Featured Member - Craig Clark

[bmckain]

Featured Member for October - Craig Clark

1. Hi Craig, thanks for your time and thanks for being our first victim. I think we’ve established that your name is Craig Clark so how about telling us something about you, your hobbies, favorite movie, where you work, that sort of thing.

Well I live and work in Sheffield, in the UK, working for a small studio called Ark VFX. My main hobby is photography, which is quite handy as I live right on the edge of the Peak District. And favourite movie? I think that would have to be Guy Ritchie's awesome Snatch.


2. I always wonder when someone decided they wanted to be an artist. Did you know in grade school that you wanted to do art? Did you day dream and doodle while you were supposed to be listening to the teacher?

I actually went through school with the sole aim of being a draughtsman. Technical Drawing was my thing rather than art itself. But the company I trained at closed down, and my part trained state made it hard to get another position, so eventually I moved in to the IT field, and spent almost 10 years as a support analyst.

3. What inspired you to decide you were going to get involved with the 3D medium and when was that?

During that time I spent in IT, I started doing 3D as a hobby, on account of it's parallels to technical drawing/CAD, starting with Polyray, than Povray, on to Imagine, and then Lightwave.


4. Many members will know that you work in the industry so how about telling us where you got your first 3D/CG job and how the progression has gone.

Well my break was pure chance, and come courtesy of Andy (Reaperman). He was a big IWar fan, and told me that he saw a hiring notice on the Particle Systems website (the guys who made Iwar). So I wrote an email to them, and sent it off, at which point I noticed that the website hadn't been updated for 3 years! I assumed I wouldn't hear anything on that. Sure enough I didn't, but then 6 months later, they emailed me and asked to go for an interview. I did, and got offered an artist job.

So I worked in games for 3.5 years, and then applied to work on Captain Scarlet. Had an interview with Ron Thornton and got offered the job. I worked for 12 months on that until the show was completed. North after that back to Sheffield to work with my former colleagues at Ark VFX. I then worked for an Arch Viz company in London for 3 months before joining Framestore for a year.... and then back to Ark in Sheffield because I really hated London and film work.

5. 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 game shop?

Personally I have had no education in any kind of art, everything I know and use in my roles is self taught, and having seen a million reels from graduates that are apalling, it's hard to judge whether it is worth while or not. My belief is that if you have the latent talent, you don't need to do a degree, just be dedicated to working and learning yourself, but a degree cannot do any harm to your CV/Resume.

6. What was your most enjoyable project?

The most enjoyable project is easy. Captain Scarlet. The working atmosphere was incredible, and I was lucky to work with some of the most professional and personable people I have encountered anywhere. Everyone I worked with shares the opinion that the Scarlet days will always be looked back on as good times.


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

I'd say my favourite 3D work would be the Bugatti Veyron. For various reasons, it is a special project to me, not least as I had to drop the project as a paid tutorial write-up due to personal reasons, and during the hard times that followed, it became a firm focus for my time to keep me sane.... and so I worked to complete the project for myself. Fortunately 3D Total managed to find someone to pick-up where I had left off for them.

8. I remember your blades and I imagine many do but I’ll also bet there are many members who’ve never seen them. Which one do you feel is the best and I wonder if you might tell us a little about what inspired you, how you went about building them and if there were any challenges you had to solve in building them.

The blades were a joy to model, but the Powerdrome blades were actually 90% designed by concept artists. I simply modelled them and added the last details that were not on the concepts. The propeller blades afterwards were designed by me, but inspired heavily by the Powerdrome designs. The modelling was done by building extremely basic rough models to get the proportions looking in line with the concepts. Once that looked good, they were poly modelled as SubD models. I think over all my favourite would be Red Snapper.

9. You’ve also just completed a tutorial on building the Veyron, how long did that take you and where can members buy it from?

As I touched on further back, I started the Veyron tutorial for 3D Total, but had to pull out half way through. Akerdemus picked up where I left off. The tutorial was published in the 3D Creative emag. It does mean though that there is no tutorial for my finished Veyron.

