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

We work on dual Xeon-based workstations running at 1700 MHz. We use Wildcat GFX accelerators and 1-2GB RAM. Our 10-node renderfarm is made up of 2.4 GHz Intel machines with 1-2 GHz RAM.

Are there any plug-ins you wouldn't be without?

Vertibevel! and people like David Ikeda and Eki Halkka are definitely making our everyday work a little bit easier. We are big fans of places like Flay and other related sites with tools and tips for day by day problems.

What do you think of the idea that David Ikeda's plug-in are being integrated into Modeler 8?

I think that NewTek should be inspired by his work and then create an integrated solution. Maybe he should co-author the project, but it shouldn't be just a simple plug-in integration.

In your opinion: Integrated or Separated?

Definitely separated - its cleaner that way - you don't take a shower in your living room, now do you? :). But we could wish for more seamless integration than the hub, which would allow us to animate many of the modelling tools.

What are you currently working on?

We are currently working on a 10-second music-related TV commercial. It should be airing in Denmark sometime next week. Other than that we are working on a huge scientific project which I can't really talk about at this point other than it has a lot of CG humans and its all LightWave! ;o)

Is the music on the showreel Aphex Twin?

No, it was done by Matt Anderson (Bit Meddler on planet-mu), as I recall, but love the stuff Aphex Twin produces.

The music really works well and it's nice to have something other than techno on a showreel - *yawn*...

Exactly why we decided to go with something else ;o) All our previous showreels contained techno-related music. We thought about classical music, but when this track was brought to my attention the competition just fell away ;o) Just too bad we didn't create it ourselves ;o)

What's the almost monochrome sequence with the cactus and is it supposed to go all blocky in the showreel?

It was specially made to fit the big screen at the Danish Music Awards 2002 while "Sort Sol" (a Danish rock band) was performing. Later on it became a big part of their music video called "Holler high".

...and no, it is not meant to go all blocky ;o( Because of all the film grain and distortion the compressor has some severe difficulties compressing it due to huge differences in every single frame. You can see some still images to the left of the movie icon. I believe that if you download the entire movie it should appear a little bit better. The movie file also includes the original music.

The Saturday video really reminds me of some of the work Passion did on Robbie Williams and Gorillaz videos - were you inspired by them?

Very much so indeed, in fact I think that it helped to convince the client to go all 3D. The work Passion did on "Let love be your energy" by Robbie Williams is really great. The visual style along with the simple animation and funny characters really makes it work.