Meet the Artist: Meats Meier

#116

ae24

Hi, I want to know how do you compare Maya to Zbrush in the creative process of your models?
I am a traditional illustrator and I’ve been using maya, but never tried Zbrush and I’m curious to know what you think about it.

Maya and Zbrush are both excellent for the creative process. The differences come in the levels of technicality in creating. Maya has everything that you would need to bring something to life. Modeling tools, lights and rendering for both illustrative or very realistic images, animation, paint effects, etc. . Zbrush on the other hand doesn’t give you as much control in other areas, but at the same time, it makes it so you don’t have to worry about a lot of the time consuming things other 3d programs have like texture mapping layout, worrying about poly counts, and setting up a render is a snap. I would recommend anyone that likes art or 3d to give it a try. Just remember that it’s nothing like Maya really. Bottom line: both progs kick major butt, but for different reasons. I couldn’t live without both of them (and photoshop and After Effects and…)

Darkmatter

I was wondering, what do you think is the best way for a person in Canada to get a job in the US?

Sorry, I wish I could help you with this. I tried to get a hold of a friend that had gone through the process, but couldn’t reach him. If someone knows the answer to this question, would you mind private messaging Darkmatter? If I find anything out, I will let you know.

danielkenobi

Thanks Daniel! :slight_smile:

vvmanoj

Hi Mr Meats,
I am just doing some of your DVDs and the showreels in them are awesome! So are the DVDs
I was curious about your educational background? Do you have an art degree?

Thanks! I’m a bit embarassed to say that I don’t have much in-school education. I barely graduated high school. I always knew exactly what I wanted to be and do (well, not exactly, I knew I was to be an artist in this life, just 3d hadn’t happened yet) so my brain was focused on art and not school. I was the kid in the back not listening and drawing in his notepad. Luckily I had parents that supported me and even though they about killed me for not doing well in school, they saw how hard I was working toward my goals without school. I’m pretty much 100% self taught - meaning I really put myself through my own home schooling. I created projects that I needed to figure out how to complete and tested myself on a regular basis. I’m sure I worked as hard as my friends that were going through college - the big difference was that to other people I was just doing what I loved and having a great time “playing on the computer”. That actually was my biggest hurdle. Girlfriends and what-not always saw my work as self-indulgent. If I was working as hard at McDonalds, I would have gained more respect.

How important do you feel a related education is in the CG field?

I think an education is so very important. Schools are great at not just teaching you, but teaching you HOW TO LEARN. Of course in our field, it just comes down to your demo reel and there is no better way of creating a well rounded quality reel than school.

asparta

you had an idea about one person production, do you still follow that and working on it??
…and what made you think it worth it?

I still do have that goal, I will until I complete it. I realise it won’t be the easiest thing in the world for me to do, but I know that I can make it happen.
The reason that I think that it will be worth it is because I really enjoy being able to make my own decisions and to create my vision. In a few years, computing power will easily be strong enough for an single individual to do something like this - rendering film resolution images in the basement (real time rendering :slight_smile: ).

fabrizzzio

(BTW… I think that most people think that you’re german…)

I agree completely. I do have some German in me, I think I’m mostly Swiss although…

jtuulos

  1. Do you have experience on Maya’s Live plugin or could you recommend some match-moving program to start with?

I do have experience with Maya Live for sure. It’s what I started with - it was great because it’s manual process really makes you understand what todays auto-trackers are doing. Maya live is cool, but it just plain doesn’t compare with the current tracking and matchmoving programs. The best program in my opinion is Boujou - the latest incarnation can track nearly anything very fast. It’s amazing - but very expensive. The program I always recommend to people is SynthEyes. Wow, this prog is nearly as good and around $400 us, I think. Compare this to Boujou at $10,000 us. It’s nearly as good, I am really amazed. Tracking for the masses. <LINKEE to SynthEyes>

  1. You hinted earlier in the thread that you got a job via internet just by sending pictures to forums and spreading the word about your work. Did you have to actually search for a job or did it just come to you while you were waiting? According to what I’ve been taught one should never just wait and see if something comes ahead

Yeah, you should always be pro-active and not wait for things to happen. In my case I wasn’t creating a piece of art or animation and just waiting, I created it, put it on the internet, and then started on my next project. Every piece that I posted I just considered a little business card that was out there on the web, the worlds phone-book - available around the world 24 hours a day. Granted it was much easier to get noticed five years ago, not as much noise, not as much competition. The main thing I preach now-adays is Google placement. It will be one of the things that get you noticed. I attribute a little bit of my freelancing success to Google. I’m currently “Google Rich” - doing a search for “3d artist” like an art director might - I may be one of the first artists to come up. I’m #13 out of 7 million (2nd actual artist on the list, the rest are large 3d sites like Renderosity). The reason I’m braggin’ about this is to let you know that the more active you are around the net, your likelyhood of someone that needs to see your work actually seeing it is much higher.

maxspider3000

1- r u happy until now ? and feeling that u r reach to a good place ?

