Mashru: So far I have worked on “Frontlines: Fuel of War” and one unannounced title.

Mashru: Well I started out as a character texture artist at Kaos. I was responsible for texturing the majority of character heads in the Frontlines game including all the cut-scene characters heads. Additionally, I also textured some of the soldier bodies, a few weapons and environment assets. Recently, I started doing high poly modeling and sculpting as well. Needless to say, from time to time all artists produce some non-art work that the studio may require.

Mashru: Production time per character can be somewhere between 3 to 5 weeks depending on the complexity of the character. This time is allotted for modeling and texturing only. Rigging usually takes another week or so and then the character is ready to export to the engine. Animation is shared for most of the characters and is done at a different phase of production.

Mashru: I am still learning to create "life-like" characters and for the past couple of years I have been dedicating a lot of time to get better. I still have anatomical faults in my characters and I try to avoid these in every new model that I do. One thing I do a lot is observe people around me and just observe everything carefully. That’s the best way to learn how something really looks. Aside from that, I also get help from books on figurative drawing and anatomy in general.

I try to have a variety of work in my portfolio mainly because I get bored with one subject or style too easily. However, I do make an attempt to make the characters follow the laws of physics and anatomy in general. Even when creating a cartoony character I believe that it is important to follow the basic form and structure accurately. I have heard many people say that making stylized/cartoony characters is easy. I think it is equally difficult if not more. If you study anatomy you will find out that the different planes of the face are universal and getting those planes accurate is enough to make a face look pleasant. This holds true for almost all characters whether they are realistic or stylized.

Mashru: I did some freelance work on product design, web designing and some non-commercial game mod work when I was studying here in NY. Before I came to USA, I did several logo animations and architectural visualization work for TV commercials in Bangladesh.

Mashru: The primary impression of the computer was less than I expected, mostly because I used to watch too many science fiction movies. I thought computers would be something with more power and have the ability to do more. I’ve always felt that computers are too slow to do what I want them to do. This feeling disappears temporarily when I upgrade my PC every 3-4 years, but the general feeling of technology lagging behind is always there. My first ever 3D application was Specular Infini-D, around 1994.

Mashru: It was fun to be able to see something three dimensional inside a computer as if there was another reality inside it. Seeing the possibilities of what can be made inside the 3D world was interesting. Playing with the lights, materials and particle systems was almost like a game. At that time I did not have much access to the Internet and there were not any resources to help me learn the tool. Everything I did was more or less trial and error to figure out how the tool is working. Teaching yourself any software for the first time can be very frustrating also, but I never gave up easily and always kept at it. Every time I figured out a problem it was quite satisfying and encouraged me to move on to something more difficult. I am trying hard to remember the first thing I ever made -- but it is probably best that I don't

Mashru: I am privileged more in the sense that I grew up among artists who appreciated art and supported me to follow the same path, but not in the wealth or money sense. My father went abroad to study but could not complete it due to lack of tuition fees. He initially went abroad with a certain percentage of his money as a scholarship that he ended up spending on the computer and software before he returned to Bangladesh. He ended up using them for his design work. Luckily it was a good decision to spend the money that way because at that time there was no one else competing with him with such tools at their disposal.

Photoshop was the first software that I ever used (it did have undo as far as I can remember). Some of the earliest games I played were on Mac, such as “Prince of Persia” and “Marathon” (from Bungie). So overall it was a great experience.

Mashru: We had most of the Adobe line of tools, which I had pretty much a good understanding of before coming to SVA. The 3D tools I used before SVA was Infini-D, Strata Studio Pro and 3ds Max. It was definitely helpful to have known a lot of the basics of 3D. I never got to use Maya until I started studying there. Some of my teachers David Halbstein and Daniel Williams amongst others helped me quite a lot with learning Maya. I was also learning pretty fast because I had access to a number of different online resources, CGTALK to name one of them. I also got to see artwork from other talented artists that made me realize how far I had to go and how much more there is to learn.

Mashru: My current selection of tools include Maya, Mudbox, Topogun, xNormal, Photoshop, Zbrush and UnrealEngine3.

Mashru: I used Max for more than 5 years, then switched to Maya when I came to SVA and have been using it for around 5 years. I got into Mudbox beta a little less than two years ago and have been using it since.

Mashru: For sculpting cloth I look at a number of references, the first is observing people in the streets or subway, the second is looking at a mirror and third is photo reference. Some of the best photo references for cloth and fabric can be found at online shopping sites. There is a science to the way cloth folds and different types of cloth fold differently. The key is in observation as always.

Mashru: All of the models here are for my personal portfolio, nothing commercial. Most of these characters are done as a particular exercise. Every one of them is different from each other, intentionally. For the Arnold caricature, I was trying to create a successful stylized 3D caricature. The challenge on this Arnold character was getting a good likeness, smooth curved surface quality and of course, pushing the humor factor in the model.

Mashru: The time I spend on a model really varies quite a lot. In most cases, I just stop working on something when I think I am tweaking too much and just going back and forth. Nothing is ever really "finished". If I had to settle on a time, I would say something like King Pin's head would take around 3-5 days. Sometimes I can get to the quality of what might take five days in one day depending how much I like the character.

Mashru: I spend quite a good amount of time creating a solid base mesh for the model and in general planning out the model. The next stage is sculpting. For my personal work, I tend to go about leisurely in the sculpting stage until I get a satisfactory result. I do have to force a stop at some point because there is no end when trying to reach perfection.

Mashru: Some features I would like to see:

• 64bit Enabled

• Copy and Paste objects with all levels and layers

• Transform/Scale/Rotate on face selection

• Clone stamping brush

• Brush preset manager with ability to create custom brushes with certain spacing, alpha etc. (something like Photoshop)

Mashru: There is no one source of influence for my work. For inspiration I look at a lot of concept art, movie characters and people in the street. Lot of my inspiration from character modeling in general comes from traditional sculptures and paintings.

Mashru: I definitely would love the opportunity to work on a feature film.

Mashru: I would have gotten a PC sooner or later because I never liked Macs anyways . On a serious note, I don’t know what I would be doing. It is like trying to imagine what I would be doing if I was born in a different place at a different time. I hope I would still be doing something useful.

Mashru: At the moment I am working on several figurative sculpture-type models. I don’t have anything to show yet. I am also finishing the Iblis model and creating a real-time version of her, and will be posting these on my site soon.

Mashru: Thank you AREA for the interview!