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3DTotal: First of all, it seems from your website that you have experience across a number of different fields. Do you find that having a broad repertoire of skills makes work easier or in fact imposes heavy demands in terms of keeping up to date with so many disciplines?

Francois: Even if I have already touched other domains, like set modelling, for a couple of years I have more or less specialised in the creation of characters, from A to Z. This specialisation allowed me to acquire a good knowledge of anatomy and facial expressions. Artistically, I do indeed have fewer things to learn now than I did 10 years ago, but the huge difference between now and then is the level of software. At the time, there were fewer things to be learned, and Softimage, 3ds Max and Photoshop were my software of choice. They were enough.

Now, apart from the major software like Maya and Photoshop, which are much more complex and powerful – and have a major update each year – there are a multitude of small and very specialised software packages. Some of these are very useful, allowing for simpler or more complex work and also allowing the artist to save a considerable amount of time.

I’m working on films and ads that require high-end models and it is for that reason that I constantly have to keep up to date with new software releases. I have to continue to learn and explore the ones I know already, and also learn new workflows and techniques. All of this takes time. It was always like that, and it will stay like that for a good while yet.

It is for this reason that I do not want to scatter. The average level of quality in CG rises each year; I prefer to work and focus mainly on what I do the best: character creation. It is a choice, a way to see things and to work.

3DTotal: How do you think Mudbox compares to ZBrush?

Francois: Being a ZBrush user, I understand why you ask me this question. Back in 1999, ZBrush was the first software capable of sculpting real time models composed of several hundreds of thousands of polygons. During its release in 2004, version 2.0 was made famous by its use on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

At first, the purpose behind the creators of Mudbox was to develop software which wouldn’t have the defects of ZBrush.

Its main criticisms being centred on its complex interface at first sight, unusual for a 3D software, as well as on its display and workflow which was not really casual. Mudbox was thus developed by using a standard OpenGL display common to a lot of 3D software, and with the navigations and sculpting shortcuts of Maya.

Mudbox 2.0 was released recently, and I obviously took time to test it. You can now sculpt smoothly several tens of millions polygons in realtime (on condition that you run XP64 or Vista64); its brush toolset was significantly improved; you can now have advanced shaders, HDR lighting and shadows. A new paint engine was also added, but it’s still basic and this one quickly shows its limits.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this new release. On one hand, I’m very impressed by the poly count and speed increase and pleased by the new brush toolset, but on the other hand, I really miss a lot of painting tools, layered PSD support, 2D texture painting, advanced texture baking, and a couple of other tools such as topology selection, posing tools of a connection between Mudbox and Maya or 3ds Max.Unlike ZBrush, Mudbox is aimed at high-end users and big production houses, as you need a recent and powerful graphic card to fully take advantage of all its possibilities, such as ambient occlusion, and to paint multiple 4K texture maps.

I hope that its evolution will go in the right direction and its technology will be partially integrated into Maya, 3ds Max, or future software. The ideal software for me would be software which would take the best of both, and which would allow me to model, sculpt, retopologise, texture, animate and render within the same application.

ZBrush is not only 3D sculpting software, but a mix between 2D, 2.5D and 3D. For example, I can create a brush directly from an image and transform this on a 3D mesh that I can sculpt, deform, and use this mesh as a 2D brush again. Its tools are very complete. I’m in love with the sculpting brushes, the projection and painting tools, and the ‘transpose’ tool that allows me to pose a character within minutes.

It serves me for a large number of reasons, whether it’s to create models for feature films, real time characters for a next-gen game, create an illustration, or retouch a bump map by showing it in relief.

I’m looking forward for the release of ZBrush 3.5, and I hope that Mudbox 2010 will be a major release with a lot of new tools, and not only bug fixes, but for now I’ll stay with ZBrush without hesitation for sculpting; it is still a major piece of my toolset, which includes Maya, Silo, Body Paint, and the very promising 3D Coat.

3DTotal: With respect to the games industry, it is very common to model the characters in ZBrush these days, if only to generate normal maps. Do you find the modelling process more restricting compared to film work or is this no longer the case?

