Christophe Muller has collected another great Tool-related interview, this time with 3D artist Meats Meier. He discusses a range of subjects, including his work with Tool, Puscifer and much more:
How did it come for you to work with Tool ?
I just got an email from Adam Jones one day asking if I’d be interested to work on the stereoscopic cover artwork for the 10,000 Days album art. Of course, I was extremely interested, I was always a big Tool fan, and obviously a big fan of stereoscopic art (as well as holographic, anaglyph, and basically anything 3D). The CD even won a Grammy for "Best Packaging" that year.Can you relate the way you build the artwork for 10,000 Days and the animations for the concerts ?
The characters and objects are more or less sculpted inside of the computer using programs like Maya and Zbrush. I can paint them and give them surfaces that mimic real world objects like metal, skin or anything I can dream up. I insert "bones" into the characters, and then can puppet them and animate them the way I want them to move. The real magic happens when I hand over my finished animations to Breckenridge Haggerty (the video guy for Tool), and he re-mixes them to match the music as it’s being played. I’m always blown away by what he can do, and the level that he can bring to my work.
Well worth checking out…