Your work has been quite varied. How have you ended up with such a wide range?

I would not say it was planned but I did have a goal to work in 3D. I started out working for a games company creating FMV which was good as I was thrown in at the deep end and had to learn fast. From there I went to work at The Magic Camera Company which later became part of Millfilm. (I was initially going to be working freelance on the opening Lost in Space sequence. But with good advice I asked for a full-time position and continued to work there for over five years.)

As the 3D team was a core of five people (expanding with freelancers) we tended to do a bit of everything - modelling and texturing, moving onto animation and then lighting and rendering. I quite liked this as it gave you a chance to work in different areas of 3D and not get too bored with doing the same thing all the time. The company was based in a film studio with a background of traditional and miniature effects and had an established 2D department. A lot of the work that came in was a mixture of these combined with 3D, which was beginning to be used more and more. There was a variety of projects from whole sequences to the odd shot or commercial. LightWave fitted in well with this approach and kind of work with its excellent and reliable renderer, easy of use and low running costs. The use of 3D is constantly changing and this reflects in what you are asked to do. Film projects like K-19 showed this with the extensive use of previz for mocking up shots and sequences.

Working as a 3D artist I would say you have to be adaptable. For example last year I worked on a TV show which combined live action and CG characters which was a completely different experience and challenge with very tight deadlines and a different way of working.

Lastly Iain, have you got a freebie for our loyal readers?

I've created a tutorial based on a scene that originates from a longer sequence and shows the use of LightWave's volumetric lights and procedural textures in an interesting way. The brief was for a three-minute fly-though space which is being projected in the reception of BT's Innovation centre in London. The clients were interested in seeing planets, nebulae, stars, etc. on the journey through space.

The lights and textures have been designed to add interest and give depth to the effect rather than using mapped images and create nebula type forms that you could fly through.

There are two versions of the scene, one using volumetric lights and one with IFW2 textures for those with that.

Windows	Macintosh
Zip	StuffIt
3.08 MB	2.97 MB
For non-commercial use only

That is superb Iain! I guess we'll be seeing a lot of space scenes again in the forums... :) Thanks very much for your time and if you want to see more of Iain's superb work, including his showreel, visit his site.