Hello dear Affect3D readers!
Today marks the end of our Epoch week, and what better way to conclude it than with an exclusive interview!
Epoch tells about himself, his products and his experiences as an artist! Without further ado, let’s jump right to it!
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All of our readers and customers probably already know you from, among others, The Dossier Series. But let’s still start of with the basics:
Please tell us a little something about yourself! Who are you and what do you do outside of 3DX?
Hey guys, thanks so much for featuring me again! I go by the name Epoch and I live in beautiful San Diego, California. Outside of making computer generated erotica, I like playing guitar, video games, charcoal drawing, cooking, going to the movies, drinking whiskey and wine, visiting wineries with my lovely girlfriend, and hanging out with friends. Making computer generated erotica has been my full-time job since 2012, so if you were curious what my “real” job is… this is it.
In 2011 and 2012 we were also lucky and got an interview with you. Even though we already discussed this back then, perhaps you can still give a little insight into your journey towards becoming a 3DX artist for new readers.
How did you get started in art? And how did that lead into creating 3DX?
I have a pretty solid background in traditional art. From a young age, I always loved art and especially enjoyed drawing. When I was in 4th grade I would steal Xerox paper from my teacher’s desk, cut the sheets into little rectangles, staple them together into little booklets, and draw comics. I would then duplicate the comic several times over, and sell them to my classmates for a nickel. Eventually, my teacher made me stop selling them but she did allow me to illustrate all of our lessons on the Revolutionary War and then she posted them on the wall in the classroom. I also remember in 5th grade I won an art contest and my colored pencil drawing of an astronaut standing on Neptune was displayed with other students work at a local museum.
As I got older I kept drawing, and when I got to college I chose film/video production as my major and took courses in directing, cinematography, screenwriting, et al. I also took lots of other art courses: photography, human figure drawing, dynamic anatomy, clothed figure drawing, chiaroscuro, painting (both traditional water color and gouache), color theory, and art history.
It was around 2002 that I first discovered the 3D software Poser (I got started in Poser 4 with Victoria 2 and Michael 2) and began playing around with it. At the time, it was just for fun, but I was learning 3D fundamentals and posting my works up for critique at Renderosity , RuntimeDNA, and Renderotica. I made some faux comic pages just for fun, posted them at Renderotica, and was approached by the Content Manager at CrazyXXX3DWorld offering me a contract artist position. I declined at first, but after nearly a year I came around and took him up on his offer. That’s when I created my first erotic CG comic, Freehope, back in November of 2006. That was the beginning of my journey that led me to where I am today.
Since we’re already on the subject of 3DX, I would like to talk a bit more about some of your products! When looking at all of your works it seems you’ve really created, I quote, ‘an Epoch art universe’. You’ve released several story-driven comics consisting of multiple episodes. And besides that you’ve also created sets under the name of ‘The Dossier Series’.
Could you tell us some more about these comics and image sets? What’s the biggest difference between these two?
![Ember Riley from Dark Rift]()
Ember Riley from Dark Rift
The Dossier Series was created as a response to fans who were asking for more frequent releases and more sexual content. I approach my comics as a writer first, and pornographer second. This is the space in which I work. I’m trying my best to realize a universe of rich worlds and fully fleshed out characters. And I have a large fan base that is invested in this universe I’m creating across my various IPs. But creating full-length comics is incredibly time consuming, so The Dossier Series was created to satisfy the fans desire for more sex and faster releases. However, I wasn’t interested in creating simple image sets with random lifeless characters based around a simple contrived premise. So the characters and the visual narratives in The Dossier Series tie into their respective comic universe (Freehope, Clara Ravens, or Dark Rift) and are considered canonical. That way, I cater to both of my fan types: the ones who enjoy the story and characters, and the ones who just want porn.
But if you want to be reductive, the simple answer is that the comics are much longer, use word balloons to push the narrative forward, contain animation, audio score/sound effects, and bonus features such as character bios, 3D turntables, and desktop wallpapers. The dossiers rely on visual storytelling to push the narrative forward (no word balloons), and contain no bonus features. But they are much less time consuming to make and come out more frequently than the comics.
