An Afternoon with BelgianBoolean [pt4]

In our fourth and final installment of “Afternoon with BelgianBoolean”, we wrap up our conversation with Ben discussing his past and present inspirations. Ben tells us a little more about the pieces that inspire him and we see how that influences his current work.

(And if you missed them, here are parts one, two, and three!)

Ben: Haha, sure. I feel like — it’s really in vogue — but I’m way into a lot of this brutalist stuff. I’m really into soviet architecture and soviet history.

GT: Anything in particular?

Ben: No — nothing and everything, haha. I started working on this project called ‘Vandals’, this mech rts game which was by a lot of brutalist work.

I like a lot of film lately. I just watched Dunkirk — which was just really astonishing — I would think, “Man, every frame in this is an art piece.” Which I love.

GT: I love Christopher Nolan because he is so so purposeful. Nothing is an accident.

Ben: Yeah it’s amazing because I don’t find him to be an “emotional” director, persay. I don’t think a lot of his films are as emotionally engaging, ala melodramatic, as you expect them to be, but technically speaking — he’s an incredible director. He’s so methodical and surgical with that camera. I saw an article that said he never showed a German soldier’s face — the whole movie. In doing so, he evoked actual terror, the idea of not even knowing what you’re fighting.

In that regard, I would say the thing that actually inspires me the most right now — call it nebulous — is “implied narrative”. And by that I mean ambiguity within scenes and spaces — I believe this was like a lot of environment and concept art. For example, don’t layout your story 100% within the scene your viewer is looking at. Imply the narrative and empower whoever’s looking at it to fill in those blanks themselves — because the answer someone can come up with is a thousand times better than what you can give them.

Give people ownership — people are creative –they’re interesting. If they have ownership over the thing that you made by putting the pieces together and they figure out what that story is, it creates a closer connection between the artist and the viewer/player.

For example, the best X-File episodes are the ones that don’t have a clear-cut ending — when there’s ambiguity at the end. The same thing is true of Twin Peaks. There’s a reason that those connect with people in such a big way. It’s why people love Dark Souls.

They’re not afraid to challenge the viewer. The best media is anything that isn’t afraid to stand on its own while trusting viewers or players to figure it out themselves.

People are way smarter than we give them credit for. Don’t expect them to just be invested in this thing that you made. Give them some tools so they have to work a little to be invested in it because that’s what will create a lasting connection to the thing that you make — as opposed to just a quick intake and out-take which is what happens with a lot of media.

So for me, lately, my work is a lot less clear cut — I sort of come at it like, “Here’s a little bit of an abstract bizarre thing — it’s a little weird. It’s not going to resonate with everyone, but I’d rather make something that’s weird like that than… Making an AK-47.”

*laughter*

There are so many weapon artists out there right now who are probably like, “F*$! that guy.”

All I really mean is this: Make what you love. Otherwise, why do it? You’d get paid a lot more to do something else.

GT: I was thinking about what you said about rewarding your viewer — I was lucky enough to see the Picasso exhibit in Chicago. At first, I was like, “I don’t really get it.” But then you get there, and you see it in real life. You really have to get close to it and then you realize how interesting the work really is. His sculpture work is incredible.

Ben: Oh, his sculpture work is amazing.

GT: And a lot of the time it’s the implied shape — it’s what he doesn’t say or do. I mean, I don’t mean to seem artsy-fartsy…

Ben: Oh, I totally think if anything, game artists should be more “artsy-fartsy”. Make stuff like that. Take those risks and explore those things. Have you guys ever seen the documentary of Jodorowsky’s Dune? That’s actually one of the things that inspires me the most when I’m struggling with the thing I want to make or feeling embarrassed or insecure about what I’m making. Jodorowsky’s like an art-house film director. So he found Giger and Jean Geraud and basically found the guys who would’ve been the art team for Alien! He was gonna have all these major actors — Orson Wells, Mick Jagger! — like it’s insane — and the movie never got made. He worked with Moebius. He essentially did story boards for the whole movie — and it’s all story boards of Moebius.

It’s just weird — in it he tells the story of meeting Giger at a party. And Giger is like, “Would you like some opium?” “Why opium?” “It keeps the voices away,” he says, as he scuttles away.

I’m not advocating that everyone do opium — but — you really see these guys making fascinating stuff. You may not agree with his creative vision but there’s so much passion behind what he wanted to make. There aren’t enough people who are excited about making crazy stuff. When I see things like that — whether it succeeds or fails I’m always excited to see it get made. Because at least someone took a risk in a sea of people not taking risks — and I think that’s super huge.

