Md. Anuz, a self taught modeling artist!

CG Today : You worked for Rhythm and Hues for a few months in 2006, moved away and came back in 2008. As a 3D modeler, what were the opportunities you were looking for and has there been a change in your aspirations or way of looking at work over the last 4 years?

Anuz : I moved out of Rhythm & Hues in 2006 because I had the opportunity to go abroad and work for a while. I also got other opportunities to explore fields such as modeling for games and full CG animation movies. It was quite an experience. I aspire to learn new things and better techniques of modeling. I don't take modeling as a career. It is more like an extension of my passion in this field.

CG Today : Even during your relatively shorter stint at Rhythm and Hues in 2006, you had the opportunity of working on some really good projects. Happy Feet won the award for the Best Animated Film of the Year and is one of my personal favorites too. How much did you enjoy working on a movie based on adorable penguins?

Anuz : Happy Feet was my first Production work at Rhythm & Hues. I got to work on some of the props and Environment models. I gained good knowledge about the production pipeline and the techniques used in our studio. The Modeling team in Los Angeles was really helpful in sharing their knowledge and they trained us to be like one of them. Yes, it was a great learning experience for me.

CG Today : At Pixion, you led the modeling team for Mahayoddha Rama. Coincidentally, Ramayana was the inspiration for many of our animation movies. How did you plan to do it differently? Tell us about your experience working on the movie.

Anuz : I had a good start at Pixion as a Character Modeling lead. As far as modeling was concerned, I tried to take the models to the next level in modeling. I personally followed a different way of modeling, by first sculpting the model in Zbrush and then retopoligized in Maya. The output was really good and the changes which came from the director were addressed immediately during the sculpting stage. This method was fairly new to our Indian studios but internationally most artists followed this method at that time.

I spent my first 3 months closely with the rendering and the lighting team to get the models right after rendering. It was fairly new for the other department to use displacement maps / Normal maps to improve the surface details. We spend most of the time experimenting to get a good look on the characters.

My personal favorite was Ravana and Hanuman, but unfortunately the project didn’t take off as well as it started. So I am still waiting to see it on the big screen.

CG Today : Mr. Anuz, your first 3D modeling job was at Veda Games, a Canadian game development studio. From graduation in commerce, to a 3D modeling job, how was the journey and how did you make it?

Anuz : I was always interested in sketching. In fact, I did not even wait for my final exams in commerce to get over and I went and signed myself for a 3 month sketching course in a fine arts institute in Chennai. I still remember the expression on my friends’ faces when I told them about the course. They were solving tax problems and studying hard for the final exams while I was fiddling with a lot of 2d software in our first computer at home. I got interested in learning 2d; so I joined an institute to learn the full multimedia package. This is when I came to know about 3d studio Max. I got stuck to this for a while and also tried lots of new software like Maya and Zbrush. To learn more, I joined an institute called MUV in Chennai. It is closed now. It’s only here that I learnt Maya but right from the start I was focused and interested only in Modeling.

The course was for 8 months and we had to learn everything about the software from modeling to final rendering. I could not complete it due to some family issues and I ended up in China for the next year with my family. Let’s say it was a business trip for my family.

I came back after a year and did my modeling demo reel in the same institute as they were kind enough to let me work there after a year without charging me. Then the Job hunt started.

After trying in lots of studios for about 3 months, I had to join a call center to support myself In 3 months after joining the call center, I joined my friends’ company in Bangalore as a graphics designer for mobiles. It was a growing market then. I was always modeling something every day. After about 3-4 months I got my first break in Veda games and it has been a great experience from then on.

I am fortunate that I joined Veda game; amazing people, learned a lot there. I wish we could have continued.

CG Today : Your profile doesn’t list a formal education in 3D modeling, animation or any other aspect, related to your current line of work. Do you think students with an appetite to learn on their own, can do away with formal education?

Anuz : I was educated in learning Maya and its tools. Modeling skills is something I developed by practicing. I absolutely believe that even without a formal education but with passion, hard/smart work and of course Internet anyone can model. It is similar to any other education; if you have passion for it nothing is going to stop you.

But I would suggest that you do a lot of networking. It is important to meet like minded people to share knowledge and ideas and to learn from them.

CG Today : I couldn’t help but notice on your blog, Artstuff, a strong feeling to share what you know and to be inspired from great work around us. How important is it to keep abreast of latest developments in a fast moving industry like animation?

Anuz : Artstuff is like a bookmark of what interests me in Internet and things which I strongly feel other people should also be aware of.

I find myself interested in sharing things with other people sometimes through my blog http://3dstuff.posterous.com/ or facebook/twitter just to keep them updated with what is happening in the industry and what is new.

Change is the only constant. So, being aware of it, keeps me ahead of the competition and improves my quality and speeds up my work.

CG Today : I honestly admit I got hooked to your portfolio blog, which had some brilliant pieces of work. My personal favorites had to be Arkong and Aghori. I understand you were designing Arkong for the digital sculptors’ contest. What is your inspiration for such tasks and how do you approach 3D modeling, starting from visualizing the final image in your mind?

Anuz : I take part in competition once in a while thinking that this is the only way to force myself to do something new. With a job and family its very difficult to do something for yourself. It puts tremendous pressure on me to finish a model in a particular time. I took part in this competition because there was enough time to complete and my family gave me their precious time and supported me to take part. Without my wife being behind me I'd have not completed the model on time for the competition and I would have lost interest half way. Thanks to her.

The best part of these competitions is doing my own concept and coming up with something totally new. It make me do a lot of research and makes me think.

When I begin a new character Initially I give a week time to myself to think about the character, ask questions and I take mental note about it. Meanwhile I also surf the internet for reference, I Invest lot of time at this stage.

Once I am about 50% clear I go ahead and start the model the rest 50% comes while working on the model, I experiment a lot on proportions, pose and accessories to make model look more appealing.

CG Today : Can you list for us some of your all time favorite animation movies and characters? What are your criteria for picking these?

Anuz :

• How to train your Dragons: Strong Characters Specially the Dragons
• Hulk: For Abomination; love that model
• Coraline: For its stop motion animation
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits within - For its realistic character almost 10 years back
• The Animatrix: One of the move movies which inspired me while I entered this field ,liked the story telling, awesome visualization and amazing characters.

CG Today : Mr. Anuz, Thank you for taking your valuable time out to share your insights with us. We wish you all the very best for future forays.

Anuz : Thank you.

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Mohammed Anuz - Modeling TD, Rhythm & Hues.

Blog:
Anuz's Art Stuff | Anuz's Blog

e-mail :
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