Fox Renderfarm is delighted to have an interview with self-taught 3D artist Purbo Alam, also known as 'Purbosky', who won first place in the "Medicine" 3D competition organised by CGandWE, a 3D challenge platform. As a leading cloud rendering service provider and render farm in the CG industry, Fox Renderfarm has been a long-time partner of CGandWE's 3D competition and witnessed various amazing artworks.
Let's get started with the interview and learn more about Purbosky and his award-winning work.
Fox Renderfarm: Hi Purbosky! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Purbosky: Hello, thank you too for the interview! My name is Purbo Alam, going with 'Purbosky' for most of my online accounts. I'm from Indonesia, my background is actually in engineering so most of art and 3D knowledge are learned by self-taught route.
Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 1st place in the July "Medicine" CGandWe Challenge! How do you feel about it?
Purbosky: Thank you! Honestly, I was rather surprised (but happy) to get first place, as I saw some other entries that I thought had better chance for it. My gratitude to the judges who have nominated my entry, it was an honor, and also to CGandWE for hosting the challenge.
Fox Renderfarm: Where did you draw inspiration from for the Medicube submission?
Purbosky: Basically I was trying to make something within my forte, which is hard surface modeling and science fiction. The idea is based on a first aid kit, so I chose to make a somewhat futuristic one. I think I was almost at mid-month when I started it as I have 'wasted' time finding ideas that I like, so I went with cylindrical vials for the content instead of a bunch of first aid stuffs like bandages, etc. which should be simpler and faster to make.
Medicube by purbosky
Fox Renderfarm: What software did you use and was there anything different you did for this project?
Purbosky: I used Blender for modeling, and rendering using Cycles. Here I tried to give the focal object (box) more functions rather than simply being a container. I could get away with just giving it a red cross marking and a simple lock, but instead I tried to incorporate more stuffs such as keypad and small screen/monitor, a red cross button to further emphasized its function (explained later), also made the inside of the box and its contents.
Fox Renderfarm: Before diving into the visual design, how much planning and pre-production work do you typically do?
Purbosky: I usually do not make detailed plan or sketch beforehand, instead going directly into 3D software and start blocking out with primitives once I have a concept that I am happy with. However, the brainstorming part can be the one that took quite some time. I prefer to spend time to get satisfying ideas rather than rushing to start modeling, though this could feels like a waste of time since I did not do any 'real' work. On most cases, finding good ideas and blocking out can go hand in hand, back and forth, before I go further into more detailed work.
For a work that only focus on certain objects or product visualization like the Medicube, I might go straight into some detailing on the object once I get satisfying overall shapes and deal with the environment and lighting later on. For a scene that involved whole detailed environment, I do blockout of focal objects and some environments especially if the scene require spesific condition like dramatic lighting, and will only proceed with detailing once I am sure that my idea can be well represented in blockout phase, and also either the idea was really as good as what I had in mind.
Fox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you?
Purbosky: Contrary with the 'default' process of using Blender, which is deleting the default cube, I instead started with it. Initially, my idea is just a closed box, so I used the whole cube and then started cutting some shapes and holes using boolean objects. When I was around halfway through in detailing the box, I thought of making another box with open lid so as the scene will not be too boring.
Started from there, I divided the cube in half, deleted the bottom half. The one serves as bottom half is now just a linked duplicate of the top and rotated. I used different boolean cutters/objects on some parts for the top and bottom half so it gave variety on the details and did not look like exact copy.
Half of cube without boolean details/cuts
For scene that contains several copies of the same objects, it is a good idea to put the object into collection, and use instances of that collection in the camera view instead of the original object/collection. The first reason, using instances can reduce memory usage. Second, if the copied object is in a certain position and rotation, editing the original unrotated object/collection would be far easier than doing so in the rotated ones.
Here I put the top and bottom half of the box each in separate collections, then used instances of that collection for the one on the left with an open lid. I can then freely rotate and position those instances, while editing was done easily in the original collection without worrying about global/local axes orientation.
The cylinders/vials were made and positioned using the same method. There is an exception, however, for those embedded vials inside the left box. The downside of using instances is that modifiers cannot be assigned to them. Though there is a workaround by parenting them to other objects and assigning the modifiers to the parent object, I felt that it would be too complicated for this. Since the four embedded vials are only shown on the top part, I just simply duplicated the cylinders (w/o cuts) and assigned array modifiers to them, instead of using instances.
Embedded vials
Important to note that I used (mostly) boolean workflow, which leaves n-gons behind and results in non subdivision-ready meshes. Also, I did not use any non-default add-ons, just using vanilla modeling methods.
Medicube topology
Though boolean route is faster, there is a drawback. Hard surface modeling usually features beveled edges on objects, which is naturally not available in this workflow. To alleviate this problem, I used Bevel node on the material shader for the box/container.
Bevel node setup
For the vial holder inside the left box, the beveled edges is achieved using Bevel modifier. Note that I added the bevel modifier after a boolean modifier that formed the holes. This method actually would not always work and really depends on the topology of the model. Thankfully, the resulting geometry was rather simple, so it worked well here.
