|  Where
are you from and where are you living today?
I was born in Sweden in
a small town called Sodertelje, grew up in England in a small town called
London, and now live in America in the village of San Francisco.
How old are you?
28 years young
What can you see from where you sit now?
Dawn sunlight on the opposite 60’s high rise building, cats asleep!
I feel like I’m in Rear
Window!
Coffee, tea or something stronger?
C++ All the time
What was your first ever interest/experience in 3D/CG?
I really can’t remember what first interested me in it, it’s
just been something I’ve always loved whenever I saw it. At first
you would only see it in science museums or very rarely on TV, little
examples of what must have been either procedural animation or painstaking
text input, oh and of course Tron, The Last Starfighter,
Star Trek genesis effect stuff was obviously impressive to a
young lad growing up during the 80’s. My first experience with 3D/cg
was probably using the Amiga, with magazine coverdisk demos of things
like Real3D and Imagine, though that was just playing around, like any
kid would, I really only picked up 3D again properly about 2 years ago.
Do you use Cinema 4D as a hobby, for learning, or for pro work?
All three.
When and why did you decide to make Cinema your weapon of creative
choice?
A little under two years ago, I’d tried Max, and Lightwave, and
even Carrara, then I tried Cinema 4D and I found I was getting results
much faster in it (always a good incentive for a learner).
What other 3D software have you used/still use, and why?
Real3d, Imagine, Bryce, Extreme 3D, Strata, 3D Max, Infini-D, Carrara,
SketchUP!, Lightwave, Maya, XSI, Houdini, Wings, Blender... I wouldn’t
say I’ve used all of these at any particular level, apart from the
high end stuff, mostly it’s been one long learning experience.
Which Cinema 4D version do you use currently?
R9.
Which platform do you use/prefer - Mac or PC?
I use both for different things. For 3D and development the PC, for 2D/Video/Compositing/Audio
the Mac.
Any particular reason for your platform choice?
The PC has better OGL, the Mac is a better dsp.
CRT or LCD and why?
Dual Dell 2001fp LCD’s.
Default scheme
and layout or custom?
Custom Scheme and Layout, the Scheme I use is actually Xstacy
2, and was meant to be released with Storm
Tracer and Xstacy::Elements,
but I never got around to it, maybe I’ll zip the folders up
and upload it sometime soon. |
 |
What's your favourite model/image you have ever created and why?
That’s a hard one. I suppose not an image, but a sequence, and that
would be the new Storm Tracer reel. I had quite a bit
of fun putting it all together, generating several of the scene files
(I gave myself a time limit of one day per shot including rendering),
writing the music, editing all the bits from myself, Paul and the beta
testers together and so on. It was a rewarding experience and I’m
quite pleased with the end result.
Link
1: StormReel.mov
Link2:
StormReel.mov
Besides yourself, do you have a favourite Cinema 4D artist that you admire
or are inspired by?
Well there are lots of good Cinema artists, in terms of who’s work
I most look forward to seeing, it’s a toss up between Pupii
and SquidInc.
Though to be honest I find inspiration
everywhere, in the work of beginners and seasoned pro’s, and generally
not really linked in with any particular tool. My real inspirations though
are Matisse, Modigliani, Giacometti... The artists and places I grew up
with when visiting Fondation Maeght, the Kruler Muller, Tate etc.
How did you and Paul Everett get the idea to start working together,
to start The Third Party?
I had a little interactive cutting tool that Alberto Blassi had requested,
at first I was going to give it away for free, so then I was just talking
with Paul asking for a little help with it and he thought I was mad to
give it away, so I suggested that if he wanted to help me fix it up then
we could sell it and split the profit. Thus The Third Party and Mesh Surgery
were born.
You are based in USA and Paul in Germany - how do you facilitate
your working relationship? Do each of you work on a specific item or tool
and then throw it in the mix, or do you have specified tasks/assignments
within the workflow?
Both. We of course work on our own little projects, but when we have something
that we think would interest the other we share it, and brainstorm where
it could go. Then when working on a project, we each add our own idiosyncracies
to the project, our own tools and additions, and then we buckle down,
discuss what needs doing, and get it done.
The Third Party is already legendary in the Cinema 4D community
and Mesh Surgery is a plugin that has literally revolutionized the workflow
in Cinema 4D. How did The Third Party came up with the idea of Mesh Surgery?
