Team Focus – ZephyrSouza Mar 15 - Tosh

"Simplicity, carried to an extreme, becomes elegance." - Jon Franklin

This week we’re sitting down with Zephyr one of our fantastic 3D Artists on Installation 01, you may not have seen her work yet, but when you do, you’ll be amazed. Now, let's get to know her a little better, onto the Q&A!

As always, who are you and what do you do here on the Installation 01 Team?

My name is ZephyrSouza and I am a 3d Artist for the Installation 01 Team.

So you’re one of the people who make all of our barrels! What would you say is the hardest part of bringing Concept Art to the realm of 3D?

Id say it is coming up with the small secondary detail that isn't included when some concept artist come up with their art. A lot of times with armor or weapons it’s not made to actually be functional. I have to come up with all the “realism” that would allow the weapon to look functional and aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

I see, so you have quite the challenge before you, staying true to the concept art but also bringing realism to the final product. To do this you must be quite skilled in the field, How long have you been doing 3D Art and are you self-taught or formally trained?

I have been modeling for about 4 or so years. It’s actually a funny story how I got into it. I met a guy and learned it to impress him, entire time he taught me everything he knows and we are still dating 4 years later. So while never being formally trained I had a lot of help along the path.

Wow that's amazing. Congratulations! So then, what made you dedicate your free time and talent to help make this project become a reality?

Thank you! I've always been a big fan of halo and always was disappointed with its lack of PC support.. I saw a reddit post in /r/halo and was immediately hooked in. I applied and over a year later i'm still here eagerly awaiting the reaction of our community when they get to play the first public build.

So you've been here quite awhile now, as a self-taught 3D Artist what's some advice or recommendations you can give to aspiring 3D Artists to break into the field and learn how to do it?

My main advice would be to start slow. Make a simple box to really learn how Uvmapping and texturing works. Find a game you really like that supports modding and start learning from the community and making your own assets. Lastly watching tutorials and seminars are immensely useful. Patience is a virtue and there is always something to learn and improve on.

That's excellent advice, the best way to learn anything is just to start doing it. Outside of working on Installation 01, what do you do with your time?

I do a lot of modding work in ArmA 3 and enjoy playing ice hockey. Although most my free time out of work is just doing more work on IO1 or my other projects, so I don't get much personal time to play other games and such.

So you're dedicated to your art and hockey, I love it. Now, I have one fundamental question for you. Can you describe what it's like to work on Installation 01 in one sentence?

A rewarding and enlightening experience.

Truer words have not been spoken. I've got but one last question for you. You mentioned earlier -like most people on our project- you are a big Halo fan; now I know you don't get much time to play it anymore, but, what is your Ultimate Halo Match?

It's hard to narrow it down but id say Halo 3, SWAT, on Hang em High (Forge).

I can't thank you enough for sitting down with me today Zephyr; It was an absolute pleasure. Sadly you won't be able to follow her work as she's gone rogue from all social media websites. You will, however, be seeing some of it here on Installation 01 in the future.

Tosh