Why do some video games stay ingrained in your mind while others pass by unnoticed? We’re talking about the zeppelin scene in ‘BioShock Infinite’ or the train accident in ‘Uncharted 2’. Why do we all remember vividly those of us who galloped and faced the giants of ‘Shadow of the Colossus’? Why did we feel ‘at home’ spending countless hours in the meadows of ‘Skyrim’ if it was so artificial? Are graphics important or is it the art behind them, as demonstrated by ‘Firewatch’, ‘Grim Fandango’, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’, and many others?
It seems that players always have the answer. But the reality is that behind these million-dollar games there are enormous talents who dedicated years of their lives to shaping something that,initially, was just a blank canvas. And some of these talents have been trained at Animum Creativity Advanced School, a leading school in our country that is serving as a springboard for some of the most creative young people in the industry.
This animation, digital art, and 3D design school is a benchmark in the industry and has an employment rate of 93%. Currently, its digital artists work at the top production companies worldwide, such as Illumination, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Industrial Light & Magic, and El Ranchito, creators of titles like ‘La Casa del Dragón’ (Max) or ‘Spiderman: Un nuevo universo’ (Sony). In fact, it is the only Spanish school among the top ten in the world in VFX and Animation.
And to get to know it better, what better way than through some of its talents. We’ve talked to Carlos Belmonte, a Character Artist currently at 2K; Thorge Paulsen, Senior 3D Character artist at Massive Entertainment, a Ubisoft property, and Sergio Brotons, who has worked alongside giants like Rocksteady on ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ and who currently combines his role as Senior Character Artist at Roarty Digital with teaching. They have been part of monumental works like ‘The Division’ or ‘Call of Duty’.
The importance of tools
The magic of creating from nothing, the primordial mud. First, you have an idea, a block of digital marble, which will later become something unique, like Nathan Drake, the protagonist of ‘Uncharted’, a milestone created with 30 million polygons, about 30 textures, and over 300 facial expressions. How do you breathe life into something that starts as nothing? With talent and software. The students at Animum Creativity Advanced School are overflowing with talent. As for software, anyone familiar with 3D modeling knows ZBrush or Maya. They are like the Word or PowerPoint of 3D art.
In modeling, Thorge explains, there are two branches: organic modeling and hard surface modeling. That is, first sculpting — with ZBrush, creating creatures, humans, trees… — then carving, with specialized tools like Maya or 3D Studio Max. Both are very present in the vast majority of game and movie productions. “That’s why I enjoy the beginnings of modeling a character because everything, almost everything, starts here,” emphasizes Thorge.
Many modelers started by sculpting with a keyboard and mouse, spending idle hours in Blender. Today, there are even accessibility functions for modeling with the eyes. Yes, as you read. But, to what extent has it evolved and influenced creators in their creative process? Sergio Brotons is very clear; on one hand, because they are “key tools in the production of any 3D design”; on the other, because they take their idea a step further. “ZBrush is the tool I enjoy the most, the most artistic and the one that allows me to take any digital sculpting work to the highest level. And, on the other hand, although also known for its artistic side, Maya may be the program that has influenced me the most technically. It is fundamental in production.”
Carlos Belmonte agrees and emphasizes that these tools provide control and freedom over the details and complexity of the models that just a few years ago were unimaginable. For example, Maya is key to transforming those highly detailed characters into playable models in real-time, “thanks to more technical processes like retopology and creating UVs. With these tools, we have gone from creating characters like the legendary Lara Croft, with just a few polygons, to characters like Joel and Ellie, from ‘The Last of Us’.”
Challenges and satisfactions
What comes next? More work. That is the reality, as Sergio Brotons describes it. “For me, the creation of 3D characters is based on a pre-production phase and three production phases. In pre-production, as a character artist, we first receive the concept (drawing) or image to translate into 3D. In this phase, it is crucial to spend time looking for reference images that help. In 3D production, first comes the modeling and sculpting of the entire character. If it has fabrics — pants, jacket, gloves, etc. — the first step would be to create those fabrics using Marvelous Designer software. However, it may have other types of pieces like glasses, straps, or hard surface pieces that require polygonal modeling. Finally, we take everything to ZBrush to finish the sculpting, shape, and detail of the character modeling.”
