Paulo Ferrari: 3D generalist interview

3D caricaturist Paulo Ferrari shares some of his cool characters while discussing the ZBrush workflow behind his creations...

3dtotal: Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you, what do you do, and where are you located?
Paulo Ferrari: Hi, my name is Paulo Ferrari and I live in São Paulo, Brazil. I've been an admirer of drawing and painting ever since I was a child, from cartoon to the realistic portrait, independent of styles, I've always liked original works. I started my studies drawing with traditional techniques from watercolor to graphite. It was very important and gave me more of an artistic background. Later on, working as an illustrator and educator, I started to use computer graphics in my workflow to finalize my work. Then I got to know 3D tools and got amazed by the artistic possibilities, from then on I focused my studies and began to work with 3D. Currently I work as a 3D generalist for a television network in Brazil.

Fan Art Leia /Star Wars

3dt: What's the story behind your latest gallery entry? Where did the idea come from? What were you trying to achieve with it?
PF: Ive been doing some personal works to improve my technical and artistic results a series of fanarts of classic films. I make my interpretations seeking to present the best of my style, mixing a more cartoonish look with some caricature. I usually begin by drawing the character by hand, thats when I do all the concepting, and then move on to modeling it in 3D, doing a basemesh and sculpture. After, I do the lighting and post-production. Lou Ferrigno (Fanart) chosen for the gallery in my opinion was my best study so far, it was a lot of fun to participate in this whole creative process and I'm very happy with the evolution of each one of the illustrations.

3dt: What software and plug-ins did you use to create this image? Did you face any difficulties, and how did you overcome them?
PF: I'm using ZBrush for modeling and painting, 3ds Max for composition and rendering. The plugins I used were the Ornatrix for the hair, and V-Ray for rendering. Done the post-production both in Photoshop and After Effects. Each of those software requires a lot of different techniques and experience and my difficulties was to exploit the maximum I could from each of them, to get better results and if possible different from previous things Ive done. Im always open to new tools and workflows that can help me move forward in quality.

Fan Art Terminator/ Future Terminator

3dt: What are your artistic ambitions?
PF: To work in a big movie would be very cool to me, an experience like that would add me a lot of artistic and personal knowledge, which would be incredible.

3dt: Are you a member of any social media groups? Any favorite hashtags you check on a daily basis?
PF: I visit several sites in search of good references such as: 3dtotal, ArtStation, Pinterest, Behance, Instagram and some Facebook groups, and I try to save related references to the drawing I'm working on at a specific time, paying close attention to the kind of details and level I would like to achieve on my own image.

Fan Art Dr. Brown/Back to the Future

3dt: Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?
PF: I get inspired by wonderful artists, such as: Alex Ross, Sebastian Krüger, Boris Vallejo, Will Eisner, Bruno Hamzagic, Krishnamurti M. Costa Antropus, Vitor Vilela, Giovani Kososki, Pedro Conti, Fausto de Martini, Sonia Fares, Fred Lopes, Helio Hespanhol, Helder Gonçalves among others, I just have to thank them for their work.

3dt: What can we expect to see from you next?
PF: I already have a list of new characters that I want to create, and I'm excited to continue studying and making new images, with time and practice I hope to get better with each work, to add more details and thus achieve better results. I intend to explore new tools and techniques, acquiring and sharing knowledge every chance I get.

Fan Art Lou Ferrigno/Hulk

Related links

Check out Paulo Ferraris ArtStation
"Lou Ferrigno Hulk" in the gallery