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First things first, please introduce yourself. Tell us about your professional background. How did you get to where you are today?
Well I'm a 3D Character Artist currently working for Neversoft Entertainment on the Guitar Hero games, My real name is Donovan but most people call me Don...lazy people....
Before working at Neversoft I was at Surreal Software in Seattle. It was there that I got my start in the games industry as a Environment Intern working mostly on converting existing assets from other midway titles that use the UT3 Engine into specs that could be run in the open world game Surreal is working on, "This is Vegas." After a few months of that I was promoted to a contract artist where I got a taste of asset creation for the first time on a professional level. I constantly expressed my interest in character art while at surreal and would go bug the character artist we had there learning valuable zbrush tips and tricks along the way. Before too long Surreal too notice and transferred me to the Character Department. So to anyone who wants to be a character artist never give up, ever. |
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Was this your first online competition? Please tell us how you
prepared yourself for this competition. Also, what are your thoughts on this kind of online interaction with artists from around the world?
Certainly not my first, I'm no stranger to online comps, I believe my very first competition was the Dominance War 2. For preparation I gather all the reference humanly possible and started thinking about my approach to the popular character Wolverine. To me it doesn't get any better than this for digital artists. Being able to compete, critique and interact with fellow artists from professional levels all the way to students is simply amazing.
If you want to get on the fast track to getting better as an artist, join as many online competitions as you can! |
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We all have dreams and inspirations. Who or what influenced you to pursue your dreams? Is there anyone or anything that you would like to take a chance to thank?
Certainly. My high school sweetheart and life partner, Andrea, She has been there every step of the way and is now on the road to becoming a 3D Artist herself! I would also say the majority of my success has come from the constant inspiration to be found online via gameartisans and polycount. But the people that I credit most of my success to my three big mentors while I was in school, FredH, Marcus Dublin and Gavin Goulden. |
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Congratulations on your achievement in this competition! Now that it is over, would you like to share with us what your next goal is?
To just get better, I still have a long ways to go before I can get a full nights rest! |
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What would be your advice for the new aspiring artist? How should they start? Where should they look for training?
I would say if they are self motivated to just focus on building a competitive portfolio at home. All the information needed to learn the tools can be found online via tutorials. If they are the kind of person that needs a push then pick a good art school that focus's on fundamental art skills rather than something like a Art Institute. The single biggest thing I cannot stress enough to any inspiring artist is to reach out and talk with people who are already in the industry. They have so much to offer and most are very willing to give a helping hand.
Why Wolverine? What ignited the desire to create one of the mostpowerful xmen out there? Also, why the brown and tan suit?
To me Wolverine has been the coolest damn character in comics ever since I was a kid, and as most of you know I'm a big sucker for big buff dudes so he was the natural choice. As for the brown and tan suit I wanted to create a iconic version of wolvie and brown and tan outfit is the only wait to go!
Can you describe from concept to the final beauty render, what it tookfor you complete your entry? What your initial plans were, and how they reflect on your final product?
The biggest thing I wanted to capture was the presence of wolvie, He can be just standing there and you should be able to literally feel the raw power that man has.
What would you say, was the biggest part of the production process? And what skill would you say you sharpened while you were at it?
The highpoly stage, I worked on that far more than I should have but I really wanted to nail every aspect of wolvie. To me having a great highpoly makes the rest of the process much easier especially the texturing stage where the details really make life easy. I would say texturing would be the skill I sharpened the most, many thanks to MM (Mashru Mishu) for the awesome critics and paintovers in this stage. |
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