While some sets are more story driven than others, they all feel like a lot of thought has been given to them. Especially when looking at the setting. Is there a special reason for this? And how do you come up with all these different and original settings?
World-building is incredibly important to me. My favorite part, next to storytelling, is set-building. I love making my worlds feel truly lived in. I can happily spend weeks building the sets and getting the lighting just right. The setting does so much to evoke the mood of the overall piece, so nailing that is crucial. A lot of artists just go with an ‘out of the box’ set and simple high-key lighting approach, which is fine, but to make your work evocative you have to give everything that extra layer of detail. Put simply, the more time spent on set building and lighting, the more the reader will feel immersed.
I enjoy the dossiers as an opportunity to explore character’s backstory, and set up future events in the full-length comics. When coming up with ideas, my assistant Xipomus (the dude is world-class awesome and he deserves a shout-out for being with me every day on this journey for around five years at this point) and I will kick around concepts as they relate to my characters’ pasts, and come up with something that will work canonically and also be erotic and entertaining. We also strive to come up with something unique each release to keep things fresh and new, as resting on your laurels is the quickest way to become irrelevant. Lastly, we take the desires of the fan majority into consideration to keep them happy and engaged. It’s a juggling act to be sure, and makes the conceptual phase take a while, but it’s all worth it seeing the fan reaction at project’s end.
Looking at your website, I couldn’t help but notice that you have given the main characters of your stories a real personality and detailed backgrounds. Could you perhaps introduce us to some of the characters and their stories? You once mentioned Kendra is your favorite, is she still?
Well, the story of Freehope began as a sort of a Bible Black concept, featuring a girl named Kendra Blake who is sent to a female detention facility resting in the quiet Mount Freehope. The story starts to get sinister as Kendra looks to escape and accidentally sees something horrific. She acquires a magical book that starts unraveling her reality.
Clara Ravens is the protagonist of my series Clara Ravens, who was based on Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider video game franchise. She’s developed quite a lot beyond that, however, and while I’ve borrowed a lot of core elements of the original series, it has slowly adapted over time and has pushed farther away from her genesis. But essentially, she is a wealthy British treasure hunter who takes jobs to find mystical relics for a fee. Yeah, okay, so the apple didn’t fall THAT far from the tree!
![Kendra Blake from Freehope]()
Kendra Blake from Freehope
Then there’s Dark Rift, my newest IP, which was inspired by the Mass Effect and Dead Space video game franchises as well as the television show Firefly and its movie sequel Serenity. This is my favorite right now, and I have big plans for all of the characters. This science fiction comic will be quite the saga, as all of the characters storylines will be interwoven, and the core cast will be quite large. The story is of a soldier named Kole who lost his wife and daughter at the ineptitude of the military he served, so he abandons the military and becomes a fugitive. This comic features a few female protagonists, namely Polly “Pixie” Talbish, Callisto “Callie” Salehi, Ember Riley, Sierra (an android Kole created as a surrogate for his dead wife), and Fyra Leighton. To date, only Polly, Sierra, and Fyra have appeared in the Dark Rift comic. The rest have been featured in dossiers, but they will eventually be in the comic itself.
I also have another IP called Breaking Point featuring an FBI detective named Samantha Radisson who is looking for her missing sister. It’s got elements of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut in its premise. On her journey, she discovers that her sister is part of some underground sex cult and is in serious danger. This will be a mini-series of only three parts. Right now only part one has been completed.
Regarding a favorite character, it’s really hard to say. Kendra will always have a soft spot in my heart, as she was written first (again, this is way back in 2006), but even with six episodes of Freehope under my belt, I still feel that subsequent characters have been fleshed out more in the comics to date. Truthfully, the early Freehope story was a little one-note, but Kendra’s core personality was fleshed out (driven, erudite, melancholy, brave). I’ve learned a lot since then, and my two semesters of screenwriting have helped immensely. My narratives and characters have gotten much more complex, and I feel Polly and Kole from Dark Rift are two of the most complex I’ve written since I started. Going back and reading my oldest comics, I cringe a bit at the stilted dialogue and obvious exposition, but I feel I’ve improved so that episodes going foward will hopefully keep the reader engaged and rooting for their favorite characters.