Legendary? Haha, it’s a nice cozy community so I don’t quite
think we’ve stolen the fire from the gods yet!
As stated before it started with a little
simple interactive cutting tool that I made up on a user request. Then
when Paul came on board he added Katana, then we both wanted mesh smoothing
continuity compensation (Superflange) and from there it all grew as we
each added new ideas to the mix, took a look at existing tools and saw
how these things could be done interactively, fast and better, building
up the tools we wanted and needed for our own projects.
The Third Party has so far released two plugins, Mesh Surgery
and Storm Tracer. Can you give us any hints about what you have planned
for the future? Will Mesh Surgery be updated for R9, for example? Any
specific R9 features you see as possible areas for development?
We aim to update Mesh Surgery for R9. At this point in time we have a
few pot-boilers, but we’ve not settled on anything specific as the
next plugin.
List your 10 favourite C4D tools you couldn't do without and give
a brief explanation why on each please.
Well... Not including my own:
- SLA – It’s
something you don’t really think about, but without it Cinema
wouldn’t be half as useable for commercial projects.s
- Sniper
Pro – I use this all the time, both when developing
new plugins, for instance Storm Tracer, and when lighting, a real time
saver.
- DiTools
– Great fun, and useful stuff.
- Jenna 2 – I’m
always finding myself using a bit here a bit there with this, a mark
of a great tool.
- Advanded Render - Currently
an underrated and misunderstood module, it’s core to a lot that
I do.
- BodyPaint – Can’t
do UVing easily in Cinema without it (and hey it contains my old MaxUV
tools too!)
- Cellular
Shader – A great implementation of a voronoi shader.
- Fizz
– Sometimes TP is too much hastle, David really made sure the
inbuilt particles are far from obsolete with this plugin.
- Thinking Particles
– Sometimes cinema particles aren’t powerful enough, TP
can handle many more particles.
- Sketch & Toon –
It’s just great fun to play with.
What features would you like to see added to future versions of
Cinema 4D?
An improved timeline, this is the one big sticking point between me and
Cinema.
Hardware rendering, or hardware accelerated rendering – This is
the way of the future.
Opening up of the render engine for third party products, it would be
great to be able to use for instance VRay with Cinema.
Node based Texture Tree editing, would save me some time coding shader
plugins!
Given the time, what aspect of Cinema (and related modules) do
you feel you'd like to learn/perfect next?
Not really an aspect of Cinema as I feel pretty comfortable with the program
and it’s modules through and through. But I would like to improve
my animation and specifically character animation and character rigging
skills.
What Cinema 4D related forums/communities do you frequent/recommend?
CGTalk, it’s a good melting
pot of many artists using many applications at many levels. The
Third Party forums of course and Postforum.
There are a few other good forums too, like eatpoo.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of learning/buying
high end 3D software and the choices they could make?
Try out all the demos, go through their included tutorials, and see for
yourself which application clicks the best with you, then get that one.
Don’t bother asking on a forum which you should get, as you’ll
never get a good answer. But... (and this is important) if you are looking
to get a job later on in 3D CG then regardless of which one you buy for
your own personal use and learning, also keep copies of the current PLEs’
and Experience CDs’ and use those to keep yourself up to date in
what the industry is using. These apps aren’t always as enjoyable
as the one that you use for personal and freelance projects, so you wont
be as productive with them unless you’re being paid to be, but it
will keep you employable without killing your personal passion (as picking
and paying for the wrong app for your personal use can do).
Tell us something cool/interesting
that you have done with Cinema!?
Well, I’ve got this couple of lesser known plugins... There’ve
been a few interesting customers (and we’ll leave it at that!).
Tell us something funny!?
My mother in law... oh no, that’s not really suitable for polite
company. There’s an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman... Ah
nah, that one neither... Ok... Hmm.... Alright, what about this? What’s
the definition of “perfect pitch”? Throwing a viola into a
dumpster without hitting the rim.
Any closing thoughts, comments or tips!?
If you trust in yourself... and believe in your dreams... and follow your
star... you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working
hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy ;)
On behalf of the Renderosity Cinema
4D community, we'd like to thank you for answering these questions and
sharing your thoughts with us! |
