As Moderator of Renderosity's SOFTIMAGE XSI forum, I am very
excited to present our first XSI user interview, with the very
talented Kolby Jukes [kolby_jukes]. I'm personally a huge fan of Kolbys work,
and his modeling videos have changed the way I model forever.
 So, let's just get right to it, shall we? Fire
away! How did you get started in 3D Graphics and how long have
you been using XSI? I first started getting into 3D when I was
about thirteen. My cousin was a musician at a game company in
Vancouver. I went to visit the studio and was totally hooked. I
didn't really learn 3D at that point in my life, I was just aware
of it. I then started going to 3D forums and reading 3D magazines
but that's about as far as it went I didn't really have any
practical knowledge. Fast-forward five years taking film
production at the university. I had taken a bunch of classes and
started shooting my own shorts, when I began to realize that
almost all my ideas required SFX in some form. So I began working
with After Effects, Lightwave, and Poser. Two months later, I knew
that the FX interested me more than filmmaking itself, so I left
the university and enrolled in Vancouver Film School [VFS] I had
seen some of the crazy reels on CGtalk. It was at VFS I got my
first real taste of modeling, and 3D in general. I began using XSI
my first day, so I guess I've been working with 3D/XSI for 2.5
years now 1.5 years professionally. Your time lapse
modeling videos are some of the most sought after on the net by
those just starting out. Do you have any formal training? What's
your preferred method of modeling? My formal training is, as I
mentioned earlier, VFS. When I was at VFS I was using the
box-modeling method. Some time after graduation I start
exploring/developing my own techniques, and finally settled upon
edge-extrusion (poly-by-poly). I know there are a lot of other
modelers who employ this technique. Now-a-days I do most of my
organic character modeling in ZBrush, creating only very basic
meshes in XSI. However, when I do things like accessories or
weapons I poly-model all that in XSI. I still love poly-modeling,
but due to production time constraints and required levels of
detail for normal mapping, ZBrush is definitely the way to go.
Kolby Jukes
You're currently employed at Raven Software,
a game company I grew up with. How is it working at Raven, and can
you tell us a little about your favorite project with them? Do they
use XSI where you work? Raven is a great company to work for
a very talented bunch of developers. I'm working on the next
generation Wolfenstein sequel. I can't really go into any detail
about the project due to Non-Disclosure Agreements. However, I am
the lead character modeler on the project. When I arrived there,
Raven had already purchased several XSI licenses, so that's what I
used, but most people use Max/Maya (depending on the project).
You also use ZBrush in both your professional and personal work
do you find it a good companion to XSI? What are your likes and
dislikes when using the two together? Yes, ZBrush is an
essential part of my modeling pipeline. ZBrush and XSI work well
together. I was very happy to see the addition of the ZBrush
importing features in XSI 5, as well the ultimapper and the
gigapolyon core all really useful features for working on games
with ZBrush. As for improvements, I would like to see faster/more
stable Displacement with MR. I notice a lot of your personal
work seems to be ... Hellboy ... [laughter], no just
kidding. Seriously though, where does your inspiration come from
when developing personal projects? Superhero and comic book
characters are a total obsession of mine I don't think I'll ever
tire of modeling them. Comics have always been a big influence on
both my personal and professional work, in fact I've been a total
comic geek since I was ... like five. My biggest influences in the
comic world are Mike Mignola, Eric Powell, Frank Miller, Alex Ross,
Lee Bermejo, and John Cassaday. Outside of comics, I'm a huge movie
buff I'm always watching movies while I work.
Kolby Jukes
The Tweak Forum, you've created on your homepage, is
growing fast and mostly with extremely skilled artists from the
industry. What made you decide to start the forum and what's your
vision for its future? Yeah, Tweak has grown much bigger
than I expected, I always figured it would just be me, and a few of
my friends, in there. I'm really pleased how the forum has grown,
and with the quality of work being presented. I use to help run a
modeling forum called ChemicalDust with my friend Tim Lyttle
(Levitateme). It was a private, invitation-only forum, very serious
and focused. I've even heard it described as Spiraloid on
Crack. Anyway, ChemicalDust started to decline, and I had grown
tired of posting WIP images on CGtalk, so I decided to start my own
modeling forum. As for its future, in the coming months I'm going
to transfer it to its own domain. Beyond that, I'm hoping it will
continue to grow and that we'll continue to see the same level of
quality work.
Kolby Jukes
Speaking of predictions for the future, where do you see the
film and game industry going in the next 5 years? I don't know
that I'm qualified to speak on the future of the Film Industry. I
imagine we'll continue to see much of the same stuff we've seen
over the past decade, only with higher budgets and even better FX.
As for Games, it's hard to say, I think most studios are still
trying to acclimatize themselves to demands of next-generation game
development. Everyone seems to be speculating that next-generation
development; equal bigger crews, equal higher costs, equal more
risks, equal less innovation. I sincerely hope this isn't the
reality of the situation. Games like Shadow of the Colossus
and Resident Evil 4, give me hope for the next generation of
games.
Kolby Jukes
We're going to wrap it up here one last question before we go.
Is there any advice from your personal experience that you'd be
willing to give to someone starting out in 3D or looking to break
into the Game Industry? I know it sounds clichand obvious to
say this, but, in my opinion, the most important thing to do if you
want to break into the industry, is practice. The more you
practice, the better you will get. Beyond that, networking is very
important, try to meet other 3D artists and Industry-hopefuls, this
will be invaluable when trying to find work. Also, visit forums
like CGtalk, 3DTotal, Renderosity, Polycount, heck even check out
TWEAK talk to other artists, show off your work get to know
people! Lastly, see if there's a SIGGRAPH chapter or XSI user group
in your area and attend the meetings. Again, thanks so much for
taking time out of your busy schedule to do this interview with
us! Thanks!
To learn more about Kolby and view his artwork, we invite you to
visit:
All supporting images within this article are
copyright,
and cannot be copied, printed, or reproduced in any manner without
written permission from the artist
 A special "thank you" to contributing columnist, artist,
Teyon [Teyon Alexander], for taking time out of
his busy schedule as Renderositys Comics Corner, 3D Modeling, and
SoftImage XSI Moderator. We invite you to view Teyon's Gallery January 30,
2005 |
