3D

I've been doing 3D animation seriously since about 1990, when I used to watch Star Trek:TNG and Babylon 5. The ability to create an entire world in three dimensions intrigued me. To be able to create every part of the image, from the way each pixel looked, to the lighting and camera angle. Inspired by a BBC program describing the works of Prof James Blinn, I took it upon myself to learn the tricks of the trade.

The first computer I ever bought was a Commodore Amiga A500, a fantastic machine, able to work with 4096-colour images at a time when PC's could only display 8 colours and went 'beep'. I started learning with a program called Imagine that a friend of mine used for architectural modelling. I can still remember having to wait overnight for the computer to render out a 1 inch square image of a chrome ball on a chequerboard floor.

I started making abstract scenes with fish eye lenses, weird colours and odd shapes. The rave scene was at its height and a few friends were running a company doing visuals for a night club. That was it... I rendered up some stuff, played it all out to a VHS tape (remember those?) and took it along to the club. I was hooked.

A few years later, after a various logo jobs, a few architectural jobs (thanks Mark) and the latest PC (Pentium 75!), I landed a contract to build some 3D spaceship models for a local CGI/StopMotion production. They had no in-house setup at all, and as one thing led to another, I ended up creating and running the CGI department, all based around Lightwave and Digital Fusion (as it was called back then). The production required a lot of 3D, compositing and digital effects work, and it was set in space... what more could you want.

Moving on a few more years and now I run my own Lightwave and love using it to create anything I can imagine. With the news that Lightwave is soon to be changing to Lightwave Core, you can be sure that I'll be upgrading to stay as current as possible.

Below are some example stills from the various jobs I've had over the years.