Interview with Matt Roussel by Sebastien Florand

Interview with Matthieu Roussel

By Sebastien Florand

Artist: Matt Roussel

Fluffy: Hello Matt, and thank you for giving us a bit of your time for this interview. Can you introduce yourself for those who don't know you?

Matt: Hello, you are welcome and it is a real pleasure! I was born in Marseille (south of France) in 1964. I am married and father of three. I currently live in the south of France, near Toulouse. I am a freelance illustrator since 1991 and I bought my first computer in 1997, if I remember well.

Fluffy: What has been your learning path? Did you go to Art School?

Matt: I tried to pass my bachelor several times during my regular process, but I finally got it as a free candidate.. my first experience as a freelance no doubt.. I so much loved that freedom feeling, that I've never worked in a company, except for a three month internship in a HongKong ad agency.

I passed the Dupérré Art School selections and I left the school one year and a half later, not liking at all to study physics and french in an Art School…Then I passed the selections for the ENSAD (Parisian Art Deco School), and stayed five years there. I paid close attention, not to obtain my degree for various reasons, but most of all because I somehow omitted being in class too often… but I met my wife there, which was well worth all these years!

Fluffy: What is your activity field? Illustration everywhere it's used; Advertisement, Press, Editing, Packaging and so on… What is your creative process? Those who know you know that you create your illustrations quite fast. How fast do you produce such images most of the time?

Matt: I always start with a sketch, because laying out properly an image is the basis of every illustration. Based on that sketch, I begin modeling. In general, I spend one or two days on an illustration, but it

Interview with Matthieu Roussel

By Sebastien Florand

really depends of course on the complexity of the image to create. The maximum amount of time I've spent on one image must have been one big week…I am cursed with impatience, and I get bored with a subject pretty quickly, but it also has its advantages, I can work on more things.

Fluffy: Your images are usually all based on a concept, an idea. Where do you look for inspiration? Matt: I always try, whenever I create an image, to tell a story. I'm looking for the first look of the spectator, things need to be grasped quickly. Then, if he takes the time to look further, he will discover details, things that add spices to the creation.

I loved, when I was a kid, spending hours looking at illustrated books or Art history books full of paintings reproductions. I dived into them looking for details.. Gérome Bosch fascinated me, his compositions were so rich, for example…

Fluffy: You come from the Strata3D world, what brought you to C4D when you switched over, and what are the aspects you like/dislike compared to before?

Matt: First of all, I would say that C4D has really easy modeling tools, enhancing a lot compared to Strata in that area. Where I needed to use ruse combining Strata tools, C4D allows to just stretch out shapes starting from a cube, like using playdoh.. a real pleasure.

Although, I loved the idea of the Strats "shapes". With C4D, if you want to model a sperate object within your scene, you need to open a new document, model then copy and paste in your old scene.. Strata3D allows for some kind of Photoshop layers. We model a lot of objects in separate "rooms" and we just drop them in the main scene (little bit like an isolation mode). If we want to modify a particular object, then we just have to go back in its "room" and the modifications will be directly applied to the main scene. I usually complemented Strata with Wings3D for modeling, to counter its weaknesses.

It had a good side, though, you had to use ingenuity to find a way to model something when you didn't have the proper tools, it almost allowed for more creativity on using tools and allowed you to be a bit less dependent on others or on specific tools, but C4D's ease of use allows for more creativity on producing the image, not using the tools. Well, everything is up to getting used to the process and the C4D's

Interview with Matthieu Roussel

By Sebastien Florand

hierarchy system taught me to be a bit more organized and strict when creating my scene.

Fluffy: Your lightings are fantastic. A few tips for our readers? Do you adapt your lighting for each composition, driving a specific mood?

Matt: Fantastic is a big word. I try to stay as simple as possible whenever I light a scene.. two or three lights using raytracing are usually enough. Although, C4D made me discover HDRI image lighting and now the computer makes it all itself, I just need to orient properly the HDRI image and setup properly my radiosity parameters. I downloaded on the frenchcinema4d forum one of Essania's HDRI lighting sets (thanks to him), which works wonderfully. The render times are satisfying compared to Strata, even though I know that Strata is making some big efforts in that area. I love the softness of the HDRI lighting, and I use it more and more.

Fluffy: MAXON recently put one of your images in their gallery, can you tell us more about that image? Why did they select it do you think?

Matt: I made that image coming back from a trip in London where I met some friends. I always loved England. I remember when I was a kid I stuck a map of that country on my room's wall, outlining every province. Well, coming back from that trip, I wanted to describe my impressions of London, so I created that image for myself and my portfolio. I took my time, what I don't have usually when working on a professional illustration, and it is my first HDRI and radiosity based image. I think MAXON selected it because they lack "toon" images in their gallery and that this one brings an international mood. London is a big city.

Fluffy: How do you manage to recreate that "clay" style?

Matt: Maybe because I did a lot of real sculpting/modeling before.. I made them using plaster, then I took a picture of them and did some post-work in Photoshop later on to create the illustration.

Fluffy: You also paint on canvas and sculpture. Does it bring a lot to your virtual work?

Interview with Matthieu Roussel

By Sebastien Florand

know how to draw properly to model in 3D properly. It is a basis I lean on, once the technical aspect of the computer and 3D mastered. I remember a sculpture teacher at the Art Deco Art School who opened my eyes on the complexity of the volume of a mouth. I had never realized it is way more than a line on a face.

Fluffy: How long have you been painting/sculpting?

Matt: I started 9 years ago. I paint on bois only, wood planks. I paint houses mostly because they don’t move.

Fluffy: Some of your creations look like they were done using ink pen, how did you do that?

Matt: Yes, I wanted to break down the 3D look most productions have, and give it a bit more personality. If I take my image "the Faun", here is how I proceed: I render a grayscale image, that I rework in Photoshop to apply colors using alpha maps so my pens don't bleed all over the character. I add shading and do some shadow touch up using a multiply mode layer to colorize everything. Then, I render a Cell pass (Cell render effect) to grab the outline of my shapes, and I use a custom brush in Photoshop that reproduces a pen/pencil look, that I apply following the volume of my objects, as if I was drawing on them. I usually add a pass with a wrinkled paper texture, to add more interest and texture over my objects.

Fluffy: What do you like in the work of others? What inspires you? me to reach and pass my limits, thinking that I will do that one day… even though it sometimes seem impossible at the moment.

I like to tell myself that I can do anything, even if it is an illusion, it gives me energy. I'm inspired by positive images, but I often see "nightmarish" images in the 3D pool. I don't like them, but it's a question of taste I guess. I am optimistic by nature, and the dark side of these images makes me uneasy. I prefer to keep my phobias for myself and show only the joy, humor and happy side of life…

Fluffy: Once again, thanks a lot for taking some of your time for this interview. One last word for our readers to conclude?

Matt: 3D Art is a job hungry for time. We can always do better, add some more details here and there, find a better angle, a better lighting.. but I think that we need to know how to indulge ourselves (and also others) and tell that the next illustration will be better than the last one. In any case, this philosophy of work helps me getting better and stay motivated. Be happy with your own work, yes, but keeping a cool head, reaching for a better image each time, again and again…The computer is a fantastic tool, but it stays a tool, the important part is you.

Matthieu's artworks can be seen at www.mattroussel.com, and he can be reached either on the Bubbles4D or Frenchcinema4D forums.