Featured Member - Jason Tinsley

[bmckain]

1. Hi Jason, thanks for taking time to do this interview. I’m pretty sure most members will know who you are but for the record would you mind introducing yourself and tell us something about you, your hobbies, favourite movie, where you work, that sort of thing.

Okay, where do I start? I’m a Lecturer in Media, specialising in CG modelling and animation, I am based about 30 minutes drive from London in the UK, so I keep good tabs on the industry and what’s going on, which is essential. When I’m not working I keep myself busy with Motorcycling, Archery, CGI (of course!) and playing the Saxophone really, really badly.

No, seriously, really badly!

As for favourite film, well, I have a number of favourites but edging them out is Stanley Kubrick’s truly epic [/i]2001: A Space Odyssey[i], although I do have a soft spot for Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, as well as most of the work by the Coen brothers.

2. When did you decide you wanted to be an artist and what inspired you to that end?

I have always drawn and sketched; even some of my earliest memories involve me drawing things I saw around me. In fact, I found one of my dad’s treasured Asimov books a few years ago and on the inside cover were a veritable squadron of TIE Fighters drawn in ball-point pen! I have had no formal training in fine art: I think I am one of the few allegedly ‘lucky’ few who just have the right mental connections to be able to draw what I see. As a result, there is an automatic assumption that you don’t need any ‘formal’ tuition, so I have had to learn on my own, through trial and error.

I have always enjoyed Sci-fi, even when I was young. My dad reads a lot of sci-fi novels; particularly the Golden Age authors: Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, et al. So it was quite natural to pick up a book and start reading, so it’s something that has always been with me, and I suspect always will. As a result, a lot of what I drew was technological or sci-fi in origin. I remember drawing aircraft and spaceships a lot, which might explain why I spend a shocking amount of time building and rendering them.

3. At what point did you get involved with the 3D medium and what motivated you?

I became involved in 3D in November of 1993 when I bought Amiga Format magazine, (remember that? Fabio will!) and there was a copy of Imagine2.0 on the coverdisc. So I followed the tutorial and after many hours of rendering on my A500+ I had a 24 bit image of a Shark and some fishies swimming above a sandy sea-bed. That’s what got me started off. Co-incidentally in the same issue there was an article about a company called Foundation Imaging who were using Amiga’s to create VFX for a TV series called Babylon 5 using some software called LightWave 3D by a company called Newtek...

My inspiration began a lot earlier. In 1986 or ’87 I saw Luxo Jr from Pixar. Its blend of cutting edge technology that drove a simple and effective narrative made me think, ‘I want to do that!’

4. Did you go to school for a 3D/CG degree and whether yes or no, what do you recommend to those entertaining the idea of working in a studio or school?

I did indeed take a degree, although it was in Animation, not CG. I went into Higher Education quite late: 2001 to be exact, and at the time, I was the only student there who was specialising in CG. I learned a lot about weighting, timing and inertia from my studies using conventional animation that really enhanced my work using CG-based tools.

I’m a little biased, considering my job, but I do believe that a 3D/CG degree is worth it. You are able to learn the fundamentals of animation, experiment and learn in an environment that is supportive; that allows you to make the early mistakes that in a real-world situation can be potentially career-ending.

There are Pros and Cons to both the education route and the experience route; one allows you to learn how to animate and gain the experience and confidence in an education environment, whereas the other gives you immediate, real-world production experience from Day One, allowing you to experience a wide-range of jobs in an environment that simply cannot be simulated in a University.

Personally, I suggest doing both. Get the qualification but get some work experience with a local production house in your spare time. It is the best of both worlds, and your experience in both will make you a better CG artist and practitioner.

5. Considering you work as an instructor, was this your first job? How did you end up going in to teaching 3D as opposed to a studio or the film industry?

It was my first formal job, although I was freelancing a great deal during my studies, there simply was not enough work to sustain me after I graduated, so I decided to take a teaching qualification whilst I made a decision about my future, so I became a lecturer by accident, I suppose.

However, I would like to do a lot more 3D work and being close to London is a real advantage; especially with all the UK-based effects houses being based there at the moment.

By the way, if any of them are reading this, send me an E-mail: I would love to do more freelance!

6. What do you enjoy most about 3D?

Hard question...

There certainly isn’t any area I dislike, so I suppose I enjoy the whole creative process; from the initial idea, to sketching it out, modelling it, texturing, layout and post-production. I get a great sense of joy from the act of creation, and that’s exactly what we do: create. We take an idea that lives in our mind and we turn it into a tangible piece of art, and that’s a remarkable thing to do.