So it seems you have created many IPs, each consisting of several chapters. But how come we haven’t seen the full stories of some of them?
All content prior to Clara Ravens Episode 3 Epilogue: Homeward Bound was created when I was working as a contract artist for CrazyXXX3DWorld. I started with them in 2006, and while there put out a sizable body of work: Episodes 1-6 of Freehope, episodes 1-3 of Clara Ravens, episode 1 of Breaking Point, and one-offs Tryst and The Trainer. The contract stipulations were that they paid me a set dollar amount per finished page and that was it. They then owned the comic outright. I was entitled to no residuals in website subscriptions, no bonuses, no nothing. For years I was content with my rate per page increasing steadily with each comic I sold them, but eventually they started seeing declining sales and they branched out.
As I was browsing DLsite.com one day (a Japanese doujin and hentai site), I was floored when I saw all of my comics for sale there. I was furious, so I asked the Content Manager at CrazyXXX3DWorld what the deal was. I was told in no uncertain terms that it’s “none of my business.” Apparently the owner of CrazyXXX3DWorld decided to try and supplement his business model by selling contract artists’ artwork in other markets. At that point, I decided to finish the set I was doing for them and move on.
I asked if I could buy back all of my body of work, but the owner refused. I had thought of redoing sort of what you’d call “HD remasters” of the most popular original comics, as I only sold them the artwork; the stories, characters, sets, etc. are all still mine. I have all the scenes and sets saves in a format where I could go back, re-texture, re-light, and redo the aspect ratio (for some bizarre reason, they wanted all artwork rendered to an aspect ratio that literally no monitor whatsoever uses). That way, even though the story is the same, it is new artwork and therefore doesn’t violate the original contract. It would be fun to revisit all those sets and redo the original comics, but those sets are so old at this point that they’ve been already pirated into oblivion. And even the remasters would be a lot of work. I’d much rather just make new artwork.
So, all of my oldest body of work is available for sale exclusively at CrazyXXX3DWorld. Feel free to check them out there if you want. If you do though, use this link HERE if you don’t mind, as that is an affiliate link and it helps me at least get a few bucks off the sale.
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All of your comics can be read with the Epoch Art Dynamic Comic Viewer. Where did you get the idea of creating this special comic viewer? And was it difficult to create?
I can’t remember if I knew at the time that motion comics existed or not, but either way there wasn’t any motion comic creator available, so we created our own. A long time ago, I had done some commissions and a fan of the site who was a hobbyist software developer built me an image player in Flash so fans could bundle up the commissions and play them in a viewer. Years later, when I came up with the concept for the DCV, I asked this same developer if he’d be interested in building the DCV if I paid him for the work. He agreed and we worked closely together to build the first Dynamc Comic Viewer. Clara Ravens Episode 3 Epilogue: Homeward Bound is the first DCV-enabled comic I made, and it was mostly a proof of concept for the capabilities of the DCV. Since then, we’ve iterated on the software several times, adding new features along the way. It’s as feature-rich as I’d like it to be at this time, but I’m always thinking of ways to expand its functionality to make the DCV experience even better. If anyone has ideas, please let me know!
Could you tell us something about the process that goes into your works of art? What are your tools of the trade?
I feel like a fossil anymore, but I am still using Poser Pro Game Dev (an offshoot of Poser Pro 2014/Poser Pro 10) for all of my staging/setup/animation. I didn’t upgrade to Poser Pro 11 because I’ve heard nothing but complaints about it’s shortcomings. Poser Pro 11 does all I need it to, and what it can’t, I do with other softwares.
![Clara Ravens in Lingerie]()
Clara Ravens in Lingerie
I use Maya 2011 for anything I need to model or to quickly construct/deconstruct other 3D models/sets. I also do all my cloth sims in Maya because Poser fucking sucks at it.
