Could you introduce yourself ?
My name is Thomas Colding-Jørgensen - I was born on the 4th of August 1975. I am currently living in Frederiksberg close to Copenhagen in Denmark. I have been drawing and painting since I was a small kid and I started using computers when I got my first commodore 64 almost 15 years ago. Professionally I have been working for about 6 years - starting out with graphics for computer games moving on to graphics for animated feature -short- and commercial films. I am currently employed as a 3D-animator at A. Film ApS - one of the biggest animation-studios in scandinavia doing mostly traditional animation and in the latest couple of years expanding into computer graphics.

What are your sources of inspiration ?
One of the greatest sources of inspiration for me is PIXAR. Way back when they did their first shorts (Luxor Junior, knick knack etc..) and later on with the huge successes of "Toy Story" and latest "A Bugs Life" PIXAR has inspired me and proved that things thought impossible to do - actual could be done in the fantastic world of computer graphics. The whole traditionally animated genre from Disney, Don Bluth and A. Film for that matter have also had a big influence on me - especially all of the "classics" such as "SnowWhite", "Pinoccio", "bambi" and "Valhalla". Of course my collegues also inspire me. In the latest couple of years - japanese anime (animated films) has inspired me a lot when it comes to style in design - animation and atmosphere.

Besides that I usually get inspired by everyday things. For example when I walk down a street late at night and see the roof of a building that catches the moonlight in an interesting way I study the way the light falls - why the shadows produced look the way they do and i try to find reasons and guidelines on how nature creates the images I see everyday.

What is your favorite genre, theme ?
Well I kinda like to try many different styles though I dont think I will ever lose the interest in "cartoony" 3D. I really like to create little funny / cute / interesting and exciting environments and characters (small universes / worlds / places) - little chips of my imagination and fantasy. Most people are really into doing space-scenes and I also did one - but I think that there are so much more to do with 3D. I guess my images best reveals the genres I like to work with.

What are your strong points ?
I think I have progressed a lot with modelling and setting up light. Both modelling and composition of the works I do are strongly affected by my drawing skills - I won't say that i am the best artist but It certainly helps to be able to draw when you want to do things from your own imagination. However its kind of difficult to say what my strong points are - I think I will let the "audience" decide that.

Tell us a little about "Siggys Life".
"Siggys Life" - I would like to start with the reason why I did this image. It all started when I saw one of the pre-production "scetches" for PIXAR's "A Bugs Life". I admit that the layout, composition colors etc. in "Siggys Life" are almost similar to the image from PIXAR. I usually don't do images that other artists have done - and certainly not to the detail of this image but when I saw the one from "A Bugs Life" I was totally amazed. I just had to try and reach a result that looked that good - and do it as a learning experience at the same time. Also I wanted to see if it was possible to do what "the people over there" achieved without having programmers doing custom designed shaders. What could be done with 3DSMAX and my imagination.

How long did it take you ?
The scene took me about five/six evenings all in all.

How many faces ?
3DSMAX says that the face count is 60672 but I dont know if the hair plugin is included.

How did you model the different models in this scene ?
Well for the leaf , the peach and the nut I used NURBS. For the rest i used simple polygon-modelling.

Is that shag:fur on the peach?  If so, didn't you have any problems lighting it ?
Yes I used Shag Fur on the surface of the peach. It wasn't that difficult to set the lighting, it kinda fell in place with the rest of the scene and the lights I had already made. I really wanted that sun-burned light effect and the fur kinda exaturated the lights to add to the sunny feel of the scene.

What is your favorite type of modelling ?
My favorite modelling type is by all means Polygonal modelling. I also like to model with Nurbs and Patches but at least in MAX I tend to use simple polygon-modelling.

What is/are your favourite method(s) of modelling ?
When I am doing characters (heads) I usually start out with very low-detailed sphere. I then convert it to an editable mesh. I work in almost the same way as working with NURBS - I work with few polygons / vertices for the basic shape of the object. I then have a smoothing tool - be it meshsmooth / surfreyes or tesselate - on top of my object "stack" so I can see the final result when I want to. Usually when I do a head I only model the one half of the head. I then have a mirrored copy (reference) that works as a clone of the side I work with. In that way I work on the left side and the rightside changes as I change the left one. The nice little trick is to have a smoothing tool on the right side so I can see the "high detailed result" and at the same time alter the shape on a "low detailed" left side. When i work with polygons I feel a bit more free to cut, divide, extrude etc. than I do with Nurbs and Patches. Though i tend to think that the rendered end result is a bit better with Nurbs. Therefore I often combine both nurbs and polygon shapes in my scenes.

