3D Artist of Fox’s Got Talent: Jeffrey Frias

Fox’s Got Talent! is a platform for talents to show their amazing CG artworks rendered with Fox Renderfarm. US$100 render coupon will be given to each featured artwork! The chosen entry will be shown on our Fox's Got Talent! Gallery and shared on our social media platforms. The winners will also get interview opportunities with us.

This time, we are delighted to have an interview with Jeffrey Frias, one of the winners of Fox’s Got Talent! who shared his making of the awarded artwork with us.

• Jeffrey Frias
• Germany
• Junior 3D Artist at PIXOMONDO

Centaur by Jeffrey Frias

Jeffrey Frias, graduated from PIXL VISN Media Arts Academy, is a 3D Generalist specializing in texturing, lighting, modeling and compositing. Centaur is the project he did for his student demo reel.

Now, Jeffrey is working as a Junior 3D Generalist at PIXOMONDO Stuttgart. He has participated in producing Midway, and some famous TV series such as The Mandalorian, Carnival Row and Bauhaus.

Here’s the interview between Jeffrey Frias and Fox Renderfarm.

Fox Renderfarm: Why did you enter Fox’s Got Talent? And how do you feel about winning the prize?

Jeffrey: At that time, I just got started working on my job applications and I thought, why not try and join Fox's Got Talent for free views of my stuff to the public. Of course, the prize was a fine addition nonetheless and it helps me being motivated for my personal projects, knowing I won’t have a problem with rendering later on.

Fox Renderfarm: What inspired you to come up with the idea of making the work Centaur?

Jeffrey: I wanted to show that I knew how to get proportions right and that I had a decent understanding of anatomical modeling/sculpting.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the work?

Jeffrey: The Centaur took me about a month to finish. It might have taken me way sooner than that, but during that time I went on vacation and also kept working on my other reel projects on an on-and-off basis.

Fox Renderfarm: How long did it take you to finish the work?

Jeffrey: The Centaur took me about a month to finish. It might have taken me way sooner than that, but during that time I went on vacation and also kept working on my other reel projects on an on-and-off basis.

Fox Renderfarm: You used backlighting, and there is floating dust in the air, why did you use this combination? And how did you achieve the final result?

Jeffrey: I’ve always liked adding backlighting to my projects and to make the hero objects pop out more. As for the dust, I just wanted to give the Centaur scene a bit more of some surroundings in addition to the ground.

Fox Renderfarm: The details of the work are amazing, the muscle structure and the scars on the skin deliver a savage vibe, how did you create them? Any ideas behind them?

Jeffrey: I’ve seen a lot of modeling reels and projects of graduates that had characters/creatures in them that were just way too smooth and had no details really.

That’s exactly why I tried adding as many details to my Centaur as I could. As for the muscle structure, I had set my mind from the very beginning of this project that I wanted a strong, dynamic and savage warrior Centaur. I created most of the skin details in ZBrush and then added a few really small details and the blood in Substance Painter.

Fox Renderfarm: And also the armor and the leather are pretty well-made, did you refer to any materials while making them? How did you achieve these textures?

Jeffrey: I’ve looked at a lot of images of armors and decided that I wanted to make it in a gladiator kind of style. While making this, I kept looking at other reels too, and tried finding inspirations for texture types and what else I could add.

Here I had my Centaur already positioned and blocked-out, refined and unwrapped the armor parts in Maya. Afterward, I brought it to ZBrush and added the damages.

Lastly I textured them in Substance Painter.

Fox Renderfarm: Which part of the artwork do you like the most, visually and production-wise?

Jeffrey: I don’t really have any parts of the project that I really liked the most, but if I were to choose one, it would’ve been the torso. Just because it was very fun to sculpt this with a lot of trials and errors and because I learned a lot about anatomy while I was doing it.

Fox Renderfarm: Did you meet any difficulties when creating this work? And how did you solve it?

Jeffrey: There were a few small problems here and there but nothing I couldn’t fix with a simple search or question in forums. But the thing that overall gave me a hard time, was the anatomy for the horse.

Fox Renderfarm: How long have you been in the CG industry? And how did you make the decision to step into the CG industry? Could you briefly tell us about the story of your education and career experience along your animation journey?

Jeffrey: At this time, it would be around 11 months since I started working at PIXOMONDO.

I’ve always had joy in making or drawing stuff. While I was still in high school, I didn’t really know what this job was called, so I didn’t really try and search for it, but after nearing my graduation I just happened to read a blog about it and from that moment on, I tried pursuing it.

I was quite surprised when I started my studies for VFX, because it was unlike any school experience I had. I enjoyed every lesson we had and there was never any hassle or pressure to learn for an upcoming test or quiz. No one was forcing you but you, yourself was making you want to keep learning more stuff about 3D.

Jeffrey Frias‘s artworks

Fox Renderfarm: After graduated, why did you choose to join in PIXOMONDO?

Jeffrey: When I finished my VFX school, Game of Thrones was still very popular and was a daily conversation topic for me and my friends. so when I got the chance, I tried applying to them immediately and fortunately I got the job.

Plus, a good friend of mine from the same class at the VFX school was there too.

Fox Renderfarm: What projects have you worked on in PIXOMONDO? Is there any unforgettable experience to share?

Jeffrey: Right now I’ve got "Star Wars-The Mandalorian", "Midway", "Carnival Row" and "Bauhaus" on my list.

The unforgettable experience was that my very first task was to model a really something, which had a really big part in the movie Midway.

In addition to that, who wouldn’t be happy to have had the chance of working on Star Wars right from the get go after graduation as a freshling.

Fox Renderfarm: What do you do to keep yourself inspired and improving yourself?

Jeffrey: Everytime I see something great on the internet, I just add it to my personal list of "projects to do", which keeps me motivated on making new projects even while working all day long in 3D too.

Jeffrey Frias‘s artworks

Fox Renderfarm: What do you think of Fox Renderfarm cloud rendering service? Would you share your experience with rendering with Fox Renderfarm？

Jeffrey: It’s a really efficient render farm with one of the best support I have seen.

During the time in which I had to render my stuff for my demo reel, I found myself not being able to use my school’s computers because other students were hogging all the other PC's.

And since the deadline for our reels were coming close, I managed to render out all of my things in time with Fox Renderfarm, with just a simple upload and letting it render overnight and start compositing, while the others were still trying to find renderable PC's at school.

Jeffrey Frias‘s artworks

Fox Renderfarm: Any other things you want to share with CG enthusiasts?

Jeffrey: During my time at my VFX school, I found it annoying that there were students who had also 0 experience as the rest of us who were just starting, but were so sure of themselves that they kept criticizing others and giving off tips that were not useful in any way.

My advice would be, don’t constrain your thoughts on things because other students think that is the only way or the right way. Ask your teachers who know these stuff well.