BLACKSTEINN INTERVIEWS. SEMYON POZDNYAKOV

We are continuing our series of interviews with Blacksteinn artists! Today, your questions from IG and FB will be answered by Semyon Pozdnyakov, a middle artist who specializes in props. About the key differences in the work of middle and junior artists, his way to gamedev, how to grow into a middle artist - and much more! Enjoy reading :)

- How did you get into the field of CG??

- It all started way back in 2017, when I was studying at Bauman Moscow State Technical University in the second year of the faculty "Radio-electronic systems and complexes (RL1)". It was then that I bought my first 3D printer and began to slowly - mainly on the videos from YouTube - to learn 3D to print my custom parts. I modeled in SolidWorks (CAD-modeling software). That same year I joined the Student Experimental Physics Laboratory (SELF). There we designed and assembled various laboratory equipment, so we had to model and print a lot. In my third year I started taking the first orders for modeling from my groupmates. The requests were something like this: "to model the phased antenna array and check its strength".

Studying at the institute began to seem to me more and more boring, and I had a feeling that I was doing something wrong. But 3D, on the other hand, was getting more and more interesting. Then a friend sent me a link to a site where people were posting beautiful renders. That's how I found out that in addition to CAD there are more creative programs that do everything without blueprints. But I still had a little idea what they are and what I can do with them.

In my fourth year, I realized for sure that I did not want to work in my profession. I want to make a living doing something I really enjoy. After all, work takes up most of our lives, which means it has to be enjoyable.?

I decided to take a year's sabbatical and at the same time I bought a 9-month course about 3D visualization. The learning was built through 3Ds Max. And how unaccustomed I was after CAD to do everything by eye, without precise dimensions, down to hundredths of a millimeter :) And the standard units of measure in centimeters after the usual millimeters - horror :))) That is how I met polygonal modeling. At first it was a bit unusual, but then I liked this freedom of action very much. You just drag the vertexes, and the shape changes. No blueprints!

In that course there was also a module on monetization. There I learned about various freelance platforms and 3D stock markets. In fact, that's how I became a freelancer. I took orders on YouDo. It is, in fact, a bulletin board for the performer to respond to, and the customer himself chooses the person from the list of respondents. But the point is that you have to respond to the ad for a fee, and the higher the reward for completing the order, the higher the cost of the response. It was difficult at first, because I had no rating. Plus I was not particularly confident in my abilities, and to be at least sometimes selected as an executor, greatly underestimated the price of my work and minimized deadlines, because of which I had to work for 16 hours a day. But over time my rating grew, at some point I even got into the top ten performers, and orders have become much easier. In addition, I got a couple of regular customers. The tasks were always very diverse: from jewelry to dental equipment. In addition to that, I sometimes made models for 3D visualization software.

Later I came across a very useful YouTube channel, where I learned that I could also make models for games. At that time it seemed to me something unattainable, but oh-so-interesting. From those videos I learned that besides subdivision there's a lot of steps, that, apparently, you can make a LP and fill it with information from subdivision and make the model much lighter, but it will look the same cool and detailed. And that the model can be painted any way you want, but you need UV to do it. This is all obvious to me now, but at that point it was something completely new. That's how a dream came about: to work on game development someday.

I started practicing, making simple full-pipeline models, slowly getting the hang of it. Took a short course on Substance Painter. From a video from that helpful YouTube channel I learned that there are groups on social networks where people with no experience gather enthusiastically to try to create their own project. I joined one of those teams. We were making a medieval open-world RPG (not a bad run for inexperienced people), we had about 100 people, including game designers, storytellers, conceptual designers, developers, etc. And, of course, we had a huge staff turnover. I learned a lot on that project. It gave me a rough understanding of how the development process works. We were making changes to the pipeline, literally on the fly, and gathering knowledge bit by bit.

By that time I had already got out of the sabbatical, but my mind was still in it :) More and more often, instead of attending lectures, I stayed in the dormitory and made models. Cups, spoons, mugs, wooden tables and chairs - in general, everything that can be found in a typical medieval house.

- How long have you been trying to get into game development and Blacksteinn in particular?

- During my fascination with gamemodels. At that time I made the decision that I would not finish my studies at university, but it would be too dangerous to just drop out. So first I had to find a job and make sure I could make a decent living from my hobby. Before Blacksteinn, I had taken out a couple of ads, but there was no response. Then, in the middle of the night, I got a notification in a gamedev chat room on Discord that Blacksteinn was looking to hire. From there it was very quick: I applied for the job, they sent me a test, I completed it and came in for a probationary period. That's how my dream to work in game development came true.

And yes, I left university right after I successfully completed my probation.

- How did you grow up to be a middle? Are there a lot of differences between working middle and junior?

- There aren't a lot of secrets. I just did what I had to do well, and in a year and a half I was a middle artist. Yeah, so "simple" :)

Perhaps the main difference between a middle and a junior is the independence of the first. A middle must deliver quality results with minimum feedback, and ideally without any feedback at all. This is partly why the middle artist is more often trusted with more complex and interesting tasks.

