3dvf

Very young initiated to traditionnal arts, in some years, Steven Stahlberg became a master in totally numerics characters creation. Today he is 42 years old, he is one of the precursors in this discipline, especially with his famous « virtual actress », which make CG artists dream about them. In 1997, he helped his friend Alain Zaugg to found Optidigit, a studio specialized in CG characters.
He makes no secret about his method : work, family, work. According to him, the essential bases not to neglect are the sharpening of his senses and the improvement of his artistic knowledge. Finally, to him, 3D is no more than a pencil added to his tool kit, which is already quite well-stocked.

3DVF : Steven, you 've been living in an artistic universe for a longtime, how did you discover CG art ?

Steven Stalhberg : By the time I started reading science fiction (-66), computers and computerized imagery were already well established ideas there, as common and every-day as death-rays and force fields and such. In the late seventies - before I’d seen any cg output or even a computer - I had the idea for a Poser-like program. So it feels like I’ve always ‘known’ CG art, I just had to wait for technology to catch up. In a sense, I’m still waiting.


3DVF : What advantage does Paint bring you comparing to 3D, and vice versa? Is it complementary for you ?

Steven Stalhberg : Yes, very much so. In 3D being good at traditional art helps you in the planning stages, helps you create better textures, helps you sculpt and shade and light better. It helps you to ‘see’, to notice things better in the real world, and to transfer them into 3D.
On the other hand, 10 years of struggling with wireframes and moving lights around and test rendering, and trying to find out how a human is constructed, has definitely helped me draw and paint more realistically, placing highlights and shadows better, drawing bodies better.

3DVF : You seem to look for the “perfect” CG avatar; finally, what is your aim ?

Steven Stalhberg : That’s hard to explain, I’m not quite sure myself. I think I want to create a charming and loveable actress that has the charisma of a Sandra Bullock or a Audrey Hepburn, the perfect beauty of a Garbo or a Naomi Campbell, the sex appeal of a Playmate of the Year... A character who doesn’t look like any one living person but is uniquely my creation, that is equally good for dramas, horror or action. This is probably still out of my reach, but I guess I’ll still keep trying...

3DVF : Did any artist or any creator inspire you to work in the sense of virtual actor ?

Steven Stalhberg : Not if you mean when I started; back in 1991 there wasn’t really even the concept of today’s virtual actor, except maybe as wild science fiction. But today yes, there are several incredible character artists who inspire me a lot, like Rene Morel for instance.

3DVF : What is your favourite modelling technique, and why ?

Steven Stalhberg : Today, it’s Subdivided Surfaces, most often starting from a polygon box. It’s the most flexible and fast method I think.

3DVF : You work a lot of on facial expressions and poses of your characters; what does this work mean?

Steven Stalhberg : I do that because I’m never happy or satisfied with the result, and the tools we have today are still very difficult and slow to work with. I guess on a new character I spend most of the total time on the expressions and getting the joint deformations right. It depends, but it can often be a matter of weeks.

3DVF : According to you, what are the essential elements to respect when you model and animate a CG character ?

Steven Stalhberg : It depends what is your goal, and what is your starting point, but a few things will usually be important :

A. Attitude - the personality of the character - and
B. Believability (in the design, modelling, texturing, animation etc).

I think A is the more important and must be decided first, but B is actually much harder to achieve. ‘Attitude’ includes the vitally important motivation - what drives the character? What does it want, need, desire? (The more it has of this, the more interesting it becomes, especially if some of its goals conflict.)

Believability doesn’t always mean 100% realism, it can also be applied to cartoony or stylized characters; compare the ‘noodle’ legs and arms and weird ‘floaty’ animation of the 30’s with the more realistic feeling of weight and movement in Disney’s characters from the 40’s.

3DVF : What do you think about the try and fall of Square Picture and its movie Final Fantasy?

Steven Stalhberg : The movie was an important milestone, on the whole very beneficial for the industry. I think the script was the first reason it failed, but the bad acting comes in a close second. The modelling and texturing and shading had nothing to do with the failure, and I think it’s a terrible shame and a waste that they closed Square before their properties, organisation and experience could be reused in another project (except maybe for Animatrix).

3DVF : How do you see CG and 3D art in 10 or 20 years?

Steven Stalhberg : Anybody who cares will be able to quickly design and create their own virtual character by simply setting a bunch of parameters. The animation will contain a lot of AI and dynamics, and can also be parameter based, and perhaps there will be compact simple input devices so the animators can do their own mocap quickly and efficiently. Voices can be synthesized realistically, virtual rock groups will be all over the place. Elvis and Marilyn will be recreated a million times and the copyrights their estates (and other celebrities) hold will be devalued. All the work I’ve done over the past decade, and will do over the next, will become a single mouseclick in the future. Sad in one way, exciting in another, because our children will invent new frontiers.



3DVF : Steven, thanks for this moment together.

Visit his website


Interview made by Olivier Perrot, 3DVF