3D Renders of Bears, Cubs, and Chubs: (BaraGamer Interview with Aki)

Today we’re interviewing 3D model artist Aki, whose works include video game inspired 3D renderings of Bears.  So if you want a little insight on where you go about creating thick chubby men, check out the interview below!

Aki’s Videogame Inspired Bear Art

Tell us about yourself: My name is Aki, was born in Poland, and I’m currently employed part time at a couple of places as a graphic designer/photographer.

I have always been interested in art, Japanese culture and video games, as a form of escapism from the drab reality in my country. However, much to my disappointment, practically no game had ever had a “big” protagonist, such as myself, that I could identify with.

That fact, combined with some of my talents, has lead to my adventure with digital art, and creating my own characters and stories. Currently I’ve been working with Poser and Photoshop, amongst others, for eight years.

What tips do you have for beginner at 3D modelling?
The easiest way for people wanting to create character-centered artwork is Poser from SmithMicro, or DAZ Studio, which is freeware in the basic version. It requires no 3D modelling knowledge to use the basic functions, and it also manages to teach the basics of working with 3D software. So if someone would like to continue working with even more advanced programs, they will have an easier time learning how to use them.

DAZ 3D offers the best starter models on the market, and many of them are free. I’ve used Michael 5 for all of my characters, so I would recommend starting with it. It will work with both Poser and DAZ Studio. If one is good with Photoshop, they can easily create original textures for those models, adding tattoos, body hair, and such.

However probably the most important thing is body morphs, which help to create the perfect body and face shape, which make your character unique. The free models have basic morphs, which should be enough for most people, however if one would like more variety and dramatic shaping, I’m afraid they will have to learn advanced modelling, search for free amateur morphs that are available on many websites, or spend some money at online stores. Thankfully they are not very expensive.

Bara characters don’t require very many morphs to shape their bodies. Female models are more popular, so they have a much bigger (and more expensive) assortment of add-ons. But thankfully we’re not interested in those *laughs*! Basically all I use for bodies is muscle, bulk, and fat morphs, and as for faces, it depends on ethnicity and the kind of character I’m aiming for.

There are countless sliders, but it’s still quite easy to achieve the desired effects. The DAZ 3D store also has in their offer facial and body hair, which are essential to me, but not necessary if someone doesn’t like hairy characters. After creating the perfect man and testing what he looks like with draft renders, all it takes is to pose him and set up a mood with lighting.

Lights can basically create a masterpiece or a disaster, depending on how they’re used, so I’d recommend spending a lot of time learning how they affect the way the character looks. Thankfully there are many editable presets available.

The rendering process can look a bit daunting, and will require a trial-and-error approach, depending on the type of system it’s running on, but after a few dozen bad renders and tweaking with settings, it should start to improve. After rendering, it’s time to take the image into Photoshop and edit it there. No raw render will ever be perfect, they all require correcting in a bitmap editing software.

All these things will take a pretty long time to do. One shouldn’t expect to get fast results, I usually take at least two days minimum to create an artwork. So the basic advice is one everyone probably expects: practice every day and you will reach perfection. Oh, and have lots of money *laughs*!\

Favorite Bara/Bears in Video games: I love all video game bears! As long as they’ve got some meat on their bones and facial hair and not too wacky, that ruins the character in my eyes (I’m looking at you, Rufus!). The first video game bear crush I had was back in 1998 with Bunyan from Breath of Fire 3. Currently, I think the most iconic bears for me are Bass from Dead or Alive series and bearded Raiden/Big Bear from The King of Fighters series. Frank West from Dead Rising, Bob from Tekken, and Barry from Resident Evil are also my favourites.

= Check out Aki’s Deviant Art for more artwork! =