Live Sculpt-off

Winners announced!

Congratulations to our 2016 ZBrush Award winners:

Sposored by:
Sponsored by Kotobukia
Sponsored by Funko
Sponsored by Formlabs
Sponsored by Luxion
Sponsored by 3D4Medical
Sponsored by Good Smile Company

Organic

Hard Surface

Erick Sosa


Defending Champion

Prototypez Studios

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Is a professional sculptor, with over 20 years of experience working for the Toy and Collectibles Industries.He is to this day the only American sculptor working for two of the biggest Japanese collectibles companies in the world.

His style is dynamic, he can capture any style in the sculpting spectrum, be it American streamline comic book styles, Japanese Anime/Manga, Mechanical characters, beautiful women, creatures and monsters, or portraits. He is currently working hard to master Zbrush ( digital modeling), and his operation is mostly digital these days.

Some of the companies he has worked for include:
Mattel Toys, Disney Consumer Products, SOTA Toys, Hot Buttered Elves, Bowen Designs, DC Direct, Art Asylum, Warner Brothers, Master Replicas, Eaglemoss, Jazwares, Wizkids, Mezco, McFarlane, Hasbro,Sidehsow Collectibles, Kotobukiya (Designer/sculptor Managing advisor Product Planning and Development), Funko, His Majesty the King of Jordan, Round2 Models, and Yamato Toys, among others.

Currently Erick is engaged in developing his own Company, Prototypez Studio designing/sculpting and producing pre-painted deluxe quality Street Fighter statues, and tons of his own creations.

www.prototypezstudio.com/

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Tan Bi



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Tan Bi is a Digital sculptor who has trained in the traditional art for over 10 years. He has a deep understanding of human and animal anatomy. He has been able to apply the knowledge and skills to his digital art creations. In the past few years, he was passionate about sculpting realistic and stylized models in ZBrush for physical output. His artworks can now be seen at the San Francisco Zoo and the San Jose Rotary Playgarden. Tan is currently working with Andrew Cawrse at Anatomy Tools to develop animal anatomy products.

www.tan3d.com

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Ehsan Bigloo



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Please allow me to Introduce myself I'm a man of a... no kidding :)

My Name is Ehsan Bigloo, I work as a 3D freelancer and am living in Los Angeles.

I am a traditional, 2D and 3D Artist coming from traditional oil painting and surreal drawing background. Since I was a kid I have always been drawing (animals, monsters and creatures) and love oil paints played with it and pain with it until I got the chance to study the oil painting methodically with some workshops in Florence Academy.

I love 3D modeling and have been doing it since early 2000's, I started with NURBS modeling and poly boxing in Maya (Alias/wavefront), so learned Maya fully, became a CG generalist for a while and taught Maya but I loved human anatomy, animal anatomy, designing and also figurative art. In 2005 ZBrush gave me the ultimate ability to achieve the dreams that I had, feeling really like an artist working with computer (ZBrush 2.0).

I stopped 3D completely in 2011 and went back to the core and the fundamental of the traditional art (even mixing the colors from mineral materials, learned limited Antwerp painting palette. For months and months I studied oil paintings and human anatomy meticulously.) So profound, I still can't get enough of any lectures regarding anatomy (insects, deep sea creatures, etc).

I went back to ZBrush Again in late 2014 after 3 years in traditional art and started to love it more :)

I am completely self-taught, and consider myself more of a Visionary artist! don't know... I use 3D sometimes as designing language to me, ZBrush is like the watercolor, however I yet prefer to do the "Design" in traditional medium for communication.

I encouraged/Persuaded and convinced so many traditional surreal, visionary and fantasy artists to use ZBrush and 3D in order to bring their ideas into the table. I often draw, create and create... ZBrush is always in my toolkit/ parallel to ZBrush I play with the clay a lot!

ehsanbigloo.blogspot.com/

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Vichar Bn


Technicolor Animation and Games

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Vichar B N lives and works in Bangalore, India for Technicolor Animation and Games. Vichar currently holds the role of CG supervisor for the Games division but also has the opportunity to work on Animated TV Shows and Films. At Technicolor Vichar is considered the traditional sculpting expert and often provides instruction and mentoring to the other cg modelers.

Vichar’s career started as a traditional sculptor 17 years ago. He has always had a strong interest in art particularly classic sculptures by the masters his favorites include Auguste Rodin and Michelangelo. Vichar earned a Masters degree in sculpting from Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts in Mysore, India. Early in his career he had the privilege to work as a personal sculptor for The King of Mysore and many of his sculptures are still in the Kings residence at the Mysore Palace and Bangalore Palace (2003 to 2005).

