Artist Interview : Scott Spencer

Scott explains the importance of coming up with as many ideas as possible during the timeframe that is typically given for a character design. “Lets say you’ve got 3 days before the first delivery – if you just do one character in those three days to put up, you’re making no impression at all. Except ‘Wow, this guy works slow. Whereas other people may be putting up 4 or 5 options at a time or various gestural, evocative images.

You really want to do as much as you can in that time that’s really different from each other and really dynamic. The more variation between each design, the better off you are. At the end of the day you are trying to get across a certain concept. If you have 5 different directions you want to present you create 5 different assets and they might not be as detailed as just doing one. Its just breaking down the time that you have.

Through the process of doing it you learn lots of little cheats. You don’t have to render an entire character. It actually looks better if you don’t and  let things fall off into shadow, blur or haze. It focuses the eye in on the face or the area that’s really important. There are plenty of ways to create the illusion of a lot of painted detail, when in fact you’re just playing with how the eye perceives brushstrokes or different textures layered on top. So little tricks like that, which have been around in painting for thousands of years, creep into digital concept art.”

Scott finds immense inspiration by just walking around the Workshop. “If something looks like something that’s been done already, it’s going to get shot down immediately. So you’re always trying to think of new ways to see things. It’s a conscious thing – you always try to be aware of what’s inspiring you and keeping an eye out for new things and new shapes. And a lot of google image search.

For the most part, my nature is to be concerned with the form of things and what a shape actually is and how they fit together. I am usually starting with something that I sculpted and I have to think about that. You can fudge things in 2D and not be aware that you are. It’s really difficult to do that when you’re sculpting it. Inevitably it comes up in a meeting – someone would be looking at a really cool part of a design and ask ‘What does that look like from the other side? Exactly what shape is that?’ You need to know those things or be able to think really fast and make something up.”

 

Tactile clay

Traditional clay sculpting is still a part of the design process at Weta. “There are artists at Weta that concept in clay almost exclusively.

Usually it’s about speed. If I am concepting something I can do it faster in ZBrush and Photoshop. But there still are situations where I will sculpt in clay, then photograph it and paint on top of it. Or I will often sculpt little maquettes to get lighting reference for illustrations. Clay is an integral part of it and really always will be. It will never be replaced.

There is nuance in clay that you just don’t get yet digitally. I love working digitally and swear by it. If it weren’t for digital sculpting I wouldn’t be where I am today. But I definitely still have the utmost respect for the traditional media. It responds to the chaos in your touch, in your hand. When it comes to clay it’s all about randomness, there’s nothing that’s based on algorithm. It’s easy on the eyes because of that.

There’s a difference in perceiving a physical object, I guess because it is actually 3D but also the solidity of an object and it’s spatial qualities. It gives you a different feel for the object you are crafting. We find some directors can see a 3D model on screen and read that just as easily – it really depends on the preference of the viewer. But there is a presence to having a sculpture on the table sculpted by hand, milling it out, printed on an extrusion printer. There is no replacement for that physical presence in the room – being able to see what the character feels like when it’s standing there on the table.”

Tools such as rapid prototyping are an integral part of the creative process. “Gentle Giant, to the best of my knowledge, was the first company to print from ZBrush files in 2005. We figured how to decimate and print on the 3D printer. We figured out how to get your actual detail from your Z-tool across to the 3D printer. And it took off. All sorts of things were being printed out and we actually did stop-motion puppets that were created in ZBrush and printed out. They would socket back together because they had been engineered digitally.

This is also done at Weta at a much larger scale. Where entire huge props can be created in ZBrush, sculpted right there, in front of the director making changes on screen. Print it and you have a foam mockup that can be further refined.

Depending on the size of the sculpture, it would be worked on further in clay. If you mill something out that’s medium sized – the size of a person, you can only get so much detail on it. But if you go for something say, the size of King Kong, you are going to get more detail. Like that King Kong that got put out in Times Square for the premiere was milled out and done at Gentle Giant for Weta. A lot of that detail was milled directly into the foam because it was so big. The wrinkle on the lip is the size of one of the mill heads so it can get that detail in there.

