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Interview with Zachary Forcher

TimeGate Studios: Lead Artist

C: I guess we should start out with introductions: Who are you and what is your position at TG?

Z: My name is Zachary Forcher and I am the Lead Artist at TimeGate Studios.

C: What school (if any) did you go to and if not art, what was your major?

Z: I attended the Art Institute of Dallas back in the late 90s.  The school got things going, but I really had to do most of the learning on my own.

C: What got you interested in the gaming industry-the art side specifically. Have you always been interested in art, born with brush in hand, or was it something that came later?

Z: Ah.  Good question.  I, like most others, have loved video games, 3D movies, anime, Disney, comic books and all the rest of that kind of stuff since I discovered them.  But, for some reason, I never thought about getting into art as a career.  I always thought I would just be doing something with computers, but not games.  When I was young, I was also too busy with girls to worry about my future.  Then toward the end of high school I became more involved with programming.  I figured I needed programming skills if I wanted a career in computers.  A few years later I was in college wondering why I was skipping my programming classes to play on some SGI’s running Photoshop and Maya.  I finally realized, I should be doing art not programming.  Now, at that point I felt really dumb.  I had all the signs for years and didn’t realize that entertaining arts like movies and games are what truly interested me. 

C: When you sit down to draw, what do you reach for first, pencil, brush, mouse, or stylus? Which medium do you prefer?

Z: If I am sitting down to draw it will be with a pencil for sure.  Lately, I have been using Sanford Turquoise lead holders.  I like the weight of the holder and the thick leads.  But, I usually stick to animation and leave the drawing to some of my TimeGate brothers. =)

C: Is there a particular artist that you look up to or admire? A particular style?

Z: Oh boy.  Let me see.  I have tons of artist and styles that I love. I’ll name a few in no particular order.  Ian McCaig, who is one of the fantastic conceptual artists for Star Wars Episode 1&2. Joe Madureira’s comic/anime style is awesome.  Brom has wicked taste.  Mark Zug, Sotoshi Urushihara,  Frezzato, Hiroaki Samura, Adam Hughs, etc.. etc..

C: At TimeGate Studios, what are the Art Team's tools of the trade? What software is used in the creation process? Do you sketch on paper first and then transfer to the computer?

Z: We have the basic setup here at TimeGate.  The process usually starts with a few concepts.  The drawing tools are usually up to the concept artist, just as long as it is a pencil of some sort.  The artists here typically like using smoother and thicker than normal paper. So a nice Bristol board is preferred.  The concept phase sometimes includes scanning in the art and painting it in Photoshop to give a good starting point for colors and textures.  After this we will move to 3D Studio Max to create the model based off the concept.  The last big tool we us is Character Studio for adding bones and animating to our characters.  Sometimes, however, we might jump straight into 3D Studio for things like spells and special effect.  We find it easier to create a concept within the software instead of story boarding out the effect first.  Also we will use the occasional 3DS plug-in for things like more realistic fire or hair or whatever.

C: Where do you look for inspiration when creating characters and creatures? While I would hope that no real void beasts are running around, are the Kohan portraits based on real people? Can we get Naava's phone number? :)

Z: When we at TimeGate need inspiration we turn to our huge data base of reference.  For starters we have gigs worth of works from our favorite artists, digital movies of our favorite games, and even my personal collection of sprite rips.  We also have shelves of books about places, people, movies, etc.., and a huge library of video games that we can play whenever needed.  As for the portraits, many are based off actual people.  However, Tom Woods (portrait artist) is a little selfish and likes to keep the phone number for himself.

C: Could you take us through the process of creating a piece of artwork for Kohan from concept to implementation in the game?

Z: Well it’s a rather long process, but I will try and sum it up for you.  So let’s say we are going to create a void beast for Kohan.  First we start with a concept and then take that idea into 3D.  After the void beast is modeled we then paint up some texture in Photoshop and apply them to the void beast.  Now we apply bones(rig) to the textured model and use the bones to create some animations.  In Kohan all character had standard animations which were walk, melee, idle, die, and rot.  Some characters need extra animations like clerics need a cast, archers need a ranged attack, and settlers need a build.  After all the animations are complete we render the character facing 8 directions north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest.  The rendered frames of all these animation, say 400 – 500 frames, are then compiled into one big file using a special tool we made called the TimeGate Art Processor (a.k.a the TAP tool).  The TAP tool not only puts these rendered frames in a nice sequence, it also does a great job of compressing the file size and adding in the shadows which are rendered in a separate pass.  Finally, we use another tool called the TimeGate Editing Tool (a.k.a the TET tool) to tweak the frames in these files.  The artist would then go frame by frame tweaking little problems like blending player color. This is a pretty tedious process, but very necessary.  That’s it.  It usually takes one person about 2 weeks to complete a character from start to finish. 

C: The unit animation is very fluid and realistic. Are the units modeled in 3D first and then converted to sprites?

Z: That's exactly right and thanks for the complement. =)

C: What advice can you give someone who wants to become a professional gaming artist?

Z: Hmmm.  Get really good at 2D and 3D art,  problem solving skills are a must, build a huge library of reference materials, keep an open mind, have to work well with others, patience, and be ready for harsh constructive criticism.  I know what your saying, “Sheesh Zac, is that all?”  It sounds like a ton of work, but if you want it bad enough you’ll make it. Just take your art skills one day at a time and constantly compare yourself to industry works.  Learn from them.  And when you have something as good or beyond don’t hesitate to start sending out a demo.  Also, things like creating mods are a great way to get a feeling of what it takes to create a game.

C: Do you play any games other than Kohan?

Z: Oh yes.  I am a big fan of 2D fighters, shooters, and RPGs.  If you ask the guys around the office they will tell you how tired they are of hearing me talk about the next new SquareSoft games.

C: I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer some questions regarding Kohan and the work you do at TimeGate Studios.

Z: You’re very welcome and thank you.

Interview by Chimaeros - posted 6-3-02




 

 






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Dan "Chimaeros" Genovese
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