Interview
Mike Douglas
Company: Mainframe Entertainment, Inc.
Age: 24
Job Position: Graphic Designer
Projects worked on at current company: Web and print design
Q: How did you get started in 3D/Artwork?
It was actually by accident. I went to school for graphic design, and after working in the design industry for a year or so, I got a call from one of my old classmates, who was working at Mainframe. They were looking for a web designer, and hired me on. Since then I've expanded beyond that position to work on a variety of projects, including working with the CG models.
Q: What applications and computers do you use to do your work?
The company has several hundred SGI (Silicon Graphics) stations, plus a few dozen Macs and PC's. I do most of my work on a Macintosh, although I also use an SGI, and occasionally a PC as well. Photoshop is my most-used program, and I also use QuarkXPress, Illustrator, and Flash a great deal. I also use Bryce, Painter and Freehand for certain projects. On the SGI's, SoftImage is the big application, and is used for all of the 3D modeling and animation.
Q: Your favourite application and why?
That would have to be Photoshop. It has all of the tools I need for my day-to-day work. The version I use the most is 4.01, as it has all of the most necessary tools without being too slow to load up, and doesn't have the colour conversion hassles of version 5.x.
Q: Whats your office like?
The Mainframe building itself is a cool environment to work in. It's got a great interior design theme, with lots of brightly coloured walls, corrugated metal hallways, and lots of big windows. Most employees have tons of toys on their desks, and posters and other oddball stuff all around their suites. It's a really young, fun and creative atmosphere.
Q: What inspires you to do what you do?
My early influences were comic books and cartoons, and they still inspire me a lot to this day. I think it's really important to see what's out there, to keep surfing around or picking up magazines - just soaking up the inspiration that's all around you. It also really helps me to have so many creative people around me - people who approach creative problems from a totally different perspective than I would.
Q: Where do you see the 3D TV animation going in the future?
I think that in a few years you're not going to be able to tell the difference between what's real and what's CG, and the boundaries and quality of 3D TV shows will expand until they look like they're mini-movies. It'll help bring more and more of the creative ideas of the writers and designers to the audience, in a realistic and dramatic way.<
Q: Any handy hints for future 3D Artists?
Just keep working really hard, and push yourself creatively. Almost anyone can learn to be a 3D artist, it's the ones who come up with the innovative creations and solutions that will stand out.
Q: Do you have a favourite web site?
There's not one that stands out too much above the rest. As I'm currently doing a fair amount of Flash work, I like to check in with Macromedia's Shocked Site of the Day, to see what other peopleare doing with the technology.
Q: What do you do when you don't sit infront of a computer?
I try to drag myself away from the computer long enough to have some sort of life. I like to read, draw, watch movies, and have a good time with my fiancée.
Q: How long does it take to make an entire 30 min episode?
There are several stages to the production of each episode, but the actual animation timeline for each episode is about 8 weeks.
Q: Average hours you work a day?
8 hours
Q: What was the most fun to work on?
Building the Flash sections on the Mainframe site. There was the technical challenge or getting them to work properly, plus the creative challenge of making each different section have its own flavor and style, while having them all work together as a whole.
Q: Where did you last go on holiday?
Last year I went to London and Paris for 3 weeks. Guess I wasn't too far from you Loorollers, wot?
Q: What do you have as your desktop background?
Usually I alternate between the screens we make here, and whatever I find when surfing around the net (usually something from some site called Loo-something-or-other????)
Here's my current desktop (click to enlarge).