So it really depends on the scale of what you’re doing. For the most part it’s going to have clay put back on it then further sculpted. Really small things that get printed on an Eden machine, an extrusion printer, very rarely need any sort of touch up. You can just take a mold of your printout to get rid of the build lines, pour it up in resin, and you have a finished piece. A lot of collectibles were done that way at Gentle Giant. Weta Collectables tend to mostly be sculpted by hand.”

Pet Creations

Scott has written three books  – ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting and ZBrush Digital Sculpting, Human Anatomy. His third book has recently come out, which is the second edition to ZBrush Character Creation.

“I’m currently working on my 4th book, ZBrush Character Workshop.  It’s a breakdown of the process I use at Weta for different types of characters. It follows the process of an alien character – From the thumbnail, to the digital sculpt, to finishing it up in Photoshop and achieving a final colourised presentation image. It also deals with how to sculpt for 3D printing. It talks about the concerns you need to have and how to decimate for print.

I would also like to make another film. I have a stop motion film I made back 2004 called Innocence, and I have been kicking around making another one. Break out the old super 8 cameras. Got to finish the book and probably do that next.” You can see the film here »

Scott also has extensive experience with teaching – “I love teaching. For the first year that’s what I missed the most from LA, is my teaching at the school in Hollywood called Gnomon, School of Visual Effects.  I had Sunday classes there. My mum’s a teacher and I guess it’s genetic. I don’t feel like you really understand something until you can communicate it to someone else. There’s a different level of grasping the topic when you can actually help someone else understand it.

Being able to start doing the Workshops with Paul here has been great thing for me. I love the process. That’s why I write the books too. You don’t get rich writing these books, but you do get emails and feedback from artists who found them useful and it’s hugely rewarding. And it’s really rewarding just to sit down and have a conversation with all these other artists that share your interest. When you’re teaching, it’s the same thing, it’s getting into a room full of people that are passionate and interested in the same things you are. You just get to share techniques with them and shorten the path for them through your own experience. I learn something from every class. As a matter of fact, I can definitely see myself continuing to teach far into my career, and maybe even retire into teaching.”

Scott’s advice

We asked Scott if there is any key advice he could give to budding young sculptors -

“Definitely look at classical art and technique. Look at traditional sculpting. Try and get into some life drawing or sculpting classes. Something I tell a lot of people, especially people coming up through a digital program, or who want to do digital or concept art – don’t spend so much time looking at what other digital or concept artists are doing. Look at the old instruction manuals.

Specifically judging the tonal quantities of the shadows, and the highlights of a figure when you’re dealing with a sculpture.  There is this great book called Modeling and Sculpting by Bruno Lentari that talks about this. First time I had ever seen it was in Florence. He talks about sculpture in that same kind of process. If you get stuck looking at what’s on the forums and only at the top, dig around and look for the older and maybe more obscure art instruction manuals, you’ll find some really great advice that’s been forgotten or just getting rediscovered. Like how Andrew Loomis was rediscovered in the past 10 years.

Studying anatomy helps a lot. But don’t become obsessed with the anatomy to the point that you don’t get in front of a live model. Both are important but you want to do more time in front of a model than you do in front of an anatomical figure. Actually in the process of doing my second book I did 50 hours of dissection in an anatomy lab back in Utah. Which was hugely informative but would not have been worth anything if I hadn’t spent any time in front of living models. It’s a common mistake people make, they spend a lot of time just learning anatomy from a book and not at the figure. And the figure is alive and so much different.

Meeting people and just showing your passion and dedication is so important. If you go in there and you’re getting nothing or minimum wage, but work like the highest paid person in the building, people will notice. If you don’t, people will notice it as well.

That’s one thing many interns don’t realize, that they are being watched. When you are starting out, trying to get in the door, people are paying attention to how dedicated you are and it’s really important to let your passion drive you and make you work hard.”

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ZBrush Concept Design Workshop with Scott

Scott will be running a ZBrush Concept design Workshop in Auckland on the 26-27 March 2011.
See the White Cloud Workshops site for more info and to enroll.

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Visit Scott Spencer’s website »

Scott’s books are available at Amazon »