How did you first get started in creating CG imagery?

It all started in college. I went to school for Architecture. At the beginning of my sophomore year a friend of mine showed me some 3d renderings of a building he had made at his work using Truespace 2. I was blown away by the ability to create a 3d model of a building and rotate around it, change its lighting and map textures on it. At this time I was getting pretty comfortable with AutoCad and so I wanted to take the next step and create 3d models of my designs for school. My Dad knew AutoCad and used it at his job, so he showed me how to use the 3d commands in it. I was instantly hooked and started looking around the internet for more information and came across all kinds of amazing renders that inspired me to push further with CG.

In my searches I came across 3dsmax and the amazing work that Blur Studio was doing with it and decided to get it. Towards the end of my Sophomore year it became clear to me that I was having way more fun doing the illustrations of my designs and didn't care at all about what needed to go inside a wall section or how big the air conditioning ducts needed to be in order to distribute an even flow of air throughout a building. I remember the day that it truly sank in that architecture wasn't in my future. I was sitting in class wishing I could leave and go to the computer lab to play with 3dsmax. It was a difficult time for me because I had already put in two years towards a degree I didn't really care about anymore. I wasn't sure if I should quit and find a new school or continue and just finish the degree.

In the end I decided to finish what I started, but more than that I also decided to go for a dual degree in Illustration so that I could get a solid background in traditional art. After that decision was made Blur was the studio at the top of my list to someday go work for. When I graduated I only had experience doing architectural renders and the quality of my work wasn't good enough yet to get into Blur. So I took a job doing architectural renders in San Juan Capistrano. I felt that this would at least get me near the studios I wanted to work for someday. I would work on personal artwork nearly every night after work trying to build up my skills and create a worthy demo reel. After a year I had a reel and sent it to Blur as well as a few other studios. I got interviews at the other studios and even got an offer at one that I accepted. The night before I mailed my signed contract to them I got an email from Tim Miller asking if I was still interested in coming to Blur. Needless to say I accepted Tim's offer instead.

Who are some of your artistic influences?

I'm a big fan of the architecture of ancient Italy and Greece. I also really like Romanesque style architecture, Caspar David Friedrich, Canaletto, Edwin Deakin, Claude Joseph Vernet, Hudson River School artists, Joseph Gandy, Alan lee

How did you learn scripting for 3d software?

It came out of necessity. I was modeling a jungle environment and created a bunch of renderable splines which I'd put all over the scene to act as vines. It wasn't until I'd copied a couple hundred of these around that I realized I had made them all the same thickness which wasn't looking good. Even though I had never done any scripting I knew that it couldn't be too hard to figure out how to assign a random value to one parameter. So figuring that it would take less time to learn how to write a quick script than to select and manually change all those objects I dove into scripting. After 30 minutes or so I had it working and realized that it would be pretty easy to automate a lot of tasks I often did by just replacing a line or two of the code I already had. Then it really took off. The more I did it the easier it became and I started writing all kinds of tools to help speed up my workflow. When I saw how much faster I could work by automating and streamlining things scripting just became part of my workflow. Today I view scripting the same as I view any other tool. If it would take me less time to write a script to do it than to manually do it then I write the script. It will save me a little time now, and a lot of time the next time I have to do it. I owe a lot to the real scripting masters at Blur who helped me to learn scripting. Thank you Eric, Diego and Remi!

While you were learning how to create 3d environments did you focus on the concept? or did you set out to create as realistic materials and environments as the 1st priority?

When I was first learning I would usually find inspiration in movies, photos and books. I would come up with an idea for an image I would like to create and go over it in my head picking out what areas I had no idea how I was going to pull off. Those were the things I would start with. It was always a big R&D effort up front to see if I could even create the elements my final image would need. Once I figured out how to do it and get the results I was after I would just jump right into it and build the scene. The first few years of learning CG were almost entirely spent doing tutorials I found online and just pressing buttons to see what they did. My goal was always to create the most realistic environments I could.

In your current work environment you mention using 3DS max, lightwave, and learning maya. Do you have a preferred 3d software?

My favorite software is the one that does the job I need it to do the best. So my favorite software is forever changing with each project and sometimes even for certain tasks.

You mentioned that your change from Blur to Digital Domain was because of your desire to work on more photo-real rendering. Have you always wanted to accomplish more photo-real results? Or is this more of an urge to work on something that is different from the content produced at Blur?

A little of all of the above. I loved working at Blur. It was a fantastic atmosphere to work in with amazingly talented artists. I pushed to create the most realistic shots I could when the projects I worked on called for it. When it came down to it though, there are not too many game cinematics where the goal is photorealism. Often there isn't a budget for that either. My decision to leave was a hard one. The friends I made at Blur had been like family to me for 5 years. When the opportunity to work at Digital Domain came up I decided it was something I should do. Working there would allow me to work with a new batch of extremely talented people and get to work on projects where the goal was to make photo real shots.