Was it intentional to make a film without dialogues?

Well, I would say it was 70% intentional. For those who’ve watched the movie, in the final scene I planned the man would tell the woman “see you tomorrow”. Besides, I initially planned that sentence to be the title of the film. In the last scene, she was about to smile to him to mean she understood what he did for her, though she’s in a coma. But I didn’t keep that scene.

Going through the Internet, one can see that many 3D animation artists are asking you for tips or making-off secrets… Someone wrote that “this is the video that inspired many 3D and VFX artists worldwide. It is a great video that everyone MUST see!” So tell us, Bruce, what is your secret?

I think every artist work in some personal way, and most people working in 3D are not happy with their work 90% of the time. We are demanding with ourselves. But that’s the way it should be: you’re constantly re-dealing and re-working with your project, and learning what your clients are waiting for. Regarding World Builder, when I started working on it, I was working on a different version of LightWave. The techniques and the tools available were slightly different. The speed, processing power and tools that are available right now would change the way I did World builder from the ground-up. Still, that would be the same story. The CGI is very different but at some point you have to finish your work and move on.

You worked on World Builder with your VFX team and you name two people in the credits: what help did you get on 3D animation?

These two people were working mostly on the modelling and surfacing of buildings. One of them did the animation on the flag.

Three years ago, you mentioned in an interview with NewTek that the modeller was your favourite LightWave tool. LightWave has been upgraded several times since then: what do you think of the latest version?

I discovered something while doing that project that I could not believe: the real time depth field, which allows you to see the result straightaway and speed things up. I like pretty much equally every aspect of LightWave. The renderer is still the best out there. And being able to use it on a render form especially for free makes it a no brainer over other packages. 95% of World Builder was done with LightWave! The remaining 5% were done with Real flow, Houdini, Digital fusion for compositing and after effects and that’s about it!

What features would you crave for in future versions?

Well, I’d go for a faster rendering and better particles and dynamics. That way the software would help us work even further. But honestly, as far as the whole package goes, I’m very happy with LightWave.

You work on the visual effects for various major series like Lost, Pushing Daisies or Surface: is the work very different from that you do when working on advertising for instance? Which of the two is the most demanding?

I would probably say television series because the expectations on that have gotten bigger and bigger, yet the budgets have become smaller. At the same time you can do a lot of fun work and move on. But it can be gruelling sometimes I must say: with higher expectations, the series end up having almost a feature film level, but they’re made in one or two weeks only. I need about four weeks total, at most, to complete my job on a Surface episode. If I’m lucky I may have two weeks for modelling and three weeks for animation.

You moved back to Kansas City a few years ago but you still work in the Hollywood industry: is it easy to manage? Aren’t there people trying to convince you to move back there?

Well, most of the work that I do for series is for people that I’ve known for a while, way before I moved back to Kansas City. I connect with these people I’ve been working for and knowing for a while. As long as you’re straightforward and open-minded, things work out pretty well. Being in Kansas City is no problem. We probably have to finish our work maybe a day earlier than if we were settled in Hollywood, but that’s ok. We work with QuickTime to download things. I’ve been having in a lot of meetings in LA recently about World Builder. For sure, if we were there we could have meetings and we could speed things up a bit there.

What are your upcoming projects?

We’re working on a pilot for NBC right now, as well as the next season of Lost. I actually started working on Lost on the third season, and the collaboration never stopped, since we did a very good job on that show. We’re four people in my company, and projects keep us extremely busy. We just finished a work for Mc Donald’s and I am thrilled because the shots and visual effects look great. We never could have done the same with a real set-up, designing the products in CG.

Your artwork has been acclaimed for a while: when will you take the next step and make a feature film?

Yes indeed! I actually want to do a feature film with World Builder! Somewhat we’re working with my agent in LA to find a writer to write a script, relying on the short version of World Builder itself as a demo and myself as a director.

It reminds me of the time when I shot World Builder a few years ago: I organized a casting with a company in Kansas City in return for credits. Around fifteen men and women came in and did an acting exercise they had in advance: “Imagine watching someone you love and he/she goes forever; show that to me.” The two actors and I have been watching the growing success of World Builder -we talk a lot through Facebook. They are so happy about it!