Lux: Where and what company do you work now and what group are you in?

WM: Currently, I am a Multi-Media Developer for UPS in Louisville Kentucky. I work for UPS Airlines in the Creative Media Department at the Flight Training Center. Our department is located in the SIM Building, which houses all of the Flight Simulators.

Lux: Wow – that sounds like a great gig. Please tell us about your art background and when you first got into 3D?

WM: My traditional foundation is in photography. I always enjoyed drawing and painting when I was a kid, but I’d say I didn’t get serious about an art career until I got into photography. I studied to be a commercial photographer in college and worked as a photographer for the Parks Department in Louisville, Kentucky. I went to different parks around the city shooting material for multiple design needs. After realizing that there wasn’t many job opportunities for commercial photography here in town, I started to get an itch to get into video. I took an internship, that later turned into a full-time job at a local video production company. This was the first time I saw LightWave 3D and I thought this is incredible. I can have my own photography studio at the click of a button. Also, when I was a kid drawing my own comic books, I always wished I could just pick up my drawing, rotate it around and fix the perspective. Now with 3D modeling, I could do just that. I was hooked! I wanted to be a 3D artist. I read as many books as I could get my hands on and started doing animations at the video production company I was working for. Later, I went out on my own and started doing freelance 3D work until I applied for the job with UPS.

Lux: What kinds of things does the creative media department do that involve 3D?

WM: Luckily, I get to do a lot of things that involve 3D. I help support the Video Department’s graphic needs. This can range from animating how a package flows through our Worldport facility to a plane in flight, or some type of mechanical part needed for a training video. Just recently I worked on a video that was used as a Teaser Trailer for the unveiling of the new 747-400 plane. Lately, I’ve been working with more interactive 3D projects. For example, I am creating a "walk-around" training application in Flash that teaches a pilot how to do a pre-flight check. I modeled our new 747-400 aircraft and re-created the environment of the ramp where the plane is loaded before take-off. Working with the flight instructor, we set up different camera positions around the model that represent the pre-flight check points. I then rendered the various camera positions and have written some Actionscript that will drive the animation based off user interaction. I am looking to develop a real-time interaction with the model using Flash and I’ve been really enjoying Andy Brown’s new video series on creating real-time content.

Lux: Are you also doing some print? In general, what projects there lend themselves well to 3D?

WM: Yeah, I do renderings for print. We have a couple of in-house publications that I regularly supply imagery for. I really enjoy doing this type of work. It’s a lot of fun. I get to collaborate with one of our talented designers on creating the cover imagery. He comes up with an idea and then I help figure out how to make it work in 3D. I feel it’s a great exercise in optimizing rendering time and dealing with different color spaces. As far as the projects that lend themselves well to 3D, I’d say anything involving our planes. We have full access to the ramp. We can go out and physically photograph a plane from a specific fleet, but this is not always the best use of time. Based on the look the designer is going for, we may not be able to shoot the aircraft in the correct light. The plane may not even be on the ramp, or it’s during peak production hours and it’s hard to get the shot needed. 3D lends itself well to these situations because you have the ability to re-create whatever scene you have visualized.

Lux: So does an Art Director make the final decision about whether to use 3D or is that up to you?

WM: It depends. We don’t have a dedicated Art Director in our department. We pretty much act as our own art director for a given project. If it’s my project then I’m in control over the best method to use. I may have some graphic needs and decided to go to one of our designers for some illustration work and they may come to me for some 3D rendering.

Lux: Please tell us about that project that involved rendering that 747.

WM: That rendering is part of the 747-400 "Walk-Around" training application that I mentioned earlier. This is the second one that I am developing for UPS. The first application was for our A300 Fleet. I modeled the plane and created the ramp environment from a series of photos. I went out on the ramp in the morning when no planes where there and took a series of photographs covering 360 degrees of the area where the plane is docked during the walk-around. These shots where then stitched together to create the environment. I also created an HDRI of the ramp by photographing a chrome ball using a rig that I built. This was a funny situation because here I was standing in the middle of one of the ramps, shooting a chrome ball on stand, while maintenance workers were driving by looking at me like I was nuts. I used the HDRI to provide the indirect light and a Direct light to simulate the sun. I set up multiple render outputs including, reflection, diffuse, direct, indirect, specular and occlusion. I then rendered to a multi-layered EXR, which was imported into Fusion for compositing. Having the ability to save all of the passes into one EXR was a great workflow for multi-pass compositing. Once I setup the pipeline, it was just a matter of rendering out all of the camera positions in the walk-around.

Lux: You really captured the lighting well on that shot…

WM: Thanks. I am big on using Image Based Lighting. I think it’s an amazing technique. I love lighting. Coming from a photography background I think lighting can make or break a shot. The lighting style can add so much to the feel of a render. Also, I wanted to go for a sense of realism for the walk-around. I wanted the user to get a sense of being on the ramp. I wanted to stay away from that typical computer based training look. I felt that IBL would be a great way to add realism fast.

Lux: Did you model that jet or obtain it from some other source? Typically, do you model stuff yourself?

WM: Yes, I modeled the jet. I had access to the actual paint specs of the plane and I created backdrops from those specs. I almost always model the objects I use. I really enjoy the modeling process. Creating something from nothing. I’d say modeling is probably my favorite part of the 3D process.