10. You’ve been around a long time now what advice would you give the serious hobbyist regarding 3D in general?

Polygons are everything. Too many people still see monster poly counts as the aim of a good model. Less is more. Always has been, always will be. I'm primarily a modeller, so good modelling practice is what I notice over most things. Don't model excessively with an aim to optimise later. Model wisely in the first place. This is less important if you intend to stay a hobbyist, but if you want to move in to the industry, it is critical, as deadlines will not allow you to go back and spend ages removing excess geometry.



Thanks Craig,

It's been fun getting to know some of the challenges you've experienced and what inspires you. Best of luck as you move forward with your career.3

[rtrowbridge]

This was fun to read. I first came across Craig Clark back when we were both using Imagine. He was converting Babylon 5 objects to Imagine format. He was very easy to work with back then and sounds like nothing has changed.

Nice interview, and some incredible modelling.

[Ideas Unlimited]

Always listened to Craig’s comments on my models, he always seems to spot things that others would miss, now I know why, thought he was a hobbyist like myself, should have realised from his excellent models that he was more than that . I think these interviews are a good idea, it helps to ‘get to know’ the people who take the time to help others with their projects ... thanks and good luck with your work in these hard times




.

[keithd203]

Excellent read!! I know for me learning something personal about a modeler really adds life and personality in their work. This Feature Members section is going to be a great addition to the forum. Thanx for sharing!!

[Flashfire]

Oh Craig, you're going to hear no end of this from Fabio on Facebook now...

Nice read mate!

[Epiphany]

Excellent Choice That Bugatti is wicked

And BillS has no reason to spam Vote for this thread LOL

[1of33]

Love the Powerdrome model`s

[bmckain]

Originally Posted by Flashfire

Oh Craig, you're going to hear no end of this from Fabio on Facebook now...

Nice read mate!

/Thug voice on/

You know where is'a this Fabio?


/Thug voice off/

[HawkHart]

Great interview and always a pleasure to see your work Craig

[Lewis]

Nice reading, very nice and excellent work from Craig .

[BAROBA]

Great interview with a great artist

[Bells of Freedom]

A great interview. Craig's work is always a pleasure to view, and one can learn a lot by just taking a careful eye over his models. Consistently amazing work. This is what I'm striving for!

[wave of light]

Craig's poly flow and texturing, especially on cars, is sublime. I always check out his wireshots for reference.

My son loves watching Captain Scarlet and I always wonder which parts you were responsible for.

[mlynch]

Bravo! Great interview, and a great choice for the first featured artist.

Craig, you already know that I find your work to be personally inspiring. And you are most deserving of the recognition... Next step: the cover of 3D World.

[Escelce]

Great choice of artist. Well done Craig.

[jorjo]

Get that Capri on show man ! It's well worth a place in this showcase

[kiwi123]

Nice one Rottweiler ! Such a shame you're a ******* with a bad taste in cars :P

In all seriousness, a true pro and always good for a laugh...

[deg3D]

Yep, great stuff as always dude. Congrats on being the first F3D interview. Well deserved.

deg

[Syntrifid]

Very good interview! I can especially appreciate those closing words of wisdom regarding poly count. Most excellent bit of advise to any aspiring or even seasoned modeller.
Good deal, Craig!

[Neophite]

Great interview and a great idea to make the interview interactive....as a new comer to 3d as a hobby (possible profession) it is always good to hear the stories of the people who actually do this as professionals......and encourageing as well.

[cgswami]

Craig your work always inspired me to get more into that kind of modelling ...

good interview man

[CAClark]

Thanks All

Cheers!

[JackN]

Who's this Craig Clark fellow everyone keeps talking about?

[CAClark]

Dunno Jack, bit of a knob by all accounts though

[Oscaron]

I dunno...I rather like his work on The Simpsons

[CAClark]

Haha, never said I wasn't talented, just a talented knob

[JackN]

Oh and Happy B-Day!!!

Cheers!

[Rigel]

Happy birthday Craig!

You work on The Simpsons???

[Veltzu]

I've been aware of Craig for some years now. I have to say that I'm sort of a fan... Your work seems to amaze me every time, and I find your work as a reference how to do it right.

[CAClark]

Thanks for the kind words Veltzu :-)

Rigel, no, different Craig Clark hehe but kinda funny to see!