CORE 4D Interviews - Vector the modelling guru

[Corebot]

J T, better known as Vector on forums is stellar freelance modeller and shining example of what passion and dedication can lead to.

Born in Italy, living in UK, freelancing from 2015, having clients like Amex under his belt and portfolio of amazing work makes us very happy to present him. As you would suspect, he loves 3D, topology stuff, art in general, but also enjoys walks in nature, has a soft spot for donuts which he sheds of in gym : )

 

 

Describe yoursefl with a single word 

 

Short  : )

 

 

How did you get into C4D and 3D in general?

 

I actually fell into the whole 3d scene by accident way back in 2014. Me and a group of friends would game online, and record our gameplay footage to make videos for youtube. I started seeing rival teams posting videos with epic intro sequences and ( unbeknown to me at the time ) motion graphics. I was in awe and started talking to the guy on their team responsible for editing and making the videos. Turned out he was a 3d artist/motion designer and he used Cinema 4D!

 

From that moment on I was sold, i started researching C4D and 3D in general and never looked back. I started doing 3D before work, after work, weekends. Every waking hour that wasn't spent sleeping or at work was spent in front of the computer, one too many evenings were spent asleep at my desk.

 

 

Which area interests you most?

 

Sub d Modelling and topology! Ever Since starting 3d almost a decade ago, modelling has always been my favourite area of 3d, i find topology fascinating and spend far too long procrastinating over what's the best way to model something and how the topology should be. I started with more hard surface stuff and slowly found my niche with toon styled characters, i'll still model the occasional car or space ship for work or for fun to test my modelling chops, but I always have the most fun designing and creating characters.

 

What other apps are you using and what for?

 

Photoshop, mostly for colour correction or to occasionally work on textures. After effects, mainly for compositing breakdown videos. Maya for character/modelling work if C4D isn't an option.

 

 

Which learning resources you used and would recommend?

 

I really never watched many tutorials whilst learning, i would occasionally watch some GSG videos, or some other channel if I wanted to know something specifically, but most of my knowledge was gathered from this forum ( formerly C4D Cafe ). I was incredibly fortunate to have members from the Community like Nigel, Cerbera, Everfresh, Igor, Vozzz, Hrvoje and many others to guide me along the way, having access to such a wealth of knowledge from industry professionals, and for free has by far had the biggest impact over the years, and to this day remains the only place on the web you can post any question/problem and almost certainly get an answer or solution.

 

Do you think talent is overrated and can be offset with a lot of hard work?

 

if you really dive into it, can you have one without the other? I think a lot of the time they go hand in hand, far too often people tell me " oh your works great, you're so talented " what they don't see are the thousands of hours spent in front of the computer screen, practicing, researching, doing things over and over again, i definitely think that  people have a natural affinity to some things, They may learn faster or find something easier than others, but you'll never truly be great  without all the time, money, sweat and tears. 

 

Your character work is stellar, what made you focus on them?

 

When i first joined the forum, Martijn ( @kingcoma ) was regularly winning the forum competitions, and blowing everyone else out of the water with his amazing characters, @everfresh was posting his cool animations, and truly I was in awe of the characters they were creating, you could say they created a monster that day, because i made it my goal to one day reach that level.

 

 

 

Your best advice for newcomers, tip or trick to pick up? 

 

Don't give up. the first time you open a 3d software package it's easy to be overwhelmed with all the buttons, interfaces and menus. Just remember, even your favourite artists had to start somewhere. Take it step by step, and most importantly have fun!

 

If you're looking into modelling, Learn about topology, edge flow, polygon density. What constitutes good and bad topology, and why it's important from the very beginning! This will go along way to helping you grow and develop your skills as a modeller, and ultimately land you that studio job you've been dreaming about.   

 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

 

Vectron Toys! it's long been a goal of mine to have my own toy company, and bring some of these character I love to life!

 

Thoughts on AI?

 

We all watched Terminator right? and every other scifi robot/ai film ever? 