GT: You said you were inspired by Isaac Asimov — I largely endorse that era of sci-fi as well as the last five years of sci-fi to be the Golden Age. Anything else you keep up with?

Ben: I honestly just started reading again. I switch between sci-fi and historical fiction, but right now it’s a lot of 1500s British historical fiction which is really weird — but that’s what I love! I’m a big history buff so it’s usually that — but I’m starting to feel the itch for sci-fi again.

I think that’s where a lot of my inspiration comes from is reading. Reading just really relaxes me.

So when I get the PTSD and the anxiety, I try to just go with that flow for a bit and it usually comes in the form of reading — that or playing Final Fantasy 14. I mean, I don’t play a lot of FF14. But if I’m anxious, I play it — the music’s amazing, the game is gorgeous. I just totally relax and then when I sit down at my computer I’m ready to go, and I feel great again.

GT: Right, it’s something I see a lot! When I was in college I watched a lot of Bob Ross because I found him so calming. I’ve only ever tried wet on wet, but he had a few things that he always touched on like “The Three Stages of Painting”. The start is where you’re hopeful and you’re excited. The middle though, which is 90% of it, is the stage he calls “The Awkward Stage”. I identify that a lot with young artists — like, “You’re gonna hate it.” It’s gonna feel stupid, you’re gonna wanna quit, you’ll think, “My idea is bad”, and “I messed up the execution”. All that matters at the awkward stage is you just keep pushing a little bit.

Ben: Exactly. And it’s learning when to push it, and when to step away and say I need to do something relaxing — I’m still learning that when you do something relaxing, it’s like the grease on the gears. The solution comes to you, and it comes so fast.

I talk to Liz about this because she’s an artist as well. Any time I struggle with something, I’ll be like, “This is s$!@ — I just made this hot garbage.” And she’ll be like, “You’re struggling because you’re learning. You’re trying something new and you’re learning something new. If it was easy, it would just be another one of your pieces.

GT: Do you ever quit on a piece?

Ben: Oh yeah. I have no problem with it. I’ve reframed it — a lot of people are like, “You should finish everything you start.” I agree, but I’m just not that person! Stuff I don’t finish goes into this archive… and then I go into it years later and finish it. There’s stuff in my portfolio now that’s from years ago. I rediscover it, and I’m like “Oh, this was a neat idea.”

GT: Oh, like the hard surface stuff? I definitely noticed that. You’ll be get on this pop-art poster kick, and then suddenly there’s a giant spaceship.

Ben: Well yeah! Part of my workflow is that I want to work as fast as possible and get that speed up. A lot of it is really kit-bashing. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a little messy if it gets the message across. It’s also been realizing, “Oh. I’m never gonna put in the time to be an amazing texture artist.” — so your stuff helps me so much to visualize what I want. “I just need some tiling materials and — this is it.” Message gets across.

GT: *looking over portfolio* Yeah, I just can’t believe how comfortable you are with color — like this pitstop with red and green.

Ben: My goal for a few pieces was to make red and green work because no one thinks they’ll work. They think they’re just Christmas colors. There are times when I’ll go crazy with color. And sometimes I’ll go with basic complementary color schemes. People seem to be ashamed to go with complementary color schemes but they can be really powerful and take you really far. You can steal composition and you can steal color scheme. Why overcomplicate it when you can do it that way. People make it more complex than it needs to be.

The popart stuff is really out of Keyshot using Toon shaders. And then in Redshift, it has that Tri-planar texture node. I never wanna unwrap anything — I need to work quickly. I might build a few shaders to make rough edges but I get to thinking, “Is this enough to get the spirit across? — because if so, then that’s good enough.” It lets me move quickly because I have a short attention span with some of this stuff.

GT: I think that’s fine I mean you keep moving and work on what you like with color. Like some of this is super bold. I have no idea how you arrived at this scheme with the dark schemes and the whites and the bolds.

Ben: A lot of it is just playing until my gut says, “This is it.”

-end-

Thanks so much for reading “Afternoon with BelgianBoolean”! We really hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we did. If you missed them, read up on parts one, two, and three.

Also be sure to check out Ben’s work, and if you need to get in touch, you can contact him at belgianbooleancg@gmail.com.

Afternoon with BelgianBoolean has been a part of the GameTextures blog. You can see the original post there and also check out our subscription-based library of solid PBR textures.