Interview: Gifdoozer

Frideld: You have a quite peculiar Twitter bio. “Erotic illustrator. Because saying I’m a porn animator might be misleading.” What did you mean when you wrote this?

• Gifdoozer: Well, it’s just something I wrote recently. I used to have one that said “just another random guy making NSFW videogame themed content”. I wrote it without thinking about the exact meaning of the word “animator” in English. Thought about it in Spanish, where animator can also mean something like cheerleader, and sounded funny.

F: So many things can get lost in translation! So tell us, when did you decide to become a 3DX artist? What was your inspiration or motivation?

• G:Well, it’s not exactly something I’ve decided, it’s something that was gonna happen at some point in my life. I was the black sheep at school, drawing in a corner while all the kids played football, or played video games at home instead of going out. And well, I guess that the lack of social skills turned me a bit anti-social which didn’t help with talking to girls. So I grew up being the typical lonely horny gamer that liked drawing. My passion for drawing ended up becoming a passion for 3D modeling. I started using 3D programs when I was 13, a program called Strata 3Dcx back on its day on my dad’s iMac G3.
  
  It was super fun to add one more dimension to my creations. And well, it was just a matter of time till my 3 passions merged into one. I fantasized about the possibility of doing all kinds of nasty things to all videogame characters like Lara croft to feed my lustful needs. But back in the day with the lack of knowledge and limited by the technology I had, it was just a dream.
  
  One day around February 2012 on my brand new laptop I got for christmas I found some NSFW animations of the Borderlands 2 characters. I was studying interior design by that moment and I was super addicted to Borderlands 2. And I fell in love with Maya. Man… she was so badass. I could say I fell in love with her attitude. So one day I found a 4chan forum with NSFW animations about Borderlands 2 characters. And with the little hope someone would answer me, I asked “how is this made? or, how can i make this myself?”. Went to class the next day, only thinking about getting home to check for an answer.

• With little hope, I turned on the PC and went to the same page I had saved the previous day. And there it was, the unexpected answer. “It’s made using SFM” (Thanks, anon!) I got so excited about the idea to animate, to use already made high quality models, that I spent the whole night awake searching about Source Filmmaker, downloading it, searching for models and creating my first account on digitalero.org. I made my first tests and despite my laptop being not even a decent one, it worked. And since then I’ve been working on NSFW animations.
  
  Not just for the NSFW content (which was at first the initial motivation) but because the feeling of infusing life to a character is so entertaining. It’s like the best sandbox creative game ever. You can make whatever you want. And I make porn with it.

F: So you don’t have a background in traditional animation.

• G: Not at all. I started in SFM not knowing what I was doing, and checking tutorials around YouTube and asking other fellow animators. Haven’t taken a single animation or 3D software class or course in my life. I’ve learned all by myself. And it’s definitely a long journey but it’s been one of the most entertaining and fulfilling experiences of my life. Playing with the 4 dimensions and checking your work from the previous month really cheers you up. You can always see progress and critique yourself for improvement.

F: What are your main sources of inspiration when creating new characters?

• G: Well, I don’t really make my own OCs (Original Characters) but mostly recycle ingame models to make my stuff, I usually give them a new body that would match the original character’s proportions and rig it (add bones to it so it can be animated) and then play around with them. Most of my inspiration is dedicated towards the character’s personality and his/her background and life. For example, a character that has a clearly dominant and rough attitude would make more sense to take a dominant role when it comes to the intercoruse. But it’s usually fun to swap those roles which end up giving some interesting results.

F: Do you have any animator or director you take as a reference for your cinematics?

• G: Same as before, not at all. I have the theory that “the more you inspire on other people’s work the less original yours is”, so i try to focus the least possible in other people’s work. It’s really a struggle since you have to discover stuff on your own and most of the times you realize that there are things you think you’ve discovered on your own but then find out that that thing has a name and it can be done better. But the struggle helps you work faster and learn more stuff on the way, mostly because by learning on your own and facing tough situations on your own makes you always take the longest path, and that helps you learn. So it’s positive too.
  
  I do admire and follow a lot of fellow 2D artists, 2D animators, 3D modelers, sculptors and 3D animators, and even some film directors. In this world of NSFW 3D animation I do really admire people like Yeero, Metssfm, HydraFXX and many others. People who clearly know what they’re doing. I tend to focus a lot on how they face the situation, for example, how to place the camera depending on the character’s action, illumination that can evoque a lot of feelings, etc.

F: Would you like to explore other forms of animation in the near future? If so, which ones?

• G: I’m mostly accustomed to making short loops so the viewers can watch them looped as long as they want. But I’ve been wanting to make a longer animation, something with story. It’s so challenging that it almost scares me. I’ll be starting with it this month and we’ll see how it turns out. Maybe you’ll find some of it here soon!

