Jacques Defontaine

[LarssonGu]

Yup, this is the best forum in the world. Very interesting, and great idea Pascal. My face is sucked into the screen when I read these threads.

Thanks loads for sharing! and and and... fantastic work !

[3mm]

Thanks so much Jacques for your answers

[adamlewis]

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Jacques.

Where do you get your ideas for the lighting and composition in your images? They always look so lovely and interesting. Like what Intervain was saying, I would think you had a background in photography as that seems to come so natural to you. Can you share how you approach that aspect of the process, and maybe share any tips or tricks you might have?

[Faddledog]

Hi Jacques, I do have a question after reading 3mm (mohammad) question + your answer.

In the sculpting faze do you sometimes trace/overlay an image or do you eyeball it ?

( I have some moral issues myself with tracing...but I guess if you're on a tied deadline it could be a big time savior) - anyways, I like to know your point of view on the issue.

Thanks

[TKIO]

You're welcome Mohammad!

adamlewis:Thank you very much Adam!
I really have a lot of photos that inspire me but I'd say... Movies are what inspire me the most. I'm going to disappoint you about the approach because I don't have any... Why I put a light here or there or use that HDRI, why I use that color/temperature, etc... I don't know... I just tweak it until it brings me some emotions I guess. In my opinion, sharing is really cool for technical things like how to use this tool to get that result but when it comes to emotions and feelings, I don't really see the point or how this could work... I tried a couple of times in the past with some colleagues but after they said I got what you mean, they did it totally different from the way I expected... Probably because everyone sees things differently and maybe some a lot more than others.

For instance... I think your skin shading work is fantastic and I totally understand why some people would ask you to see your shader setup/network but to be honest I'm not at all interested in it... Really... The reason is that for me it's the way you see/observe things that make you tweak or do what you need to get the result that brings you some satisfactions.

I'm really no expert so I might be totally mistaken.

Faddledog: Thank you very much Luc!

I'd be lying if I'd say I've never try that technique but I gave up rapidly... With the different camera focals used, you can easily get on the wrong. Also because I prefer to improve my observing skill, and even if it takes longer and that I'm not happy with my work so far, It will eventually pays off... I might be wrong though so don't take it too seriously

Cheers,

Jacques.

[Faddledog]

Cool
Thank you very much Jacques !

[ienrdna]

I have been noodling away in Modo for nice skin shading, but without satisfactory results.
Could you flash yours shader set up? And comp if you do compositing? pleasee.

[misha]

Hi... your work is great... I notice you use hair to subtly add realism to your work...could you speak to that? Also, your sculpting process... do you sculpt through gesture or fine tune through fixed modeling?

Cheers,
Mike

[Grapix]

I hope I am not too late with my question.
What i would like to know is did you use only global illumination with hdri in modo on portraits like BKingsley, Oldman, Chimpanzee an some others amazing work?
If am right with my assumptions can you tell me what hdr images did you use ?
Thanks!