The recently passed Halloween, filled with ghosts and monsters, also saw the announcement of the winners of the CGandWE 3D Challenge, which revolved around this theme. The competition showcased the excellent creativity of supernatural wizards. Among the many entries, Flinky.3D's work secured second place. Congratulations! What made Flinky.3D's work stand out? Through a conversation with Fox Renderfarm and Flinky.3D, let's delve into the creative process of this talented artist.
As a leading cloud rendering service provider and render farm, Fox Renderfarm, along with other sponsors including Lucas Falcao, 550+ Stylized Brushes - ZenShaders, Flip Fluids, and UV Pack Master 3 - Glukoz, offered rich prizes for this competition. Now, let's begin the conversation with Flinky.3D!
"Halloween" 3D Challenge © CGandWE
Fox Renderfarm: Hi Flinky.3D! Thank you so much for accepting our interview! Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Flinky.3D: Hi everyone, I'm Mohammed Kaif from India, aka Flinky.3d online, a 3D artist and student with a passion for creating stylized and realistic 3D art.
Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning in the October "Halloween" CGandWE Challenge! How do you feel about it?
Flinky.3D: It feels awesome! Community challenges are really fun and encourage me to learn new every time!
Fox Renderfarm: Where did you draw inspiration from for "The Hollowfiend"?
Flinky.3D: "The Hollowfiend" — a terrifying pumpkin-headed creature that emerges from haunted woods on Halloween night to scare anyone who dares to wander too deep into its territory.
Flinky.3D: Groot it is! The inspiration was Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy" and of course I wanted it to be Halloween themed so I searched up for some references of Halloween themed environments to get the mood of the scene right. I imagined Groot but with a pumpkin shaped head. "The Hollowfiend" is meant to feel eerie and look joyful at the same time.
Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy" © Marvel
Reference
Fox Renderfarm: What software did you use and was there anything different you did for this project?
Flinky.3D: I used Zbrush, Marmoset Toolbag 5, Substance 3D Painter and Photoshop. The monster wears some worn cloth around his hip. It was something different I tried in Marvelous Designer I was satisfied with how it turned out.
© Flinky.3D
Fox Renderfarm: Before diving into the visual design, how much planning and pre-production work do you typically do?
Flinky.3D: Since this was a creative challenge, I went with the flow and didn't worry about how it would turn out. It was just all about playing around and finding what worked for me. I kept moving, removing, and adding things until I was satisfied with the results.
Fox Renderfarm: Could you please tell us about your pipeline for this work? And how long did it take you?
Flinky.3D: I started by sculpting the models in ZBrush, quickly doing UVs and remeshing with ZRemesher, all within ZBrush. After that, I exported the model to Substance 3D Painter. For a stylized look, I used baked lighting filters and generators to achieve the effect I wanted. The scene was rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 5, chosen for its speed, ease of use, and user-friendly UI. I added several lights with varying brightness to get the desired result. However, the color balance was off, so I exported the final render to Photoshop to make some color corrections. I spent 5 hours a day for 6 days on this.
© Flinky.3D
Fox Renderfarm: Can you describe the technical process you used to create the assets within the scene?
Flinky.3D: The main asset was created in ZBrush. For the monster, which is the focal point of the scene, I began by blocking out the forms using basic shapes like spheres, cubes, and capsules. I then used Dynamesh to create a dense mesh for sculpting the finer details. Once the details were in place, I used ZRemesher for better topology, subdivided the mesh serval times, and projected the details back using the Project History function. The character was posed using the Gizmo tool. For texturing, I used Substance Painter, using filters, generators, and some manual painting over the model to achieve the stylized look. For the pumpkins and trees, I used the same workflow. Finally, I used Quixel Bridge assets for the falling leaves, grass and ground.
© Flinky.3D
Fox Renderfarm: Are there any challenges that you encountered during the process of creation?
Flinky.3D: Achieving the right lighting and finding the perfect balance in composition to draw the viewer’s eye to the monster was challenging.
Fox Renderfarm: Are there any moments you enjoyed during the creation process?
Flinky.3D: Yep, I enjoyed everything about it and the most fun part was texturing!
Fox Renderfarm: Can you describe the most rewarding project you’ve worked on so far?
Flinky.3D: I recently participated in the creature contest by AbeLeal3D on YouTube, and my project made it to the Top 30 out of 100 participants! This has been the most rewarding piece of work I've done so far. It was reviewed by experienced professionals and received a solid score of 274/300. It really highlights how far I've come after three years of dedication and hard work. You can check it out on my Instagram in the post titled "Rad Fly." This project "The Hollowfiend" is also one of my rewarding works.
Rad Fly © Flinky.3D
Fox Renderfarm: Any artists or works that have influenced your style and approach?
Flinky.3D: There's no specific artist. Whenever I open ArtStation or Instagram, the stunning works from different artists inspire me a lot! I like to explore different styles and methods.
Fox Renderfarm: Have you tried Fox Renderfarm’s services before? If so, how do you feel about Fox Renderfarm’s cloud rendering services?
Flinky.3D: Yep, I used your render farm serval times. It's really fast and works great and, moreover, it supports multiple software!
Fox Renderfarm: Do you have any ongoing projects or future plans at the moment?
Flinky.3D: I’m just a few months away from graduating, and I’m focused on becoming a character artist for games. Right now, I’m working on a game-ready character to include in my portfolio.
Flinky.3D’s Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/flinky
Flinky.3D’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flinky.3d/
CGandWE’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cgandwe/