I use Zbrush for serious sculpts that require fixing beyond the capabilities of Poser’s morph brush. Zbrush has become essential for clothes fitting as the years have gone by, considering I’m still using Victoria 4 with the alternate weight mapping done by PoserPlace years ago, and the market still producing content for V4 is drying up. Most of my peers who had been working in Poser have jumped ship for Daz Studio. There’s still a lone few holdouts, but I think the writing is on the wall at this point. If I don’t switch soon, there’s a possibility that my work could be come irrelevant as Daz3D has made incredible strides with their organic meshes and their subdivision capabilities. And the talent of many of the content creators they have brought on board to make clothing and accessories is mindblowing. Truly, the only thing I’m really drooling over is these newest organic meshes and their clothing models. I don’t mind modeling my own sets, and I can still export from Daz Studio in FBX format static meshes that are usable in Poser. But sooner or later, I will need to switch, so I’ll be looking into training up on that software soon. So I guess congrats to you, Daz3D. You’ve ruined freedom of choice with your proprietary nonsense.
For postwork I use Adobe Photoshop CC 2015. I have a giant collection of desktop publishing fonts I use for creating logos for the comics and dossiers, and an even larger collection of brushes. I have a large collection of plugins of all types, from filters to effects to 3D magazine cover generators. I also have subscriptions to 3d.sk (for skin texture resources), vectorstock (for vector art resources), and Envato (for audio, vector art, After Effects templates, website plugins… they have it all).
Apart from all the technical talk, I was wondering: what do you enjoy the most about creating these comics?
When working on comics specifically, the writing is easily my favorite part of the process. I love to develop the narrative and write the dialogue, then refine it over several drafts. In screenwriting, they teach you how hard dialogue is to make authentic-sounding, because people tend to not talk the way it’s easiest to write. So I usually spend a long time tweaking dialogue until I can speak it out loud and make it sound genuine. And putting characters’ personalities in their dialogue is tricky. I’m an American, so when I write Clara (a Brit), I write her dialogue out first, then go over it all with a British slang dictionary to make it more idiomatic. I also consult with British fans to make sure the slang is current, so she’s not using some outdated slang from the ’60s or something. When I write for Flip, Clara’s sidekick, I tend to use apostrophes for words ending in ‘ing’ to show his ‘street slang’ so to speak (pun intended).
Next to writing the story, the set building is my favorite part. Once I’m out of pre-production on a project, believe it or not but the actual production is my least favorite part. While I do enjoy the challenge of matching the speaking character’s dialogue with their emoting, the tedium of posing and reposing, then fixing pokethrough on clothing and other fixes on the fly…all of that is so boring to me. Regardless, I do my best to give every area 100% because I won’t be satisfied otherwise.
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As mentioned before, the last time we had an interview with you was about 4 years ago. How do you feel looking back at your career? Any big differences between then and now? What are some of your biggest achievements?
It’s been a learning experience for sure. I’ve gotten way better at writing characters and narrative, become proficient with all manner of 3D suites, and somehow garnered a huge fanbase simply by doing what I love. I’d say my biggest achievement was starting my company in 2012, and nervously taking the plunge into CG erotica full-time. I also rank Clara Ravens Episode 3 (a four-part monstrosity that would be the last piece of content I created for CrazyXXX3DWorld) as one of my biggest achievements. That is some of my best artwork in my opinion, despite it being rendered in Poser’s Firefly engine. It is also some of my favorite writing. Jack and Clara’s back-and-forth dialogue, from their snide banter in the market, to Clara’s warming a bit to Jack in the restaurant, to their drunken pillow talk and heartfelt admissions in the bedroom…I love it all and am very proud of it.
But my favorite piece of anything I’ve done is Dark Rift Episode 1: Resurrection. That one story is stuffed to the gills with the inklings of SEVEN plot throughlines. I also really enjoy the meet-cute I wrote for Kole and Polly. And I’m really proud of that artwork too, despite it also being rendered in Poser’s Firefly. Kole’s space walk is my favorite scene in the whole comic. My goal was to make the emptiness visceral, and I think I accomplished that.