The craving to learn new things led Vichar towards Computer Graphics. Vichar is self taught on the computer using ZBrush and Maya as his primary tools. The idea of bringing sculptures to life using technology was very alluring, almost like playing God. With With ZBrush the core principles and knowledge are the same as working with clay; but the best part is the ability to iterate and experiment quickly. His digital art experience now spans the last 12 years modeling for animated television shows, films and games. His experience includes sculpting Characters, Sets and Props in addition to hard surface Modeling.

Vichar started his digital career at a company called Paprikas that was eventually acquired by Technicolor, the studio has grown from 100 people to its current size of over 1000 artists. Vichar has held many roles at the company and has experience in creating art for many different genres. His past includes positions as CG Modeler, Assistant Art Director for Television Series, Illustrator for magazines, interior & exterior Designer and free lance artist. Vichar considers himself lucky to get opportunities to work on a wide array of projects in terms of style and media from cartoony animated shows , movies and hyper realistic assets for games.

In his personal works Vichar continues his passion for pure art. In an effort to always continue to build his skills in Z-Brush his personal work is focused on capturing life as he sees it in a classic style akin to the masters works. Sculpting the human form in moments of action and emotion, building a sculpture as a snapshot in time like a photograph that captures something just as it happens.

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Brett Briley



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Brett Briley began his career in CG as an artist at Disney, but has worked in the videogame industry since 1999 for studios including: Red Storm Ent, Irock interactive, Sony Online Ent, Nerve Software, Ensemble Studios, id Software, and now freelancing. He has worked on a long list of titles including, Total War: Warhammer, Doom, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Lucky's Tale, Rage, Halo Wars, Age of Empires 3: Warchiefs, Age of Empires 3, Doom 3: Ressurection of Evil, Oblivion, D&D Online, Neverwinter Nights 2, Planetside: Aftershock, Planetside: Core Combat, Planetside, Savage Skies, and Freedom. Among working in the game field, he has taught at the Art Institute of Dallas, TAD (The Art Department), and is currently teaching with UArtsy.com.

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Luis Carrasco


Industrial Light & Magic

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Luis Carrasco is currently working in the Film industry as a Concept Artist at Industrial Light and Magic. He has received credits on films such as Warcraft, Jurassic World, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. As a designer for film, Luis collaborates with Art Directors on visual development across projects, provides concept art to communicate ideas for the design and look of a show, provides conceptual paint-overs and key-shots for directorial approval while working closely with VFX Supervisors to help define the look on shots while offering guidance for lighting and compositing. Luis is also passionate about helping students, teaching creature/character design as a University Instructor.

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Dmitry Gaborak


Insomniac Games

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Dmitry Gaborak have been working on video-games, game-cinematics and feature film for over a decade in Singapore, China, Canada and US. Currently contributing as a senior character artist with Insomniac Games (LA) on Spider-man for PS4.

He worked in-house and as freelancer for LucasfIlm(ILM), Sony, WB, Microsoft, HBO, Gameloft. Most recently contributed to Warcraft Film, Evolve, Halo 5, Batman Arkham Knight. His personal accomplishments include two ZBrush top row features.

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Pierlot Laurent


Blizzard Entertainment

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Laurent Pierlot is an alumnus of ESAAT in Roubaix, France and Supinfocom in Valenciennes. After finishing his student movie Backtopur, which combined live footage mixed with 3D characters, he began working at SPARX in Vietnam as a modeling and lighting artist. He then worked at Attitude Studio in Paris for one year before joining Blur Studio in California as a character modeler and CG supervisor. He now works for the cinematics team at Blizzard entertainment in Irvine.

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Glauco Longhi


Sony Santa Monica

Summit Presenter

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Glauco Longhi is a traditional and digital sculptor, currently employed as a Senior Character Artist at Sony Santa Monica Studio. His latest project was Uncharted 4, by Naughty Dog.

Following a few years working in various games and advertising studios, Glauco started a company in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which ran from 2010 to 2013. During this time, he held various master classes for artists on traditional sculpting, both on-site and on location. He also traveled Brazil and worked on more than 40 projects for clients, from short films to feature movies, TV shows, commercials, collectibles, and more besides.

In 2014, he decided to take his career in a new direction, and into video games. With all the previous experiences and digital knowledge, he put up a new portfolio and moved to Santa Monica, California to work at Naughty Dog.