What do you think of the modelling features of MAX ?
I really like to model in MAX. Of course you will have to do some workarounds with MAX but my experience is that workarounds and "inventing" ways to "cheat" your way to the goal is a common thing in most of 3D-Software packages. I feel that the "easy to use" interface and structure of MAX really helps a lot when modelling your scenes and combined with the many different plugins and standard tools available in MAX I find that it really covers most of my needs when doing 3D.

How many textures did you use in this scene ?
Well the only textures (maps) I used were the ones on the leaf, the bottle-caps and the background - all handpainted. The rest of the surfaces only have materials with either procedural (generated) textures or none at all. Most of the look is accomplished with materials (colours, highlights and other material parameters) together with the light setup.

How do you achieve the "plastic" look on one figure and the "plant" texture on another so well ? Do you have some tips to share about making materials ?
Again - with MAX you have a ton of parameters in a material you can change in order to get the result you want. However I think that the lighting of a scene is as importaint as the materials in a scene. The best way to do materials is to study real life materials. For example what is the key features of a surface - what convinces you that a certain material corresponds to the object you are trying to do. The leaf is a good example - the translucency (the way the shadows falls on the "back" of the object and the light shines through) is a good recognizable feature of plants and leafs. Also the peach is not as "shiny" as the berry - think about how much highlighting is needed for the different objects in order to convince the viewer.

Do you draw textures yourself ? What is the "from scratch"/"from real" textures ratio ?
Almost all of the textures in most of my work are handpainted. I would say the "from scratch"/"from real" ratio is about 50 / 1. However I use a lot of procedural textures in conjunction with handpainted textures. For example I use a lot of generated noise/smoke/dents/gradient textures as masks or masks for other masks together with handpainted textures or as bump-maps or shininess maps.

What kind of lighting did you use in this scene ?
I used a lot of different lights in this scene. I used a yellowish directional spot for the general light from above - also casting the shadows "through" the leaf. I used some yellowish target spots for the rim lights and a couple of greenish and blueish omni lights and target spots for the "back" lighting of the scene.

What techniques did you use to create the "rim lighting" effect ?
The rim lights was achieved with some carefully placed target spots. The spots are placed almost opposite the camera so that they only shine on the edge of the objects - in order to get the "hard" edge on the light I turned the contrast up to around 90 and set the multiplier of the spots to around 2. On the peach the effect is exaturated because of the fur.

How did you achieve so good shadows on the leaf ?
I used a raytraced material for the leaf and I played around with the translucency settings - it took a while before I got the result I wanted but then the shadows automatically shined through the leaf.

What do you think of the MAX renderer ?
I think the renderer in MAX is at the moment quite good. However I don't tend to focuss that much on the renderer - I think you have to understand the basics of materials, lighting, shadowcasting, surfaces etc. in real life in order to get the most out of a renderer. For example the whole idea with radiosity rendering is nice - yes - but its sooooo slow and it doesn't always give me the result I am looking for. In stead I find that trying to understand how and where the light "bounces" around adds more to my works - I can also cheat a bit to get the desired look - and I am not "stuck" with a "calculated" "correct" result.

Tell us a little about "Space - City".
"Space City" is a scene I did because....well I just wanted to try and do one. It was quite funny to try and create a space-environment that was a bit different from the "ordinary" space-scene. First of all I gave it a kind of daylight look. Also I wanted to bring more colours into the scene - most of the space scenes I have seen have almost always been focussed around greyish - blueish colours. Also most of the scenes I have seen have all been quite "dark" and scary - why not make it a more "normal" and lively atmosphere.

What was the inspiration for this image ?
This image was inspired both by the movie "Fifth Element" - by some anime's (japanese animated movies) I have been watching and the fact that I have met a general opinion on the internet amongst people doing 3D or people just interested in 3D that if you hadn't done a space scene - well - you weren't quite respected. Of course I dont share this opinion at all but heck - it inspired me to expand my horizons and try the space-theme area too.

