Jose A. Perez

Freelance Modeler & Texture Artist

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Lux: Have you customized your modo (UI, Scripts, Macro)?

JP: On occasion I've played with my own UI configs, but I find myself coming back to the defaults, they work quite well. Especially the new 201 configs. As for scripts and Macro's, I find there is already such a good community out there supplying us with various good options to use.

Lux: How has modo affected your production schedules?

JP: It has made my workflow more efficient, therefore improving the speed at which I'm pushing out geometry. I'm always on time or early on my deliveries, but modo gives me a comfort zone, and level of interest to do more with my geometry in less time.

Lux: What other advantages does modo provide?

JP: I always favored the classic 4/pane views for modeling, occasionally jumping into full screen for operations. modo's workplane is really impressive because I found myself modeling in one view most of the time (perspective). It may not seem huge at first, but staying in the same viewport and just changing tools, really shaves time off of your modeling sessions. With 201, mesh painting/tacking on geometry and texture painting has become more integrated. Also very useful is baking on occlusion maps and all sorts of texture channels driven by the new shader tree.

Lux: Was there anything about modo that surprised you?

JP: YES, how easy it was to adapt and work into my daily work. Also how much better it gets with every new release. It is so much Bang for your Buck.

"The trick is finding the right combination of geometry to texturing ratio."

-Jose A. Perez

Lux: Your work has an incredible amount of detail. Do you have specific techniques or tricks you might share with us to manage such a huge dataset?

JP: Thank you :) All jobs/objects are different but I tend to approach my models as a 2D composition of sorts. Background Layer (Main object/mesh shape), Middle Layer (identifiable medium sized stuff), Foreground layer (high-res Nurnies on surface).

This gives me flexibility to res-up or down any of the sections depending on camera shot proximity. So the idea is to cover the lower res geometry with complex textures, giving the illusion of more than is actually there. The medium and higher res “nurnies” help sell this effect by only revealing certain areas of the low res textured cages. In turn the medium to higher res geometry require smaller textures or procedurals, and just more of diffuse, spec, & bump tweaks to sell the whole thing. This is just one example of a technique I tend to use on sci-fi objects/meshes.

Real-world meshes require a different approach. But in the end my idea is to get enough in there to sell the shot. Too much is overkill, and too little is not enough. The trick is finding the right combination of geometry to texturing ratio. Of course good texture painting/mapping skills always help.

Lux: Great CG is all about details. You seem to have a knack for getting all the little “nurnies” into a mesh. Any secrets? Or is that all brute force labor?

JP: I wish I had the magic answer to that question. Truth be told it's mostly brute force. That being said, modo makes populating that geometry a whole lot easier with its constraints and ability to tack on geometry to surfaces or points.

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