“Today, thanks to programs like Substance Painter, we can provide texturing and colors to any character, prop, weapon, or environment we want”
But this is only the first part of the challenge. Then comes a second phase of work, the retopology of the entire character, the creation of UVs, and the bake. “This more technical phase consists of transforming that sculpted character, which contains millions and millions of polygons, into an optimized mesh ready to be animated, while maintaining the same detail as the sculpting.” And finally, we reach the texturing phase. “This production phase is also very artistic and, today, thanks to programs like Substance Painter, we can provide texturing and colors to any character, prop, weapon, or environment we want”.
This balance between artistic vision and technical limitations is the tightrope on which anyone dances. “You have to optimize them to work well within the limitations of hardware and software. You also have to coordinate with other departments, like animation or VFX, and often the needs of one department can limit the others. It’s not like in the movies, where everything is pre-rendered and you have the freedom not to worry about it being real-time,” Carlos Belmonte summarizes.
“You have to have a bit of ingenuity to, without breaking the limitations, deliver a piece that exceeds quality standards”
In summary, “the challenge is always to achieve the highest possible quality with the budget available”. This is Thorge Paulsen’s law. “As a character artist, we have many restrictions in terms of polygons and textures, although increasingly fewer, so you have to be a bit ingenious to, without breaking the limitations, deliver a piece that exceeds quality standards. The greatest satisfaction, at least in my case, is seeing how players or content creators use your model to play, or even comment on it in their videos.”
“Watching everything take shape little by little fills me with excitement,” he continues. Imagine that Geppetto watching his ‘son’ Pinocchio blossom. Because this is something you can do yourself with the right training. Animum Creativity Advanced School, with 20 years of experience, has seen all types of talents, more than 18,000 students, many of whom have already made history at Disney, Rockstar, DreamWorks, and many others. Not in vain, we are talking about the award-winning best 3D animation school in the world in Spanish, according to the prestigious ranking Rookies World School — results after surveying 6,800 students from all over the world, with some 200 international judges evaluating around 67,000 projects.
Animum Creativity Advanced School, a home to grow in
To bring these ‘monsters’ to life, the school in Malaga offers comprehensive training in 3D Production, Art, and Post-production. Animum Creativity Advanced School has become a national pride; one of those unavoidable places for graduates who are looking to improve as freelancers and for those looking to shape their knowledge and, as they learn, establish a good network of contacts.
Sergio Brotons acknowledges that this formal education has a huge impact. “They help a lot in developing professionally with very solid foundations. I, fortunately, was a student 11 years ago and for a few years now, I have been combining my work at Roarty Digital with teaching at Animum whenever I can. When I started, there were very few schools where they taught you about this profession. I, fortunately, ended up doing the master’s at Animum, which gave me an incredible boost in my learning. But many people, friends, and professional colleagues learned on their own, reading the few books and trying the program that existed at that time.”
Carlos Belmonte also decided to join Animum Creativity Advanced School after a period of self-learning. “Although I had a good artistic level, technically I was lost, something that often happens when choosing this path. That’s why I decided to join Animum, since as a self-taught person, it was very difficult for me to know and learn those technical needs, which end up translating into higher quality work. However, it must also be said that in this industry there is everything, with teachers who have just graduated and who have not even worked in the industry, and they also charge a fortune to teach you almost nothing. In my experience, I have to say that Animum is one of the few that really does offer a great education in this field.”
The really good thing about this type of training is that it condenses all the information the student needs. And not only that, but each student has a mentor, who works or has recently worked in the industry, who will guide the student by providing constant feedback, and whom they can also turn to for questions or problems. With the constant evolution of industry technologies, Animum is also in a constant state of renewal and adaptation so that students do not work with outdated material,” notes Thorge Paul
