When being multiskilled and hardworking pays off

Your “Circle Dining Chair” animation is stunning. How did you achieve such realistic textures?

Thank you! Well, I spent a great time on texturizing but I would say the most important thing is having a nice lighting setup in the scene to highlight the materials the best way. I also used some really good high-resolution scanned bitmaps. I almost always use surface imperfections without trying to overdo it and then for fabrics I typically use V-Ray Fur and the sheen effect.

How important is following a strict production process for you? What is your favorite stage?

My process can vary but when it comes to larger productions, I’ve found out that the workflow shown in the image is the one that works very well for me. It also helped me understand my own process. I think my favorite stages are texturing and animation and also post-production as you see it all come together.  

What skills do you think are most important in order to be a great interior animator?

I would definitely say that lighting is the most important thing to get a great result. Without good lighting, everything falls apart. Also, I’ve found that composition and timing/tempo in animation are crucial. When I started out in animation I really got a new respect for this area and it is harder than you might think.

The pre-production is important as if you have spent a great deal of time on this part it will be a huge time saver at the end and the overall process will be much better organized.

The last thing I will mention is texturizing. You can actually get away with a lot of things if lighting and materials are nicely done, this can even hide most model errors.

How do you keep motivated when a project becomes tough? 

I usually try to remember to take breaks and exercise as it is important to let go of the screen from time to time. If I get really stuck I try to pause that part and then start with something else in the project. I also tend to swap focus. For example, if I get bored or stuck in the modeling process I begin to create materials or something else. 

What role did V-Ray play in your “Fujifilm Finepix X100S” project? 

V-Ray was used for the rendering part, but in this project, my main focus was getting better at modeling and trying out Substance Painter together with V-Ray. I actually liked this workflow and would love to do this more again when it comes to product visualizations.