When did you first get into aviation art using computers?

It’s a bit weird, I used to make aircraft models and drawings as a kid, then started getting interested by CG at an early age and only combined the two a lot later. My guess is probably around 1995.

But I did create a flight simulator in gw-basic (with ascii graphics) on a Commodore Pet cbm when I must have been about 12!

A Dangerous Takeoff!

Wiek, why do you use modo?

Because it is the software that allows me to work in the way that I like to work best ! Every software obviously has it’s good sides and bad sides, modo happens to be the one that I find fits my workflow most. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many different 3D applications over the years, going back to dkbtrace and polyray in the late eighties. Most 3D software companies had/have the biggest emphasis on adding new features to show off against the competition. But in actual fact what is much more important is the usability of the tools, the ergonomic and design side of the tools so to speak. For me that is the main thing in which Luxology has differentiated itself from the others and it is why I use it. Besides modo I am also getting more and more familiar with Houdini which is also pretty addictive (not to mention extremely powerful) and luckily the combination of both works very well.

Tell us about your latest work, A Deadly Circus Performance…

The image depicts the famous flying circus of the red baron during takeoff. Even though mass take offs like this were rare and extremely dangerous I thought it would be a nice image to have them take off as a group despite the fact that it was risky in real life (hence the title). In the far distance you can see the Red Baron himself leading the circus on it’s way to the front. The other aircraft are also based on actual historic aircraft and pilots. For instance the yellow triplane on the left is the Red Baron’s brother (they didn’t get along very well)!

This a departure from my usual topics and is my first with World War I airplanes. The great thing is that they are very colourful. I’ve had the model of the triplane on the go for about 18 months off and on with other projects and big pauses in the middle. A lot of detail has been modeled that you never see like the internal wing structure which I intend to reveal in another image.

This image is a combination of 2D and 3D elements. Please tell us about the build up sequence you provided.

The buildup does not quite convey the chronological order in which elements were added, it is more about the way they are layered in the final file. The very first frame shows the composition I started with in modo which later ends up being completely different. It is nice to have the freedom to change your mind :). A lot of the background was painted as I like to experiment with integration of CG in a more painterly style. I guess you could say for this image I used a combination of techniques: matte painting using photographic elements as a base (the grass), digital 2d painting for a lot of it (clouds, trees, distant buildings) and 3D rendering for the aircraft and pilots followed by an overall digital makeover :) The lighting of the 3D models was done with an HDR lightprobe that I shot in the garden. The grass is a combination of photographic elements that I took over the years.

Is there a particular era of aviation that is your personal favorite?

My problem is and always has been that I like too many things. My list of aircraft to build and artworks to make is endless. I’ve now done aircraft from 1917 all the way to modern times, including helicopters. But I guess most of my focus has been on the early part of the Second World War and especially the aircraft of The Netherlands, Germany and Britain.

Has your work been shown at any museums or exhibitions?

Yes, a few years back I had an exhibition at the Militaire Luchtvaart Museum in Soesterberg, the Netherlands, which is a big military aviation museum specialised in Dutch aviation.. It was as far as I know the first exhibition of digital aviation art in the world. It took about a year of preparation and I got two of my friends to also exhibit their work there as well. It was really nice to get great feedback from people interested in aviation, including veterans and other artists.

In a HUFF

Furball

Animo Libre Dirigimur

Is your emphasis on historical accuracy or art?

For me personally it’s all about the art. If you can create that art in a complete historical accurate way all the better. But I will not let a good image go to waste just because I can not verify the exact time of day, location and specifics as long as I know it’s not IN-accurate. So instead I would call the image “historically probable” or “historically representative”. I will definitely try to avoid any situation that is “wrong”.

If you look at the amount of time I spend on my art, more than half is probably spent in research, which begins when building the model and keeps going during texturing and creating the artwork itself.

Where else on the web can people go to get information on CG aviation art and history?

One of the best places to go in my opinion is www.mil-art.com, but then I’m a bit biased as I started this forum with a couple of friends a few years back. It really is a great place to hang out, learn and view work. The quality level there is extremely high but that doesn’t stop anybody from helping others, explaining techniques and being nice. We actually have quite an active group of modo users there and a lot of information that will help people learn various aspects of modo in the various threads. Another site worth a look is www.aviation-arthouse.com which is an online art gallery that I run. It represents the very best digital aviation artists out there and was meant to help out the up and coming talent in the field.

Are there many other people using modo for serious CG Aviation art?

Well, there aren’t that many serious CG aviation artists full stop :)

But I do think there is a relatively big ratio of modo users amongst 3D aviation artists. A few names you might recognise from the forums: Deetz, Kevjon, Evan MacKenzie, top notch guys who are very good at what they do.

Do you do much animation?

I used to do a lot more. You may have seen the quick shots I did of the helicopter gunships for the modo 401 launch, that was a quick job over a weekend and a few evenings unfortunately as I was also in the middle of a deadline for work. I’ve had plans to do a “proper” piece of aircraft animation for quite some time now. I wanted to do a short film about the air war over Holland in May, 1940 when the Germans invaded. I built a lot of 3D models for it, did a few test-shots but it takes a lot of time to do it justice, time that is hard to find.

For my daytime job I am a director for commercials and game trailers (www.axisanimation.com) so animation and rendering sequences is a big part of my life. I am quite fortunate in having a great team to work with on those (and yes, it includes modo work as well :) ) but at the same time my hands on CG time is very limited. Occasionally I’ll get my hands dirty with for instance modelling, matte paintings, compositing and grading for projects. Another fun thing is developing tools like c++ plugins for Digital Fusion.

Helicopter Animation
QuickTime 32 MB

Do you consider yourself mainly a modeler or a rendering specialist?

I’ll cheat that question and reply that I’m more of a generalist when it comes to 3D. :) In the old days you couldn’t really specialise, you HAD to be able to do everything if you wanted to get stuff done. I ran my own 3D animation company for five years, worked in the games industry for years in various roles (animation director/lead cutscenes/lead artist) and for the last four years I’ve been working at Axis Animation. I started there as head of production, then as Director on projects like Colin McRae Dirt, Operation Flashpoint2, Race Driver Grid, Mass Effect 2 and others. In pretty much all of those positions you can not really specialise in one thing over another without losing touch somewhere.

How much work do you put into creating the pilots vs. the aircraft?

Definitely the aircraft take the most work for me ! They are the biggest things in the image and are tricky to get right.

Character modelling is one of those things that can eat up time like no other. When I can, I’ll get away with cheating: painting or taking photographs of people and combine those with 3D models to do the figures. I do feel that I need to put a lot more focus on the human element to make my work better. And to do that I either need to become a better painter or actually spend time creating more different character models. For the triplane image for instance I’ve made quite a detailed one, with sculpted clothing and everything. But the tricky thing is that this model is then not reusable for say a second World War pilot. I would refuse to use something like Poser though.

HuBoBe

Does modern aviation have much appeal to you as an artist?

It does, especially when it comes to helicopters. But you can’t do everything and you have to draw the line somewhere I guess. I’ve always found aircraft of all eras fascinating despite my fear of heights :) For some reason I’m drawn more to the fast jets and helicopters when it comes to modern aircraft. Passenger aircraft I find boring usually, same goes for most big and slow aircraft. I guess fast jets are like the Ferrari of the sky. Talking about Ferrari, I like fast cars as well, but luckily I’ve been able to enjoy a lot of that for my day job!

Thank you Wiek!