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David Schaefer: Mondlicht Studios CEO interview

David Schaefer

CEO at Mondlicht Studios

CG artist and Mondlicht Studios CEO David Schaefer has worked in the industry for over 10 years and is also now passing on his knowledge to those new to the industry. Check out his story and advice so far…

David's Website

3dtotal

Thanks for talking to us today, David! Please let the readers know a little more about you and your work.

David

Hello and thanks for having me! I’m 35 years old; I live in Germany in the Black Forest in a small town called Bad Liebenzell. I made my first baby steps in CGI at the age of 15 after I saw Toy Story in the cinema. I always had a passion for animation and cartoons. Seeing ‘a cartoon in 3D’ of this groundbreaking quality just totally blew my mind. I made the decision that I wanted to work in the CGI industry.

I love arts, music, and creativity in general. And I love computers. So CGI became my hobby during my schooldays. A friend of mine, Adrian Bach, was into computer graphics too. We spent days and nights playing with 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Bryce 3D, Poser, and Photoshop. He’s a brilliant artist and has been a huge creative influence in my youth. After my graduation in 2004 I got the opportunity to work on Mercedes CGI projects as an intern and got a contract later. This was a great time and I worked there until the end of 2015. I started my own CGI company and have found some wonderful people along the way. Today I enjoy my work more than ever.

3dtotal

Your portfolio is quite varied; with CG work, 3D modeling, and graphic design. Where would you say your passion lies?

David

Mostly in 3D and post. In a more general way – in creating beautiful art. It makes me happy. Doesn’t matter if it’s an awesome image, a sweet model, a great video, nice typo, cool logo, and so on. I enjoy audio visual beauty a lot. I am the most satisfied when I have created something beautiful myself. I also have a passion for knowledge in general. If I am interested in something, I love to know about the whole process from start to finish. That is another reason why I am passionate about CGI as a whole, and why my portfolio has this variety.

3dtotal

You had been working at Mercedes for more than 10 years. Aren’t you tired of creating images for the automotive industry?

David

Haha, no. Never. Cars are awesome machines and can be very beautiful. I always liked cars, but when I started working at Mercedes, I understood what a car really is. I was just fascinated. I’ve worked on many different projects that offered me a deep look into a big automotive company like Daimler. The projects involved AMG, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz passenger cars, Motorsport, commercial vehicles, research and development, press department, and more. Each project taught me something new and cemented my fascination for cars.

man on phone crossing road
man crossing road

3dtotal

Are there any changes in 3D modeling? How has the process of creating a model changed in the past years?

David

Technology is evolving each day. So yes, it has become much easier with all the tools and progress the industry is making. But with more efficiency and quality the demand rises too. 15 years ago, it was close to magic to model a car in 3D or get the CAD data to your rendering software. Today, it is a matter of choice of software and workflow, and you can find countless tutorials on modeling.

Virtual and augmented reality are having a noticeable effect on creating models. Low poly models have been used in games since the late 90s, but with VR/AR becoming more and more popular in CGI, advertising, and the entertainment industry, the demand for efficient modeling has raised significantly. Demand dictates the development and more and more clients start to go in this direction. For rendering a beautiful image you don’t care if that flower in the corner has 20k or 80k triangles. Actually, too few looks shabby. In real-time rendering it is the opposite and every triangle counts.

I can’t wait for the day when I can plug a cable to my brain and put the model from there to the 3D screen or projection. Although… I’m not sure if I would stick a cable in my brain. Though it would be tempting… but if we could model like Tony Stark is working with J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man, that would already be enough. Okay jokes aside. To me the next big thing is AI in modeling. Imagine you can teach an AI how to model and how much that would help to focus on the creative process even more. And this is a real possibility in the next years.

What helps me to understand the beauty of an image is trying to figure out what exactly I do like about it.

3dtotal

You and your colleagues launched your own studio this year. On what type of projects do you focus on?

David

We are focused on advertising, digital art, and VR/AR. We like visual beauty. Whatever contributes to that we are up for. Right now, we have our regular clients for image and VR/AR productions, but we are an expanding business in several directions, and see what we like and what works best.

lorries in desert
lorries in desert

3dtotal

What helps you to understand that the image is perfect and realistic?

