PORTRAIT OF SEAN FRANDSEN

ARTIST Ian Spriggs Software Maya, Mudbox, V-ray and Photoshop

Ian’s day job is as a creature/character artist working at Oat Studios with Neil Blomkamp, but in his spare time he is busy creating exquisite portraits.

His approach is meticulous, ambitious and very impressive. He creates as much as possible by hand, that includes stitches, threads as well as hair curves. Like many traditional artist will tell you, it’s the imperfections that give the realism and for Ian, they are essential in his work. In fact, traditional processes as a whole are vital; “I am always in a battle with myself between being an artist and a technical artist, you need both to create anything in 3D. I think you can tell I am drawn to the artistic side and I know I need to push my technical side a little more. I try not to let the tools decide for me what I can do but make the tools work for what I need.”

After taking copious amounts of reference photos of the subject, Ian will flit between programs to get the best results he can. “Once I get an image I like I will start to pose the pre-built base mesh to it, most of the time I stray away from the photo. I block out all the geometry in Maya and then take it to Mudbox for sculpting. I will also texture in Mudbox. Then back to Maya and lighting the model in V-ray, I get the lighting right before I start adding the textures. Then one by one add the textures, getting them cleaned up as I go. After this it is just a mix of chaos, fixing everything, cleaning up the model, trying to simplify as much as I can. Once I get a render I like I will touch it up in Photoshop. Then after there is no more to clean up I consider it finished.”

By creating such detailed and traditional portraiture, Ian builds a bond with his viewer, or as he explains, “understanding people and really seeing them is what is important.”