3D Modeler Jay Kushwara – From Concept to Digital Model

Sure can, at least the ones that have been officially shown or released. If I mention anything else I'd have to feed you to a Rancor ;-) . I'd also like to clarify my role in sculpting or 3D modeling these figures. Technically, I'm not a designer. The designers are the artists who create the original concepts and input art for the figures. Even though I do a lot of 3D design work to create the digital model I'm not brought on board until the Hasbro designer has done their job first!

[Click here for a complete list of figures Jay has worked on]

That's a really tough question! I don't think I can name a single figure, but let me try and name a few favorites and explain why.

The TAC R2-D2 has the top slot since it was my first project for the Hasbro SW figure line.

L8-L9 is my favorite Build a Droid due to my being a longtime Genndy Tartakovsky Fan! He's also the one droid figure I've done that has a clean Art Deco style. His forms are all simple but really elegant. Not to mention the huge flame bursts—can't go wrong with those!

PS—if there's any chance that Genndy or Paul Rudish are reading this interview I'd love to connect with you guys.

CW IG88 assassin is my favorite hands down for pose-ability. I've seen online photo shoots where he's in poses I would have never imagined possible.

If I have to name a favorite based solely on technical merit that would have to be the Legends C3PO. That figure was the hardest of all of them. I suspect we'll be talking more about that a little later.

We usually start out with control art, either drawings or images provided by the designer. I'll take the initial 2D artwork and use a number of different 3D modeling software packages to create a full 3D version of the character, incorporating all of the engineering and articulation requirements. The sculpting project manager I've worked with for most of the SW figures is Dave Vennemeyer. It's definitely a team effort—Dave's a fantastic sculptor and engineer in his own right and we're constantly going back and forth to work out all the issues that crop up when doing figures like these. Most of the time we're also working closely with designers and marketing people as the figure is being developed.

The final deliverable is a set of 3D files that are printed out on a high fidelity 3D printing system. I'm basically sending in a digital version of the complete figure with everything ready to assemble and articulate. It has to be 100% functional in digital form so when it's printed it's ready to assemble and works just like the manufactured figure will.

Tweaks are a constant part of the process. Creating a successful figure involves a ton of collaboration. I'm always showing examples of how everything is looking and functioning throughout the process. Every time a new image is reviewed there are usually comments to address. After I've finished a model that we're all happy with it gets submitted to Lucasfilm Licensing for their final approval.

All the Build a Droid figures were initially designed to be just that, and as I mentioned before the digital models had to function just like the final manufactured versions would. We took great pains to ensure that all the parts would interchange with other BAD figures. All of the features and articulation on a figure is thoroughly worked out at the start.

As far as the coloration and paint design that’s also worked out by the designers before I get involved.

Reference can vary wildly from project to project. We'll always get approved character reference from Lucasfilm to start, but I often have to spend time scouring my book collection and web archives to find just the right images. I recall spending a few hours researching just the feet on one particular droid figure! It was crazy to see how many differences there were between versions used in the films. There was another project where I spent another few hours painstakingly lining up details culled from loads of different reference images all taken from different sides of the prop. I approach these projects like I'm doing a forensic reconstruction—not just relying on a few reference images. I'll look for any and every piece of reference possible. If it's a film based character you also have to think about how it was built, what materials were used, was it a suit or a mechanical prop. Every piece of information helps you understand the reference better.

Unfortunately I can’t share the main reference. All of the material I’m given is considered confidential and proprietary. Any time you work on a licensed property you have to sign extensive NDA agreements that prohibit anything from being shared.

Thanks! I had completely forgotten about Nikto not being in the first version—I'm glad he finally made it!

Nothing special that I recall, just that we follow the CG model reference as closely as possible. It was a bit tricky to get the front opening doors and flip up arms to fit inside the body and still allow space for the standard build a droid leg posts to fit. Though after having done the legacy R2 figure with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in R7 was pretty easy.

I honestly had no idea there was any flack over the 3PO figure. I wasn't following the online community too closely, but was a bit surprised when I did find out. 3PO was the single most complex 4" figure I've ever worked on.
 
It may not be obvious, but the amount of engineering and coordination involved in this figure was huge.

It was hard enough to create an accurate 3PO sculpt, let alone one with removable panels that all have to have a minimum wall thickness for manufacturing and then have to fit in all the internal detailing behind the panels! Not to mention having the head, arms and lower shin all removable so kids and collectors could recreate all of 3PO's classic "unassembled" stages from Empire.

We went through a ton of reference—taking into consideration all the minor differences between the suits used in each film. Details like the visible wires that run across the gap between the chest and pelvis plates had to be resolved. How many small square plates were there on his palms? How many concentric rings were there on the circular abdomen plate? What was the correct contour for the layered plates on his pelvis? Every separate body shell piece was scrutinized and reproduced as faithfully as possible. The same amount of care was taken with the internal detailing—striving to reproduce the inner structure seen in Episode 1 faithfully. The only design element/detail on that figure that wasn't based on painstaking research was the detailing on the inside of the removable shell parts. That we had to make up as the inside surfaces of 3PO's body shells were never shown.

This 3PO was intended to be part of the vintage line from the beginning. As mentioned above, our goal was to make the ultimate OT 3PO.

