2D and 3D concept artist Gilberto “Soren” Zaragoza talked about his approach to high-quality character design.
My name is Gilberto “Soren” Zaragoza, I’m from Jalisco, México. I’m a self taught 2D and 3D concept artist and I’ve been working as a professional for videogames, animation industry and collectibles for three and a half years.
I started as a colorist at Metacube Technology and Entertainment. Then I begun working with different departments on many different projects like graphic novels, concept art, storyboarding, matte painting, modeling and texturing for advertising and animated films for almost a year. After that I became freelancer for personal galleries and some indie games. Then I had a chance to work for Disney Publishing, Shattered Image Films, Televisa, Factor 3,Wargaming, Warner Brothers, Namco Bandaí and some other companies.
What I’ve learnt across the years I’ve been working as a conceptual character designer is:
As a conceptual character designer I need to visualise the idea. I have to think about the created universes, the background story, where he/she came from, if it is a warrior, a scientist, a primitive or an advanced race with every single detail from the general structure of his/her body to the tiny details like scars. Everything has to fit, this process goes side by side with the storytelling to give the character or a creature that extra punch that makes the client or the viewers immediately imagine the whole scenario and feel complicity. And this process involves a huge research to get a lot of textual and visual information.
I use Zbrush for most of my work. Sometimes I combine it with something else to achieve the desired results. When I started doing 3D stuff I was totally ignorant about polygons, vertex, uv’s, maps, etc. Zbrush was the perfect tool to execute my ideas without caring about all the technical difficulties I found in other 3D software.
I haven’t really been involved in animation of ready/low poly models because I’ve been working as a 3D Concept artist and digital sculptor. This year I started studying technical stuff to bring them to game engine myself.
When it comes to building materials my choice is Keyshot, as it allows me to save a lot of time. Moreover, I always try to simplify my task by using previous polypaint work in Zbrush.
I like putting emphasis on the gestures, dynamics to show the personality of the character/creature, as it is really important to imagine the design under certain circumstances. This is really fun because I have to find the balance between what works in real physics and what does not but looks so catchy so that it helps to achieve the desired results.