Introduce Yourself!

[Landis]

I have always found it fascinating how poeple ended up doing 3D. I mean, its not like you helped your dad in the garage with his topology. It's a very young industry and the stories of how most of us got here are nothing short of amazing, so, I thought I would start a thread for people to introduce themselves and to share their stories of how they discovered the life changing art of 3D.

Since I'm the one to start the thread I guess I will go first...

I started out using computers at my middle school. They had one that was called a multi-media machine which boasted all the cd-rom candy (presidential speeches, animals running through the wild, etc.) that was found on highend consumer systems of that time . Shortly after my dad got a computer and was nice enough to let me mess around with Microsoft Paint. I say "nice enough" because this sucker was expensive and by no means a toy. While it was very cool you can only do so much with that little program so I continued to focus more on drawing and painting. A few years later I was sitting in my high school history class when a computer savvy buddy of mine commented on how I should come try out this new paint program called Photoshop that was installed on a computer in one of the offices in the back of the library. It was love at first site. My high school art teacher didnt know much about it but she knew its potential and allowed me to tinker around with it for an hour each day in a class she designed specifically for me. This quickly led to me reading tutorials on the internet which then led to me making webpages. My grandparents quickly caught wind of all that was going on with me at school and decided one weekend to pile into the car to go to the computer store. They actually trusted me to pick out the family computer which was a very big honor considering the cost of such an item. I pretty much learned everything I know about photoshop on that machine. After graduating from high school I took a couple of classes at the local community college but it just wasnt doing it for me so I joined the Airforce. Sounds crazy but probably the best thing I could have ever done in my entire life. My computer knowledge landed me a job in F-16 avionics. I ended up getting the only base that had KC-135's and F-16's and ofcourse as soon as I got there I bought my very own computer which was a pretty big deal for me. It was at that base that I met my wife (a KC-135 troop) who saw my interest in art and love for computers. She went and did some research on what programs were being used on some of the recent movies and ofcourse I hadnt heard of any of them. The 3D industry was like this whole other art world that I had never knew about! At the time I was getting ready for my first deployment so we went out and bought a book for each program. I shoved them all into this big green duffle bag with my unifroms . When I came back from the deployment I had made the decision to go with Blender since it was free, offered a list of competitive features, and had a strong user community. It wasnt long after that September 11th kicked off. My wife and I rushed out and bought a laptop for me to learn Blender on just before leaving for the next desert deployment which is where I ended up making the AIRMAN. It was a very stressful trip and the AIRMAN really helped take my mind off of what was going on. I didnt have alot of time to use the laptop however I spent what little free time I did have learning 3D. Before I knew it my 6 year enlistement was up so I got out of the military and moved to San Fran with my wife to study 3D Animation at the Academy of Art University. I knew that they used Maya there so I scrambled to spin myself up on Maya in the 3 months I had just before school started. I knew the AIRMAN was too complex to learn Maya on so I came up with a more simple project called The WORM to use as a ginniepig. Later I met Roger and Shannon who jumped on board for The WORM and the rest is [as they say] history.

[Kristoff]

Well, along time ago after I graduated from high school I attended USMMA Kings Point. Being that I was in ROTC all through high-school, I felt it only necessary to go into the military. I tried out for Anapolis and was second cut, so no go there. I also recieved a scholarship at Embry Riddle in Arizona, but at the time I couldnt afford to go there the first year. Thankfully, I was selected out of 4 people in the state of Nevada to attend USMMA. I studied Engineering and worked toward my commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. After three years there I was unable to complete my studies, but I remember taking an AutoCad course there. It was very simplistic compared to what we work on today, but I rememeber thinking that it was interesting. After I left the Academy, I got interested in doing 3D using an off the self program called Studio 3D in which you could make basic text and shapes move around. I think it was mostly used for titles ect..

