Caami Galarza: Failure is Just the Beginning of Mastery
A lot of things drives us to do what we do–to pursue our passions and reinvent ourselves into a better version of who we were yesterday.
Indeed, triumph can easily make one feel elated and invulnerable. But what of failure? Isn’t it just as potent a teacher, or probably even better?
ZBrush artist, Caami Galarza knows this first hand. She credits her learning toward apparent mastery to a failure she once experienced. She sees it as something that had inculcated in her a greater regard for her work and the craft, thus motivating her to push further.
Let us get to know Ms. Caami Galarza though this short feature and learn a thing or two about how one should keep treading the path you had chosen despite the hurdles and possible missteps along the way.
Xeno Creatives (XC): ZBrush technology brought a lot to the industry. What processes did you have to learn to be skilled in it?
Caami Galarza (CG): Honestly, to get where I am now I had to look up a lot of tutorials in the internet. In my country there isn’t a lot of schools about Game Art or Digital sculpting so sources were scarce when I began with the discipline. I still look for new tutorials to get better every day; I know there isn’t an end to this. Software in general, and ZBrush too, keep changing and workflows become more efficient every day.
XC: As a dedicated artist how did ZBrush help you further your art?
CG: At some point I had to incorporate ZBrush to my workflow because I knew it was especially better for characters and organic things (something that I’m passionate with!). It helped me a lot in matters involving time (had models blocked out in a half time) and improved a lot my perception of figures in general.
XC: Was your craft really a passion to begin with, a hobby, or a mere job?
CG: I wasn’t aware I would love it so much! At the beginning there was only one thing I was sure about: I wanted to be part of the video game industry. I’ve tried almost every position (I was really into Programming at first) but then I realized that 3D was something that kept me really inspired after experiencing something everyone fears: failure. And I started to see that I was improving somewhat “fast” after this failure, so I needed to give it a shot. So maybe yes, I could say it was passion for the video game industry that drives me!
XC: Given your experience in the industry, what do you think is your edge as a 3D artist?
CG: I could say that as I’m always modeling Characters, I’m really more into that than props and inorganic things. But I always try to find some balance and study some other things, like hand painting tileable textures or creating dioramas from concepts.
XC: Whom do you do you consider your influence(s)?
CG: Actually, everyone who does beautifully hand painted characters and environments are my influences. I usually look into Artsation and Sketchfab feeds and take notes about what I should improve. But of course there’s someone I really like; her work had inspired me to get into this way. Yekaterina Bourykina’s work pushed me to focus in hand painted textures. What I really struggle with are textures at this point so looking up to her amazing way to texture it’s really helping.
XC: So far, what were the challenges that you had encountered working in the 3D industry?
CG: I’ve started working in the industry as a 3D Generalist, so it wasn’t easy for me that I always did Characters no matter what. But managed to learn from my teammates and had a lot of fun and software crashes in the process!
XC: What is your most exciting project to date?
CG: I could say “The Moon Witch” was the most exciting. From the original concept that was really inspiring (thanks to Juli T. Artwork for being so talented) I felt that I really pushed myself to get a good final result and I’m very happy with it.
XC: Do you have any advice to aspiring artists?
CG: Sometimes I see professionals in the industry giving advice to people who are just beginning their journey in this, so I won’t credit myself, but failing isn’t the end of the line. It’s just the beginning of improvement. Some people would take longer to learn, others not so much. But that’s not the point. The point is to feel gratitude of making what you want the most. And that should be enough “fuel” to get to the end of the road! 🙂
Want to see more of Caami Ganza’s awesome works? Click here!