I am happy. I am smiling all the way to work, and that is through LA traffic. I am in a good place - that doesn’t mean that I don’t long for more. I haven’t even come close to being the artist that I want to be. Everything that I have done so far is just practice.

2- did u c any work 4 any Arabian artist and u like its work ?

I’ve only really seen a lot of the work that is being done in Dubai. Wow, probably the coolest things happening in the world right now - constructing an entire next generation city - <DubaiLand>

3- what do u think about CG in the arab world … i just wanna read ur opinion …

It seems to me that the Arab world is really embracing technology and 3d art. I can see it becoming a artistic force in the coming future.

4- what is the film that u hope to work on its team … or a previoues filmes ?

I came close to working on Star Wars Episode III. That probably is the only film that I wished I worked on - well, Lord of the Rings would have ruled.

5- what is the thing that u miss in CG industury ?

It’s definately the whole team experience. Even though you have to work a lot, you gain really close bonds to those that are slaving away around you. Things can be really exciting and funny if you have the right team. There is just a “buzz” with working along with so many talented people. You really get to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. A person can learn more in one year on the job that years in school.

#117

Meats,

I’m curious. :slight_smile: Has this been asked before? How did you and Alex come to know one another?
Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebecca

#118

Bijarts

Its great to see you doing a Q&A, I really admire you as an artist willing to forge your own path in 3D and as someone who is so willing to give back to the community and help out. Your Zbrush DVDs are really helpful and I appriciate your teaching style- clear and concise:) I was wondering if your future Gnomon releases will go into some of the new tools such as the displacement exporter and marker master. Of course I am sure you have checked out some of the new ZB2 tools and workflows and I would love if you could share some of your impressions (the topology brush-like modeling and interactive posing/ rigging).

Thanks!
Yes, Pixologic and I (Gnomon Workshop) plan to have a DVD out (hopefully) very close to the release date of 2.5. There is the possibility of me flying to San Francisco to meet with Ofer, the lead programmer, to learn all the behind the scenes of the tools to make sure that I can do it justice. I plan on covering all the new features completely.

Unfortunately, NDA’s prevent me from saying anything about the Zmapper and the new stuff in the next version < it kicks ass, thats all I will say :wink: >

Also, do you have a hi-res version of your Maya 7 image that I could use for my desktop wallpaper?:slight_smile:

Sure! Here is a 2000 x 1620 version. <High(ish) resolution> You may need to crop it to make it fit your desktop.

#119

Philipstraub

whats up man!

When are you gonna come and do that demo…don’t you wanna come down and enjoy the Florida sun and Hurricanes:)

Glad to see you’re doing so well…so much has happened since the ole’ GFX posting day huh…keep on rockin …

Phil! Speak of the devil! :wink:

Man, I would love to come down to do a demo. I must apologize for being so flaky lately. My life just got a lot less complicated now that I am not teaching this term. It makes me a lot less “locked down”. Also, I was always hoping that the new version of Zbrush would have been released. The new stuff is much better for video game makers, much more control over normal maps, etc. Once the new version is out I promise if you will still have me, I will come out. And if there are no hurricanes on the horizon…

You rule, Phil! Keep kicking the butt… :slight_smile:

#120

N2ChristTheKing

It’s an honor to be talking to you, thanks for doing this!

As an artist that seems to have a hyper-active imagination, have you ever run into mental blocks where you just can’t get any of those exciting ideas you mentioned? If so what do you do to overcome artistic block?

Thanks again, I really enjoy a lot of your work! YouÂ’re animations are very haunting.
[color=Lime]
Thanks a lot!

Oh, definately. Sometimes I just plain can’t get myself going. Usually it has to do with just working too much. I find that if it is possible for me to take a break (as long as there are no deadlines) it actually will increase my productivity. It only takes a few days away from the computer for me to remember what I love about what I do. Too much of a good thing sometimes, I guess. When I have a bad block, I just step away and the solution or idea will come to me when I least expect it. I find that creativity kind of comes in waves for me and I ride it when I can…
[/color]

#121

[b]no1gashuffer

[/b]Thanks! Very nice of you :slight_smile:
rogfa

Thanks for lending your time Meats. Neville Page is quoted on the Gnomon website saying he’s ready to make the transition from clay to ZBrush.