Francois: Since the launch of the next gen consoles, modelling characters and sets has become very exciting. The modelling process is the same. I could even say that it offers more freedom. The fact that the high definition model is not being used means we can work without caring about the number of polygons because all the details will be baked onto textures. The main problem in the process is the extraction and the retouching of normal maps. Normal maps are not as standardised at all, and may differ a lot from one 3D application to another, or to a game engine. What raises most of the problems is the way seams are managed between UV islands.

The second problem for me is that there is still no 3D paint which allows retouching of normal maps. The only software which allows it is made within the framework of university research and I hope that it will soon be integrated into software such as Body Paint or 3D Brush.

The third problem is that to compensate for the distortions which appear on normal maps due to the low number of polygons of the real-time models which are used to extract maps, there is sometimes a lot of retouching work needed in Photoshop. I’ve worked recently as a freelance character modeller on a game based on the Unreal Engine 3. I sculpted all the characters in ZBrush 3.1, and used ZMapper (which is one of the most versatile and powerful normal map extraction tools) to extract the normal maps.

Because I did not know the exact parameters that the Unreal Engine used, I could not reproduce them in ZMapper, and nor did I have access to the game engine. Regrettably, I could not verify if these maps worked.

Creating and working with normal maps is a recent development, and unfortunately the existing software has not yet been adapted to be able to work without any problems.

3DTotal: What would you say is your forte and why?

Francois: Well, I focused on character modelling, and I don’t have any regrets. To sculpt characters is an artistic challenge, because it asks for a good knowledge of anatomy (even if it is about cartoon characters) and it’s also a good way to express emotions. I like spending my time creating a character or an illustration, finding the best pose, shape, expression, mood, and paying attention to the smallest detail that can make my model believable. It is something that often demands a lot of patience, and a great sense of observation.

3DTotal: You have outlined some of the challenges inherent in character modelling and the various skills necessary for creating good models, but which characters by other artists rate amongst your favourites, and why?

Francois: There are many talented artists

around. I’m in love with Rick ‘Monstermaker’ Baker’s fantastic work,Jeremy Engleman’s painterly ZBrush renderings, Sebastien Legrain’s technical and artistic skills, Damien Canderle and oDDity, a very talented Mudbox artist. Each of them possesses something more which makes them unique.

3dTotal: Of all the sectors of the CG industry you have worked in, what have been your favourite areas?

Francois: So far, I’ve enjoyed working on animated features. Generally they leave us much more time to make quality work. It’s something that matters to me, even if a rather short production time can be rewarding by urging me to find shortcuts and means finishing the work in time

3DTotal: Have you ever rigged and animated any of your own characters at all?

Francois: I’m a poor animator. I can’t even animate simple things. Previously, when I worked on an illustration, I spent some time rigging and skinning the characters I worked on. It was something which took time and as a result I now pose with ZBrush and its ‘Transpose Master’.

A few years ago, I worked on some hi-res characters for ‘L’ile Noyée’ (Sunken Island), for a French games company. They sent me a couple of designs and a basic skeleton, and I had to deliver completed characters, ready to be animated and rendered. This work was the only occasion I had to fully skin and rig a character.

3DTotal: Which artists inspire you?

Francois: Many artists inspired me. I love classical and 18th Century sculptors, modern ones like Rodin and Jacques le Nantec, artists like Claire Wendling and Brom. I also spend a lot of time browsing the traditional clay sculpture forums of ZBrush and Mudbox.

3DTotal: You mention Rodin, but how do you think some of these classical and traditional artists would find modern software such as ZBrush?

Francois: I would not like to speak for them. I sincerely believe that certain artists would be enthusiastic (at least, I hope so) – others not. I practice sculpture from time to time, and the physical, organic and tactile sensation that you have when you feel the sculpture under the fingers is still missing. But on the other hand, these sculpting applications give you a fantastic freedom. The freedom to work symmetrically, or not; the freedom to ‘undo’ the last actions; the freedom to work at your own rhythm without worrying about the topology of your mesh, or without being afraid that your sculpture can break or collapse; the freedom to work with powerful and versatile tools with almost an unlimited amount of polygons.

At the very least, I think their work would have been different. The possibilities offered by software such as ZBrush, Mudbox or 3D Coat allow the artist to rid themselves of constraints and to go much more further into detail, or create fantastic sculptures.