Overall, looking back, I am proud of my body of work…I just wish it was larger! So many stories yet to tell!
Over the years not only you as an artist, but also the world of 3DX itself has grown and gone through changes. How do you think 3DX will develop in the future? (For example with the growing interest in Virtual Reality)
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I don’t really know anymore to be honest. I still kind of think that this niche market is heading for a crash, similar to the video game crash back in the 1980s. Daz3D is making every effort to create an ecosystem where they are essentially touting a “make art” button. They have created a software, content library (of proprietary meshes), and tutorial empire locking users into their suite… and making it incredibly easy to buy more of their products. The simplicity they sell has caused a deluge of hundreds of new artists who see CG erotica as a way to make a quick buck. They are the #1 reason that more and more people are knocking at the doors of the CG erotica storefronts trying to sell their half-baked image sets when they don’t understand focal length, framing, or depth of field in image composition. They are the #1 reason people are labeling themselves as “3D artists” on their deviantART pages, when most couldn’t tell you what a normal is or why it’s important in 3D. They are the #1 reason these “3D artists” make the “no postwork” proclamation, as if that is something that should be bragged about.
Also, crowd-funding websites like Patreon have given artists the opportunity to double dip, splitting their userbase, and disenfranchising their fans. Not to mention the ability it has given wannabe game developers to Frankenstein their 3D works onto traditional 2D game engines like all the RPG Maker games generating thousands of dollars a month for a product that will sit in perpetual alpha before the creator eventually gets bored, cuts tail and runs.
I feel that, as the market continues to flood with also-rans, saturation point will get so that it will be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Buyers will be forced to make difficult decisions, and overall the artists’ profits will dwindle, perhaps forcing many into retirement (it has happened for a few already, but that was also due in large part to the financial and emotional toll piracy has on a content creator).
So I guess I can’t say for certain what the future holds, but I tend to be more pessimistic. Perhaps VR will make something revolutionary that creates a new essential CG erotica experience. I can’t say. But VR has it’s own strides to make first simply getting out into the hands of users. That’s going to take some time.
And what about yourself? Any big plans for the future?
I honestly just want to continue to make comics and tell stories. Perhaps if inspiration strikes along the way for a revolutionary new idea for the Dynamic Comic Viewer, we will iterate and expand on the overall DCV experience. But I have humble goals. I am happy with where I am, and thankful that I get to do what I do.
In some of your comics you use short looped animations, which can be viewed with the dynamic comic viewer. Would you consider making any fully animated products in the future?
I don’t think I’ll be making any fully animated comics in the future. Animation is not something I enjoy (and frankly I don’t feel I’m very good at it). The work is time consuming, tedious, frustrating, and hard as hell to get to look right because of the uncanny valley. And because I want to reduce the time between comic releases, I already made the call prior to Clara Ravens Episode 4: Colombina’s Illusion that I am going to be outsourcing all of my animation moving forward. The animation work in Colombina’s Illusion was outsourced to a talented animator who goes by the name Chimera46. You may know him from his Busty Elves in Peril series. He’s very good at what he does, so search his name on deviantART or the Renderotica gallery if you wanna see some of his awesome animations.
Where can we find more about you and your products?
Here you go, in list form:
My website: https://www.epoch-art.com
DeviantART: http://epoch-art.deviantart.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/epochart
Affect3D Store: https://affect3dstore.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?artist=207&q=epoch
Renderotica Gallery: http://www.renderotica.com/artists/Epoch/Gallery.aspx
Renderotica Store: http://www.renderotica.com/content-artists/Epoch/469
Past Interviews:
Affect3D (December 2011): https://affect3d.com/galleries/artist-feature-epoch/
Affect3D (December 2012): https://affect3d.com/feature-artist/artist-re-feature-epoch/
RedRobot3D (June 2016): http://redrobot3d.com/epoch-interview/
And lastly, is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Yes, queue the sappy music please…
I want to congratulate everyone on staff, especially Miro (who I actually talked to on the phone once a long time ago when discussing the future of this industry) and Supro, for creating an amazing e-zine and storefront for this little porn niche we work in. I still remember the nascent days of Affect3D, when Miro was trying to get traction for his 3D gals over at HongFire. And I still remember seeing Blackadder’s first image set pop up in the Renderotica marketplace, when I was working as a contract artist for a subscription site, and I thought, “Wait, I don’t need to sell to a sub site? I can be my own creator?” The a la carte model proved to be lucrative, and kudos to those with the foresight to steer our niche in that direction. We’ve all come a long way since those days.