His passion for art is contagious, and his eagerness to stay on top of his skills – both in the traditional and digital fields – is nothing short of admirable. His skills speak for themselves, and they just keep getting better!

www.glaucolonghi.com

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Joe Menna



Workshop Instructor

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Joe Menna is a professional sculptor working in the toy and collectible industry. His past and present client list includes: DC Collectibles, Sideshow Collectibles, Gentle Giant Ltd., Dark Horse Comics, Diamond Select Toys, Bowen Designs, and many more. Joe was one of the earliest practitioners of digital sculpture (going back to 2001) and continues to produce cutting edge, popular work to this day.

He helped pioneer the use of ZBrush as a viable sculpting option for many collectible companies and still engages it as his primary sculpting medium of choice. Besides his toy work, Joe also does a lot of fine art and comic style drawing for various galleries and plans on producing a series of original sculptures in both resin kit and one off form.

www.artstation.com/artist/jmenna
@joemenna_sculptor

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Chris Patterson



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

Chris Patterson is a digital sculptor who specializes in pop culture statues/collectibles. He is currently working out of Seattle, WA as a freelance sculptor on projects with XM studios and Pop Culture Shock collectibles. Chris has been working in the industry for just over two years now, hopefully many more to follow. He graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle March of 2014, where he then went to start his professional career at Funko. Although things at Funko didn't last, that did not stand in Chris's way. Thanks to close friends and family for believing in him, he continued to push, landing various small freelance jobs here and there. It hasn't been till recently that Chris finally caught his big break sculpting some of the coolest IPs around.

When he isn't sculpting, Chris enjoys hiking, snowboarding, wakeboarding, riding motorcycles, spending time with his girlfriend, and collecting statues.

Chris also serves as a Sergeant in the Washington Army National Guard.

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Jesse Sandifer



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

I've been in the CG industry since 2000, starting in architectural visualization for several years before learning and transitioning completely to character art after 5 years. After being a co-owner of a Dallas animation studio for 9 years, then leaping to full-time freelance for a year, I began a huge, new chapter working for Blur Studio as a Lead Character Artist for 2 years. Currently, I'm the Lead Character Artist at a Los Angeles indie game developer, Whitemoon Dreams, working on VR games. My work has been featured in film, games, cinematics, television, toys, trade shows, and a spread of cg art books and magazines across the globe.

I primarily freelance for Hasbro Toys and Prime 1 Studio creating Star Wars, Marvel, G.I. Joe, Batman: Arkham Knight, and Jurassic Park collectibles and figures. Autodesk, Axis Animation, and 3DWorld Magazine are also notable clients. I've taught for Kinglien's ZBrushWorkshops and create my own real-time tutorials available online at Gumroad.

Most importantly, I've been married to my amazing wife just as long as I've been working. We've got 3 expensive kids who keep us way too busy. My family is my driving force everyday.

artstation.com/artist/sandpiper
facebook.com/SandiferArt

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Furio Tedeschi


Defending Champion


LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Furio Tedeschi is currently a senior Character Artist at Bioware Montreal working on Mass Effect Andromeda. With over 10 years in the industry, his work has been a mixed bag, ranging from TV adverts to Video games, Military Weapon Simulations/modifications and Feature Films.

Furio has worked as a CG Artist for Clients and projects such as Warner Bros, Blur, Sapphire Amd Graphic Cards, Mcfarlane Toys, Wareframe, Dungeon Hunter 4, Halo 4, Pacific Rim (2013), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012), The Three Musketeers 3D, Fire Fall, (2011)Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, Looney Tunes:Taz Wanted.

www.smokeflames.blogspot.com/

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Stephen Anderson



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Stephen is driven by a passion for creating appealing characters. ZBrush has been his greatest creative outlet since he decided to pick it up in 2012, and he continually drives himself to pick up other new tricks that he may not know yet. He was recently a ZBrush instructor at Broadview Entertainment Arts University where he developed curriculum to push students to learn the program and unleash their creativity. Stephen lives in Los Angeles, and is fortunate to have married Wonder Woman. They have two beautiful children that drive them absolutely bonkers.

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Andrea Chiampo



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Andrea Chiampo was born and raised in Italy, where he graduated in Industrial Design, and he is currently a freelance Concept Designer for the Entertainment Industry. He has worked on different designs for products, jewels, video games and commercials, aiming to soon jump to the cinema industry as well.

"I discovered my passion for digital art during my second year of university when a friend of mine showed me Pixologic Sculptris. After a few days, sculpting strange creatures and organic stuff had become my favourite hobby. Whenever I had spare time, I was there. Next step was when I jumped into ZBrush and, encouraged by a strong ambition to quickly improve, I started to seriously invest the soul for becoming a professional Concept Artist."

artstation.com/artist/CA_ANDREACHIAMPO

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Ioan Dumitrescu



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Ioan Dumitrescu, is a finishing architect, working as a freelance concept designer for mostly films and games. He finds any medium , where combining context with storytelling, to create new worlds and compelling stories, and finally bringing them to an audience, a complete medium and one in which he loves taking part of.

