Artist Spotlight: Darkseal

Artist Name:
Darkseal

Artist Gallery

1) What brought you into 3D artwork?

I always thought it was the pinnacle between art and technology. I love both, why not do both! If only I knew how hard it was going to be….

2) How did you choose your nickname or alias?

It’s kinda funny… I wanted to buy a dot com to host my galleries so I started to seek out what I could get. Everything I typed in that I had thought of was taken, everything! Dark this, dark that…. I had a lot of different types of names I had thought of but nothing was available. One of the “suggestions” was available and I rationalized that it was “close enough”. Thus, Darkseal was born. Yeah, less funny than I thought.

3) How long have you been creating your 3D artwork/content?

I tried to get started in 1999, when I bought my (own) first PC. I loaded up the software I purchased and could NOT figure out the interface. I was so frustrated. I started looking for other softwares that might be a bit easier… I found Poser 4. I bought the “pro pack” (for a TON of money) only to realize that it was just an “extension” and not the full software. So I bought the poser 4 software after…. I only really used it as figure reference at that time for 2d drawing and anatomy proportion reference. It wouldn’t be until 2005 that I took my 3d to the next level with my purchase of Maya.

4) Where do you draw your inspirations from?

I get inspired from other artists as most might say. Whether it’s movies, animation, still pics, 2d, 3d, photography….

5) what are the specs of your render/development machine?

It’s a pretty hefty laptop. 32GB ram for rendering, i7, nvidia 2gb card. It’s not really mine…it’s the banks at the moment!

6) what is your favorite work you’ve created?

Does anyone really have a favorite image of their own work? Not sure… I guess right now it would be the ones I attach. The one with clothing is v4 with some clothing painted on. I was practicing my 2d skills. The nude one is Candy, rendered in Zbrush, posed in poser. It's my desktop background right now, 16x9...

7) Out of all the various art mediums why 3D?

My main issue with my work is that I have a real hard time drawing anything the same, twice. When I thought I might get into comics I tried to draw characters and found I really can’t represent the same figure a bunch of times over and over. But, if I make a 3d character once I can render over and over again. Problem solved! I never did do a comic…

8) What are your plans for the future?

Plans??!? Oh, um…. Make more content? I dunno. The work I’m doing right now, making content for the 3d community is my full time job. I work for myself. So I am always trying to develop the “next great thing” for the stores on the web. It does get harder and harder. I don’t do they typical “20 poses for your ++ pack morphs”, though maybe I should. I don’t try to do the same things that I see in the stores, and I try not to repeat myself too much in “similar” content.

9) who are your favorite artists other than yourself?

H.R. Giger is a big one. Love it. Anything from “Heavy Metal” (the comics) was inspiring when I was young. Other than that… everything I add to my favorite artist list on sites I guess. Too many to names, too many to remember. Basically if I like their style I see them as gods of the industry and medium.

10) If someone reading this wants to start creating their own artwork what words of advice would you give them?

Practice practice practice! I should take my own advice….

11) When developing your pose & animation sets, what's been your most influential source for ideas?

I rarely DO pose and animation sets… I should do more. If YOU have some advice for me in this area I’d like to hear them!

12) Any hints on what your next project is going to include?

I have not decided on what that’s going to be at this time. I have a few things in the works. “Candy”, as new weight mapped figure for poser, just got released. She took some time, I’ll tell you that. I might take a break from figures for a week or 2… but I have “Manga Man” still in the works. He’s another weighted figure that poser 2014 sr2.2 seem to like to “break”. Cr2 corruption issues, fixing them… has drained the life from me. I was working on him months and months before Candy. I might go ahead and finish him up… or might go back to the “wish list” thread I’ve made and pull ideas submitted to me by the community to find the “next great item”!

13) Do you have a job outside of 3D or do you consider this your full time occupation?

This is my 100% full time job.

14) With all the recent advancements in 3D technology what excites you the most? What do you dread the most?

Dread? Upgrading… The cost of upgrading to stay ahead is crazy sometimes. I think that will slow down in the coming years (like 2-3)
Excites? Everything else!!!!!!