Oh, yeah! Neville sat in on some of my Zbrush classes. He instantly took to it (of course, he is one talented son-of-a…). It was so cool to see how an artist with traditional sculpting skills could jump in and make the transition so quickly. Actually, the class that he was in was really cool. We also had Kevin Hudson, the lead modeller at Sony Imageworks (another ultra talented and nice dude), and the actor Giovanni Ribisi <Giovanni> (multi-talented artist and actor).
Besides just allowing me to do some sweet name-dropping, it just goes to show how diverse the crowd is that is wanting to jump into creating and sculpting in Zbrush.

My question is, would you comment on Zbrush’s growing role in developing concept art? Could models created for concept art purposes be used in previsualation or in final shots?

Zspheres are a dream come true for conceptual artists. It is just so easy to create your basic form and then make large scale changes and your mesh is auto updated.
Models that were created for concept art can very much be used in previs, and just a little bit of clean-up to use them for final shots. Little adjustments like re-mapping UV’s and splitting a few problem areas of the created mesh. Soon Zspheres will create perfect meshes right out of the box without any tweaking. Doesn’t take much now, but I usually do take it into Maya for the final tweaking. I can just get 95% of the way there in Zbrush in 10% of the time.

#122

ESRB

I’m pretty new to 3d so I’ve never seen your work before this. I have to say you are one of the most original artists I’ve seen.
Do you ever find that your mind races with ideas and you struggle to translate them into the program quickly enough?

Thanks! yes, most definately. Lately I struggle less because the programs that I use are getting better and better. I couldn’t be more happy with the Maya 7 upgrade, it made my life so easy with the addition of things like the new render layer system and so on. Photoshop is as mature as it’s probably going to get and when the new Zbrush comes out (2.5) things should be pretty sweet. Always can get better, although. And will…

If so, how do you overcome it?

If I really force myself to, I think writing a good list and making sure everything is thought of ahead of time. This way I can prepare my path in advance, making it easy to take it step by step. Just jotting my ideas down when I think of them can really help me. I just wish that I could remember to do that in most cases.

You say you use a slew of tracking programs. What is your favourite one and are there any good free ones other than Icarus? Also, do you have any tips for tracking from bad footage because I can never get it right.[/QUOTE]

Favorite: Boujou. The one I will use: Syntheyes <SynthEyes>

Tracking from bad or low res footage is a tough tough job for sure. The key is to learn to track by hand. That way no shot is impossible because you can fill in the gaps yourself. I just like to track my own footage these days. That way I can make sure that the footage will work…or at least hope that it will.

#123

projectk

Has using a computer so much affected your eyesight at all?

I think so…I didn’t wear glasses when I started and I do now…

I think I will get that surgery to fix em up.

#124

If your eyes are generally dry be careful. Find out if they are going to have to make your lens more concaved or less. If they make your eyes more curved and your eyes are already dry, you may find that your eyes will end up VERY dry and you’ll need eye drops regularly, perhaps for the rest of your life.

This happened to me, although after 2 years I don’t find that I need the eyedrops as much as before, but I do still need them. What really sucked for me is that I found out after the surgery that I am allergic to the perservatives in the bottled eye drops so I have to use expensive indivitually rapped eye drops with no perservitives. Not the luckiet thing to happen to me thats for sure… On the bright side the surgery went great, and though my eyes have reverted a BIT and I probably need a touch up. But my eyes were really bad before and far sighted which is harder for them to correct. I think my old perscription was around 4.75. Last thing, make sure you research the various Dr’s in the area and try to find independent data on their success rates. Your eyes are rather important after all. :slight_smile:

Hope all this info helps. I figured you should get some info BACK for all the time you’ve put into giving all of us info. :slight_smile:

#125

Rebecca

I’m curious. :slight_smile: Has this been asked before? How did you and Alex come to know one another?

Great question, it actually will cap off a bit about what I’ve been saying about getting your work out there. It was no other than Leonard Teo that recommended me to Alex when he heard that he was looking to find resident artists. I met Leo years ago (2001) after posting some images on the web. He did a story on me <InsideCG march 2001 - Creating the Future: Meats Meier> and he’s helped me out on a whole bunch of occasions since then. This is a guy from Australia helping out a dude in his basement in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. It was my first introduction to the power of the internet.

It was perfect timing - I was in my first few weeks (ever) teaching in Copenhagen, Denmark when Alex just emailed me out of the blue and told me a bit about the position. Without those two weeks of teaching under my belt at the time, I never would have considered it. I also knew that when I got back to San Francisco, I would come back to no job - so it was perfect.

