Star Citizen concept artist Gurmukh Bhasin shares an insight into his 3D designs...

Gurmukh Bhasin is a concept artist based in Los Angeles, California, where his background in traditional art and architecture has stood him in good stead for a career in digital concept design. He's currently working on Star Citizen, the record-breaking crowd-funded sci-fi game by Cloud Imperium Games.



Hello, Gurmukh! Please could you tell us a little about yourself: who are you, where are you, and what do you do?

Gurmukh Bhasin: Hi, my name is Gurmukh Bhasin. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I still live in LA, and love calling this amazing city my home. I am currently a concept artist with a passion for architecture, environments, props and vehicles. I approach all of my concept designs as if I am creating something real, dissecting all of the details to make sure everything functions cohesively. Coming from an architecture background, I like to push the narrative behind my work, beyond the bounds of concept, constructing my pieces as elements that could be deployed as real vehicles, props and environments. I have found that designing in 3D is the closest you can get to building something in the real world, and it is why I like to do the majority of my concept designs in 3D.

Interior view of the Constellation Phoenix ship for Star Citizen

What's your artistic and educational background? Did you always aspire to learn 3D?

GB: When I first started my higher education back in 2000, I wasn't even aware that concept art existed as a profession. My educational and professional background is in architecture. I have my bachelor's degree from Arizona State University, my master's degree from Southern California Institute of Architecture, and I worked as an architectural designer for over seven years prior to becoming a concept artist.



When I first started my architecture education in 2000, I did most of my projects by hand. This meant doing drawings with a pencil and parallel bar, and building scaled basswood models of my designs. At that time I was actually intimidated by digital tools and 3D design. When I enrolled in graduate school in 2005, I started using Maya 6.0 as a way to explore architectural forms and design languages. Needless to say, I fell in love with the program and the digital practice of design. Ever since then, I have been teaching myself Maya through online tutorials and a class at Gnomon.



While challenging and even frustrating at times, being able to see the evolution of my modeling and digital design skills over the past 10 years has been incredibly rewarding, and I'm so grateful to all the friends and mentors who've taken the time to help me get to where I am today.

HEMTT-M1075, Gurmukh made this model in 2013 for the advanced hard-surface modeling class with Max Dayan at Gnomon

Who or what are your biggest creative inspirations?

GB: I have a wide variety of creative inspirations. Some of my biggest ones stem from architecture, because that's really where my affinity for design began. Growing up I was pretty hardcore into skateboarding and skated for over 15 years. In 2005 I went on a life-changing skateboarding trip to Barcelona, Spain. The architecture in Barcelona is amazing. Being able to tour the Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudí was awe-inspiring. Standing in that space, you could really see the thought process behind the design of the building unfold, and the models he created to figure out the design were so intricate and incredible. That building, along with the whole city of Barcelona, probably tops my list of creative inspirations.



I am also deeply inspired by religious buildings around the world, especially in India, which is where my father is from. Churches and temples are so beautifully designed and clearly constructed with passion and care. I am personally not very religious, but when I visit one of these buildings I can't help but to feel inspired to create something new and beautiful.



My professor from graduate school, Tom Wiscombe is one of my favorite architectural designers. The aesthetic he's cultivated over the last decade and the visual representations of his designs are so unique and captivating. I reference his work often, especially when I'm feeling stuck on a sci-fi project. Another architect whose work I love is Zaha Hadid. The forms of her buildings are beautiful to see and experience and leave you with countless ideas flowing through your mind.



For digital art, I have a few select concept artists that I can't get enough of. One is David Hobbins, whom I met a concept art event; he eventually become a good friend who helped me get my first concept art job many years down the line. Daniel Simon and Ben Procter are also on the top of my list of artists that inspire me to keep pushing my designs and skills and getting better with every new project I take on. They give me something to keep striving for, like a carrot on the end of a stick. Every time I look at their work I feel inspired to get better at what I do, to keep studying and practicing so one day I can be as good as them. And of course I am inspired by Syd Mead and Ralph McQuarrie, but that should go without saying. I love getting lost in their art, almost like falling into a dream or creative meditation.



Lastly, I am always heavily inspired by the beauty of nature and the beauty of the built environment that surrounds us. A gorgeous sunset always gets my creative brain juices flowing, and so does seeing cracks in a sidewalk or graffiti in a sketchy alley. Seeing cities blend with nature as it evolves and changes, the layers that time brings to something, and admiring the patchwork history in anything is always inspiring.

