Q & A with Giuseppe Bufalo
3D Concept Art presents an Q & A with a very talented 3D Artist with a background in industrial design, Giuseppe Bufalo. He has been around for more than eight (8) years in production of film, tv commercials and architectural design. For companies such as, Taylor James, Studio RHE, Cityscape Digital , Rushes and many more. He has also been involved in in high resolution modeling and digital sculpting for different companies and projects, like District 9, Oblivion, Star Wars and Elysium. He uses his skills in Hard Surface design frequently for making galactic models for different customers as freelancing artist.
| 3D Concept Art: Tell us a little about you and how did you become interested in 3D modeling and visualization?
| Giuseppe Bufalo: → It was when I started my first job as designer/visualiser, I found the process of designing and producing objects quite slow and with a lot of limitations, so I decided to focus more on visualization in particular on the modeling part which I find very interesting and fun to do.
| 3CA: You have a background within industrial design, how have this contributed to your style and your approach to 3D modeling and projects?
| G.B: → As a designer I have more an analytic approach when I model. I tend to break an object in simple shapes this also helps me a lot in the creation of a clean topology. Understanding volumes, shapes and how these relate to the function of an object is essential in 3D modeling, whether you are trying to replicate an existing object or you are making your own design.
| 3CA: Where do you get inspiration from and who are your role models?
| G.B: → When I design I take inspiration from big personalities like: Syd Mead, Carlo Mollino, F L Wright, Lebbeus Woods, etc. There are also many talented modelers out there that probably have inspired me on the technical side, for example: Vitay Bulgarov and Fausto de Martini.
| 3CA: Hard Surface design, can you describe the key elements on how to fulfil a good hard surface modelling both technically and artistic?
| G.B: → There are no artistic rules when you design hard-surface. In my opinion it’s good to put the right amount of details in your model, it’s also important to place those details in the right spots, this will give functionality and realism to the model.
On the technical side, always start with a blackout of the model, then continue to add details until you finish it. Try to keep the topology very clean and simple this will easily help you to turn your model into a sub-D model later. I found a few simple rules to follow in order to make a good sub-D topology, you should find yours, always apply those rules when you are completing your model and you can’t go wrong.
| 3CA: Any good advices for artists and students who want to get into the business as a 3D modeler?
| G.B: → When you start you need to do a lot of practice, try to make different types of models, military weapons, characters, even everyday objects are a good (for example modeling a Dyson vacuum cleaner is a great topology exercise because he has a mix of curved surfaces with hard edges). Choose objects to build that you’d like to work on, or you think the big studios would like to see.
Once you feel very confident with topology it’s good to start to develop other skills that you can combine with the 3D modeling, such as texturing, sculpting or making concepts using a mix of 3D and 2D techniques.
3D Concept Art Community thanks, Giuseppe Bufalo for this interview. He shared his knowledge about hard-surface as well on what you should think about when modeling. He explains that is very important to develop your skills and combine, keep practicing, improve your skillset and choose wisely.