His clients include Weta, Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate, Epic games, Blur, Microsoft, Sony, BMW , Wizards of the coast.

www.ioandumitrescu.com

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Joe Grundfast



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Joe Grundfast is a ZBrush sculptor and 3D Generalist in New York. In 2005, after proving his mettle and earning the mentorship of renown CG artists Yariv Newman and Timur "Taron" Baysal, Joe worked a full-time corporate job by day while mastering ZBrush by night. Two years later, he officially began his CG career, cutting his teeth as a senior staff 3D generalist at NY design boutique, Tronic Studio. Since going freelance in 2011, Joe has been on an odyssey through the NY CG studio scene, working on brands including Discovery, Ford, AT&T, BMW, Netflix, and Saturday Night Live. Joe lives with his new bride in Brooklyn and continues to train with his mentors on a warpath towards breaking into design for the film and game industry. To this end, Joe has earned two top rows on ZBrush Central, achieving acclaim for his personal take on the character "War Machine," which earned him interviews in the magazines Digital Production and 3D World, features on CG websites across the net, and his first film work on Avengers 2 - Age of Ultron.

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Lucas Hardi


Bethesda Game Studios

Summit Presenter

Workshop Instructor

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Lucas is a Senior Artist at Bethesda Game Studios, having most recently worked on Fallout 4 (2015) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011). He originally studied as an engineer and does a wide spectrum of work in games, including concept art, character art, UI, and materials.

Lucas has spent his entire career around Washington DC, first at Mythic Entertainment (later EA Mythic) working on Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online before joining BGS.

lucas.hardi.org

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Lucas Hug


Digital Extremes

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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After studying in the field of Applied Arts and Graphic Design, Lucas Hug decided to dedicate himself to the art of making video games. During his 9 years in the industry, he has worked in varied roles as a Texture Artist, Environment Artist and Weapon Artist, but has also branched into Character Modeling, Lighting and leadership roles. Lucas is currently a Senior Artist at Digital Extremes, handling a variety of concepts, weapons, characters, vehicles, and more.

Lucas enjoys traditional media as much as digital, and always endeavors to learn more from the masters.

lucashug.com

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Mike Jensen


Polyarc

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Mike Jensen is a Character Artist working in the video game industry. He got his start making 3d Training DVDs with Eat3d, and broke into the game industry at Bungie, creating characters for Destiny. He is currently working with Polyarc on an unannounced VR project.

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Ara Kermanikian



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Ara is a concept designer focusing on futuristic character, vehicle, and set design. He's an educator at the OTIS College of Art and Design, and has taught Polysculpting online for CG Society. He has numerous tutorials on YouTube and Vimeo and has written master classes for 3D Artist magazine and various online publications. Ara's work has been showcased in several books including Nuthin' but Mech 2 and 3, and editions of Mastering Maya and Introducing ZBrush. After an 18 year career at Microsoft in various technology roles, Ara currently works on projects for film, television and games in Los Angeles and is working on his second book, Polysculpting.

kermaco.com

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Jared Krichevsky



LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Jared Krichevsky is a Character/Creature Supervisor and designer at the Aaron Sims Company and ZBrush instructor at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Los Angeles, CA. For the past 6 years, using ZBrush as his main creative tool, Jared has breathed life into characters and creatures for feature films and television including projects like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014, 2016), Independence Day: Resurgence, Gods of Egypt, Conjuring 2, and the new Pete's Dragon, as well as upcoming features Wonder Woman (2017), Stephen Kings "IT" (2017), and Ready Player One (2018).

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David Martinez


IronKlad Studios

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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David Martinez is a digital artist specializing in visual development for cinema, commercial, and video games. He Attended the Illinois Institute of Art Chicago and made his life long commitment to grow as a 3D artist.

He has been freelancing for over 5 years and has contributed to various indie projects. His publications include an artist spotlight on CG Society and best of 2015 on ArtStation. His goal would be to one day teach and encourage other aspiring artists to follow their passion.

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Dennis Mejillones


Bethesda Game Studios

Summit Presenter

Workshop Instructor

LIVE Sculpt-Off Contestant

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Starting his love affair with 3D art at 15 years old, Dennis Mejillones has cultivated his passion since then into a career designing and creating art for commercials and AAA games such as Borderlands, COD: Modern Warfare as well as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises at Bethesda Games Studios.

Other interests involve casting, 3d printing and rapid prototyping... And killer robots...

www.DennisMejillones.com

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