JELMER GOES WEST
A year later, his sights firmly set on a career in 3D, Jelmer knew he needed to find a school that could help him hone his craft. He left the Netherlands and headed to the Vancouver Film School to learn more about the technical side of CG production and, more importantly, to meet other artists who shared his dream.
“The best thing about VFS is that they seem to bring together highly motivated students and let them work and learn together for a year. It’s amazing to see the amount I learned just by being around people with the same interests and passion.”
VFS also gave Jelmer the chance to hear from 3D industry luminaries first hand, attending lectures by Oscar-nominated Star Wars Animation Director Rob Coleman and Oscar-winning creature/make up artist Howard Berger. “Hearing these veterans talk about their work was incredibly motivational for students,” he says.
And while leaving home to live and study in a new country was "unbelievable, painful, great, exciting and inspiring,” all at the same time, Jelmer looks back on it as an important opportunity. “I really got to know a lot about myself when I left my friends, family country, mother language and everything familiar behind. All in all I had a great time studying in Vancouver, and made a couple of great friends there.”
Learning XSI
VFS was also where Jelmer first got his hands on SOFTIMAGE|XSI, which has been his 3D package of choice ever since.
 "I had been using 3DStudio Max before I went to school and when I went to VFS I thought I would be working in Maya. When I found out that it was XSI we were going to be spending our time in, I was worried. I hadn’t heard of SOFTIMAGE|XSI before, and I was wondering if it would even be possible for me to create the imagery in XSI, that other people were creating in Maya and 3DStudio Max. Those worries proved themselves to be absurd. I found out that XSI is a great package, with a workspace and modeling tools that are far superior to any other 3D Software I’ve worked with."
With the VFS curriculum divided into 3 hour blocks of modeling, texturing, animation, lighting and rendering, Jelmer was learning about every aspect of CG Production. But it didn’t take long for him to develop a distinct preference for modeling.
"I’ll be the first to admit that my eye for movement and animation lacks compared to my eye for forms and rhythm,” he says. "I really enjoyed modeling in XSI, because it felt so natural, and so easy to pick up.”
Jelmer picked XSI up quickly, and soon became so comfortable with modeling that he was able to focus entirely on what he was creating, without hunting around for tools and buttons. Now, he says, "The only thing that dictates my speed is the model itself. Sometimes the idea in my head is a lot clearer, and sometimes it requires multiple tries for me to find the form I was looking for.”
Jelmer says that XSI is ideally suited to his edge-extrusion style of modeling.
"I love the ‘M’ tool,” he says, "especially in combination with the proportional falloff. Or just the ability to create faces in open space or in between edges. Both tools are incredibly smart and allow me to really quickly modify my geometry.”
Besides modeling, Jelmer lights and renders most of his creatures in XSI, where, he says, working with area lights and mental ray is very intuitive. "I am by no means a great lighting artist, but in XSI I so far have been able to render out my models to a presentable level, very quickly.”
And while Jelmer admits that no 3D software can do it all, he’s happy that XSI plays nicely with his other favorites, notably ZBrush.
"I have used ZBrush and XSI on all my personal projects, and I find they work great together. I can have a clean, all-quads mesh ready in XSI before I move into ZBrush. Also modifying or posing the geometry at a later stage in XSI, and re-importing it back into ZBrush has proven to not be a problem at all. Another great thing is that XSI handles large amounts of polygons so well, so I can render out the model in its highest resolution, right out of ZBrush. This is great for still renders or concept presentations.”
Frantic Films
 As Jelmer’s graduation approached, opportunity knocked again. Frantic Films had just opened a new studio in Vancouver and, better still, had landed much of the creature work for the upcoming action/adventure film Journey to the Center of the Earth. When the company contacted VFS to see if any recent graduates were available to come on board as a creature modeler, VFS recommended Jelmer, and arranged an interview with producer Jodi Vetterl. Excited by the project, and by the people he met at Frantic, Jelmer started work a month later.
He spent the following months working on creature designs, models, textures and look development.
"The studio was kind enough to provide me with an XSI license, even though their pipeline is built around 3DStudio Max. That was very helpful, because it made me feel very much at ease."
Working at Frantic, Jelmer also got a chance to work on Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, and also got some pre-viz work for Zack Snyder’s upcoming superhero epic Watchmen.
"It being my first ‘real job’," he says, "I learned loads. I was able to really get a great sense of how a creature pipeline works, and what the needs of other people, like the shader TD’s, are. I had a great time at Frantic!"
Creature Comfort
If anything, Jelmer’s early experiences in the industry only strengthened his love for creature modeling. Creature modeling, he says, comes naturally to him.
"I enjoy seeing shapes fall together and seeing a character being born from nothing more than an idea. I find modeling or sculpting a creature so much more exciting then working on a car or other hard-surface object. Seeing a creature I either designed or modeled eventually end up animated and on screen feels extremely rewarding to me.”
It’s rewarding for his clients, too. Jelmer’s keen eye, patience, and attention to detail help him produce truly memorable creatures. He describes his creative process like this:
“Depending how far a creature has been conceptualized by me or my client, I usually start by trying to shape the creature in my head and after that putting it down on paper. I spend a fair amount of time on my concept drawings because this gives me the time to get to know the creature I’m drawing. I think about things that will make a creature work. I think about how it will move, and sketch out muscles that could work in that way. I make sure the creature looks balanced, and pay attention to its gestures, interesting rhythms and a strong silhouette. Thinking about all these things ahead of time takes a lot of the stress out of the modeling phase.”
"Once the client is happy with the concept drawing, I start modeling, in XSI if possible. I always start with the head, because I know when I’ve got a head that works, the rest will follow quickly. When the polygonal mesh is finished, I unwrap it and bring it into ZBrush, where I start refining its major shapes and silhouette. Then I work my way up the subdivision levels to wrinkles and skin-texture detailing.”
 "Once all that is done, I either bring the high resolution mesh back into XSI, or export displacement maps from ZBrush and go through the process of applying them in XSI. I enjoy lighting my creatures in XSI and do this by setting up area lights for the final renders. I tend to render out a beauty pass, an ambient occlusion (or dirtmap) pass, and a specular pass. Those passes are brought together and tweaked in either Photoshop or After Effects to get the final image or sequence.”
Words of Advice for Young People
With a successful career in 3D already underway, Jelmer has a few words of advice for other aspiring artists.
“Be creative and develop your eye for good shapes and form as much as you can,’ he says, “Technical skills can be learned fairly quickly, but a creative mind and a sharp eye are things that need more time to grow.”
In addition to developing 3D software skills, Jelmer recommends that artists spend as much time as they can on traditional art forms like drawing and sculpting. He also recommends getting involved in the 3D community by posting to online forums. "It’s an excellent way to get in contact with other people and improve yourself. Lot’s of information and inspiration can be found there.”
What’s Next?
These days Jelmer is back in the Netherlands, keeping busy with freelance projects and leaving his options open.
“I try to plan as little as I can,” he says, “I just let things unfold and let the chips fall where they may. I have dedicated these years of my life to my craft and will try to grow as much as I can as an artist.”
Still, Jelmer admits that as much as he’s gotten the hang of freelance work, he sometimes misses the camaraderie of a studio environment. "The entertainment industry is filled with people with good ideas, cool projects and exciting opportunities. I hope to be working in-house somewhere again soon. I am currently talking with some studios, and things are looking promising. Let’s see what happens.”
You can see more of Jelmer’s work on his website: www.jelmerboskma.com
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CREATURE MODELING: THE JELMER BOSKMA
6-STEP PROCESS
Here’s how Jelmer Boskma goes from a concept to a great looking creature?
1. The Assignment.
The client, in this case Digital Apprentice Workshop, is looking for a very heavy Cave Troll type character to use in their animation tutorials, classes and DVD’s.
I start by thinking about the character, both creatively and technically. Then I mock up a concept image, get it approved, and start modeling.
Since this creature is going to be animated, and will require a large range of motion, its topology needs to be clean and solid. If it was merely going to be used as visual reference, I would spend less time constructing the base mesh.
2. The Model
The way I model is by edge extrusion. I start by creating just a single face and extrude my way out. I tend to start with the eyelid and work my way out to the eye sockets, the bridge of the nose bridge, the cheekbones, mouth etc. I don’t worry too much about the character looking generic at this point, because I know I will fix that later in ZBrush.
I focus on creating a clean, all-quads mesh with a topology that won’t give the rigger or setup artists too many headaches. Finishing up the topology for a creature first and not having to retopologize it later in ZBrush brings various advantages.
For example, I could hand this creature off for rigging even before I move into ZBrush. We would be able to apply the detail to the original mesh later using displacement maps, or export a new base mesh from ZBrush and apply that as a locked morph target in the rig file.
Allowing riggers and animators to start working before the model is finished can really speed up a production.
 
3. The Details
When the XSI model is approved, I unwrap it and import it into ZBrush.
 
I do a quick overall refinement pass on the entire model, and then move on to refining the head. Again, once the client is happy with the head, all the stress is gone and it’s just a matter of finishing up.
4. The Tweaks
Next, I finish the model in ZBrush and get it approved before choosing the final pose and outputting presentation renders.
5. The Lighting
Back into XSI, where I import the posed, medium resolution mesh to start building a lighting setup. For the troll I used a key light, 3 fill lights and a light under the ground to fake faking the light bouncing off the floor and up onto the troll (the bounce light is set to ignore the floor grid).
Once I am happy with the test renders of the medium-resolution model I import the high-resolution model (or displacement maps, depending on the workflow) and render out the final images.
6. The Result
The Final result after compositing and adjustments in Photoshop and After Effects.
 
That’s all there is to it!
Special thanks to Digital Apprentice Workshop who allowed us to use Jelmer’s troll model for this example. |
