Steven Stahlberg

Steven Stahlberg was born in Australia, grew up in Sweden, and later moved to Asia. After attending art school Steven worked as a freelance illustrator for 10 years, primarily in Hong Kong. He turned to computer graphics and spent the next 11 years working in Hong Kong, Texas and Kuala Lumpur.

Steven was the first CG artist in the world to have a virtual character sponsored by Elite, a major modeling agency. The character was presented to the world in a press conference 1999 and later appeared on ABC, BBC, and many other TV channels, as well as in dozens of magazines and newspapers including New York Times, Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal. In April 1999, he and his family moved to Austin, Texas after he accepted a job with Digital Anvil.

Microsoft bought DA when it started becoming obvious their schedule wasn't working, I got to stay as a part-timer but MS has a rule: only 1 year part-time allowed.

In 2002, he returned to Asia and joined Optidigit, where he was once employed, but returned as a partner in the company. There he works developing his own ideas, has written three screenplays, and a dozen treatments. Steven has also worked on projects for Disney, Electronic Arts, and an animated feature about Anne Frank.

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Q. How did you get involved in the 3D computer graphics industry?
A. It was always in the back of my mind, I'm not sure where or how I first understood what CG was, or could be. I was probably very young, got it from some science fiction book or other. I jumped at my chance, when I finally had enough money, and I found a reseller who could sell me what I wanted (quite late in my career, I was 33). I got so excited at his demo my heart was pounding. This was 1993, and the stuff was SGI and very expensive. But I didn't care- I was in heaven. A little while later I got my first job in a small local studio.

Q. How do you use Maya software?
A. I use it for R&D, for finished 3D illustrations, sometimes for animations, for making tutorials, and for reference for my 2D work. Lately, I mostly use the polygonal modeling tools, and the mental ray renderer. Although until just very recently, I did use the standard Maya renderer for all rendering.

I haven't used any other application since I started (Alias Animator, then Power Animator). Except for about a year or so at Digital Anvil, when I was forced to use 3d Max. There simply has been no need for me to learn anything else so far. Maya can handle everything I want to do, as good as or better than the others. Though I do plan to learn Zbrush soon, the way it integrates with Maya in a pipeline is very cool.

Q. What projects have you worked on?
A. The highlights would be, first, a virtual character "Webbie Tookay". At Digital Anvil: intro for Quake 3 Arena, Starlancer, Freelancer. For Electronic Arts: Def Jam Vendetta, NFSU 1. For Disney: Rapunzel. For Dario Picciau: Anne Frank the animated movie.

Q. What makes this industry so exciting to you?
A. Two things, mainly: first, the potential I see in the future of being empowered to do almost anything the mind can conceive. And secondly - it's by nature close to the movie business, which is something I've always loved. Movies, TV, any kind of visual storytelling? I just can't get enough of it.

Q. Where do you see the industry going in the next five years?
A. The problem areas - skin, hair, mocap, clothes, joint deformation, rigging etc - it will all become easier, quicker and more intuitive. Normal and Displacement mapping will replace the need to model very detailed surfaces, and perhaps even to have to be so careful about the topology-and animating these maps will become easy. All CG movies and TV series will increasingly be aimed at more mature markets. The internet will continue to become more and more useful and important for people studying or working with CG - for instance: online schools, training and workshops will proliferate. Other countries outside of North America will continue to play catch-up and grow their capabilities, at first producing low-grade stuff but gradually increasing in quality (though that may be more like a 10-15 years prognosis). GPU's will help hardware rendering (or a mix of hard and soft) replace pure software rendering. Games will catch up more and more to movie quality.

Q. What words of wisdom do you have for anyone interested in entering the world of 3D computer graphics?
A. If you're aiming to be a modeler or lighter or texture guy, you really should think about getting as much of a traditional art education as you can? either before, during or after your CG studies. It is, in my opinion, more important to study the basics of creating images, than how to operate the actual tools. And it takes longer to master. So don't put it off for too long.

For animators, the challenge is to learn as much as possible about acting, 2D animation, composition, traditional film making such as editing; for TD's, programmers, particle animators etc, maybe not so important but it's always helpful.

And I highly recommend you join CGTalk.com - the biggest CG forum in the world. Any questions you might have are almost sure to be answered there.