Buckle up for an extraordinary tale of transformation that defies conventional career paths! Meet Jeet, a dynamic 3D character artist who turned a bold leap of faith into a remarkable success story. Breaking free from the traditional trajectory of an IT engineer, he embarked on a courageous year-long journey of self-discovery and skill-building that would ultimately reshape his professional landscape. His recent triumph—securing third place in the 2024 Reallusion's Realistic Character Design Awards, which is sponsored by Fox Renderfarm, a leading cloud rendering services provider and render farm in the industry. This is definitely a testament to his extraordinary talent and unwavering determination.
From the vibrant city of Rajkot, India, Jeet has not only mastered the intricate art of 3D character design but has also swiftly climbed the professional ladder, transitioning from a budding artist to a team leader and now a remote technical artist at a prestigious London-based company. His story is a compelling narrative of how passion, dedication, and a willingness to take risks can transform seemingly impossible dreams into stunning digital realities.
Fox Renderfarm: Hi, Jeet Shah! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Jeet Shah: Hi there! My name is Jeet and I'm a 3D Character Artist. I am from Rajkot, India. I was a self-taught 3D artist. By degree, I am an IT Engineer with a bachelor's degree. After graduation, I took a year off to give myself a chance to teach myself and see if I could make a career in the 3D industry. After a year I created my first demo reel link here, which landed me a job in my city at a VR and Mobile Game company, where I started as a 3D Artist and got promoted to a team leader handling a team of artists and programmers. Currently, I work as a Remote Technical Artist at a London-based Company. From there I realized that along with my love for character art, I was also fond of dealing with the technical challenges that come with it. That's where I found I could be a Tech Artist and be doing both at the same time.
Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning third place in the 2024 Reallusion's Realistic Character Design Awards! Could you give us a brief introduction to your artwork, 'Hard Battle'?
Hard Battle © George REDreev
Jeet Shah: Thank you! The artwork 'Hard Battle' was a 3D rendition of a 2D concept art made by George RedReev. I was surfing through Artstation a couple of years back and I came across this amazing concept. I saved it to my future projects folder hoping to tackle it someday. It's basically a frozen moment in time for a warrior after a valiant and fatal fight with a deadly dragon.
Fox Renderfarm: How did you narrow down the broad theme to create the specific concept of your work? What was the initial spark that inspired this piece?
Jeet Shah: To be honest, this concept just clicked with me. I wasn't confused between any other artworks and was sure from the beginning that I wanted to go ahead with this one. The concept art even being a single image was able to tell the whole story. You could feel the thoughts and feelings the warrior was going through seeing this moment frozen in time. And that was the most appealing part of the project for me. And that is what kept me interested and motivated till the end to achieve the same sense of storytelling when I make it in 3D.
Fox Renderfarm: How did your creative process for your work differ from your other works? Do you have a standard working pipeline?
© Jeet Shah
Jeet Shah: Yes the workflow for this project was certainly different this time. I have been keeping an eye on the Reallusion's suite of tools for a long time and have been waiting for a chance to have a crack at them. Luckily I got to know about the competition from Pablo Muñoz Gómez's announcement video on YouTube. And decided that this was the perfect opportunity to learn and implement. Usually when it comes to characters I usually start with a rough 3D sketch in Zbrush to get the overall proportions and physicality of the character nailed first in 3D. Then get on with retopology or wrapping an existing base mesh on top.
But this time round I had a free 3 months trial from Reallusion's Character Creator 4 for the contest. I was assuming CC4 to be just like a character customizer you see in games with a few predefined sliders. But I was entirely wrong, CC4 is much more than that. It is only limited by the artist's creativity. Not only is it fast but very flexible in character development providing easy and non-destructive iterations. I got the primary shapes and proportions defined in CC4 and then brought it to Zbrush for finer-level tweaks. And then brought it back to CC4 for some more slider adjustments. I did this roundtrip a couple of times until my character fit in the mood board I prepared on my own using some AI concepts I did with Leonardo.ai to help me explore a realistic style as the original concept was a bit stylized.
WIP Images:
© Jeet Shah
You can view my whole WIP image stash here. Or see my WIP discussion thread here.
Fox Renderfarm: Were there any specific artistic choices or animation techniques that you experimented with or innovated for this project?