The Workshop is sweet, we have a little family there, it’s a home away from home.
Shout out to: Alex, Eric, Sean, David, the Dean, Edmond, Jilly (Jill Smolen and Lily Feliciano)! Thanks for all the support… :slight_smile:

We almost got Kris Costa to join our team, we almost had him if it wasn’t for that darned CafeFx snatching him up before we could get our greedy mits on him… :wink:

#126

Meats,

That’s a great story, thanks for that! It’s really interesting to hear peoples’ histories, without a format like this, people remain mostly unknown to one another. Thanks for all of your thoughts and insights! :slight_smile:

EDIT:
Another question (and my apologies if someone has already asked): do you consider yourself more of an artistic, or more of a technical person? Have these abilities developed for you in tandem, or somewhat idiosyncratically?

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebecca

#127

Darkmatter

That is great information, thanks for that! I think I have a stigmatism, I hear they can now correct that surgically.

[b]Rebecca

[/b]Do you consider yourself more of an artistic, or more of a technical person? Have these abilities developed for you in tandem, or somewhat idiosyncratically?

I consider myself more artistic than technical. The technical part came about because it was neccasary to know it in order to do my art. The more technical things that I learn about, it seems like it just widens my artistic “power”. I do admit to loving the tech parts, like knowing how to build and fix computers, etc. I would love to just be able to concentrate on the fun artistic parts, but I know that I would have to depend on other people too much if I didn’t learn as much as I could.
One led to another, pretty much. I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel for 3d artists, where the programs are stabilizing a bit so we can focus a bit more on the creative side. The future is bright for upcoming 3d artists:thumbsup:

–

It looks like my time is up, I’m heading out for the evening and won’t be able to answer any more questions. I really want to thank everyone for the warm greetings. I feel three feet taller!

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Thanks again for setting this up, Leigh!

#128

Meats,

Cool, thanks for the reply! :slight_smile: Watch that door sill on your way out :wink: ~ just kidding. :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#129

Thanks Meats! I’m glad the info helped. And an even bigger thank-you for taking so much time to answer all our questions! It was truely a pleasure. :slight_smile:

#130

I was in my first few weeks (ever) teaching in Copenhagen, Denmark

Did it happen to be at Truemax? I just started at Truemax, and you’re listed as an instructor there (haven’t actually seen you in the building yet though). I’m mostly a Maya user, but I’m currently taking the 3DSmax introductionary course to qualify for the actual education (where hopefully I will be lectured by you).

So what exactly do you teach at Truemax? As far as I know, they haven’t really incorporated ZBrush into the education yet (I hope that will change soon).

Hope to meet you there too…

#131

I just wanted to say i’m a big fan of your work, very inspirational. Devil (chrome) has been a personal favorite of mine ever since I first saw it years ago in Danny Riddell’s book.

#132

hi Mr meier, one more moment of your time, how long a time frame you say one of you images\sculptures would take you do complete? (a few week on and off?)

i dont know about you but work and sleep always get in the road.
cheer jay

#133

your work is very cool dude, i know you like a lot to use zbrush, and also i was figure out how those images plugg in your mind?, its crazy but do you feel sometimes that someone out there is telling you how to do it?. some kind of force out there? i dont know something really powerfull telling you and give it to u those crazy and beutiful images?

because i was waching ur stuff and wow dude i fell that something crazy happen to me. i was trying to do something crazy and my god is not anwsering the phone.

#134

It looks like it hasn’t been closed yet, so I will answer these extra questions :slight_smile:

Zeicon

Did it happen to be at Truemax? I just started at Truemax, and you’re listed as an instructor there (haven’t actually seen you in the building yet though). I’m mostly a Maya user, but I’m currently taking the 3DSmax introductionary course to qualify for the actual education (where hopefully I will be lectured by you).

So what exactly do you teach at Truemax? As far as I know, they haven’t really incorporated ZBrush into the education yet (I hope that will change soon).

Hi Zeicon -

I just go to Truemax about once a year (last time it was for two months). I teach Maya when I am there. I gave private lessons to Moayad on Zbrush last time, and he was really stoked on it and took to it right away, so I’m sure he will incorporate it at some point.
Hope to see you around as well!

#135

Essex
I just wanted to say i’m a big fan of your work, very inspirational. Devil (chrome) has been a personal favorite of mine ever since I first saw it years ago in Danny Riddell’s book.

Thanks! Danny’s book is a great one…I was stoked he included my work.

no1gashuffer

hi Mr meier, one more moment of your time, how long a time frame you say one of you images\sculptures would take you do complete? (a few week on and off?)

i dont know about you but work and sleep always get in the road.

cheer jay

Yeah, it really depends. Some really fast, and some at least a month (not full time, other things get in the way of course). I like to think that I am fairly efficient when building things. I can create a model very fast if I have reference, slower if I’m building and creating at the same time.
Yes, sleeping and eating are the two main things that make me mad that I have to do when I’ve got an idea that I want to finish :twisted: