Interview with Harshdeep Borah

Hi could you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Harshdeep Borah, 25 years old and I’m originally from India, currently living in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve been in CG field for about 4 years. Since my early childhood, I’ve always been been drawing and painting, fantasized by comics, cartoon series, action figures and movies. I remember me being beaten up by my mom for messing up with the walls with crayons at home. My dad bought computer at my early age and since then I have been hooked to this digital world and took it seriously to pursue as my career.

What first got you started in 3D?

Right after my basic high schooling, I got into computer graphics studies. I finished 3 years Advance Diploma from Arena Multimedia back in 2000. I remember it was not a great help for me in 3d, but I learnt a lot in multimedia and graphics in general and discovered the passion for CG in me. Then after working as a generalist in CG for a while, I decided to specialise in a particular field in CG, that is 3D Modeling. So I decided to join a school in Vancouver Canada having specialised courses in 3D for Games and Movies.

You have just graduated from the Vanarts, what do you think you will do now and how would you rate the school?

I have been lucky as right after my graduation from Vanarts, I have been offered few great jobs. One to name is fulltime job offer by Electronic Arts Blackbox studios Vancouver, makers of famous titles like Need for Speed and more. Recently I have been offered another great job at Redtribe Games, one of the promising game studios here in Australia. I have joined their studio now and am happy to start here, as people here are amazing, place is great and we have some very exciting projects currently and ahead us.

I would thank Vanarts for giving me the opportunity to explore my inner self as an artist, and to push myself harder to reach for the quality I always wished for. Their life drawing classes, expert teachers within school and from Electronic Arts, were very helpful. And not to forget, my game arts class was fun and my fellow classmates have been a great inspiration and competition to me. We worked really hard and in the end produced worthy reels.

Which area of 3d do your really enjoy doing?

I have always been excited and fantasized by the detailed sketches and modeling of traditional sculptors like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, and wondered how they created a physical form out of their imagination which could express feeling in their artworks. It is that passion to explore their epics, made me more interested in 3d modeling, as analog or digital form. I have tried to do some sculpting work, and really enjoyed doing it. And professionally work as a modeler and texture artist as its very much related to that, and gives me the same independence to explore my ideas into computer as digital form. Currently I’m working as a character artist for Games industry.

I also have always been fantasized by Special effects in movies and their capabilities of bringing imaginary creatures and characters to life. Same thing with games, since I played games, I have been it that interactive world where everything is possible and there are no limitations. I love writing stories and making imaginary creatures/characters. A perfect place for me would be, either a game company where they are working harder to bring their story to life and let people be an interactive part of it, or an effects company working on another breath taking effects for a movie where people cannot differentiate cg from real. A hard working but fun to be with environment where I can evolve more of myself in a creative manner benefiting the company’s projects.

What’s the most useful thing you have learnt in 3d?

Passion, hard work and patience. You need these three things to succeed in 3d. To talk more practically, following subjects helped me a lot to unleash myself as an artist and would recommend anyone who wants to pursue 3D as a career.

Life Drawing, Anatomical Sketching, Sculpting, Sketching and painting, eye for detail, inspecting every day objects how they react to environment, inspirations from real life, keep practising every day, getting inspired from great artist around the world, talking to peers and respecting them. Making myself feel there is so much to learn and achieve. This is just the beginning, and I am blessed to be a part of this beautiful CG field and pursue it as my career.

What have been your major influences over the years?

Works of traditional artists, great cg artists around the world creating stunning artwork everyday, awesome talents I have worked with or known of, has been some of influences for me to get better in what I’m doing now. CG works in movies and games are always fascinating and inspiring. Real life I see and interact around me has been also my biggest resource for inspirations as they have so much beauty and detail in them, makes me wonder how they have been created. Its just so intimidating.

Today there are lot of new innovations that can help an artist to unleash his hidden talent. One of the software is Zbrush2. It helped me a lot to free my mind and do lot of experiments with 3d.

Another digital sculpting hardware device is Haptic Device Claytools from (www.sensable.com). Its quite innovative and you can actually feel your models physically and sculpt them. I my opinion it’s a groundbreaking innovation, which I think should be included in every Digital Sculptor’s wishlist.

What advice would you give to future wanna be modelers out there?

Today there are so many resources available for the beginners than it used to before. If they want they can utilize all those resources at its best and work hard and achieve things sooner. Commitment and patience are the biggest factors for anyone to live up his or her dreams. Working with true passion and creating your own identity or style is needed to put yourself ahead of the crowd. Also another important advice would be, never be dependant on hardware or software. Tools are there to just help you and will keep on changing, but what matters most is your artistic sense and abilities. Making your fundamentals of arts, colour theory, anatomy and composition strong.

Specially for character and creature modellers, I would advice that know human body well. Do a lot of study in anatomy. Research as much you can, draw a lot and always be curious to get more details. Work it our from bones, to muscles and then to skin. Sculpting can be a big help to just like it was to me. If you can feel the form physically, expressing it digitally wont be hard. There are few good books by great artists. Those can be big help too. And at last, practise, practise and practise is the key to be a good modeller. So yeah keep click…click…clicking :)

Where do you see yourself in a 5 years time?

In the future I would still want to work on challenging projects. I would want to see myself working into one of the best gaming or movie projects at a great working environment as a senior artist. There is so much to learn and life is so short. I have always been interested in directing my own animated short. Maybe I will start it soon. (By the way Australia is very close to New Zealand i.e. home to WETA…hehe)

What are your hobbies and daily routine?

On weekdays, I’m busy in the projects at my office. And every evening after work I take some time to relax and chat with my friends. Sometimes walk/sit beside the beach and hear mesmerizing sound of water. Try to cook some food, though I’m a bad cook. Workout at gym mostly every evening. Also I find some time after office to work on my personal models, and to name recently I’m modeling a famous historical sculpture (shh it’s a secret). Hope to show it soon.

On weekends, as I’m new in this city, exploring the city and getting used to Australian beer (which is quite bitter :P). Also trying to learn guitar from my office friend who is a game designer and lives at same place with me. And in return of that favor from him, I will be teaching him sculpting that also interests him just like myself.

Would you like to give any message to CGArena readers?

I am really impressed with the work CGARENA has done to inspire and expose all the artists through their portal and E-Zine. This would come as a big help to lot of people who have just started in CG, or to ones who have already been in it for some time. I wish all the best and hope to see it grow more in future. God bless CGArena.

Thanks a lot for the interview. I hope I answered the questions appropriately and the readers will enjoy it.

Harshdeep Borah
www.harshcg.com