Interview with Hansol Lee

I wanted to depict a scene of a humanoid character in a suit flying through a city. Since the character was suit-based, I first modeled the human body. Then, I used ZBrush to build the armor forms onto the body, following the shape and proportions of the human figure. After organizing the model through retopology, I completed the modeling in Maya. I then worked on rigging and UVs, followed by texturing in Mari. After conducting render tests in Maya, I worked on the animation and, after rendering, composited the shots in Nuke and After Effects.

In summary, the overall process was Modeling > Retopology > Detail Modeling > Rigging > UV > Texturing > Animation > Compositing.

As is probably the case for everyone, I think the direction and scale of a project often end up changing from the original storyboard. At first, I planned to show the character flying into the city from outside and then flying between the buildings. However, due to issues with the footage, I changed the scene so that the character jumps from a building instead. Because of this, I think it is most important to make a plan that stays within what is realistically achievable from the beginning. Also, as the production period gets longer, you can really start to lose motivation. So don't give up, and remember that perseverance is important for overcoming those difficult moments.

What I regret most is not being able to attend the workshop together with the people who started in the same class as me. Working alone, I found myself less conscious of whether I was on the right track or whether I was working quickly enough. If I had worked alongside my classmates, I think we would have motivated each other to work faster. Working alone probably made me a little more lazy than I should have been. I hope everyone can build friendships not only with their classmates, but also with people who work during the same hours, so that you can support and motivate each other.

The workshop was a valuable part of the program that helped me complete a portfolio piece with the goal of finding a job after coming up to Seoul. Since I live outside Seoul, it was the only place I went to every day after finishing the academy's regular course, and it was somewhere I really needed to be because I was able to make steady progress on my work there. I don't know why, but whenever I worked at home, I could never seem to make much progress. As the workshop period was coming to an end, I became more anxious to finish my portfolio, so I went there every day and worked until late. I don't think I would have been able to complete my portfolio without the workshop.

Every day, I could see everyone working hard with the goal of completing their projects and getting hired. Seeing them work motivated me not to give up and helped me finish my own work as well. I would like to sincerely thank all the instructors who looked after us every day and patiently answered all of our questions whenever we needed help!