I really appreciate your saying that it could have been a definitive 3PO – that was my intent all along for the exterior sculpt of the figure when assembled. I really strove to make the most technically accurate 4" 3PO sculpt to date. To me, Including the E1 interior components along with the "Empire" styled removable limbs made for the "Ultimate" C3PO. He's got features that connect with every film in the series! I was also really inspired by the idea of doing a 3PO with features that had never been attempted before at this scale. I could be way off, but I can't think of any other figure in the 4" SW line that has achieved anything this complex.

That's a good question! I know the figure scales are carefully worked out before I get the designs, based on Lucas film reference material. The SW team has tried to up the bar so to speak with each new re sculpt of a character, pushing for more accuracy with each version. I did reference older R2 figures in the 4" line, along with the 12" figure version, but only for the manufacturing approach. The Vintage R2 was built completely from scratch and based on the original production design / technical blueprints. Just like with 3PO, I pushed to make the most accurate 4" R2 yet.  

I can't speak for any E5 2-1B figures unfortunately. The E3 version was a lot of fun. As much as I liked the iconic connection to E5, the "new" version of 21-B shown in E3 had a much more sinister air about him.

Not at this point. I have no idea what the future plans are for the Build a Droid line. Sorry!

It was an honor to get to do the McQuarrie concept R2. I was 11 years old when I saw E4 originally released in '77. You know, back when it was just called Star Wars ;-)  I spent that whole summer with McQuarrie's classic book cover and Greg and Tim Hildebrand's one sheet firmly etched in my brain. I'd love to see more concept figures done—but have no idea what's on the horizon.

I know it's not being discussed as part of this interview, but my single biggest professional honor was creating the McQuarrie Darth Vader Concept helmet for eFX. As much fun as the concept R2 was, getting to tackle the first and only authorized full size reproduction of Ralph's original Vader design was a dream come true.

I had no idea there was so much BG-J38 love! That's great to hear, he's one of the most obscure droid figures I've done. My favorites out of the other "lesser" featured droids were the Treadwell, 2X-7KPR and last but certainly not least the latest version of the Mouse Droid.  I don't have any clue as to future plans for an 8D8.

To answer the first question, it wasn't obvious at the time it was done. We placed the feet in a way that made sense at the time. Sometimes you try something that should work in theory, and even work as a prototype, then once it gets into production you find out that because of manufacturing limitations, changes, or even just the weight of material used it may not work as planned.

On the second question, I think we might have discussed it at one point, but it obviously never came to pass.

I've developed a niche for myself as a hard surface modeler. I can do organic characters without a doubt and occasionally do (I did a Lizard figure for Hasbro's upcoming Amazing Spiderman line). I love figurative sculpting, anatomy, likenesses and creatures. I started my professional career as a special effects makeup artist and focused on creature work and prosthetic makeups. After shifting gears I worked as a traditional sculptor, at what used to be Kenner Toys in Cincinnati working on lines like the Signature series Alien Resurrection, Legends of the Dark Knight, Batman and Robin, ect. After a couple of years in the trenches I graduated to being a Sculpting Project manager for several lines. Back then I was doing lots of character sculpts, mostly by hand with traditional materials. That being said, after transitioning to Digital work I guess that what I do for the hard surface models has been exceptional in the eyes of my clients, and they would prefer to give me the really complex projects.

I usually tell people that I'm 50% sculptor, 30% engineer and 20% model maker. What I bring to the table is not only being a good sculptor, but 15+ years of experience with engineering, manufacturing, and over 10 years experience developing cutting edge digital tools and workflows.

As for the Nikto cannon—the clip was intentional; it was specifically designed for the Skiff. As for a Sail Barge, I have no idea. That would be one huge chunk of plastic though, and these days with rising material and manufacturing costs I'd hate to think of what the shelf price would have to be!

Thanks for the kind words on the model; as for the size I'm kind of in the dark on that one. As mentioned before, when the figures are developed we're given a specific height to match. I'm sure what we worked to was accurate. It's possible that somewhere along the line changes were made for manufacturing and the height was affected. I don't have any production samples of this figure either, so I haven't had a chance to check his height. Sorry I can't be any more help than that! I do love the design; Doug Chang really hit that one out of the park on Episode 1. Now if only something could have been done about that voice ;-)

Truth be told I haven't done many SW projects this past year. It would be great to jump back into that universe again! I've spent most of my time lately in the Marvel Universe doing lots and lots of Iron Men and that's kept me awfully busy. With any luck, the SW team at Hasbro will find a whole new army of droid figures that have yet to be done :-) Star Wars was my first true passion growing up. I'm old enough to have seen E4 in theatres and spend close to a year afterwards wishing I could get ANY kind of toy from the film. It was amazing to think of now, in this day and age where you can get all the main character action figures from a movie even before it's in theatres!  I had to make my own Darth Vader figure out of an old Action Jackson, sculpting a Vader head on it myself! Kids these days... hold the phone, I need to go yell at some to get off my lawn ;-)

Product development cycles are considered confidential. The only thing I can comment on here is that my process takes 2-6 week for model development, depending on how complex the design is. The whole development process for a figure generally takes 12 months. I come on board after the designs are completed and approved and after I’m finished the piece goes on to the production phase.

I usually buy them when they hit the stores. I'd venture to say that many of your readers have more complete collections of my work than I do!