Wes McDermott

Lux: What other projects have you worked on?

WM: Another project I had a lot of fun with was the Teaser Trailer for the 747-400 arrival event I mentioned earlier. My supervisor asked me to produce an animation for the event and he left it up to me for the idea. I decided to go with a mixture of CG and live-action showing different UPSers at their workplace, getting a glimpse of the 747 as it flew by. My manager wanted it to have an international feel for our different gateways, so I had to add scenes from our Anchorage Alaska and Hong Kong gateways. Everything was shot here in Louisville, so I used CGI to recreate these gateways.

I had 2 weeks to finish this video, so I had to do some major creative thinking to get the scenes I wanted. For instance, there is a scene of a woman looking out an office window as you see the reflection of the 747 as it is passing by. The background plate for this shot ended up being one of our Video Producers standing in our backdoor way. Everything else was comped together to create the scene I had envisioned.

I recently just finished a character animation that used mdd files exported from Maya to modo 301. I modeled a character from a Can, which is a container in which packages are placed before being loaded on the aircraft. I did a few animations of different takes of being happy or disappointed. These animations were used in an online training application and were played during various stages of the training.

Lux: What other software do you use?

WM: I use Maya 8.5 for animation, Fusion 5.1 for compositing and Flash Professional 8 for multi-media work.

Lux: How has it worked getting data to or from Maya from modo?

WM: It has worked very well. I use the fbx format to transfer my models to Maya and I use a wonderful script written by Lernie Ang called Maya2LW 2.0 for exporting mdd files for use in modo 301.

I tend to rely on modo for modeling, surfacing and rendering. The modeling can’t be beat in my opinion. It’s just so unbelievably fast to create a model with the modo toolset. Typically if I am just going to do some basic animation, I’ll keep the entire workflow in modo. For me, it’s much quicker to set up surfaces and render in modo versus Maya.

Lux: Who are some of your influences? Do you make it a point to continue to do personal projects in 3D?

WM: Wow, influences. There is so much talent out there I don’t know where to begin. I see so much incredible work in the modo forums all the time. Some things that come to mind are movies. I love movies. Especially where the CG is so invisible to the audience. I see a well done set extension or character animation and I think "amazing". Great movie effects always inspire me. Of course, the typical answer for 3D influences; Pixar. Also, I’m always inspired by someone creating their own short film and one of my favorite shorts has been the "Lots of Robots" series by Andy Murdock. His work is very inspiring. Honestly; I don’t do too much personal work beyond learning new techniques and brushing up skills. I’ve been doing a lot of quick sketches with modo 301. I take about 30 minutes and try and sculpt the muscles in an arm, head or a torso. Just different exercises to develop a sense of form. I usually end up deleting the models. Happily, my 18 month old little girl keeps my wife and I pretty occupied. Oh yeah, and of course there’s the Wii. I do have a couple of shorts in mind that I’d like to get started on. I recently created a character model for a short about the development of Yong chun Gong Fu. Also, I have been writing articles for HDRI 3D magazine. The last one published was about adding modo to your pipeline; How to export models to Maya and LightWave 3D.

Lux: How did you first find out about modo? What are your favorite things about using modo?

WM: I first remember hearing about modo, well actually it wasn’t even modo. It was right when Brad Peebler, Allen Hastings and Stuart Ferguson left NewTek to start Luxology. I used to go to Luxology.net waiting to see what new tool was coming out from this new company all the while wondering what was going to happen to LightWave. My favorite things about modo are the modeling speed along with the painting and sculpting features. I’m really digging the new sculpting tools.

Lux: Are any of the new features in modo 301 being tapped by you?

WM: Although not so much a new feature in 301, I constantly use the Gamma Control in the Texture Layer Properties to gamma correct images. I almost always render to EXR files, which are assumed to be in linear space. I used the Gamma Control to linearize gamma encoded texture maps and to setup a linear workflow inside modo. New to 301 was the option to disable Dithering in the render output. Linear 32 bit files don’t require dithering and with dithering enabled you get a lot of noise in your rendered EXR files. I was very happy to see the ability to disable dithering in modo 301.

Lux: What do you wish were different in modo?

WM: Hmm. That’s a tough question. I guess the only things I can think of are two features I’d like to see added. Camera projection and a way to compensate for gamma-encoded color values that are chosen with the default color picker. 3ds Max has great gamma correction that when set will allow you to see correct linear values in the Material Editor.

Lux: Do you consider yourself more skilled at modeling or rendering?

WM: I would say more skilled at modeling. I enjoy modeling the most, but I do like setting up a render. It’s always a cool feeling when you’ve managed to shave a few seconds off the render time with some new technique.

Lux: Do you have any advice for someone who is starting out with modo or perhaps contemplating using it for the first time?

WM: I’d say jump in there and it give it try. Of all the 3D apps I’ve used, modo has the best training content built right into the application. The modo community is fantastic. With Brad’s weekly podcast, Andy Brown’s training tutorials and Luxology TV, modo has the most efficient way to get up to speed quick. You won’t be disappointed!