3d art

Character
We talk to Andrew Hickinbottom, a lucky-in-freelance character modeller
currently getting creative under the bright city lights of London
b
Perfect
pinups
My predominantly pinup-themed personal work is an
outlet for when I want to create something easy on the eye
and different to most of the work I get paid to do
Andrew Hickinbottom is a freelance character modeller
Name
Andrew Hickinbottom
Job title Character modeller
Personal website
http://andyh.cgsociety.org
http://andyh.cghub.com
Location UK
Expertise Characters
Software 3ds Max
Client list Coca-Cola,
International Olympic
Committee, Comcast,
Panasonic, SEAT,
Imagination Games,
Actimel, Haven Holidays
All images
© Andrew Hickinbottom
A Suzie Kickin’ Back is an
illustration of my Suzie
character lazing about
b Bunny Girl is one of my
most successful personal
pieces to date
Andrew Hickinbottom recently
made the big move to London, and
things are looking up. With so
many major production companies in the
big city, he’s always bumping into people
who’ve been working on high-profile
projects that he’s long admired, which
makes life a lot more exciting and has, in
turn, given his art a new lease of life. With a
lot more work going around in London
compared to back in his hometown in the
Midlands, he is currently freelancing as a
character modeller for regular clients, such
as Nexus Productions, where he models,
UVs and occasionally textures characters.
Before, he worked remotely from
Birmingham – the move means he can now
work on site, and be inspired by all the
capital has to offer the 3D artist!
How did the contract at Nexus come about –
can you tell us more about the projects you’ve
been involved with there?
Andrew Hickinbottom: One of the 3D leads
had been trying to get me to work with them
for some time after seeing my stuff on the
internet. I did some character modelling on
a Coca-Cola advert a few years ago, then an
Olympic Committee ad, and now they are
regular clients. Nexus does work for
advertising mainly, but has done title
sequences for TV and film, music videos and
short films as well. The company has a large
collective of award-winning directors and
can produce content in differing styles: 3D,
2D, live action, stop motion, etc.
You worked on a high-profile project at the
London-based Superfad in December. Can
you tell us more about that?
AH: They needed me to create a stylised
likeness of Shakira for a SEAT car advert.
Getting Shakira’s likeness, and the overall
level of stylisation approved was tricky. I
liked the end result, but after all that work,
you only saw her for a few seconds, and
somewhat small on the screen – I guess it’s
because there was just so much crammed
into the advert and my character was just a
small part of it.
Have you worked in any other cities, either
here in the UK or abroad?
AH: I did a small job in Valencia for a month
in January, which was nice – that’s the
farthest I’ve travelled for a job. Some work
in Japan would be good though!
As a freelance artist, how do you find work?
Do you find it or does it come to you?
AH: I’m quite fortunate: virtually every
freelance job I have done has landed in my
lap. I have yet to chase down ideal clients.
It’s something I intend to do in the future.
b
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