In all seriousness though, i think there's definitely a case to be made about treading lightly. Ai is improving. fast. Probably too fast for us to really grasp the concept of what we started, lost in the awe of it all. With out really considering the long term implications. 

 

I can see the potential for getting so caught up in the " can we get it to do this " that we don't stop to think if we really should. in terms of it's application in art and 3d, I can see it becoming a useful tool for certain applications. Iit should stay in direct control of the artist, not replacing them. 

We can only guess what the future holds but I don't think the machines will be taking our job just yet.

 

 

 

 

Top 3 wishes for C4D

Honestly, maxon adds new stuff every year and I still use the same 3 or 4 tools I always use haha.

 

If you could send a message for Maxon, what would you say?

keep up the stellar work!

 

Message for Core4D?

Really just a big thank you to the community. Forums and spaces like this are a rarity these days, through ups and downs, name changes and all, the community lives on, and continues to be a feather in the Cinema 4d cap.

 

If people waant to contact you?

people can reach me on my website

 

https://www.vectron3d.co.uk

 

Or over on instagram

 

https://www.instagram.com/vectron3d

 

 

 

 

 

 

[VECTOR]

This was a great opportunity guy, thank you so much !

[Sikorsky]

That was a nice rad, your characters are fantastic. Love the hl2 Freeman, reminds me of when i was young gamer! Also, I'm jelaous because my talents are not what yours are and daily work drains me, but this is really inspiring. Can you please post wire shots? do you sketch your characters? 

[BoganTW]

Cool interview and really great work.

[VECTOR]

3 hours ago, Sikorsky said:

That was a nice rad, your characters are fantastic. Love the hl2 Freeman, reminds me of when i was young gamer! Also, I'm jelaous because my talents are not what yours are and daily work drains me, but this is really inspiring. Can you please post wire shots? do you sketch your characters? 

thank you man, the Half life series is often forgotten about but it’s one of my favourites! 

Its easy to feel burned out from all of this, a lot of the time for every good character that emerges, there’s a bunch that didn’t turn out good or got scrapped at the beginning stages because I hated the direction it was going.

 

character work is very much trial and error, at least for me. I’ve got a whole hard drive full of abandoned projects , or finished characters that I never released. Often times I’ll come back to some, maybe years later and I’ll be able to make it work, where as at the time for some reason I couldn’t. 
 

Most importantly try not feel discouraged. There’s always someone better out there, all you can do is maximise your skills to the best of your ability, with time and perseverance you’ll prevail. 
 

I don’t do any sketches, or really any blocking out work what so ever. I get an idea for something and just jump into it, and it unfolds from there. I’ll have a general idea of the direction I want to go in, but most of the time I really have no idea how the final character will look going into it, it sort of just develops as I go along.

 

What I end up with can look drastically different from how it started out, but that’s the fun part of the process. 
 

I can dig some more wireframes out but here’s some from my boyz n the hood and Simpson mash up of Homer as Doughboy 

 

 

[VECTOR]

2 hours ago, BoganTW said:

Cool interview and really great work.

 

Thank you man! really appreciated ! 

[PrivatePolygon]

Nice V!

[VECTOR]

1 hour ago, PrivatePolygon said:

Nice V!

Thanks man, hope you’re well 

[Crispe]

What a legend!

[VECTOR]

On 1/25/2024 at 9:46 PM, Crispe said:

What a legend!

Too kind my friend, too kind !

[Hrvoje]

Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System

 

Love the Freeman character, reminds me of being young and playinmg my favorite game

[VECTOR]

16 minutes ago, Hrvoje said:

Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System

 

Love the Freeman character, reminds me of being young and playinmg my favorite game

Aw man me too ! That automated message brings back memories! Recently placed through the black mesa remake and it brought back some fond memories! I also tried out the transit section someone made in unreal with modern graphics. My god it looks fantastic ! 
 

 

Edited May 23, 2024 by VECTOR (see edit history)