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I also want to thank my team: Xipomus, who runs nearly every facet of my operation so I can focus on the art. He also keeps me sane because I am prone to losing my shit on a regular basis. I swear I should have a plaque over my desk that reads “MURPHY’S LAW – DEAL WITH IT”. I also want to thank Shift64 for creating the Dynamic Comic Viewer, and for offering to work in a quid pro quo fashion for DCV updates. You’ve saved me lots of money! And lastly, I want to thank my Lead Copyright Agent (let’s just call him “K”), who works from the shadows with a voracious appetite for justice. As anyone who does this job knows, fighting piracy of your own content is demoralizing, deflating, and anxiety-inducing. Having someone so good at it tackle it for me has been a boon for my overall mental health. You guys all kick major fucking ass.
I also want to thank my dearest artist friends who I talk to regularly (and in some cases not so regularly, but they are still people whom I hold in great respect): Erogenesis, Gazukull, DeTomasso, RedRobot3D, chimera46, hibbli3D, dezmondel from the Stone Sorceress crew, EhJay from Renderotica, MongoBongo, Laticis, Blackadder… there’s probably more I’m forgetting so I apologize if I forgot you hit me up on Skype and yell at me.
And last but not least, I want to thank my fans. I’ve said it before, but I honestly think I hit the jackpot with my fans. I have the most caring, thoughtful, articulate, and passionate fans anyone could have asked for. I seriously don’t know what I did to deserve that. In a world of shitposting trolls, I have a thriving community of incredible people who are brilliant and treat each other with respect and compassion. They offer up critique and constructive criticism so thoughtfully that I can’t help but be moved by it. Nothing gives me more joy than reading excited comments left in response to a product they’ve enjoyed. Even the negative critique, when given constructively, is appreciated and taken to heart. I aim to satisfy them because they are my lifeblood, and I want them to know how much they mean to me. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Check Out Dossier #12: Grand Horizontal at the Affect3D Store tomorrow!
The post Feature Artist – Epoch appeared first on Affect3D.com.
I don’t really know anymore to be honest. I still kind of think that this niche market is heading for a crash, similar to the video game crash back in the 1980s. Daz3D is making every effort to create an ecosystem where they are essentially touting a “make art” button. They have created a software, content library (of proprietary meshes), and tutorial empire locking users into their suite… and making it incredibly easy to buy more of their products. The simplicity they sell has caused a deluge of hundreds of new artists who see CG erotica as a way to make a quick buck. They are the #1 reason that more and more people are knocking at the doors of the CG erotica storefronts trying to sell their half-baked image sets when they don’t understand focal length, framing, or depth of field in image composition. They are the #1 reason people are labeling themselves as “3D artists” on their deviantART pages, when most couldn’t tell you what a normal is or why it’s important in 3D. They are the #1 reason these “3D artists” make the “no postwork” proclamation, as if that is something that should be bragged about.
I also want to thank my team: Xipomus, who runs nearly every facet of my operation so I can focus on the art. He also keeps me sane because I am prone to losing my shit on a regular basis. I swear I should have a plaque over my desk that reads “MURPHY’S LAW – DEAL WITH IT”. I also want to thank Shift64 for creating the Dynamic Comic Viewer, and for offering to work in a quid pro quo fashion for DCV updates. You’ve saved me lots of money! And lastly, I want to thank my Lead Copyright Agent (let’s just call him “K”), who works from the shadows with a voracious appetite for justice. As anyone who does this job knows, fighting piracy of your own content is demoralizing, deflating, and anxiety-inducing. Having someone so good at it tackle it for me has been a boon for my overall mental health. You guys all kick major fucking ass.