How long did it take you ?
The "Space City" took me about (I cant quite remember) 8 or 10 evenings all in all to do.

How many faces ?
The summary info in MAX says that I used 175326 faces and 35 lights - some of the lights were used to light up the billboards in the scene.

How do you keep your scene editable with so much details ?
First of all its a good idea to only do details where they are really needed - you don't need to detail the objects far away. Textures can also do a lot for the image when we are talking details. Another good way to keep your scene is to "collapse" the objects you're "finished" with. Of course I also tend to temporarely hide the areas i am finished with so that MAX is not too slow when I continue working on the next sections of the scene.

How many textures did you use in this scene ?
I used around 10 or 12 handpainted textures together with a lot of procedural textures such as noise and gradient. Most of the small objects only have a material with a colour and ofcourse suitable shininess and bump - settings.

What is the modelling/textures ratio in the realistic aspect of the buildings ? Would they look bad completely lit ?
Thats an interesting ratio - messurement. I guess its around 50/50 - kinda hard to determin. I guess it would reveal a lot of missing details if the whole thing was completely lit but what the hey - I didnt intend to "show it all" i think a lot of details can be made with the viewers own imagination as long as one tries to give the impression of details. You obviously find the scene detailed - and then I got the responce I wanted - ....Cheat where you can if it gets you to your goal.

What kind of lighting did you use ?
The most dominating light source is the "sun" light - it's a directional spot light. Using a directional light you get the parallel sunbeams - parallel shadows - simulating the sun being very far away. All of the other streetlights are "fake" its actually transparent cones and then a lot of videoposted glow effects.

What are the different environmental effects here ?
I used a fog effect for the distance fog atmospheric effect. Also I used a fog effect to get the brownish dust effect on the ground. To get some more atmosphere (dust) I videoposted a general glow (very subtle) on top of the whole image.

How did you make the background ?
The background is just a painted image - sky and clouds mapped on a huge grid. The rest is 3D.

Tell us a little about "Guineapig project".
I have had a tendency to draw guineapigs for a long time since I have had guineapigs for a long time. It was natural for me to include guineapigs in my 3D works. This specific image is just one of my many projects I have started - someday perhaps it's going to be a movie?!.

How did you model the character ?
Actually I modelled the basic shape in a program called AMAPI - that was when I wasn't quite comfortable with modelling in MAX - I had just moved from 3D STUDIO 4 to MAX. Again I used polygons - modelling the guineapig in a neutral pose and then using bones Pro to deform him into place - it's actually a single frame from an animation I did with the little fellah. I started out with a simple body shape and build the arms and head from that working with a low detailed object. Then I used a meshsmooth modifyer in MAX to smooth him and then I added the eyes etc..

What is important to keep in mind to give characters a cartoony-like look ?
That's kind of hard to explain - but I guess to think about caricature and simple graphical shapes exaturating key features of the character is importaint. Do most of the character with the details you would do if you were to draw him on paper. I usually start out with drawings of the characters i want to model. I also think that simulating vains / "real" hair etc. tends to make it more realistic and not as cartoony as I want it to be. Give the character some unrealisitc features such as big (cute) eyes / chubby simple fingers or a big defined nose etc. and it tends to add to the "cartoonyness" of the character. My advise is also to keep the texturing of the character as simple as possible. In traditional animation and comics you often have simple flat colourings of the characters (due to the fact that you have to make a h... of a lot of drawings in an animated feature film). Now this is not at all a bad thing - I think sometimes it adds to the nice simplicity of the character and I guess it's a style in itself. in the same way I try to make the shading and texturing simple and kinda flat to give a cartoony and simplistic look.

The sofa is very well textured. Could you explain what the material is ?
An old sofa or chair like that in the "GuineaPig Project" scene has turned out quite convincing I think because of the texturing. I really wanted to make the chair look like you actually didnt want to sit in it. First of all the fabric should be old and worn - so as little highlighting as possible. I used a simple tileable texture that looked like woven fabric - I used this as a bump map. At the same time I used the same texture as a shineness map cause I didn't want the light to shine in the small "cracks" between the threads of the fabric - thats where all the many years of dust and dirt gathers. Then I wanted the colour of the chair to only show up vary faint -I used a pattern of tileable stribes but I only used this texture blended with 50% of the base material colour.