F: How would you say video games and video game characters helped shape you as an artist?

• G: It’s easy. Entirely. That’s my answer. I liked drawing and videogames. I didn’t feel capable of doing a 3D character myself back on its day, though I’ve made some. But being able to use animation ready models like the video game ones helps a lot. It’s easy to work when what you’re using is well done. And even if your final result isn’t good, it will be more satisfying since the base you used is good and it’s a boost of morale. And it ended up developing a passion for animation in me.

F: Favorite game and game characters?

• G: That’s a hard one… I would say that I love all video games where the protagonist is a girl. I’m tired of being the typical badass muscular guy that wields a giant axe twice as big as him. I’d rather play Nier Automata before playing God of War. I really like games like Tomb Raider, I grew up with those (1, 2, 3, Revelations… played them all) though I liked that the older ones involved more exploring and less “beat ’em up”. I really like the Wolfenstein saga since I grew up with it (Wolfenstein 3D… man, they had to write the 3D thing in the title!). Doom of course. Racing games like Need for Speed. Guitar Hero and rhythm games. Shooters and hack and slash ones in general… So about games, to sum up, everything that’s fast paced and involves fast reflexes and if possible killing and monsters, or something that meets those requirements and involves some creativity.
  
  About characters (not talking about bodies or arousal here necessarily)… I’ve always liked Lara Croft. First virtual crush, like for most of us. Maya and Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2 (one is badass and the other one is one of the funniest characters I’ve seen in a video game), 2B of course, Chloe and Max from Life is Strange, Pharah from Overwatch and Neytiri from Avatar. Neytiri is definitely my favourite female character. I usually like the personality before the body or face, as in real life.

F: What do you like to do when you are not working on your lewd art?

• G: Wait, you’re implying there’s something else apart from that? Seriously, though, I spend almost all day in front of the PC, handling Twitter, or Patreon, or just making tests for future animations, or models that will never be finished. Also experimenting with plugins or new ideas for stuff. Apart from that? Well, maybe once or twice a month I meet with my friends and from time to time I play some games or check out some YouTube gameplays to stay tuned for interesting characters or games. Apart from that… this is my life. This is what I do and live for. It’s my job and biggest hobby.

F: Well, that’s some dedication! So tell us, what kind of software do you use to make your models and animations? Which hardware do you work with?

• G: Well, I mostly work in Blender right now. I sometimes need to use Premiere Pro to add sound and edit some of my renders and Photoshop for textures. And about hardware, I have a massive mess right now on top of my desktop. I have an Alienware area 51 Threadripper Edition with a 2080 super which does most of the work and one ultrawide screen for Blender’s viweport and one 49″ super ultrawide for Blender’s different windows with a Wacom One which I use to paint models and textures, or from time to time draw something stupid on Photoshop.

F: What advice would you give to people who want to learn 3D animation, especially 3DX animation?

• G:This is a common one. And I would give the same advice to anyone that wants to learn about 3D animation in general. Try Source Filmmaker. It’s easy and won’t take long to render. I know it doesn’t look as good as other programs like Maya or Blender, but you’ll get the basics. There are lots of tutorials about animation in SFM made by the SFM community that will help you understand how animation works, keyframes, curves, etc. Once you’re familiar with all the info, try something like Blender. Not because I’m a blender fanboy, which I am, but because you’ll have the EEVEE render engine that’s basically a realtime render engine and won’t take long to render. Once you’re happy with you animation and rendering skills involving lightning, materials, etc, you might want to consider switching to Cycles, the other render engine, or maybe even trying another software like 3Dmax, Maya, etc.

F: What would you like people to know about being a 3DX artist?

• G: That we’re people. We’re not monsters. We have our fetishes like everyone else and we’re confident enough to talk about them between us. That makes us a super open minded community, and really friendly. We’ve seen so much weird stuff that the word “weird” has lost its meaning. We’ve learnt to respect each other’s fetishes and we’re always kind to each other. We discuss art and ideas, 3D concepts, and help each other a lot to improve. That might be one of the things that made me fall in love with animation. How friendly people around 3DX animation were.
  
  We’re always helping each other. Everyone shares a bit of their knowledge with the rest and that helps us all grow. It’s a healthy community. We respect each other and barely talk about controversial topics, because we’re peaceful and we don’t like confrontation.
  
  If you, dear reader, are thinking “I wish I could do this” or “I wish someone taught me to do this” don’t’ hesitate. Go for it. It’s fine and no matter what you do, you’ll find people that will love your stuff. Give it a couple tries, you won’t succeed at first, but you’ll see your second was better than your first. Just try it!