maniacarta: generalist & technical artist interview

Hello everyone, i am maniacarta a CG Character Generalist, Technical Artist based in Tokyo Japan, i have been using Blender for almost 1 year, and then it became my main production tool to make any project with it.

Regarding my latest work, i wanted to make something realistic but using RealtimeCGI so for that i choose my main production tools which is Blender, i have been using Blender for almost 1 year and since that it became my main tool for any production i want to make.

Regarding Niferia my influence was Korean culture and especially how Niferia look, so I wanted to make real-time CGI female dark character style, but I was focusing more on the design, characteristics, and darkness look and to get it right, the model i made was based of my previous character i am Waw that got featured and got CG rendering week award from BlenderNews. As i saw that many people was interested about that kind of real-time character then i decided for this project to make Niferia real-time also but to push the bar this time very high, i really didn’t have any reference for the character as likeness design so i made her from my imagination even for the clothes and that’s how i do usually with my previous characters, so it always back and forth untill i achieved the looking i am for, but some of my previous characters i use references and images such as Luna and Justine.

I like to use PureRef very great tool to use as storyboards as also reference breakdown, it make the task very easy to know which kind of direction i want to go for but for Niferia it wasn’t so i take the challenge to make a character that doesn’t exist, i got some inspiration from fantasy look but i really didn’t have any reference to work with so i decided to make here from my mind and wanted her to look evil and dark in her look.

Yes of course, i think every artist when producing a CG Artwork an obstacle arise this is where the fun and challenge start, so as for me when many challenges arise, i need then to find the solution for it not only that but also, I need to make it great and appealing, that’s how i challenge myself as an Artist every day to grow and develop my skills.

For example my first key challenge was to make the skin more realistic but also in real-time, the second key challenge was the hair as blender hair need more improvement compare to XGen, the third and most important point was the pose, as before i always make my characters a T-pose and this is not really appealing as work a character need to have life and characteristic so I decided to take the challenge to give Niferia nice poses, expressions and cinematic artworks.

Yes, among Blender as my main production tool, i use Unreal, Unity, Maya, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Adob, Mari, Marmoset Toolbag, Knald, Octane, Zbrush, Marvelous Designer, Substance suite, 3D Coat, Nuke, Gaia, Quixel, Lumion, and other tools.

Well you know that every artist likes to grow and for me art and CG is my real passion, and by seeing other talented artists and what they make from different social media such as 3dtotal, Artstation, and CGSociety, this key element gives me the real motivation and speed to challenge myself daily, and to grow as an artist and make great artworks that people can enjoy in the future.

I have Instagram, Facebook, and also I created my own group called Blender Master Destruction which people, even beginners, can share their works and learn from each other.

This is the link to the group

As an artist I want to be a professional real-time character artist. Not only that but also to focus on appealing character design, and give soul to my characters like they really exist in real life. Also working with many different talented artists around the world and sharing knowledge and experience is the key I think to succeed and grow as an artist.

So I am not really focused on being famous in the future but I am really focusing on making killer character works in the future, and as I am checking what other artists produce, this also gives me the drive to be professional in the future as a real-time CG character artist.

There are a lot, but since I was child, I was always mesmerized by the work of Mr Akira Toriyama. Dragon Ball really was the key to becoming an artist, and Songoku was my first drawing when I was kid. From that moment I decided to look forward and work hard to be an artist.

Among other artist there are also two that I really admire: Tetsuya Nomura and Kim Hyung Tae. The way how those two artists make their fantasy characters and designs are amazing so they also feed my passion and ambition to grow and be a CG character artist.

Well first I would like to thank you for giving me this kind opportunity to share my experience and background as an artist, I never expected to have such opportunity. I have many products and works that will be released soon, but I educated myself to make quality rather than quantity, so I only focus on making cool artworks, but this time I think I will integrate more tools beside Blender to produce more high quality work than before.

Also I am really excited about the Unreal Engine 5 release, and this is also one of my main goals to make real-time character and learn Blender, so I can combine both the tools to create more high quality works in the future.

You can check my Youtube channel, they are a lot of breakdown and workflow on how I make characters