- Describe your current work: what tasks do you mostly work on, what difficulties are there, and what do you like most of all?

- I'm doing some full-pipeline asset development. I mainly model props for a variety of projects. Right now in my portfolio I have 7 projects (although I can not talk about most of them). Most of all I like medieval props, because they often have a lot of space to work with ZBrush. As for difficulty, it's hard to point out anything in particular. Of course, almost every project has its own relatively unique elements of the pipeline, and at first it's not so easy to figure them out. But luckily, we have a large and diverse team in Blacksteinn, so there is always someone to consult with :)

- What project was the most interesting for you to work on? And what stage of the pipeline do you like most of all??

- As for the project, unfortunately, it is one of those about which we can not talk about yet :) I can only say that it is a game in a medieval setting.?

In general, I like all phases of the pipeline in their own way, but I do not like to stay long on one. For example, as much as I adore ZBrush, after a month of continuous brushing it starts to make me sick. And then it feels like a breath of fresh air to sit over LP or UV.

- What points in your work have you been able to hone and optimize over time?

- That's difficult :) There are a lot of smart tricks, and if I list them all, it would get too long. Well, for example, from baked without padding UV Island map I get a mask, which I throw over the maps when I grease them in Photoshop. That way I can clearly see the borders of all the shells and it becomes easier to work.

Or, if on the brushing stage I need to apply some complicated ornament on HP, I throw in ZBrush a subdivision without any subdivision applied, break it into polygroups by angle (usually enough) and then apply divides and zremesher with saving polygroups. Thus, I get a dense and uniform mesh, which I then drop into RizomUV and in one click get a mapping in these very polygroups, which I later use to apply my ornament.

- Have you ever felt frustrated? And if so, how do you fight it?

- I don't remember my hands dropping down, but there were times when I was very tired of my work and my interest in it vanished. At those moments I just let myself relax a bit, worked no more than I was supposed to and didn't hurry up too much. Usually such "mini burnouts" lasted no more than a month.

By the way, recently we wrote about how to avoid professional burnout. If you're interested, follow this link: https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7062026074100051968/

- What software do you use in your work and why?

- My main software is 3Ds Max. And why I started working in it, you can understand from the answer to the first question :) However, in 3Ds Max I work only with geometry. I do the mapping in RizomUV, I pack in RizomUV or Blender and I do the shading in Maya. In terms of modeling, I'm more than happy with 3Ds Max. Sure, there are some things it doesn't do quite as well, but I've gotten used to it. So, if you want to change the number of sections in some pipe, you have to remove the extra sections, highlight the loops and make the edges the same length. But 3Ds Max does it as ugly as possible: it will twist all the loops so that it would be easier to re-model the pipe. That's why I usually do this operation in Blender, everything works perfectly there :)

- Do you have a professional dream? What do you aspire to in your work?

- Well, it's pretty typical. I aspire to be a cool famous artist and participate in the development of equally cool famous projects :) The moment with projects is already partially realized, but there is no limit to perfection.

- Give some advice to those who aspire to be a middle in game development. What qualities and habits must you develop in yourself?

1. Desire and passion. I'm a supporter of the theory that a person can be successful only in the direction he or she really likes.?

2. Initiative. For example, when you receive the model on bake, be sure to carefully review its mapping for bugs and, if found, do not turn a blind eye to it with the words "well, that I was sent that bake, and will bake". Agree everything with the lead and correct it. This applies to all stages, not only to the shakes.

3. A bit of perfectionism. If something has to be symmetrical about the center of coordinates, it should not be displaced a couple of millimeters to the right or left. Examine the shells up close and make sure there are no vertices getting on top of each other. Carefully inspect the bakes and clean up any small imperfections in Photoshop to make sure everything is on point. And only after you're sure the stage is well done, send it in for approval. Of course, you shouldn't go overboard with perfectionism. Nothing in the world is perfect. So bring closer to the ideal what is necessary. And what is not necessary, do not do it :)

4. Critical thinking. You have to figure out and understand what you're doing and why you're doing it this way. Try not to do it at random just because you are "told so". Figure out how it works, run tests, and then you can find and propose the best ways to solve the problem. Of course, this doesn't mean you should argue with a lead on every single task :) Just like with perfectionism, balance is important here.

5. Reworks. This advice applies to beginning artists. At the beginning of your journey, I recommend occasionally increasing the length of your working day - if you have the strength and desire to do so, of course. This will compensate for the lack of experience and speed up development. The main thing is not to get too tired, so everything must be in balance. These "extra" hours are unpaid, but you need it yourself to achieve your personal goal.

6. Work in the office. I worked remotely for the first year and a half, and now I work in an office. From experience I can say that the office is more immersed in the atmosphere of game making, and the skills start getting pumped up faster.