Q & A with Gilberto “Soren” Zaragoza
3D Concept Art presents a Q & A with Gilberto “Soren” Zaragoza, a very talented artist specializing in characters and creatures. He has been around for about eight (8) years working in the entertainment industry. He has worked with companies like Blur Studios, Wargaming.net and Disney publishing. He has also worked on Toys and Collectibles in companies like, Geek X, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment and many more.
He is currently working at Warner Bros. Entertainment on several high profile projects, creating both high-end characters and creatures for cinematic game trailers, film, and tv as well toy and collectibles. He has worked on titles like Love death and robots, Bxj bust collectible for Geek X Dc Comics and recently Avengers end game and several projects still in development.
With pleasure, 3dconceptart presents Gilberto “Soren” Zaragoza.
| 3D Concept Art: Tell us about you and how did you become interested in 3D modeling, digital sculpting and to work in the entertainment industry??
| Gilberto “Soren” Zaragoza: → Well, that is something that comes since I was a kid, after watching a behind the scenes of Jurassic Park back in 1993 when I was 7 years old or so, I’ve always been curious about arts, I studied Graphic Design but once I finished the university I realized that that wasn’t my thing.
I found a way to get involved in a creative studio in my hometown as a 2D artist but hanging out with the guys from the 3D department during lunchtimes brought back the idea to make 3D artwork and little by a more chaotic than a disciplinary self-taught process I did the transition, aside to this the more I learned tome curious I became about exploring different scenarios inside the entertainment industry.
| 3CA: In your experience working as a Character Designer/Digital Sculptor, what has been the most challenging when working on Toys and Collectibles for well-known brands?
| G.Z: → The most demanding things be far for me has been to follow the guidelines already established for well known IP’s with the suggestion of the art directors to bring an “extra” especially when there are already out there tons of merchandise and toys of the same IP’S beautifully executed by other artists, bring something that makes it look like a personal watermark that I don’t feel that I developed yet but is cool when they ask me to give it “my touch”.
| 3CA: Where do you get inspiration from and who are your role models?
| G.Z: → It may sound like a cliche of romanticizing the creative process but it comes in many ways like long walks during the night, visiting museums, going to cinemas to watch movies of any kind of styles, looking at others artist creating dope stuff in different mediums, traveling to another countries switching to different ways of see the world, from my dreams, from passages from my life so yes that something that comes from many sources, ways and forms. I find it a little bit hard to call names because there are a lot of people that in one way or another helped me to have a stable career but I’ll call a few that gave me some useful advice, Erick Sosa, Darren Yeow, Shaddy Safadi & Ben Mauro.
| 3CA: Every artist has a unique style, how would you explain yours?
| G.Z: → As I mentioned before I still struggle to realize if I already develop a style but I think that is obvious that most of my art is dark themed playing mostly with suggestive but not so grotesque figures, I think that the most noticeable thing in my artwork is that I consider myself as a Storyteller.
TI try to make the people that take a time to see my artwork think deeper about where the characters or creatures came from, to invite them to take part of the story printed on them.
| 3CA: Any good advice for artists and students who want to get into the business as a 3D Artist in fields like cinematics, commercials, and Toys and Collectibles?
| G.Z: → Well there are many but the most valuables in my own experience are these:
Work hard but also work smart, with this I mean is not the same to replicate 1000 hand studies to learn how to make a hand if we don’t have a base or a reference to follow, we will only become faster in making ugly hands, in the opposite 100 studies of hands with proper references and understanding of the forms and how it works will make a huge difference.
In the same way, we put a lot of energy in developing the artistic skills we need to work in our social skills, this made a huge change in my incomes once I broke the barrier of being an introvert, little by little this helped me a lot to have the courage to assist to different art festivals around the globe, to confront the language barriers that stopped me from talking with people that inspire me, then to start to sell my services, to start to be invited to give talks in different places around the globe in a language that is not my first language so yes that’s why I encourage students and people who still struggle to make a living from his passion to work on social skills, at the end, they’ll realize that we are all a bunch of nerds with tons of love for some similar topics.
Work first on the quality the speed will came later with the replication of knowing how and where to put the right strokes to make our work looks alive because I see and I was one of those artists saying “SPEED SCULPT TOKE ME LESS THAN 2 HOURS” with tons of errors because thinking in the time more than in learning how to do things better. This industry is not that big so always before anything Be cool, don’t be an asshole.
3D Concept Art Community thanks Gilberto “Soren” Zaragoza for sharing his know how. Be cool, work smart and don’t be an asshole!
