenge, the art direction possibilities are endless in character art, and you have great opportunities for hard-surface and organic modeling.
Plus, the process from concept to fully-realized rigged and animated character is insane.
Basically, there's always new things to learn and hone, which is exciting. It's something I see a lot of artists look for in realized careers, and I'm lucky in that.
That being said, I have other goals. I love movie and game trailers and motion graphics, so I could see editing finding its way onto my plate.
A big goal is to eventually direct my own game, so I guess I aspire to be involved in every aspect of game development.
Except coding. Man, screw that!
What is the most challenging part of your career?
Waking up before noon.
...really, man: brutal.
And what was the most rewarding part thus far?
Well, I did get a piece of plastic I made featured on Amazon for an outrageous price.
Seriously, it's ridiculous, check this out. I would never pay this haha:
In all honesty though, just having a piece finalized and out in the world for people to see and sometimes even interact with is empowering.
I've had work that's been on retail store shelves, featured online as downloadable digital files, and even things on display at trade shows like CES.
It's amazing to think that things I had a hand in or created entirely on my own traveled to those venues - and they all started in my head! Crazy.
What projects get you most excited?
Any character project where I get an awesome, clear concept, but then complete creative control from sculpt to finished pose and presentation. A dream! They’re incredible, but they’re few and far between.
What is your favorite feature of Zbrush/Maya?
Zbrush: ZRemesher.
Maya: the Autodesk Crash Report... :P
but in all seriousness, the built-in Modeling Toolkit: specifically QuadDraw with MakeLive enabled on a high-poly model. There’s no better way to retopologize a model and have total control.
You’ll see a trend there! I love tools that allow me to make clean topology - it’s really important in making a polished sculpt.
What limitations are there when you sculpt something intended for 3D printing?
A ton actually… well, not actually. Ok, it varies depending on the 3D printing “method” you use.
Word on the street is that you guys have Makerbots on campus and at your disposal now. Cool - those are the kind I used at work! The method Makerbots use is called FDM-printing. This means that the extruder nozzle at the top heats the plastic material that your model’s going to be made of and squirts it out onto the plate… kinda like a hot glue gun.
What this means is two really cool things:
- The amount of detail on your model is going to suck! Seriously, the printer’s resolution is so bad you’re not going to be able to see much other than build lines, let alone surface detail. You have to plan for that with art direction to get the best results. Large, amplified surface details ala World-of-Warcraft-style work really well, but even then the best thing to do is amplify all your details in your digital sculpt.
- Back to that hot glue gun description… so when the extruder nozzle is pushing out heated plastic, gravity is going to take effect. This means that any surfaces the model has that are “overhanging” will droop, or just not print at all. There’s ways around this, but they usually require heavy edits to the digital sculpt or splitting up the model into multiple pieces. Definitely the biggest hurdle to leap.
What lessons in Ringling do you feel were most valuable to your current art?
I can say a lot about my experiences at Ringling and the lessons I learned, but I’ll boil it down:
- Play an active role in the community - *puts on a Mr. Rogers sweater* It can be something as big as the whole campus, or as small as Eric’s class, but whatever you think of a community as - be something in it! Get involved with the people who are around you and be present in those moments. I tried to be active not just in the classroom, but with campus activities - and it wasn’t because I was pressuring myself into it, or forcing myself to *shudder* network *vomit*, but it was because I was actually having fun with all these people! Plus, getting out and away from work (sometimes) is good. The people you’re around can offer a great insight into a design problem you may be facing, too. Remember, you’re not just stuck on an island with aspiring Game Artists!
- Kick the shit out of critique - I was never the best at it… was never very good at it at all actually, BUT... take every critique note into account when doing interations on projects. Present them! Show people that you value what they suggested. Even if you don’t agree in your head - try it out “on paper.” Obviously, there will be times where it’s impossible to hit every note, but do the “large brush strokes” (as Marty Murphy would say).
- Return from failure - This is big… “real talk” big, but I failed 3D for Games in the second semester of junior year. I didn’t meet the deadline on a model submission and it tanked me. Plus, what I submitted at the end of it all was a steaming pile of desperation. It was bad, but it was the best I could do.It was a set back, but it gave me time to work what I was struggling with.
Instead of running away from it, I took it as an opportunity to get better at it. Fast forward a year later and the thing I'm most comfortable with is modeling. Fast forward a year after that, and I'm doing it professionally. Pretty neat.
Find what you struggle with, and find it fast. Dedicate time to deliberately practicing at it. It's worth it.
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