How did you create the moving clouds in the still paintings?

This effect was very easy. For a moment, I thought about doing the clouds in LightWave (with SkyTracer or Ozone 2), and then I thought of Aura and the wrapping grid. The elements from the paintings were carefully cut away from the sky. The sky was then placed on a background layer and I animated its movements thanks to the wrapping grid. If you want to create a movement from right to left, all you need to do is create a keyframe on the first frame of your animation with the points of the grid pulled to the right and a second keyframe at the end of the animation with the points pulled to the left. Then you can add in additional keys in-between to make a non-linear movement. I used a wrapping grid matrix of 12x12 points, or 15x15, so that I had enough control points.

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There's another bit of the programme with paintings of ships with big waves in front. How did you do that?

The ships were cut away in Aura and the waves were made in LightWave 7.5c. The object was a simple flat plane, subdivided several times and deformed by several displacement maps. The foam on the tops of the waves was made using one or two gradients. The rain was made with Illusion 3 and the skies were done in LightWave with Ozone 2.

Everything was colour corrected and composited using Aura. It was three days of work for me and Fabienne cut out the boats. It wasn't an attempt an photorealism but rather more impressionistic.

Tell me a bit about your film about utopian architecture.

It's an old project that has been hanging around in my cardboard boxes following an exhibition that took place in Paris in 1998. I wanted to make a walk through a Paris with all these utopian projects, all huge in scale. But it had to be a playful stroll, not a film specifically for architects or architectural specialists. This film is more a "what if?" than a documentary.

The proposed buildings in the film, did you make them in LightWave?

Yes, everything was built in LightWave 7.5c. I had to make up some details on the buildings because, most of the time, I only had one or two pictures to go on.

The compositing work was done in Aura, even though I have DFX+ (thanks to NewTek's offer). I prefer to work with Aura, perhaps it reminds me of Deluxe Paint - it certainly reminds me of Quantel products, the same philosophy I guess.

Which was the most difficult stage?

The modelling at the start. It had been a while since I last used Modeler and I was a bit stymied at the start, but after a bit all went well. At my level of expertise, the hardest thing was integrating the LightWave shots into the real shots of Paris, but I think that, with regards to the budget of the project, I didn't do badly. Just like for Genies I used lots of high resolution images, but thanks to the Toaster it all worked well. In fact, most of the interviews were conducted during the heat wave in Paris last summer and that was perhaps the most difficult thing to deal with.

Did you make all the buildings on your map of Paris?

Yes, all those buildings were made in LightWave 7.5c. I didn't use any architectural plans - I don't think they exist anyway, most of the designs were only at the drawing stage, so I was inspired by the illustrations given to me by the architects or found in various places. The model of Paris itself is completely made up, more of an illustration for a children's storybook than a city plan!

Which of the architectural marvels would you most like to live in? The one above the river, under the river or in one of Le Corbusier's apartments?

Above the Seine, I think that would be nice. It is also the only configuration in which that project could be viable because I don't think it would be very nice to live under such a structure. Just think of the shadows that such a building would cast over neighbouring buildings.

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