Corky Lehmkuhl

Corky = Corky Lehmkuhl (Character Art and Design)

LadyPain: For the readers, who are you and what do you do?
Corky: I design, model and texture characters for video games.

LadyPain: Anything you want to get off your chest before we get down to it?
Corky: The Los Angeles kings better be good this Season.

LadyPain: How did you get into the business?
Corky: Before video games, I was a penciler for Marvel and Image comics. After a couple years in comics I wanted a change. I really wanted to get into video games and learn about computers. I heard about a computer game company that was looking for artists: Xatrix entertainment. I had an interview and two weeks later I began working as a conceptual artist.

LadyPain: Do you enjoy it?
Corky: Every moment. It 's the coolest job I have ever had.

LadyPain: Who elses' work, in the industry, do you admire?
Corky: I really dig Kenneth Scott's work over at Id. I recently had a chance to go to id and see some of the up coming Quake3 characters and man they're very, very cool. Steed and Scott are a great team. I also like the teamfortress 2 characters. I don't know who is modeling and skinning them, but the detail is really nice.

LadyPain: What tips would you give to someone who wanted to get in the industry and do what you do?
Corky: Love video games. Get some instruction on figure drawing. Fill hundreds of sketchbooks. Learn Photoshop and 3dsmax. Love video games. Love comic books. Be prepared to work 75 hours a week for four months out of the year. Learn to take criticism. Make contacts. Send portfolios to headhunters and producers.

LadyPain: Do you play games in your spare time, if so what kinda stuff do you enjoy?
Corky: I used to play a lot more games before I started making them. I mostly play console stuff now: NHL 99, Driver, Legend of Zelda, Mario 64 (anything by Shigeru Miyomoto). When I play on the computer I usually play just first person shooters: Quake3, half-life. I am trying to stay away from Everquest, that game is really tweaking people.

LadyPain: Is there a Kingpin 2 in the works?
Corky: No, not yet.

LadyPain: Any plans for a "mission pack" for Kingpin?
Corky: We're not planning on doing one and I haven't heard anything official about someone else doing one.

LadyPain: What was the atmosphere like during the early days of making Kingpin?
Corky: Sunny and bright.

LadyPain: And towards the end, when it was almost done?
Corky: Some scattered showers.

LadyPain: You want to let us all in on Xatrix's next project?
Corky: Nope.

LadyPain: What do you reckon of the fan sites?
Corky: I am really impressed with the passion and dedication everyone puts into the sites. They show there are a lot of talented people out there and they provide a grass roots backbone for a product.

LadyPain: Are you aware of some of the mods in production, like Bodybag's "Hoodlums" mod? What do you reckon?
Corky: Yea, I have only seen some screenshots of the weapon models and they look awesome.

LadyPain: How do you start out when you're starting a skin.
Corky: After making the model, I do a rough layout of the skin, positioning the pieces for optimum texture space. I then use 3dsmax to apply the texture coordinates and the layout texture. For kingpin, since we were going with more skins than models, it was important to make a model that would allow for a variety of skins. To do this, on the layout texture, I dropped a grid to make sure I could cut the skin in as many places as possible. As for actually painting the skin, it really came down to just coming up with characters that I really wanted to see come at me in the game and that reflect their placement in the environment

LadyPain: What did you use as a base for the Kingpin skins?
Corky: I started with doing a flesh skin for each character and then just giving each one a T-shirt, pants, jacket, etc. and progressing from there.

LadyPain: How important was the Diesel license to the Kingpin skins?
Corky: Not important at all. We had some kind of deal with them where they would display the game in their stores in England so we had to put their logos on some of the characters.

LadyPain: Which gives more to the "look" of a game? Texture art or skin art?
Corky: Skins, of course! Naw, I really think it's a symbiotic relationship, they both need to function together to suck the player in visually.

LadyPain: What do you reckon of the 3rd party skins on Westside?
Corky: Damn good stuff. I really enjoy seeing the variety of skins and the mileage people are getting out of the models.

LadyPain: Who's your fave 3rd party skinner from what you've seen?
Corky: Everyone.

Here's some questions from others

verbatim : bodybag entertainment

Verbatim: How long did those skins for Kingpin take you? Cause they're damned good.
Corky: Well it took the full year to generate the skins. A lot were thrown out.

Verbatim: Do you listen to music whilst skinning? If so what?
Corky: Oh, yea, lots of muzac and coffee. I like a wide variety of stuff. Right now I'm into Bonga. If you like African revolutionary singers I suggest you pick up Angola '72 and '74.

Verbatim: Where did you get your inspiration for the skins from?
Corky: Comics, movies, Illustrators.

D3ADP00L : third party skinner

D3ADP00L: How did you do the faces for Kingpin?
Corky: I started out with about ten faces and just tweaked them-changing expressions, scars, zits, etc.

D3ADP00L: What program do you favour for skinning?
Corky: For creating the texture coordinates I use 3dsmax and for the actual painting I use Photoshop and Painter3d

D3ADP00L: Do you use a mouse or tablet?
Corky: Tablet.

And here's a couple of fun questions, just because...

LadyPain: reflmap.tga looks like a fish-eyed picture of a bar, where's the bar and do Xatrix drink there?
Corky: I have no idea where that bar is.

LadyPain: Lara Croft, what's up with that?
Corky: Yea, what's up with her?

LadyPain: Spaceships or Dinosaurs - which is cooler?
Corky: Dinosaurs flying spaceships

LadyPain: Why don't we have side-scrollers any more?
Corky: Long live Blackthorne.

LadyPain: What's your favourite cheese?
Corky: Sharon stone

LadyPain: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Corky: Get rid of my god damn nose hairs.

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