Where Passion Meets Pedagogy: The 3D World of Diego Viegas

Introduction

Hi Diego, thanks for joining us! To start, could you tell us a bit about your background and how you first got into 3D?

First of all, thanks for the interview!

It was around 1998 when I got my first computer, and I began doing my own research on how to apply what I already knew about art: drawing, painting, video, etc. I generally taught myself, and my main motivation was my family. From a very young age, I remember my parents working in art-related activities and teaching. They mainly taught drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography. They had their students at home and taught independently. By then, I was also heavily influenced by video games; it was the Sega era and what I consider one of the best years of film and music with Video games like EarthWorm Jim and Mortal Kombat, and it’s no coincidence that the most influential films for me brought me closer to technology and digital media. Back to the Future, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, and a long list of films that marked a before and after on films history, both technically and artistically on Special effects and VFX, but over time, I realized that all those video games and movies had something in common: Art, and artists who earned my admiration for the dedication and passion they displayed in their craft. Twenty-seven years have passed since then, and today I can say I’m very fortunate to have spent nearly 20 years making a living from two things I love: creating and teaching.

Sneaker created with RizomUV for Nike Argentina – this project opened the door to a direct collaboration with Sketchfab.

Artistic Vision

You’ve been working professionally in 3D for over two decades. What has kept you passionate about the craft after all these years?

In short, “variety and challenging projects that involve art and technical problems to solve” keeps expanding my experience and that keeps me motivated.

But going deeper on the topic whenever circumstances allow, I take challenging jobs. Projects that require quick solutions without compromising quality. Often the jobs I’m involved in require a generalist approach and the ability to adapt, solving problems I’ve never had to solve before in record time, sometimes the work is halfway done with unresolved technical problems that paused the production and someone on the team knows my work and they call me to help. In these cases, the advantage of knowing a vast amount of software or learning on the way as well as having a foundation in design and art comes into play. In some jobs, I’ve even been fortunate enough to compose and record the music and narrations for some of those works. And “de pausing” a blocked production pays well also. Another component that keeps my passion alive is the people I got to know, some of them are artists that I admire that I never thought to meet and former students’ professional achievements that makes me admire them also. 

I already have a fairly established workflow but I never stop learning and updating. Today, I can choose the projects that I’m in and which ones I refer to other professionals.

Were there any key moments or influences that shaped the way you approach your work today?

Yes, while there are several events I could consider, there’s one in particular that I usually share with my students. Until a few years ago, I was very strict with procedures. Being a freelancer and with no one seeing my source files (generally the work commissioned is a final render), I was afraid that someone would see the processes and not be up to par with the results. So, I always followed the technical rules so if someone saw the source files, they would have been done like clockwork. Until I saw a very interesting presentation by Ian Hubert, “World Building in Blender.” While Ian shows several of his incredible works, it’s possible to see technical aspects realized in ways that at the time would have kept me awake at night. You could see ngons, or waterfalls made with a folded plane and a video of a real waterfall on the albedo map. The neurons in my mind that stored everything I learned about fluid simulations in Real Flow and the rules of topology were melting when I saw that, but the final result was admirable. The way Ian did it, he was breaking the rules and still achieving an incredible result. Since then, I have started to change my way of working. When it’s really necessary to keep everything clean and the procedures neat I’m capable of doing it because I have many years of experience doing it that way. But where the solution to the problem might be to proceed in an unconventional way that is not following technical rules, if I still achieve the same final quality, who cares? So yes, that talk had an impact on me.

Specialization & Work

You’ve worked across a variety of roles in 3D — from production to teaching. How do you balance being both a professional artist and an educator?

I’ve always loved teaching. Something quite common I’ve encountered throughout my career as a teacher is that the vast majority after a while of teaching stop practicing the profession and dedicate themselves solely to teaching. But there are also teachers who have never had professional experience and what they do is fill the need for teaching positions in institutions; you know, it’s just another job. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a starting point for many but a lot get stuck there, instead what I am saying is that I take the usefulness of my classes for my students very seriously. My goal is for them to equal or even surpass me, and for that I believe that professional experience to transfer to the newcoming artists is important. If you spend many hours teaching at an institute and depend solely on that to make a living, it’s difficult to stay up-to-date with new software or to be able to convey to students your professional experience with real clients, teaching full time on institutes means you need to work at least 40Hs a week to make a living, that means no time for clients, that and many other reasons pushed me to finally pursue my own career as a teacher so I could maintain a balance between high-quality teaching standards, freelance, and family.

You’ve mentioned that UVs were something you avoided for years. How did that perception change, and what role does UV mapping play in your workflow now?