Carrack, Some views of the Carrack in context, with rendering help from Chris Olivia



GB: For 3D modeling, I love Maya over any other 3D software I have ever used. After having become fluent in its modeling tool set, it almost feels like an extension of my hand. The shortcut menus are set up to be highly intuitive and the program rarely gets in the way of my being able to design what I have envisioned in my mind. Being able to test out shapes, details and functionality in 3D as if what I am working on is a real thing is priceless to me. Knowing that my perspective and dimensions are always correct, designing things from all angles and figuring everything out is always my goal when designing.



I use V-Ray or KeyShot for rendering – lately it has been primarily KeyShot. It is just really easy to get beautiful images out of KeyShot in a short amount of time. Using KeyShot helps me stay focused on creating images that accurately represent my design concepts and the program doesn't technically get in the way of me staying in 'artist mode'.



Photoshop is such an amazing tool for post-processing. I use a Wacom Intuos Pro medium tablet with Photoshop and love being able to add a few paint strokes, scratches, dirt, atmosphere and more to my raw renderings to elevate them to the next level.



Those tools pretty much complete 99% of my daily workflow. I model the majority of my detail already, so my KeyShot renders are really far along and my Photoshop post-processing work is minimal with just a few minor tweaks.

Fantasy Mosque, Architecture inspired by the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi

Could you describe your general 3D workflow for us?

GB: My process is pretty simple. I usually start with some hand-drawn sketches to get ideas flowing and then quickly jump into Maya to start massing out and sketching concepts digitally in 3D. I love using Maya as my main design tool, because it's where I really get to explore ideas in multiple dimensions. I try to make sure that my designs actually work; making them in 3D is really the only way to ensure clipping doesn't happen, that there is enough room for things to open and players to walk through, and to make sure everything is being designed to the right size and fit.



I take my 3D designs to the highest detail I can through modeling. I model in cut lines, bolts, etc. All of these elements serve to make the final renderings that much more vivid. I usually don't worry too much about polygon count, as these are just concept models, and I often don't do much UV-unwrapping or 3D texturing. After I am done designing and modeling in Maya, I render out my designs in either V-Ray or KeyShot. Lastly I jump into Photoshop to integrate any final design details, composite my images together, add some wear and tear and do a few magical Photoshop tweaks to bring the image to life.



One really cool thing about doing concept design in 3D is handing off my full 3D model and final renders to the game modelers to get started on building the optimized game asset. This gives them a huge head start, as they already have my full design in 3D as a base to work from, and at the same time keeps the final asset looking as close to my design as I intended it to be (unless some major design change happens on their end).

Forgotten Church, This piece was inspired by the concept artist James Paick

You've been working on Star Citizen, an ambitious new space sim by Cloud Imperium Games. Could you tell us more about Star Citizen and what makes it such a special project?

GB: Star Citizen is such an amazing project to work on, and I feel truly blessed to have been a part of the team for over a year now. Star Citizen has many different aspects that make it so unique. For starters, we are the highest crowd-funded game, and as of now have raised over 85 million dollars towards development. We are even in the Guinness World Records for being the most crowd-funded project of all time.



Part of being fully crowd-funded is that we are an open-development project. This means that we share everything we are working on with the backers and fans of the game as each individual element is completed. This isn't the typical way games are developed, but I find it a lot more fun and satisfying, because my hard work is shown right away and the fans get to see it and react to it. I actually feel like I am contributing to the project when I see the things I work on bring in lots of money and attention to the game and help bring this project to life. Star Citizen has some of the best fans ever and I really enjoy being able to interact with them through our open development platform. I get to see their feedback and requests. It definitely informs my design process, and I love seeing if I can incorporate their suggestions into the ships I design.



Since Star Citizen is fully funded by its fans, we are able to create what we want instead of being told what we can and can't do if we were to have a traditional publisher. Our founder and CEO Chris Roberts isn't interested in making the same old game, following the same old process and doing things as they have been done for years. He is truly making Star Citizen the way he wants it, breaking all the rules, daring to dream big and making that dream a reality. He doesn't care about taking the easy road to make something that is good, he wants to take the hard road to make something beyond amazing, something that is going to change the gaming industry for the better. I often feel like working with Chris Roberts is a lot like working for Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg in their early days. It is definitely a wild ride, but you have a strong belief that what you are working on is going to be beyond amazing when it is complete.

Vanguard, Illustrative renders of the Vanguard for Star Citizen, with thanks to Chris Olivia and Elwin Bachiller for their contributions