WIP #17 VLOG in the desert & Interview of Phoenix (3D Artist)

The creative Director, Baby_James, talks to you about Douentza Map and model integration. We hope you will appreciate !

 

 

Minimi Animation by Isaac

A big part of 3D models made by artists now need to be animated before integration in-game. And that is what Isaac is working on. His first task is to deal with the Minimi to enjoy it in the character’s hands !

 

---

We are proud to tell you that a big part of 3D models are now done or almost done. Which is why we will not show you a lot of screenshots of workflow anymore like before, but we will focus our next WIPs on in-game presentations. Sound Designers and Tech Animators are working hard to breath life into models, and we now want to show you up as many in-game contents as possible. Stay tuned !

Some clues 😉

---

Interview of 3D Artist, Phoenix

Our last interviews were received very well by the community, so today we continue showing you our talented 3D artists with Phoenix.

You can already check his work and support him by visiting his Artstation profile: Brunschot.artstation

1/ Hi Phoenix, please introduce yourself to the community!

Hello! In the community I’m called Phoenix and I’m a 3D artist working for Tactical Collective. In real life my name is Richard, 23 years of age and living in The Netherlands. Currently I’m a 4^th year student at the Netherlands Film Academy, where I’m doing the Immersive Media & VFX program, specializing in 3D art for games and VR. I like spending my spare time doing 3D obviously, powerlifting and gaming.

2/ You were one of the first artists working on the mod since the very beginning of Tactical Collective, how were you recruited and what do you think of the evolution of the studio since it started?

Yes! I joined back in July 2017. I remember wanting to spend the summer doing some cool 3D work and ended up browsing google to see if there were any cool projects happening. I don’t remember where exactly but somewhere I found an invite link to the French Foreign Legion discord server and decided to check it out. The project lead at the time, Skor, gave me all the needed information and I started working on the TRM 2000 truck. After a couple of months I was named lead 3D artist for a while, but had to give up that position to due lack of time. I think that the studio has matured very well in the past year. We have a clear structure with motivated and talented people. All the work being done is very well documented in shared documents and we have voice meetings to discuss the state and future of the mod.

 

3/ You made the TRM 2000 truck, the AT4-CS and the hexomax explosives, three beautiful pieces. What are motivations for an artist like you to produce those models?

Thank you! I have always wanted to create war-themed assets but never really got around to it, so working on this mod was a great opportunity. The assets I made were pretty much the first assets I made for realtime use, since previous work was more aimed towards VFX. I wanted to gain more experience creating assets for games and I think that working on this mod is a great way to do so.

4/ Everyone knows that modding is not a paid activity and that it takes a large part of your free time. Can you explain why artists are so involved in making free models for the gaming community?

Well for me, 3D is besides work, also a hobby I love spending time on.So I really don’t mind that it’s unpaid work, we choose to work on this voluntarily. It’s a great way to gain experience, build up a portfolio and meet cool and friendly people in the industry! There’s also quite a bit of joking happening in our discord so that makes it even more fun, we even have a chat channel for sharing pictures of goats dressed in military gear!

 

5/ What is your CV? When did you decide to become a 3D artist? And what are your professional objectives?

I started doing 3D around 4 years ago, 1 year before I signed up for the study program at the film academy. After graduating I’d love to work in a studio as an environment artist for games or virtual reality projects. Guerrilla Games (Horizon Zero Dawn, Killzone) is right around the corner of where I live, so maybe there’s an opportunity there!

 

6/ Most artists working for Tactical Collective create personal art besides working on the mod. Can you show us one of your models and talk about it?

This is one my more recent models that I created for a school project, it’s the French Nieuport 11 that was used in WW1. There’s still some pieces missing, but those will be added later. Currently I’m working on a stylized environment and I’m also working on my graduation project. More of my work can be seen at https://brunschot.artstation.com/

7/ Last words are always for the community; if you have a message for the studio, for our supporters and players, now is the time!

I want to thank all our supporters and players for their patience and interest in our mod! We strive to deliver an amazing experience and I hope you will all enjoy it to the fullest! I want to thank my fellow workers as well for providing a great environment and I appreciate all the work being done.