What do you do, when you find a 3D software that fits you? Find a few friends and start a new business! We talk to Carlos Folch, Blender 3D artist and co-founder of Scopia, who shares his experience about founding a new company, working and learning about 3D industry at the same time. Sit back and enjoy reading.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got into the 3D industry?
Yes! My name is Carlos Folch and I was born in 1972, in Barcelona. I began learning 3D with 3ds Max2 16 years ago, but soon I discovered Blender 3D and switched all my work and efforts to that incredible software. My first works were models and animated low poly characters for Indie games, that was really fun. Later I began working for an engineering company, doing marketing images for architecture and industrial design. Finally, in 2007, I joined two friends, Alejandro Conty - a 3D modeler and CG developer and Eduard Díaz - an artist and web developer, and we founded our first company, Scopia. Since then, we have been doing images and videos for product marketing and learning courses, models and scenarios for games and real-time applications, some heritage models for Google Earth and a lot of models for Emmanuel Puybaret, the Sweet Home 3D developer.
What kind of research process do you have?
I have some books and a lot of magazines, but actually I use the web for my research. When I'm modeling characters I like to look at some pages like Pinterest, Foro 3D, Polycount, Fineart or Devianartto find models and inspiration. Drawings and paintings are always a great source for it. For the furniture models I like to search in furniture and design pages and blogs like Architonic, Stylepark, Bellostes, Mattheo Thun, Freshome, etc. If the furniture is a specific model that already exists in the real world, I search in the manufacturer’s or distributor’s website. I like to have as many pictures and references as possible.
How do you market your products? Can you share some tips & tricks?
For me, selling of 3D models is not very different to selling any other type of product. You have to show great images of your product to the potential buyer and you have to give him information to increase his interest and gain his confidence. You must always show the best parts of your model and try to different it from the rest of the market.
I have a tip for the documentation. The product must be well documented, but I think it's a good idea to hide the big part of the documentation and let the users read it only when they want to. A lot of information can be boring and it's best to show it under a tab or in a downloadable PDF.
What do you enjoy most about working in 3D industry?
The 3D process itself! I enjoy modeling, texturing and rendering, and I also enjoy testing new techniques and keeping an eye at the Blender development.
What’s the hardest thing about being a professional 3D designer?
The lack of time. I need five lives to read half of the documentation I would like to. The worst of all are the videos, I would need twenty lives to watch them all. Let me say that I prefer reading a tutorial than seeing a video. A little and well explained tutorial is always better than an hour long video with the same info inside.
What software do you use?
I use Blender for all the 3D part, Gimp as an image editor and Inkscape for the vector work.
What are you working on next?
I'm finishing a set of models for Sweet Home 3D, mostly children furniture.
Please finish the following sentences (being as honest as you can)
My greatest inspiration ... is the real world.
I abandon some of my works because ... I have to finish something first, but I always resume my works later.
When I catch myself procrastinating, ... I change to another task.
I’m most productive when ... I'm at home at midnight while my family is asleep, I know that the night is dark and full of terrors, but for me it's peaceful too.
I take a break from my work when ... I'm with my family and friends!
Comments