What kind of lighting did you use ?
I used a couple of omni lights and targetspots. The general lighting comes from the lamps in the corner of the room - also some bluish light from the left of the scene is giving the evening ambient light from either a window or just the room walls bouncing the light. I almost always use light sources with shadow mapped shadows (not raytraced shadows). This allows me to use soft shadows and not the usually very hard edged shadows produced by raytracing.

What image are you most proud of and why ?
Uhh...that's really hard to say - I like most of the images I do and I am equally proud of them all. They are all so different and have their own qualities - I think I will let the audience descide that.

Are these images left untouched, or do you process/enhance them after rendering ?
I use a bit of videoposting (filters and effects) but I consider that rendering too. However sometimes I admit I do some small photoshop adjustments and corrections. The main reason why I use computers is not to show what can be done with 3D - Its to show what I as an artist can do - it's the image and the impression I create I find most importaint - not which program you use to get to the result you want to end up with.

Do you make the whole scenes in 3d or do you composite them ?
Sometimes I composite different layers - of course - that depends on the scene. All of the images shown here in this gallery are however rendered in one go.

How important are preliminary sketches to your works ?
I often do sketches before I even start anything - I find it very important for composition and design and if you can draw then force yourself to do preliminary sketches - you will save a lot of time and worries and you will usually end up with the basic design and composition ideas you wanted and had in your mind when you started.

What are the most important points in a scene to make it look good ?
I guess it depends on the idea of the scene. A very simple scene (few objects) can look as good as a very "complicated" scene. What I personally like is nice lighting - attention to detail - if possible a story - some movement (also in a still image) - and a nice composition. You can achieve this in a lot of ways depending on the feeling and idea of the scene.

It's always nice to have some contrast in scene - I'm not talking about brightness/contrast - I am talking about composition and design. For example a small character in contrast to a large character / light in contrast to darkness or backlight / detailed area in contrast to a big simplisitc area / a heavy object in contrast to a light scene - all in all - balance in the composition.

Try to "de-computerize" your end result. For example try to break up long straight lines (in nature almost everything is a bit rough and dented). A table edge is a bit rounded and often scratched. A fence looks computermade if you just copy one section. Try to create some variation also in small details. A car-park doesnt consist of twenty perfectly placed and lined up cars.

Also I heard about a place where they train people in basic use of 3D - and they said that you had to light up your whole scene - everything should be visible - why???. Dark or even black areas can be much more exiting and you can save a lot of details for the areas in need of details.

Try to tell a story with your image - suggest some movement with some action in the image. At least suggest a mood or feeling in the scene.

What are you tired of seeing in other people's animations/stills ?
Personally I am very tired of seeing "dark" "evil" "skulls" "burning crosses" "sad future predictions" "cold and lifeless" and "mortal combat" related things. I think you can do so much more with the colours and pixels that lie before your feet than doing scenes that make you go "yeahh it's a crappy world anyway".

If you were giving only one sentence of advice to a beginning 3D artist, what would it be ?
Get used to your software - learn from the critique you are getting - have patience and find your own style.

What programs would you recommend for beginning 3D artists and what did you start with ?
I won't say that any program is better than the other. I started with Real 3D - tryed some Imagine and Lightwave - got used to 3D STUDIO - worked a bit in Softimage - tried a bit of Alias and ended up with 3D Studio MAX. I really find MAX to be the software for me - I trained some newcommers to the 3D-world in MAX and they are doing quite well already so...yep I can defenately recommend MAX. Just remember it's not the program it's the person behind the program that does the artwork - the program is just a tool.

What are the strong points of 3D Studio MAX ?
I like a lot of the features in MAX but I think the best thing about it is that the structure and interface is really easy to learn and the fact that plugins and shareware-plugins keeps raining down on the users doesnt make it any worse.

What are your future plans ?
My future plans are of course to evolve in the 3D-World. I am constantly learning and developing my own style. Someday soon I want to direct a 3D short movie - and through my work at A. Film I am going to work on new and exciting feature and short projects (3D and combined 3D / traditionally animation). In a couple of years who knows - I might be working in the states or in the UK - as long as I find that A. Film gives me the challenge and possibilities I will stay here.

Thanks.

Well thank You - I hope some of you out there can use some of the things I have said during this interview.