Jeet Shah: This was probably the first time I decided to pose my character so dramatically and it was indeed difficult to get the clothing to sit well with the legs folded and the body resting on it. The concept demanded the character to be in such a pose to convey the sense of victory that came after a life-threatening effort. And I knew I was going to make a montage of images to go along with my entry. You can view it here. For that, I decided that I'll rig the loose end of the gambeson and the hair with joints to pose them for different renders. Here's what the hair rig looks like.
Fox Renderfarm: What were some of the biggest challenges you encountered during the production of your work and how did you overcome them?
© Jeet Shah
Jeet Shah: Like I said getting the clothing to work well with the character's extreme pose was something I struggled with. Having a proper skirt rig and refining it with corrective blend shapes for each pose made it possible to get the clothing working in all the different renders. And time, is always a challenge juggling between full-time work and personal artwork is always a challenge for all artists. But taking one day at a time and even if you can work for 30 mins you should still do it as those 30 mins add up at the end when you're racing against the clock to submit it on time.
© Jeet Shah
Fox Renderfarm: How did you choreograph the character's dynamic, aggressive movements and expressions to convey the emotional intensity of the scene?
Jeet Shah: I spent almost 2-3 days just exploring the different poses I want to put the character in. Searching for references online, shooting myself in a certain pose, and then replicating the same on the character, doing some test renders to see how they look in the final result. Tweaked the lighting on all renders to get the maximum out of it.
Fox Renderfarm: Were there any alternative versions or compositions you considered before settling on this final piece?
Final Render © Jeet Shah
Jeet Shah: I did experiment with a few different poses and camera angles, but ended up going with the original composition that the concept had and kept the other renders as a supplementary to the main piece. I've put all the renders on Artstation. I didn't have enough time to experiment more with compositions so I ended up submitting all the poses I came up with and there weren't any that I discarded.
Fox Renderfarm: Are there specific elements or artists that consistently inspire your work? How do these influences manifest in your creations?
Jeet Shah: There's a lot actually. I'm a fan of realism and stylized realism in terms of art style in general. While there's no particular list of artists that I would mention, my main source of inspiration is Artstation's homepage. It's like a newspaper, and I like to read/see it every day. After years of using the platform, it knows what to show on my feed.
Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any other exciting ongoing projects or personal creative works that you're particularly passionate about right now? Or is there a previous project you worked on that you're especially proud of and would like to share more about?
The Lion King © Jeet Shah
Jeet Shah: There's nothing in the oven right now, but maybe in 2025 I'll be working on my next piece. The one that I'm currently proud to share apart from 'Hard Battle' would be 'The Lion King' project. I spent almost a year working on it. Partly because it was a project that I wanted to do to try out my hand at learning Houdini, in grooming especially. I usually work with Maya and Xgen for Hair and Fur but I wanted to try Houdini so I looked for a concept that had a lot of hair and fur work required.
The Lion King © Jeet Shah
Fox Renderfarm: Have you had any experience with Fox Renderfarm's cloud rendering services in the past? If you have, what is your opinion of our cloud rendering offerings?
Jeet Shah: Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to use Fox Renderfarm yet. And I'm sincerely grateful for getting the render points as a prize for the Reallusion Character Creator Contest 2024. I will surely be using these points in rendering something for my personal artwork in the future. And will definitely be sharing it with you guys once I do.
Fox Renderfarm: Lastly, what advice or tips would you give to aspiring 3D artists who are looking to participate in similar contests?
Jeet Shah: This wasn't my first time participating in an art contest. I've taken part in several Artstation contests before and haven't been awarded any position before this one. But I don't regret even a bit that I didn't get any position or prizes in any of those. In fact these contests are the reasons why I have a few personal artworks in my portfolio. And I've been seeing my artwork level up each time I participate in such contests which wouldn't be the case if I didn't take part at all. These two things are way too important for me to ignore. So my advice would be to take part in as many contests as you can even if you are sure you aren't as good as others taking part. Eventually, you will be. And along the way, you'll see your progress.
Thanks again to Jeet Shah for accepting our interview! Wishing new heights in you and your team's professional career!!
Jeet Shah's social media:
- ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/jeet
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Jeet3D
- Link to Work in Progress images: WIP Discussion Thread
