Hernan Zuniga: 3D artist interview

Hi! My name is Hernan and I'm a 37 year old 3D artist from Lima, Peru. It all started 7 years ago when I left my family and country behind and moved to Brazil in search of my dreams. On this path of so many stories I got to meet incredible people. Thank God! They helped me along with my family during the beginning of my career. Tiago Hoisel, for example, trusted in my potential and desire to improve and grow in the 3D industry. He gave me a great opportunity to work with him in an advertising studio called Techno Image, where I also met incredible artists that I can call friends today. I will always be grateful for it. I currently work at TFG, a mobile gaming company in Sao Paulo, as a 3D artist with the cinematics team.

The idea arrived when I went to McDonald's and saw their Teen Titans Go! promotion. I ordered a Happy Meal and got inspired by the illustrations printed on the box. I've always been inspired by the DC Comics universe, and I'm a big fan of Batman and Superman.

The shapes and poses of Beast Boy were very interesting and he's such a funny and charismatic character! So when I got back home, I decided to start blocking his pose in ZBrush while trying to design a harmonic body expression. After that, I moved to Maya so I could work with Xgen, Substance Painter, and V-Ray. When I was finished with him, I realized that he could also have an environment within his universe, so I modeled it with the idea that it would help the character stand out. Finally, I used Photoshop to add some effects.

Aside from trying to create and render an aesthetically pleasing model, I like to tell a story through all the characters I create. Applying what I've learned in recent years, and doing so in the shortest amount of time possible, was a good challenge. I developed a new workflow with ZBrush and XGen in Maya in order to create a stylized hair for a cartoon character. And I really liked the result, it's fantastic!

Yes, at work we generally use Unity to develop games and Marmoset to present models. In some freelance work I use 3ds Max, which was my first program when I started my journey in the 3D world. It's one of the most important tools for me, and it has helped me a lot since the beginning of my career. Previously, I used Ornatrix for hair creation, Mudbox and Bodypaint 3D for texturing, and UV Layout and, occasionally, After Effects.

It’s important to me that I create a lot and I am currently fortunate enough to work on very interesting and fun things in my job, that I can use for my portfolio as well. I always have ideas and stories in my head and I try to develop them with sketches in ZBrush. When it comes to inspiration, I always try to use things that fascinate me, like superheroes, comics and movies, and also music, especially movie’s soundtracks. All of this motivates me to keep working, even if the routine is exhausting, it’s something that makes me happy. If I had to give a tip it would be to keep practicing and work on things that entertain you so you can be happy with what you do, and try to study different things to improve the work that you do.

Yes, I’m a member of some digital art groups on Facebook, like Nimbo CG and others. On Instagram I follow some hashtags like #pixologic, #zbrush, #cgjunkies, #zbrushtuts and #3dtotal. The truth is, you can find great artists that inspire you everywhere and that’s great.

I would love to work on big projects for both games and cinema. My childhood dream has always been to work on superhero and science-fiction movies. I imagine that must be an incredible experience and I am working hard to get there. I also want to constantly keep improving myself as an artist, to be faster and have better techniques.

Dylan Ekren inspires me a lot with the way he uses shapes and design in general in the projects that he does. I am a big fan of his. I have been following Alesandro Baldasseroni since the beginning of my career and I was lucky enough to meet him, he is great. His work is very detailed and his characters are magnificent.

Tiago Hoisel is an artist who I had the pleasure of working with and is someone who I admire a lot too. He has amazing skills in lighting characters and scenes, creating color keys, and working with a cartoon style and developing the characters’ story through his work.

Pedro Conti and Victor Hugo are two great artists who I admire for the way they develop and present their 3D cartoon characters. They are both very complete artists and it’s very interesting to study how they work with their modeling, texturing, rendering skills, and how they use that to present their characters. I’m very grateful to have been able to work with both of them and learn a lot at the beginning of my career, and I consider them a huge example of dedication.

And there’s plenty of other artist that I admire a lot too, like Carter Goodrich, Wouter Tulp, Lucas Leibholz, Marco Furtado, Felipe Kimio, Marcelo Braga, Sergey Kolesov, Bruce Timm, Chris Battle, Rafael Grassetti, and many more.STC

You can always expect more personal projects and evolution of my work as the days go by. And also, several projects for cinematics and games that are coming in the future that I hope you like. Thank you so much for this opportunity, I am very grateful for it!