David

To me real and perfect are two different things. For realism you need experience and “to train your eyes and brain.” Look at things and try to understand why they look the way they look. Attention to detail is very helpful for creating realism too.

But realism doesn’t mean it’s a good image. Take a photo production in a photo studio for example. The moment a picture is taken, it depicts reality – real by definition. But for a great final image the photographer uses different exposures, blocks out reflections in one shot, makes special lighting for a certain area in another shot, and finally composes the images together (usually by post artists in Photoshop). This way the image will be perfect, but not realistic. The same process is used in CGI production to put together final images from many different components.

In the sense of beauty, a perfect image does not need to be super realistic. It needs to be beautiful, which is perceived subjectively. To me a perfect image has a beautiful composition, great colors and look, and – the subjective part – I need to like what I see. What helps me to understand the beauty of an image is trying to figure out what exactly I do like about it. Another thing is believability. For example, the bad integration of CGI elements into a photo. If something is off, we immediately are disturbed and stop believing what we see.

3dtotal

Every CG artist has their own style and habits. Some pay too much attention to the details, others spend huge amounts of time creating a perfect mesh. Do you have similar habits?

David

Sometimes I can be kind of a nerd. But I’m fine with that, since that makes me better at what I do. I have the habit of spending too much attention to detail, but I noticed quickly that this is a habit to lay off. If you do CGI as a hobby, take all the time you like! If you do it professionally, your goal is to deliver the best quality within time and budget.

lorry at warehouse
lorry at warehouse

3dtotal

Do you have a favorite process within your workflow? Favorite tools and software?

David

I use many different applications, depending on the project needs. My favorite 3D application is Maya and I like 3ds Max and Cinema 4D too. Substance Painter is cool and useful, and for rendering I mostly use V-Ray. Photoshop and my Wacom are two very good friends of mine too. For post-production of a bigger scale I love Fusion. CaptureOne is an awesome software if you work in projects involving photography, but also just for grading and editing. Those are my most frequent tools.

I like a lot about my work, from the first idea to the final result. I also love technical challenges and to be successful in finding solutions. We developed a great workflow for retopology over the past years creating several high-quality low-poly models for the automotive industry in full depth. This is our own big development and I am very proud of what we achieved. That automatically makes it a lot of fun. But, plain and simple, I also love doing it just like that.

lorry in countryside

3dtotal

Do you have a favorite image or project that you have worked on?

David

There are more projects I think of very fondly. Our whole low poly story and several image productions because I loved the result and the people I worked with. But if I had to pick one it would be the low poly story over the past years. Through this project I got to know Maksym, and through Maksym Dmitriy, Dmitriy Zhanna. That makes it my favorite project.

3dtotal

Do you currently teach anywhere? If you were to give an overview of your core advice for beginner artists, what would that sound like?

David

Yes, I do. For one I am going to Skillbox in August. I am also putting some tutorials together that will be available in the near future. I taught a lot of people during my job and noticed I really like to teach motivated people who appreciate knowledge. Working in a big company for over ten years brings valuable experience and made me a lot better in my job. If I had someone who explained to me some of these things when I started my career, I would have been eternally grateful. So why not pass it on to make other people better too?

My best general advice would be overcome challenges. Don’t give up, and find solutions. If you do, you will be rewarded with new knowledge and skills. Nowadays the internet is a huge help. And if there is no solution, come up with one. You might need to combine tools you know and add some skills, but never give up.

Another very useful, general advice is to get opinions and talk to people about your work and your thoughts. If I had been alone doing CGI in my youth, I would have never gotten better as fast as I did. If none of your friends are into CGI, there are many forums to make friends in the industry.

ice creature with car

3dtotal

What will you be looking at improving upon, and where do you see yourself in 10 years?

David

I hope a lot. You can always improve your game. I’d love to gain some knowledge about programming. But just the right amount, because I do not want to be a programmer. I just want to enhance my workflows all the time and being better at scripting and programming a little would really boost your productivity. My 10-year-goal is to build a wonderful company with my friends and colleagues. Making ourselves and our clients happy.

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