Ecem Okumuş: 3D Character Artist Interview

Hi! I am Ecem Okumus, a 3D character artist based in Istanbul. I became interested in learning 3D during my university years. After graduating from Stage and Costume Design, I continued to improve myself in the field of 3D. My interest in character creation pushed me to learn modeling, texturing, and also rendering and compositing to represent the image in my mind. It is a constant journey of discovery for me and I am still learning while working as a freelance character artist on different kinds of art projects.

I love being in nature, especially spring time when  nature is awakening. That gives me a great joy and strenghens my feelings about being a part of  nature. I created Bud at one of those times, with the inspiration of the moment. I sketched him first and at the first opportunity, I started to turn him into 3D.

At the beginning of the 3D process, there is always an overall look in my mind. Although I made some changes on his concept, I tried to keep his innocence and the feelings he gave me. First I sculpted him in ZBrush, the I used both ZBrush and Maya for retopologizing and unwraping UVs. Then I painted him in Substance Painter. For his peachfuzz, I used Xgen and rendered in Arnold with ACES color space. At the last stage, I used Photoshop for compositing passes, adding a background, and for final touches.

I always try to learn something new on every personal projects. For me, it is the key for improvement alongside practicing a lot. I dealt with  both technical and artistic challenges on the Bud project. Accomplishing a good result on his head painting took a bit more time than the other parts and I made many tests until I achieved the final result. Besides that, representing a character in a realistic way is a challenge in itself. There might be so many subtle details that bother eyes. In order to improve that side of my work and achieve the result in my mind, I always research about shading and lighting of different elements.

I mainly use ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, and Photoshop for my projects. Besides these, I use Marvelous Designer if it is necessary. I also  had the chance to use Marmoset Tolbag recently and loved some of its features, especially creating map options. I use XGen for hair and fur as much as I need in my projects but I will try to go a bit further using XGen at the first opportunity. I like using both Arnold and Redshift for rendering in different aspects. And also there are software programs that I would like to learn such as Mari.

As a character artist I don't believe that keeping the portfolio up to date is the thing that should mainly be focused on. It is the result of working hard and improving skills. And these require an inner motivation. I think the important thing is not to lose this motivation that keeps you up to date. Taking some breaks, relaxing minds, and being interested in other things for a while is the crucial part of being creative and productive. If you define yourself as an artist rather than an operator, chasing for inspiration is more important than being up to date.

As same with many artists I always check  websites such as Artstation, 3dtotal, and ZBrush Central. Beside these, I am following lots of individuals and general art pages, 3D software and portfolio site accounts on Instagram. zbrushatpixologic, substance3d, artstationhq, 3dtotal, creaturecorner, 3dpipeline are the first ones that come to my mind. I have been discovering so many great artists with #creatureart on Instagram as well.

I love the combination of realism and fantasy. I try to represent my concepts with convincing realism and I like to push my limits to achieve that. I used to think that trying to be good at every stage of a 3D concept prevented me  being exceptionally good at only one of those stages, which I thought was the right thing to do. But after years, I realized that this is not the point. I am just doing what I like to do and if people get this feeling when looking my artworks, it is enough for me.

There are many great artists that I could count as my favorites who inspire me a lot with their view of life and creations. It would be hard to write all of those names but if I give some; Beth Cavener is one of my favorite traditional sculptors with her unique style of representing animals with souls. I also admire  the harmony with her material usage and concepts. I also love Dug Stanat's creepy and unique characters and their presentations. I can imagine while they are talking and moving around their own ways.

If talking about an artwork, I don't even know what I should expect from myself next actually! The idea never comes with a pressure but with an inspiration. I am also pretty flexible about that. I like to try different things in different styles. If I should talk about in the long run, I would like to experience to be a part of some big projects.