Featured Interview: Tim Bergholz

Featured Interview: Tim Bergholz

With the rise of first person shooter (FPS) game genre and the ever-increasing complexity of making assets for games, artists have had to adapt and specialize in order to thrive.

It's only fairly recently that we've seen "3D weapon artist" emerge as a stand-alone job rather than being a secondary task of 3D character artists. Tim Bergholz is one such specialist of weapons and we wanted to pick his brain with a few questions!

Be sure to check out his tutorials on his Cubebrush store and keep reading for the full interview with added eye-candy.

Q. How did you end up becoming a master modeler of 3D weapons?

A. Both at Ubisoft and before at Crytek my passion has been with all sorts of hard surface related tasks. With first person shooter weapons you get to work on something that fills plenty of screen space and therefore needs to be as perfect as possible from every aspect to suit the game. They are that one constant element you see throughout the whole time and every one of them is different and challenging (and a whole lot of fun to work on).

Q. What made you want to start teaching your techniques?

A. Back in my college times around 2006 the variety of tutorials wasn't as big as today naturally. I followed a whole bunch of them and often found that people skip or fast forward certain steps for example the monotonous but important unwrapping part. I always thought it would be great to one day make my own tutorials and this is how the Ultimate Tutorial Series was born. Ultimate means every step covered, nothing left out and always with full commentary. I wasn't sure how it would be received so I decided to make a short free tutorial first. The feedback was overwhelming and a big motivator to carry on.

Q. How does your current career compare to your childhood dreams?

A. Back then I was the same passionate gamer as nowadays only with more playtime. As a child I always thought of video game development as a form of wizardry. The guys from ID, Bullfrog and many others were my heroes (well they still are) and I saw the pictures of them all casual in their office having fun while working. I'm in the industry since 2008 now and still think it's the most awesome job I could have ever picked and thanks to the internet I can now also be a tutor which is awesome.


Q. Cats or Dogs? Catdogs.

Q. What would you say is the single most important thing to focus on for anyone looking to do what you do for a living?

A. The most important thing is to get skilled and start building your portfolio. Don't make the mistake of putting quantity over quality. Make your research and select a few cool pieces to work on and make it look great to make an impression. That is way more important than having a whole bunch of mediocre pieces in there. Remember you'll always be judged on the entirety of your content.

Q. What is your best tip for artists looking to get their first job?

A. Start reaching out to companies once you have a strong enough portfolio that you feel confident about. It might be good to apply to different places because that "one" place you really want to work at may not have free spots at the moment. Don't get discouraged by that. In the beginning I would also consider applying to smaller companies even if they may not work on AAA games. Willingness to relocate is a big advantage. The golden rule in my opinion is that once you have your foot in the industry it's much easier to land a job in another and bigger studio. Just make sure to keep on feeding your portfolio with good work whether it's from your workplace or done in your spare time.


Q. You've set the bar really high with your latest tutorial series, what can your fans expect from you next?

A. I have very ambitious plans for the Ultimate Tutorial series this year. There'll be smaller and bigger sized tutorials but as with the previous ones, all of them will go the full way in explaining every single step to get to the end. The focus will of course remain on the modeling, unwrapping and texturing side since this is what I do. I don't want to quite spoil exactly what the next tutorial will be but I'm super excited to get started on it shortly. At the moment I am still busy getting my weapons ready for Unreal and Unity Engine. People can expect to get the latest news on my Facebook page as usual. www.facebook.com/chamferzone