Vial holder
I only had around 2.5~3 weeks when starting the work. The entire modeling phase took the most time, as this was more of product visualisation, around 1.5~2 weeks, while the rest was for simple environment & lighting work and post-pro.
Fox Renderfarm: Can you describe the technical process you used to create the illuminated vials within the scene?
Purbosky: The vial is comprised of 4 objects (from outer to inner part): outer cylinder casing, inner glass wall, glass helix, and another smaller helix form with emissive material. The cut/opening on the outer cylinder is from boolean object, and the helix parts are created using a simple Screw modifier.
By the way, the helix form is inspired by the virus container in the Resident Evil movie. Initially wanted to give a green or blue color to it, but might be mistaken with a virus, and red might looked like blood, so eventually went with orange one, taking references on Vitamin C products in yellow/orange tone. The small scattered glows on the vial content was added later in post-pro.
Vial structure
Fox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges that you encountered during the process of creation?
Purbosky: It was actually more into relation with the theme rather than technical challenge, namely the positioning of the red cross symbol/element. Sounded simple and insignificant, but it was actually a key element (and an easy way) so that the container could be considered having medicinal purposes. I did not account too much this factor during detailing of the box, thinking I could just place them somewhere later, and the resulting design only left available space in the sides or in asymmetrical positions. Placing it in the current position as a symbol would result in the cross got split when the lid is open.
The idea then, was to feature it not just as a marking, but as a button, so it will retain its whole form as a 'plus' sign. When pressed, the user will be prompted to input code/number to open the box at the small orange screen on the front (or to perform other operations like checking temperature, number of vials, etc.). Once valid input is registered, the button will sink below (see the box on the left) and the lid will open. This way it will also add function to the box itself rather than just being a 'decoration'.
Fox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process?
Purbosky: The detailing of the box, without a doubt. I always enjoyed slicing and cutting a base shape with boolean objects and adding details here and there, 'upgrading' a somewhat simple shape into an interesting detailed one. Some things to be considered while doing such a task would be to make sure not to add too many or too less details, then scatter them proportionately so that it will be more pleasing to the eyes (with big-medium-small distribution), while not neglecting or hindering its function.
Fox Renderfarm: Can you describe the most rewarding project you’ve worked on so far?
Purbosky: I'd say there are a few, but to pick the most recent ones there's this isometric scene with 'atompunk' theme that I made for a weekly challenge in pwnisher's (Clint Jones) server and had the honor of selected as one of the winners. I loved isometric scene, also making something with lots of details, which happily both could be represented in the entry. It was also a perfect example of having a good idea/concept on the start, so you would only have to (mostly) deal with the detailing and finishing for the rest of the time. There were times when I could not find a satisfying idea even when it was already near the deadline and ended up with nothing, or other times when the quality of the result was somewhat questionable or disappointing due to not having a solid concept but still forcing myself to make something.
Atompunk isometric scene
Fox Renderfarm: Any artists or works that have influenced your style and approach?
Purbosky: There are actually a lot, so kind of hard to even pick just some, but here they are.
I'm always fascinated with works with lots of details, and I also love spaceship/starship. Ansel Hsiao is a great artist who had both of it in his works. He featured hard-modeled geometry for the details on his spaceship designs instead of relying solely on textures or normal maps, which is a work style that I loved to do myself. It had always been a joy to admiring all the tiny details on his masterpieces!
Work of Ansel Hsiao
Rasmus Poulsen (technouveau) is another master of detailed spaceship design to be admired of. In addition to having interesting shapes and details on his designs, he also masterfully incorporated amazing texturing, not to mention great camera and lighting works that really helps to bring the ship's design and animation to life.
Work of Rasmus Poulsen / technouveau
Fox Renderfarm: Have you tried Fox Renderfarm’s services before? If so, how do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services?
Purbosky: Recently I tried a small render as a test and it did give a result of a much faster render time (excluding processing time). Honestly, I did not read many tutorials about using the render farm services first and mostly just tried to explore the console to do some tasks and managed to get the rendering worked. Though encountered some errors, I could eventually resolve them myself. Could benefit from some improvements in certain areas, but overall it was a good service. Will definitely use it again as I have accumulated a good amount of coupons from contests.
Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any ongoing projects or future plans at the moment?
Purbosky: I had always been busy with and enjoyed creating 3D sci-fi assets, mostly for sale in marketplaces, and wanted to add and expand more. Aside from financial reasons, it was also a joy to see people using the stuffs that I created. A render might only lasted around for some time and enjoyed only in its original form, but an asset could last even longer, used over and over, and be crafted in numerous creative ways.
As for other plans for the future, I had the idea of creating short sci-fi animation. For even further future, there had always been a desire to make a game, preferably an isometric and exploring themed one. Making a story incorporating 3D renders is also a viable alternative that I might explore. All of these are none other as being inspired by many great artists, so keep creating, keep inspiring and keep being inspired!
Purbosky’s Social Media:
- instagram.com/purbo_art
- artstation.com/purbosky
