Q & A with Dmitry Gaborak
3D Concept Art presents an Q & A with a very talented Character artist and creature designer, Dmitry Gaborak. He has been around for about eleven (11) years working in production of feature films, cinematics, and games. For companies like Industrial Light & Magic, Plastic Wax Animation, Gameloft, and many more.
He now uses skills and experience to create pipelines and production digital models for popular triple-A videogame projects as a Lead Character Artist for Liquid Development, one of the first US base art production studios.
He also teaches valuable know-how in different workshops and schools, some of those are, CG Protege Animation School, Synstudio Montreal and he have been lecturing at Vizor Interactive.
He has been involved in high-profile AAA game projects like Batman: Arkham Knight, Evolve, Warhammer 40k, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, TimeShift and more to come.
With a pleasure, we present Dmitry Gaborak.
| 3D Concept Art: Tell us about you and how did you become interested in the art of 3D Modeling and further on specializing in 3D Character Modeling?
| Dmitry Gaborak: → Actually, as I remember, I always was interested in the Character Art, not sure why though, since I was a kid (3-4 years old) I started to draw and paint characters on any peace of paper within my reach, almost every single day. I would say that it turned out naturally that I became a Character Artist, I just followed the call from inside me. As many young people, of course, I had a time when I wasn’t not really sure what exactly I wanted to do in my life, because I did not want to be just a traditional artist. I did not know much about existing CG. 3D Computer Graphic was not that famous and popular at this time as nowadays, for example in the country were I grown up there were no 3D Graphic Schools or workshops at all. I discovered CG accidently and my very first 3D software was 3D Studio Max.
The most attractive part in CG for me was that this requires a unique mix and combination artistic/creative and mathematical/programming skills. I was already pretty knowledged with Abode Photoshop and when I discovered Photoshop online and forum colleagues were discussing mysteries and the very technology advanced new software 3D MAX. I was very curios and tried it, since the first day it totally gripped me. My very first model in 3D Max was not something simple as teapot, vase or lamp as usually it happens, but a human head… it was very difficult for a first time and was messy especially the topology part, but it was and it is my greatest passion.
| 3CA: You have been working for over a decade as a Character Artist. Which challenges have you faced during your career when it comes to working with both high and low poly models and still delivering a unique and well-thought-out experience with your characters?
| D.G: → Indeed, I have been working over 11 years in both Game and VFX industries, which considers to be a really lot since our industry are pretty young. I would say that it is a great challenge to know all new 3D technology, software, pipelines and keep being on top edge every year (specially for video-games) as 3D technology one of most advanced and faster developing industries which humanity have.
The most common challenges are to create a believable real-time alpha-planes hair within the video-game engine limitation and character assets sharing (sharing outfit between two characters for example).
| 3CA: Where do you get inspiration from and who are your role models?
| D.G: → Thanks for asking me this question, it’s a very good one. I get inspiration mostly from movies and cinematics. From traditional sculptures or VFX silicon sculptures like Weta Workshop or some Blizzard life-size statues as an example. As well video games, books and music – a great resource of inspiration, and, of course, people around! Sometimes, you don’t need to look at the screen to see a unique and charismatic characters, and get inspiration, you can meet them in real life.
| 3CA: We all know that anatomy is a very important aspect of learning and to understand when working with organic creations. Besides that, what do you think are powerful ways to be more precise and effective when working with character and creatures?
| D.G: → Details, wrinkles, pores, skin surface are critically important for realistic organic creatures and humans as well. It might be considered as part of anatomy too though. Anatomy and realism often not the only one important part of character creating but to make model artistic, original, charismatic, unique, stylised or exaggerated in right direction as well are important, sometimes it might be even more important than correct anatomy.
| 3CA: Any good pieces of advice for artists and students who want to get into the business as a 3D Character artist in fields like Cinematics, Post render and in overall games?
| Dmitry Gaborak: → Traditional fine art foundation is a very helpful as a base. Personally, it’s helped me a lot in my career, thanks to my parents for this! I would recommend going at least for human life drawing and sculpting classes, and, of course, practice it at home every-second-day. For 3D Character artists, are artistic skills are critical, technical skills are secondary. As character artist we need to create heads and bodies all the time, for this purpose, it’s very important to have a strong practical knowledge of anatomy, sharp eye, sense of shapes and proportions, silhouette and harmony between all character parts.
3D Concept Art Community thanks Dmitry Gaborak for this interview. Also about his advices during this Q & A about how to become a character artist and become a better one. Practice, practice and learn anatomy.
