(m²) Mobile Modeler - Artist Interview: Brendan McCaffrey

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I see you use Mental Ray in a number of projects. What do you like most about Mental Ray and what do you think it could improve on?

BM: Yes, mental ray is certainly my renderer of choice and has been since it was first released for Maya. I have not upgraded to the latest version yet so I am not sure of the current capabilities but even this version for Maya 7 more or less does what I need. Improvements could be made to how it handles large resolution renders and hopefully that will come in time. I would like to see a move towards better previewing of shaders and lighting in view port though.

907 Photoshop Layers


	On a hardware side, how is your studio setup? BM: I have 2 computers, a Boxx dual Opteron (not sure what speed) with 4 GB ram and a backup Pentium something or other for admin and other stuff. How fast? Answer is it's never fast enough. Could you name a few of your latest clients and the work you've done? BM: Recently I did the Ford Edge ads for Ford (or at least their ad agency). I did 2 Ace Combat games recently producing some cover plane replacements and a number of promo shots and I just finished some work for THQ on Moto GP 07 which was fun. How do you get your jobs/projects from clients? BM: Either through agents or by clients contacting me directly.Having an agent takes the pressure off and means I can concentrate on the work.



	Could you give us a brief timeline/steps of what happens when you get a project and how it progressives? BM: It is fairly simple. I get a brief and sometimes a deadline(usually fairly tight). I sometimes get models. If not then I have a modeling stage which is then approved and signed off by the client. Then I sort out the views that need to be done and get these approved by the client. At this stage is is usually still screen captures or default lighting renderings. Once they get signed off I produce the first draft of the image. This can be at full resolution or half resolution depending on the final output. Usually if final image is any bigger than a4 I would do a draft at a4 and when it is approved do the final illustration at full size. The final image is produced once the draft is approved.

907 Layers Quicktime Movie

A lot of beginner cg artists don't improve there scenes past the render button. How important is post production in photoshop? Do you tend wait for post production to fix problems you have in 3d?

BM: The post production stage has always very important to me and how I describe the process is comparing it to photography. Most advertising photography is highly edited in post production to give it something unique and to finish it to perfection. It is the same for 3D rendering. The render button gives you a base image with which to start. You can really inject something personal into it at this stage and bring it to a higher level. Apart from that in a production environment with insane deadlines it is a life saver.

Sometimes you have to compromise in 3D because it is just easier and faster to get certain effects in 2D. For example, I often put dirt, scratches and paint chips on in photoshop as opposed to painstakingly doing them in texture maps simply cos it saves me hours and sometimes days of work. And also with things like this the client may easily change their minds about how much is enough. Having a versatile workflow like this can save you lots of headaches later on. In the example I show how I built up this files from various render layers and how I finished the image by applying colour correction to create the right atmosphere for the car and environment.

Do you have any cg idols that you look up took?

BM: There is Ronnie Olsthoorn (Skyraider3d), great aviation artist, Platinum Studio in Brazil do phenomenal work and their finishing and look is the best I've seen, Andrew Jackson is a great product guy and I love his work. Gang Wang (Songbird) is also a great plane guy, there are probably a dozen more I can't even name just recognize their work. I actually mostly prefer more traditional illustrators such as Tim White, Chris Foss, Jim Burns and Syd Mead probably because the level or design and creativity was extremely high in those guys.

I find that a lot of artists, cg and non cg artist, never had
a thought about contracts. Some end up doing a ton of work and not being paid for whatever the reason.
Now this may sound like a bit of a no brainier, for a professional such as yourself, but do you work
by contracts? How important are they for artists?

BM: The whole business end of things is always difficult for artist and I also find it hard to deal with sometimes. I have a client base and I trust them to pay me and act professionally. I do have contracts and I always get a signature or in the case of a new client a deposit up front before I start. Working through an agent certainly takes some of this pressure off as they are good at deal with that side of things.

An artist should take the business of art very seriously and that means being tough and learning the proper practices for a professional. We are one of the lucky few that really are passionate about what we do but that should not be sufficient. This is a job after all and it is how I feed my family so it is important to think of it that way.

What is something that you've learned in your career that you wished you would have known early that would have helped a lot?

BM: Oh yeah.... Like I said above, this is not a hobby... it's a career. Also don't be too trusting.

Imagine a young little boy or girl cruising the web and happens to stumble upon your portfolio and says “I want to do that for a career”. What things should they do start in the path?

BM: Initially to concentrate on building basics skills in traditional art and design and seeking a proper balanced education. It is good to have a long term goal to work in this field but focusing too early is not a good idea. It may seem like a drag if you are sure of what you want but apart from keeping your options open any artist and especially designer benefits from a broad education.

What is your dream project or what kinds of projects do you like doing the most?

BM: I love transport themes and just need to do some trains and boats to more or less cover all the bases. I would like to do more character work though. That is definitely the goal for this year.

Finally what tips do you have for beginners to the wonderful world of 3d?

BM: As with anything worth while it takes hard work to improve but there is great satisfaction in achieving your goals.

Thank you for the interview Branden.

Moto GP 06 © THQ through 3DI(2006)
EF2000 "Eurofighter", Ace Combat © Namco through 3DI (2006) (My own model in this one)
Peugeot 907 © PSA (2005) (model supplied by Peugeot)
Robot © 3DI/AIR render (2006) (model supplied by 3DI)
EADS Facility exterior night shot for EADS through
Preconstruct (2005)

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Artist: Brendan McCaffrey
http://www.bmcaff.com
Interview by: K.L. Fletcher

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