Who is 'Squidinc'? Hi all :), thanks to everyone
that voted for me, this was definitely a close one. Talk about
tough competition <:O And now for the details... Squidinc, aka
Mike Robinson, 20 years old (21 in a couple of weeks), lives in
North Wales, UK. Spends pretty much all his free time making
cartoon characters, eating and watching TV. Works in a local
College tending to the intranet and various bits and pieces. Vital
statistics... Kidding :D How long have you have you been doing
character modelling? Erm...that's a good question, I suppose it
must be getting on for 3 years now, that's not continuous work
though as I never really took this kind of thing seriously until a
year ago, and before then I was looking at a few different
applications so I didn't really put much effort into it. Do you
have 'traditional' art experience? Not really no, I mean I had
the mandatory art classes pushed at me in high school but they
weren't very good to be honest as the art teachers had very closed
minds as to what they saw as artistic, in other words if it wasn't
painted or sculpted they weren't really interested. What are you
currently working on? At the moment I'm putting together a crew
of misfit aliens/robots that travel around the galaxy for some
reason...OK...That was pretty vague but I always liked the idea of
having some sort of space port with lots of aliens going about
their business, collecting luggage, eating etc. I've got a couple
of characters that I've already made for this project in my
gallery (plug plug :D) and I will hopefully be adding more as
the months fly past. And then perhaps I'll have the foundations for
making a short film. Stay tuned... What software do you use and
why? For ALL my 3d work I use Cinema 4D XL R8, it's a seriously
underrated piece of software, brilliant modelling tools, excellent
render quality and vastly improved animating capabilities, and it's
a great price too :) Most of my renders usually have some level of
colour correction or additional 2d elements, and for this I use
Photoshop 7, which is another tool I couldn't do without. What
do you think your best piece of work is and why? I guess it
would have to be the alien pilot, mainly because he turned out
exactly how I imagined him to look, I think he's got quite a bit of
character; it was him that started me thinking about making the
alien spaceport. Explain to us the major steps from the original
concept to the final 3D character... For the pilot I did a
rough sketch of his basic shape, what his hands should look like,
what accessories is he wearing, not an actual full drawing of the
character but just the elements that he's made up of. Then I fire
up C4D and build up a basic body shape, keeping the details low at
this point so I can change things drastically if need be. Once the
body is shaped I can then start adding details by extruding,
bevelling, pushing and pulling. And then finally the texturing,
which I do mostly using procedurals and mesh selections. I rarely
paint my own textures as I find that pretty good results can be
achieved with C4D's texturing system. Do you plan to animate
your characters one day? I've just recently started
experimenting with animating some of my more simple characters
using the new tools of C4D R8, so yes, I do hope to be able to make
some decent shorts in the future :) (I guess I sort of answered
this earlier) Why do you like to work with 3D software? The
idea of being able to make a character that you dream up come alive
on screen, or a place you invented in your head that can be viewed
from any angle, that is damn cool. What inspires you?
Everything really (that probably gets said a lot), I mean I
sometimes looks at something and think how I'd model it or light
it. But I'd have to say I'm most inspired by films that have
impressive visual effects like Star Wars and Lord of the
Rings, some of the stuff that's being made professionally now
is really amazing. How has this online community (Renderosity)
enhanced your work, relationships, and learning? I don't know
whether Renderosity has enhanced my work, but one thing's for sure:
it's done a damn good job of getting my gallery and website
noticed, since posting my work here I've been involved in couple of
professional projects that were coordinated by members of
Renderosity, this place is great for getting work noticed. The
people here are all great as far as I'm concerned...Well...The ones
who voted for me are :) lol Seriously though, I really appreciate
all the comments you guys have given me over the years, it really
means a lot :) This place is also great for finding a quick answer
to a problem, I've posted a few times in the Cinema 4D
forum and it's guaranteed someone there will know the answer.
Parting Comments / Advice to other Artists? Well gotta go,
I'm getting low on witty, insightful comments, *cough* Some advice?
Well...I guess it would be to not always hope people are going to
give brilliant comments, like "you are a god" or "I want to have
your children". These could possibly do more harm than good in the
long run, and there's always room for improvement. Some other
advice, which is always useful in arctic conditions, never eat
yellow snow. Thanks again Mike
Be sure to check out squidinc's gallery! Click here to learn more about the Artist of the Month and to view our past winners.
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