Mickey Roth: 3D artist interview

My name is Mickey Roth and I’m a freelance 3D artist. I’m currently based in Tel Aviv and working as a freelance 3D artist focused on modeling and look development from my home studio, most of the time doing all-round 3D work. I started to paint from an early age, and later in life I thought to combine two of my loves – painting and movies – and go to learn animation. I studied at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem and specialized in 3D animation.

I was drawn more to the art side of animation and so my focus was more towards design, characters, environments, modeling, texturing, and shading, but I really love the cinematic/storytelling side of the animation too, and I still like to animate. After finishing my studies in 2007, I started working as a freelancer and full time, mostly as a 3D artist for various animation projects include movies, series, commercials, and various others.

As a kid I used to read a lot of Asterix, so I really love the character, and when I found this Asterix concept by the talented Hicham Habchi on Artstation one day, I liked it instantly! I really loved his look, and I thought to myself that this will be a fun quick sculpt! In the end, it wasn't so quick. I got slightly carried away because I really liked how it developed, but it was still fun!

I started in ZBrush, blocking quickly and roughly, then moved to sculpting, getting into the forms. I worked in Sculptris mode where you can sculpt without concern for topology or subdivisions, and I found it very loose and a flowing way of sculpting without worrying too much about the technical stuff.

After I was happy with the overall form, I posed him, and then subdivided the model to add sharpness and details. When I finished detailing and sculpting, I moved to prepare the model in Maya for texturing in Substance Painter. I retopologized the model to create a low resolution version, and created the UVs and shading groups.

My goal for the textures and shading was the same as the modeling, to make him look stylized but realistic. The work was done on a low resolution model with the high res model detail baked on. Texturing was a combination of procedural and hand painting. For the texturing and shading, and visual development, I used Substance Painter Iray. As this was a short project and I was really happy to where I got with the look along the way, I decided also to render the final image in Iray.

There were a couple of challenges. The first was translating the 2D concept to 3D and trying to be true to the concept and spirit, but at the same time giving my own interpretation to it. When I choose to work on a design, I prefer to choose a design that is not fully rendered and a bit loose so there is room for interpretations and exploration. This is more challenging because you don't get all of the answers straight away, but it is more rewarding as a process and you will gain more from it. Working on the stylized anatomy of the face and body was also very challenging and I learned a lot from it.

Usually on my personal character projects it will be a combination of Zbrush, which I really love (for modeling/concepting); KeyShot (for look dev/rendering); Maya as my main 3D program for general 3D stuff (modeling/UVs/retopology/rendering in V-Ray/preparing the model for Substance Painter). Also, Substance Painter (for texturing/shading/look dev/rendering) and Photoshop (for paintovers/compositing/editing).

I use the same software also in my professional projects but sometimes in different configurations, suiting it to the project. I also had the chance to use a lot of After Effects in my professional projects and personal (for compositing/color correction/motion graphics) and it's really an excellent software. Besides that, I'm always trying to test and add new software to improve my workflow.

As a professional 3D artist I don't always get to work on just the characters that I am focusing on personally now. So I got into the habit of always having a personal project on the side; usually it would be a character, but not always. It can be anything that I want to get deeper into at that moment, and through that I will have the freedom to explore and improve the work that interests me most. It will also develop my portfolio in the way that I choose. So I think the best tip is just to create personal projects on subjects that interest you, and this will always develop you the most and help your portfolio – but also don't forget to give yourself deadlines so you can finish it and move to the next one!

Right now my ambition is to focus on characters and push my abilities as a character artist, as characters are my passion. And at the same time push all of my artistic abilities as a 3D artist, because I still love to do all-round work as well. To work on the best titles in animation, movies, or games, with the best artists there are, is always something I aspire to. And I would love to create sculpts for collectibles as well. Also, to get back to my roots and work on traditional sculpting and painting as I miss working with real materials a lot, as most of my time working is on the computer.

There are many talented artists that have inspired me and I will try to list a few. In order of appearance... Leonardo da Vinci who is the ultimate generalist, Stan Winston and Rick Baker, as I am a big fan of practical special effects/makeup effects – their work is just at the top of it.

H. R. Giger; he created Alien so say no more. Jean Giraud because he is an amazing painter. As for current 3D artists, I really love what Renaud Galand did on Overwatch. Pedro Conti, Zhelong Xu, Marco Plouffe, Borislav Kechashki, Victor Hugo Queiroz, Daniel Bel, Rodion Vlasov, Maria Panfilova, and the list is too long to capture everyone... There are so many talented artists and I'm really happy to discover new ones every day.