Interview: Miki Bencz

Hey, I'm Miki Bencz and I live in Budapest, Hungary. I work as a 3D character artist with Moon Studios on Ori and the Will of the Wisps!

I like to make 3D models which are blurring the line between 3D and illustration, giving a brief “WTF?” moment of surprise and amazement to the viewer. That little "fall" is what I'm after with my current work.

Bunny Girl a collaboration with Tamas Sarffi who made the model/sculpt for this, and its based on ssb's concept!

I became fascinated with hand painted textures because of World of Warcraft, and started doing some weapons as exercises. After a while, I felt the need to work on something more complex, and I found some illustrations on the net which I felt I could make in 3D exactly like that. After a few of these I kind of got hooked, and I tried to blur the lines even more with each work, so techniques of game art can expand into something non-gamers can appreciate as well.

Hmm my biggest inspirations so far were Csaba Baity, Tyson Murphy, Luke Mancini, Sam Spratt, Skottie Young just to name a few artists, and World of Warcraft definitely got me hooked on painting textures and game art in general. Weird thing is I expected the list to shrink over time, but instead it just keeps growing each day I discover a crazy mofo out there who makes me want to do stuff!

based on the illustration by stoneshjf

I use 3ds Max for modeling with the basic box modeling approach, placing each vertex by hand. 3dcoat and Photoshop for texturing in combination, I jump a lot between the two back and forth, using 3dcoat's projection tools, or brushes from Photoshop. I would say music could be listed as plug-in for sure...

The energy and the vibe are the most important thing in character design for me. The combination of the two forms the character which you feel in the first glance. Another important aspect is the balanced and interesting use of large, medium, and small shapes on all levels of the design; starting from silhouette down to the composition of eye's reflections.

based on the illustration by Aaron Griffin

Probably the dwarf I made was the most challenging, since the concept were very vague, resulting in more freedom during texturing. It also took me a million years to finish it... Also the foot I made felt like a breakthrough piece for me in terms of nailing down the direction where my next few works will go. Aside from that, I feel like each piece was a milestone for me during the making process, and the reception online afterwards opened up new possibilities in me creatively each time!

based on the illustration by Eduardo Garcia

I could definitely speed up my modeling, and ZBrush would be perfect for that. I already know the basics, but getting to a point where I can work with ease would benefit my workflow tremendously. But my free time goes to drawing and sketching at the moment, I feel like I benefit a TON from doing them, and they are also really relaxing to do!

VR looks like a tons of fun. I will get in to that for sure; Quill looks especially interesting to me! And finally, people can see that extra thing 3D art already had in it all along, so I would say 3D art will be more sought after as time goes by.

https://sketchfab.com/models/d809ec01e6234a91a8bae8d6b7b0e438

The one I'm working on right now at Moon Studios. A top notch game with a bunch of dedicated, motivated and crazy good people who seek improvement and jaw dropping end results as much as I do. Another one would be a game I make and release by myself, which is an idea I formed after I got in to programming recently.

Acting most likely. I really get into a zone when I'm entertaining people around me, so I'd explore that, see what’s up. I will definitely get into that in the future!

based on the illustration by Julia Yang

I'm working on a few new personal pieces, ranging from hot babes to extremely deep philosophical (I had to Google that word) themes just to cover a wider range of emotions. Also, a twitch stream is due since I'd record my working process for new tutorials anyways, why not commentate live over it!

Thanks for the opportunity! 3dtotal will always be the place where I started out. All the Threedy challenges were very cool, and the helpful feedback from the community really helped me kick start this journey.