October 2003: Swartsz

A Little About Swartsz

Swartsz will be a familiar name to most of you. He joined our forums in 14 February 2003 and was at first not a Modder. A few months later he started a now massive thread called "My First Weapon Model." This topic then became a teaching thread were all the community helped Swartsz learn the tricks of the trade. Now to look at Swartsz third mod Silent Warrior 3 you would not think he was the same member as the new modder who joined up early this year.

The Hot Seat

Q: Which part of the world are you from?

A: I’m from Europe I live The Netherlands.

Q: How old are you?

A: 25

Q: What made you first start modelling?

A: Tough question, I started modelling because I wanted to know how games are made and because I have this dream of becoming a game designer myself, and figured I needed to know how to use programs like 3DS max. The main reason was also because I didn't like the way the default guns in GR looked.

Q: Did you find it hard to learn max?

A: The basics where not hard to learn, but Pain's video tutorials and some members of GR.net helped me a lot. But I am still learning every day, there are a lot of things in max I do not know about.

Q: Your self-set target of improving the guns in GR is a large one, do you think you achieved this three mods later.

A: Yes I think I have, but still haven't reached my goal yet.

Q: So what is your goal?

A: Wow, you are asking some tough questions, not sure what my ultimate goal is, but with every model I make I feel there is still something I can improve on. Just call me a perfectionist, so my goal would be to make a perfect mod.

Q: So your working on Silent Warrior 4 now, is this going to be more of the same or are you going to move into new areas?

A: I must admit I am not sure what the scope of the mod will be. I am currently trying different things, like making new splash screens, vehicles and some other ideas. But one thing I can say is that the new mod will contain weapons without silencers. So you could say I am working on a 'general' weapons mod.

Q: Which modder in the community do you most respect and think you have used as a roll model?

A: I must say I respect all modders in every discipline, now that I know how much time and effort it takes to make a quality mod. But when I started modding I used to look at Earls models a lot, just to get a feel for the models I wanted to make, sometimes I spent hours just walking around in a map looking at his models trying to create a picture in my mind of the model I wanted to make. But to choose one, Earl, the maker of the Standard Upgrade mod. Standard Upgrade was the first mod I ever downloaded and was amazed by the quality of his models. To this day I am trying to make models of that quality

Q: To a new max modder what 2 things would you say to bits of advice would you give that you feel is been most helpful to you?

A: The first bit of advice I would like to give is not to be afraid to ask, I have found there are always a lot of people around who are willing to help new modders whenever they need help, the second thing I would say is take your time, do not try to create the every best model in just a couple of hours, take it slow, whenever they feel there is still something to improve on, but you cant find the answer, stop and go and do something else and try again later, a clear mind helps a lot and my second piece is believe in yourself and your capabilities to create quality mods, don’t be put off by failure and keep going. Quality not Quantity.

Q: Will you be making the transition to modding for GR2?

A: Yes I think I will, if the game is mod friendly like GR1, I will eventually start modding for the new GR. I have the feeling my modding career is far from over.

Well we look forward to seeing Swartsz upcoming mods and him on the GR2 modding scene in the near future. Swartsz is an example for any new modder; he has risen to an acclaimed status in under a year and mastered a very hard piece of 3D software. Thank you Swartsz for taking the time to talk to me and if you want to download Swartsz Silent Warrior versions 1, 2 and 3 visit the downloads section and visit Swartsz "My first weapon model thread" to see what he’s up to at the moment.

Carry on Question

This is Swartsz question to our next modder in the Hot Seat: (Jack57)

Q: If you were in charge of Character Design for GR2 what would you keep from the original models and what would you change?

Related Downloads and Links:

Silent Warrior 1

Silent Warrior 2

Silent Warrior 3

"My First Weapon Model" thread

Swartsz Render Tutorial

All Modder Spotlights

Swartsz

Jack57

Chems

Streinger

Chems