I quickly decided that this is what I wanted to do, so in a course of 8 months I saved up some money to move and started school in Seattle WA for 3D animation. We originally worked on SGI machines like the Octane and the Indigo using Alias Power Animator and Softimage. After a couple of years I soon moved to 3D Studio and the 3D Max. However, I remember when Maya 1.0 came out and I was thrilled by the user interface and the toolset that was provided. I soon dropped everything I was doing in Softimage and converted over to Maya. I have since used Maya since its first release and have been impressed with how many improvements that they have done to it. Later after a couple of years I recieved my AAA in computer animation, but my demo reel was not strong enough to gain employment. Throughout my time in Seattle going to school I also worked full time and freelance doing Macromedia Flash work. After school I got a couple of contracts and jobs. Finally, I worked at Microsoft for 2 years doing UI and interactive design. Unfortunately, I didnt really want to continue doing that, so I decided to go back to school and get my BA at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.

Which leads me to here. I have been at the Academy for about 3 years now and expect to finish this December. I feel that the academy has helped me to achieve a new refinement in my work. I only hope to one day finally work in the industry in which I have passion and fun doing. Thats my story and Im sticking to it.

~Kristoff

[Roger]

As with most artists, I discovered my love of art at a very young age. I loved watching National Geographic documentaries, and reading books on nature. I began drawing monkey’s, snakes, tigers, and many other creatures found in nature magazines. I also discovered a love for aviation. This in turn led to my joining the Air Force in December, 1997. Throughout elementary, middle and high school, I won many art contests. It was during these times that I developed a need to create things. This frustrated my father because his garage would be in ruins by the time he arrived home from a hard day of work. I experimented with clay, fiberglass, plastic models and bike parts.

While I enjoyed these many hobbies, I did not clearly understand what I should to do for the rest of my life. So, I joined the Air force and became an aircraft and missile mechanic. I was stationed in Great Falls, Montana where the winters were much too cold to go out and do anything. I became bored having to stay inside my dorm room and in 1998 for my 21st birthday, my parents bought me a 6500 Macintosh computer . I had a good friend loan me a program called “Infinite” which helped create 3D images and I was turned on to it instantly. I was excited because I could now build whatever I imagined. No longer would I need to destroy garages; my creations could all be designed in my own little pixel world. I then discovered my passion. After fulfilling my time with the Air Force, I applied for art school to continue to feed my soul.

Now that I have completed my 3D modeling degree at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, my artistic abilities have changed dramatically. I have learned about composition, color theory, anatomy, overall form, and understand what it means to work as a team, with the help of Landis and Shannon on “Worm”. One thing hasn’t changed however. I still find myself staying up throughout the night with just as much passion for building things in the computer as I did back in the Air Force.

First Animation and model i did in Maya! No, this isn't the "Worm" project Landis, Shannon, and i did!

http://www.rogerridley.net/dancing%20worm112K_Stream001.mov

[Darin]

Hi all,

My name is Darin Silbernagel. I went to the Academy with all you guys. Although I was never very social. I had hard surface with Roger, Portfolio 1 with Brad and Landis, Digital Matte with Shiv, and Portfolio 2 with Brian. Don't feel bad if you don't remember me. Like I said, I was never very social.

Anyways, I got my start with animation in high school. My friends introduced me to Flash. We used it to make short movies to poke fun at each other. Typical high school humor stuff. As I made these I always felt that it needed more of a 3D feel to it. No matter how hard I tried I could never get that feel with Flash.

So I looked up 3D programs and stumbled across Lightwave. I got a copy from a friend and started to mess around with it. I made a wine glass (simple revolve) and I was hooked. I soon started making simple rooms, following floor plans to make really basic houses, and tried some animation.

I came to AAU wanting to learn more of this 3D industry. Found that I like Hard Surface and now I'm done and working for Aechelon Technology (www.aechelon.com) as a hard surface modeler. They will be sending me to Siggraph this year and close to the end of the year they are sending me to Spain for 2 months. Most of their modeling is done over there and they want me to learn more of their pipeline so i can start doing more complex objects like Jets and Tanks rather than buildings.


Thanks for reading,

Darin Silbernagel