Marc Wheeler is a 3D graphical artist and animator with the National Center for Telehealth & Technology. He first became interested in 3D graphics and animation in 2006 while attending The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale where he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Media Arts and Animation. He has previously worked at Microsoft Game Studios as the lead camera animator in the development of Forza Motorsport 3 and at Virtual Prophecy Entertainment as a 3D artist and animator.

His blog post is part of Defense Media Activity’s on-going coverage of “Restoring Hope,” an effort that provides stories, videos and resources on suicide prevention. To learn more about the Defense Department’s use of telehealth technology, check out the Sept 17th episode of “This Week in the Pentagon.” Visit Defense.gov or the DoDLive blog for more suicide prevention information and resources.

I’m the principal 3D artist at National Center for Telehealth & Technology (T2) and I specialize in creating 3D characters and animations. Creating an avatar or a 3D character model is no easy task. The first step is to find detailed references to base my avatar or character on. The more detailed my references, the better final result. I then go through many steps to create my character, including modeling, texturing, rigging, lighting, animating and finally rendering. This is a long process that normally requires an entire production team, but in my current position, I’m a one-man production team and I do all of the steps.

In my job, I have a unique opportunity and complete freedom to create something with the rewarding satisfaction that I can help people with my work. As I work through the process, I have to keep in mind what the character will be used for. If it will be used in a video game, I think about what the character will be doing and how it will move around within the game; otherwise there will be challenges during the animation process. For example, if the character will be doing a lot of running, I must model the legs with a lot of detail so that they bend properly when I rig it and start to animate the character running. In 3D, we use “polygons,” which are essentially the building blocks needed to create any objects or characters in the 3D world.

Something else to consider is the “target audience.” I have to ask myself, “Who will be playing the game or watching my character?” This is important to know because I need to find a way to connect with that person on a certain level; to determine what he or she would respond to most. It’s difficult to know how the player will respond if I don’t know anything about that individual. One way to determine this is by identifying who would be most likely to play the game based on the game’s content or genre.

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