And anyone who doesn’t think that CG is a legitimate art form is going to be in for a fight!

The only thing I don’t like is the render times, but to be honest, does anyone?

7. What is your favourite of all your 3D work?

Erm... *thinks* I think my favorite piece of work is the image of the android yearning to be free, hand pressed to the window as the sun sets over New York. I recall seeing the quote by Ghandi that said: “The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall”. The message had enormous poignancy and power, so I decided to use Ghandi’s words to form an image that expressed that instinctive need to be free. I decided not to use a human being for the focus of the image, but that of a graceful humanoid android. The image has a power that still surprises me even now. Even though I had intended the image to generate an emotional response, there is much more there than I had originally intended. I think it has something to do with the inclusion of the quote: it gives the image so much more impact that it has on its own.

Everything looked fantastic in the test render, and it needed very little work outside of the raw rendered image itself. There is nothing I would change about the image, which for me is pretty rare.

8. Many members have seen your work I wonder if you can share something members haven't seen and expound on it and why you particularly like it?

Last year, I started to learn Maya, and one of the first things I wanted to build was a T-Rex. Don’t ask me why, it was just something I wanted to do. I struggled a lot with the modelling tools as I had used Maya for about two hours at that point. However I persevered and by the late afternoon, I had a 3D model that not only looked like a T-Rex, but was also rigged for animation.

The reason I like it is because although it isn’t the prettiest model in the world, and it isn’t the most detailed, it taught me more about Organic Modelling, Edge-Loops, Weightmaps, IK Rigging and Constraints in a single afternoon than I have learned in about 4 years.

9. You've been around a long time now. What advice would you give the serious hobbyist regarding 3D in general?


Practice.

Practice every day. Build the stuff around you, because the everyday objects are the hardest things to make look real, because we know what they are supposed to look like. Making a huge spaceship look real is easy, because we don’t have anything to compare it to. Try it with a real-world, everyday object and it’s a different proposition altogether.

Observe the world around you. Don’t just see things, Look at them.

Look at the way light interacts with the surface; Is it glossy? Scratched? Is it clean? Dirty? A bit of both?

Take photo’s if you need to: they make ideal reference and textures, because sometimes you can’t beat nature at its own game. Then go home, and try and replicate it.

Don’t be scared of the hard stuff in CG.

If you find UV texturing a hard thing to do, learn how it works and then try it. Don’t shy away from things because you think it might be too difficult.

Ask questions. Seriously. No-one ever got an answer without asking a question first.

You won’t get laughed at, called a noob, or anything else. People help other people: it’s in our nature. Ask the question, and you’ll get a reply.

But above all else, enjoy it.


Thanks Jason,

It's been a fun interview and I know I will be looking forward to seeing what you come up with in the future.

[Rigel]

Jason, welcome to the F3D Featured Members section.

I've always enjoyed seeing your work.

[deg3D]

Very nice Jason, and you sound a bit like me, what with a Dad that read the classic sci-fi authors and passed them on to you, and we share the same favorite film, 2001.

Awesome works as always dude, and thanks for sharin' eh.

deg

[keithd203]

Another great interview! That is some excellent work Jason, thank you for sharing!

[Meurig]

Nice one Jason!

[Deetz]

Very nice work!

[Syntrifid]

Great stuff And great interview! I really like the suggestions about doing real world objects. Learning to re-create reality is always most helpful in making any cg fantasy world that much more realistic!

[BillS]

Show off

Congrats JT

[Tenement 01]

I love your English Electric Lightnings. They really take me back. Superb work!

[Davide_sd]

Great interview to a great artist!
i love the work on Rose Chapel and also the penultimate image. just impressive!

[Rob]

really nice Jason.. the Eve/Window/Slave one still makes me stop and think.. i think as you said because the iamge is very very suggestive of something kept imprisoned.. kept from being free.. looking out wanting the freedom and you capture that brillently with nothing but the body language.

And the rest of your work is Awesome as well

[bnolin]

Good interview. As a newbie, I was glad to hear that modeling the stuff around you was harder than doing starships. I had it backwards! Doh. Thanks for that.

[nemo]

Like any good artist, you have a style to your imagery that can be recognized instantly. And it's beautiful stuff.

[baldhobbit]

I like your work. You're an inspiration.

[CAClark]

A welcome addition to the features section.

Cheers!

[Keddy]

Good interview! also great work as well!