This one’s easy. I avoided making UVs for about 15 years. First, because it was difficult to find someone who could teach me the logic and decisions involved in creating seams. Mostly, you find educational material geared toward using software rather than solving the problem itself. Second, the UIs of the UV editors I knew back then were a pain in the eyes. Bringing back Ian Hubert’s talk, he mentions that he avoided making UVs for about 17 years, so I thought, OK, I still have time. And finally, the most important thing, an ad for Rizom UV popped up while reading some random article on 80lvl, and I decided to download it. I had seen it a while back when it had a different name because it was installed where I used to teach before going on my own. I discovered that the software had a major UI redesign that seemed promising so I didn’t hesitate to download the trial version again, and it didn’t take long before I decided to buy it.

Workflow & Tools

After testing many UV editors, you chose RizomUV. What made it stand out for you? How do you integrate it into your personal and teaching pipelines?

To be honest, I installed Rizom UV and didn’t need to read the documentation except to take note of the shortcuts -that’s a great start as user experience- and then I just started creating UVs. The navigation, the shortcuts, and the initial quality of the algorithm when applying unfold blew me away. I really wondered, how did I not see this software before? Soon I was saving hours, even if the UVs were 100% handmade. I went from spending between one and two hours a day on UVs or outsourcing them to just 10 or 20 minutes. It literally changed my life; time is something I value a lot these days. It was such a good experience that I didn’t even wait for the trial to run out to buy it, and today it’s an indispensable tool for me. I also really appreciated the way the prince and how the license is handled for those of us who are freelancers and depend on many tools.

Insights & Teaching

Your online school welcomes around 150 students each year. How do you introduce UVs to students who often find the topic intimidating?

Not just students, I also get established 3D artists too that find UVs intimidating and a lot of them change their minds. The speech goes usually like this: I’m not going to lie to you here, uvs are a technical skill, I avoided them for too long and I know you are here to sculpt, but also I want you to be a 3D professional not just a sculptor. Trust me, the methodology and the software you are going to learn with me will make you not hate this part of the job, I’ll do my best for you to see that making uvs is easy and not a nightmare as everyone told you. Save that hate for retopology (Just kidding XD).

What advice would you give to artists who still see UVs as a tedious step in the process?

Start with the right tool. If you were already using another tool, forget everything you know and migrate now. Don’t waste any more time and try Rizom UV. Also, try to learn the logic behind what you’re doing to create the islands or cuts. Or find a good mentor who can explain what goes through their mind when deciding how to make an UV. And very importantly, practice and be patient. I know the last one is hard on the times we are living but believe me, patience will give you an advantage here. In the long run, patience can give you speed on this part of the process. Do this with different types of models and topologies, both manual topologies and topologies created with remeshers, hard surfaces, and organics. Repeat the same models several times; with each repetition, you’ll discover new options for which loop to use, how many islands, etc. After repeating each model three or four times, move on to a new one and repeat several times again. Use post-it notes to have main shortcuts at sight around your screen until they become part of you (real physical post-it) C, H, I, Y, U, O and P keys are wearing out my keyboard already.

Looking Ahead

What’s next for you? Are there any upcoming projects or teaching goals you’re excited about?

Upcoming projects: Well, not so long ago we moved from the big city (Buenos Aires, capital) to a small city called Dina Huapi between the Patagonian Mountains. It’s a totally different life away from the big city noise so there was a big freelance pause for like 6 months I started to take commissions again not so long ago.

Right now I am very much into 3D scanning (3D Scanner, Photogrammetry and Gaussian Splatter) . In fact, Rizom UV is also part of my photogrammetry assets workflow.

And looking to collaborate on more scientific fields. Right this week I’m evaluating a few potential clients’ needs, one of them is from the medicine field and the other one from tactical mountain cloth design looking for product scanning. Let’s see where the week leads me first!

For the past three months I worked on an academic / scientific investigation article about photogrammetry and gaussian splatter applied on archeology in collaboration with other 3D specialists and archeologists that I admired for years but I can’t show anything until it is published (if ever published). This things takes time but I hope it sees the light soon.

Teaching goals! Well I’m working on a digital book about anatomy, I know I know. Yet another anatomy book on the market?  I hope not! I’m aiming the content to be something different and specifically for digital sculptors in Spanish, happy to say pre-sales are going well! And of course, Rizom UV is in the making of the anatomy models!

Extra teaching goals:  In addition to aspiring character artists or VFX artists, video games, etc. that came to my classes,  I had students that came from scientific, research and  medical fields. From forensic doctors to paleontologists, archaeologists or industrial designers that work with doctors teams to make things like cranial implants and they study together with the same students that came to learn how to make a cartoon or a realistic creature. I hope more and more people working in that kind of area can see the potential of learning 3D art to more lifesaving matters, so, to anyone who disencourage you by saying things like “you won’t be saving lives as a digital artist” we can say… Well, think again! Did you know that digital sculptors teams up with doctors to rebuild people’s bones? And is just one case an naming here.

For real! If you reach this last line this is for you no matter what is happening in your life today: Never let anything stop you from learning and making great art, you don’t know where it can get you and the amazing people you can meet!
Thank you Rizom team for such a great tool and this interview!