You didn't come to LightWave from an arts background, did you?

No, my background is in physics. I got my PhD at Liverpool University where my thesis was on High Temperature Superconductivity and involved a mix of solid state physics, materials science and cryogenics.

You've told me you have had no formal training in art, but your designs are obviously very fluid and beautiful, so have you always had an interest? Are you constantly doodling, for instance?

It's very kind of you to think so. I do very little drawing - I should try to do more, it is one skill that I would very much like to improve. I think better in three dimensions than two.

I have always had an interest in design and all things technical. In my previous career I did a lot of scientific equipment design and construction. I have a strong concept of how things work so I always try to make sure that things I model would work if they were constructed practically. Working on movies you often have to work to drawings provided by a concept artist - which is great as you get to surround yourself with some really cool artwork. Part of the skill then is to turn their 2D concept drawings into working 3D models whilst keeping it true to the intended design. It is not uncommon to find things that look great in a drawing but just don't work in three dimensions.

When did you see LightWave for the first time?

I first became aware of LightWave through Babylon 5. I had tried out a free copy of Imagine that came with a magazine but it had no manuals and I found it a bit limited. I looked into what was being used on B5 and decided to save up money to buy it. I didn't actually see it for myself until I bought it in May 1997.

When did you first start using it?

In May 1997 as a hobby. I was running LightWave 5.0 on a 75 MHz Pentium I in my living room. At the time I didn't consider doing it for a living - it was just a bit of fun.

What do you like about the package?

I find it intuitive. You can get good looking results very quickly. The interactivity of the wide range of modelling tools help make it a superb polygon/sub-div modeller. It has a straightforward, uncluttered interface.
Another great thing is the generous user base which provides many free useful plug-ins and tutorials. The advice, tips and encouragement I received from the LightWave mailing list was a big help in getting me started.

What could be improved for you?

In Modeler I would like better scripting support - a Modeler version of LScript commander would be a big help. The architecture of texture layers could also be improved to allow referencing of layers from other surfaces and channels so that you might apply a turbulence procedural (or map) to bump and then reference this same procedural (or map) to reflectivity and specularity but with different Texture Values. The real advantage come when you have to tweak the procedurals size, contrast etc and then have it update all the other references to it. Of course, it may just be me being lazy.

What spec machine(s) are you using it on at the moment?

At home I have a 2 GHz Pentium IV and at work I use a dual 1.7 GHz Xeon.

You work at Framestore-CFC, don’t you?
How did you get a job such a prestigious company?

After messing around with LightWave for a couple of years and doing the odd freelance logo and spaceship I thought I might like to do it full time.

I started to put a reel together, working in the evening after work and at weekends. I went to the Digital Media World exhibition in London at the end of 1999 and took a reel with me. At that point I wasn't convinced it was good enough to show anyone - but I took it anyway. Framestore had a stand at the exhibition, it was just as Walking with Dinosaurs had come out, and they were reviewing people's reels. I wasn't going to hand mine in but I bumped into some people that I knew from one of the mailing lists and they convinced me to hand it in as the worst they could tell me was that it was rubbish and they would be able to tell me what was wrong with it. As it turned out Mike Milne (who is Framestore's Computer Animation Director) reviewed it, liked it and put me on the shortlist for a project that was due to start the following year - Dinotopia. The start of the production was delayed a bit so I started at Framestore in July 2000.