Interview With Maplestick
Animal: Hello. What do you do on Roblox?
Maplestick: I don’t do a lot of things on ROBLOX, i usually play games there. However, outside of ROBLOX i use their assets to create renders and animations in Blender.
Animal: Sounds cool. Do you have any images you would like to share?
Maplestick: I have a library of images on my computer, but you can also find most of it on Twitter and Imgur. They mainly are for developers who called me to make renders, like Berezaa, Wsly, Pyrolysis, Insanelyluke, Oaktin etc.
Animal: Sounds cool. Do you only make the renders for games or do you sometimes just make it for people if they were to ask?
Maplestick: Not entirely, whenever i see a game on ROBLOX i really enjoy, i make free fanart for them. Some people come to me and ask me if i do it for Robux, but i always decline them.
Animal: Okay. What else do you use the renders for?
Maplestick: I do it personally to practice 3D modeling and design, so that i may turn my hobby into a real job when i grow up.
Animal: That sounds pretty cool. So, Halloween is coming up, making any Halloween based renders?
Maplestick: Well, i’ve made one a few days back featuring a few of the hats you can get from ROBLOX cards. I’ve seen TheInnovative doing daily Halloween renders, so i don’t think i’ll give it a shot myself.
Animal: Yea, his renders have been coming out great so far. What would you say is your favorite hat on Roblox, since you rendered some hats already.
Maplestick: The main reason i started rendering back in late 2014 was because i needed Robux for my dream hat; the Dominus Aureus. Since i can’t build or script, there wasn’t anything else to do but render stuff. Although i haven’t earned a lot of money yet, i started to do it more for the games than the money.
Animal: Is it only game thumbnails or do you also make group logos?
Maplestick: Not that i remember. A logo is usually drawn, and i can’t do that, sadly.
Animal: I think you might have already answered this but, if someone sent you a picture to render do you do it for them?
Maplestick: Sadly, no. I’ve only rendered images for games and developers i adore, like Paintball Galore and Deathrun. I don’t make renders on request because i don’t enjoy doing it.
Animal: Seeing that you only making renders for certain people I guess they would be honored if you made them a render. What would you say is your favorite Roblox game so far?
Maplestick: For the first part of your question, i believe it’s opposite. I myself feel honored when a developer i love compliments me on my work. Making thumbnails for my favorite ROBLOX games has been the best thing that ever happened to me. I would say Deathrun is my favorite game, but recently Miner’s Haven was made and i’ve been addicted to it ever since.
Animal: Did you go to any Makerfaires?
Maplestick: Sadly, i have never been to one of them. I don’t live in a very wealthy family, we rarely go out of our country. Maybe when i get a decent job i’ll be able to go someday.
Animal: I hope that your rendering skills start to pay off and you are able to DevEx and get some money.
Maplestick: Yeah, that would be fantastic, but in my 10 months of making free thumbnails and renders i’ve only had one payout so far. I don’t mind, though. I still get the working experience.
Animal: What interested you into rendering images?
Maplestick: I’ve always wanted to make my own animations when i was younger. I followed art lessons, took a few digital drawing courses but it never really worked out. When ROBLOX released their .obj export update i thought i’d give it a whirl in Blender. I’ve made a few friends, like melkglas, ClimaxDarkness and (of course) Oaktin.
Animal: Do you think you will keep on creating the renders?
Maplestick: Definitely, i’m looking at tutorials and courses daily to learn more about digital art and design.
Animal: What process do you have to go through while making the renders?
Maplestick: So first off, i need to get all of the assets, like models and textures. Once i’ve collected everything i need, i put everything in a scene with fancy lighting and shaders. Then i apply the ‘node setups’ to create more realistic images. Eventually the render goes through the compositing and at last, it gets placed on Twitter.
Animal: Sounds like a long process, how long does it usually take?
Maplestick: Usually i try my best to make things in less than a day. Most of the time it fails and i have to do it a few hours every day until it’s finished. I mainly aim to learn something new every time i create a new image, however, that does slow down the process quite a bit.
Animal: Are you happy that you started this? What do you think you’d be doing if you never found out rendering?
Maplestick: I would still be playing Twisted Murderer and never get noticed by anyone in the world. I am super glad i’ve started this. I’ve made great friends, met awesome developers and became a part of the roblox community.
Animal: Anything else you’d like to say?
Maplestick: I would suggest everyone to try out Blender sometime. It’s a great tool to create stunning renders and images for free. It also teaches you things on a daily basis and helps you understand complicated programs. (You can even make your own games in there)
Animal: Sounds cool, I’ll have to try it one day. While, if everything has been said, the interview is complete! Thanks for your time.
This has been interview with Maplestick for The Roblox Archives!
