An Interview with Thierry Doizon

A rising star in the digital art world. Thierry Doizon, also known as BARoNTiERRi to some, along with a rag-tag group of similar-minded artists such as David Levy (Vyle), are poised to have a major impact on the world of concept painting. We begin with this interview with Thierry Doizon this week and next week, we'll feature his buddy, David Levy. Oh, we also have an on-camera interview with Thierry. I just didn't yet have time to put it together. Should be ready in a couple days! Stay tuned!

CGC: Lots of things have happened to you over the past few months.
Would you mind filling us in?
Thierry: Things are going really well at Ubisoft on our project "Assassins", my
job is pretty intense especially lately with the making of an Assassin's comic
book for E3 (done with Vyle).
in the meantime I'm working with David Levy aka Vyle on few projects
especially with our collective of freelancers STEAMBOT

CGC: How does this busy schedule at Ubisoft play with your other
projects like Steambot?
Thierry: I have to admit that it's tough to do so much in only 24h, but it's very
exciting, STEAMBOT hasn't been advertised yet and we are already busy!


CGC: How has Steambot evolved and changed as a project compared to the original vision?
Thierry: David and I had this idea for more than a decade, back to our Industrial Design School, the project was just waiting for the stars to be aligned and it's about the right time!

CGC: What has changed since?
Thierry: Not so much it just took advantage of the technology and the latest communication systems. Now you can work fast from almost any part of the planet, even if our clients are mainly North American companies it works just fine.

CGC: How do you feel about some companies not letting their
people use some of these new technologies, such as MSN for
example in their workplace? Do you think it's too restrictive or just
plain common sense?

Thierry: It makes sense for them and this corporate attitude; I have a PDA
phone so I can chat all day long if I want to. They can't cope with technology
and they should trust their employees a bit more I suppose.

CGC: If you were offered to work on "The next Star Wars" type
project for a couple years, would you go?
Thierry: I have my opinion on the last trilogy and the actors... guess you don't

want to hear it, but yes I wouldn't miss the opportunity.

CGC: Yes, we would like to hear it, what would you change about the original trilogy?
Thierry: It would be an intelligent, interesting and emotionally intense trilogy. The special effects would be just a background to serve the story not to impress the audience and give some work to your studio. I would probably hire Dan Simmons (Hyperion) to write the script and I wouldn't care about pleasing people.

CGC: Tell us about this "Controversial" techniques you guys found using custom brushes in Photoshop to create complex details in a painting super quickly?
Thierry: Efficiency is the key in our job, we had a lot of fun when creating all these brushes and it helps fasten some of the processes... so why would you want to ignore it? It's like being against the electricity.

CGC: You were present at the last Gnomon Workshop Live
event. You reviewed many portfolios there. How does it feel
to be the one reviewing other people's portfolio? I’m sure you
were on the other side of the table once.
Thierry: Ahah you realize you're not a student with plenty of time to
go surfing!

CGC: Could you elaborate?
Thierry: I hope I can help these guys with the experience I have, it's a big responsibility and you want to give an objective opinion on their works, I don't want to be politically correct when reviewing, they need real comments and constructive critics. The market is tough and you need to get prepared.

CGC: On average, how would you qualify the caliber of work
you saw at the last workshop?

Thierry: Extremely impressive, most of the time I didn't really know
what to say. Today's level is very high thanks to the digital era and
internet. I was stunned by some of the portfolios I've seen,
especially Scott's students.

CGC: Some artists from the "Pre-digital" era claim a lot of work done by younger artists all look the same. They lack the experience traditional media artists have. How would you answer to that?
Thierry: I would say there is generally a lack of personality yes! But the average quality is so much better than before. It's good to start with a traditional background for sure it'll make you a better artist but style comes with confidence which come with experience, and the young guys there have plenty of time in front of them to express their personality.

CGC: Do you have any traditional background yourself, or is this something you would like to consider exploring one day?
Thierry: I do have a traditional background but I have less time to practice live-painting for example, and this is what every artist should do on a weekly basis at least. And I’d like to sculpt more. I just wish I had more time!!!

CGC: Tell us about speed-painting and the benefit it brings you and people who practice it?
Thierry: Speed Painting is the best thing I've experienced in the past few years, in about an hour you can do so much to answer a subject. Everyone doing Speed Painting improves a lot so you'd better start now! Use our 3CH generator to enjoy it even more!

CGC: What do you see as the next big thing in the field? Seems computers are super fast now, is there anything left to improve?
Thierry: Yes a lot more, 3D software are barbaric tools, except maybe for Zbrush who defined and interesting approach to sculpt in digital, 2D software are barbaric tools as well... so think about something that brings 2D and 3D together with an ergonomic interface and let the artists make them, not the programmers!

CGC: So, what do you see as the next thing beyond ZBrush then?
Thierry: Let see what they'll do next, but I think it would be nice to start something from scratch.

CGC: Tell us about your upcomming workshop(s)?
Thierry: This summer will be crazy, I'm on the list of instructors
for the forthcoming Concept Art Workshop in Montreal, then I
will show a demo with Vyle (again!) at the next Gnomon
Workshop in LA, then I should be joining Syd Mead, Dylan
Cole, Feng Zhu, James Clyne, Scott Robertson and Christian
Lorenz Scheurer at the ADAPT event in September.

CGC: Would you name some of your favorite artists in the industry?
Thierry: Jeffrey Jones, Kent Williams, Craig of course, Scott Robertson, Sparth, Vyle and so many others.

Thanks to Thierry for taking the time to answer all our questions!

Autor: Jean-Eric Henault /
Source: CG Channel / Omikron game
Language: English