Name : Peter Hushvahtov
Company : ION Storm

What 3D package did you start off with? :
Swivel 3D for Mac.

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
Lightwave 5.5

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
For about 2 years; In April 1997

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Extremely important, cause your 2d skills just transfer over to 3d, if you know what the body shape looks like you can get the proportions right doing 3d.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry? :
Hard work, dedication and being a hard-core gamer is always a plus.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Get a nice package, practice practice practice.

Name : Paul Steed
Company : id software

What 3D package did you start off with? :
3DS

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
3DS4, Alias Power Animator, Maya, Nichiman

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
Forever, Jan 1992

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Incredibly important. Drawing ability and sense of flow, balance and dynamic action is the number one differentiating factors between good and bad 3D computer artists and animators.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Hard work and continually learning.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Never give up.

Name : Stephen C.E.S. Wilson
Company : Crack.Com

What 3D package did you start off with? :
Autocad 11 & 3dStudio3

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
3dsMax 1.2

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
I've did my first mesh in 1994. I was hired in 1994 by the now-defunt 360/Intracorp as a scenerio designer for HarpoonII. When they began their Hammer's Slammers project, they were looking for a 3d artist and I stood up and yelled, "I can do it!" So, I made a couple of models and was given the role of Lead Artist. After a couple of other artist had been hired, I proved to be the most skilled at 3d and I had the most knowledge of the game's military requirements, and thus was appointed Art Director.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Definately. My hand drawing skills are, I regret to say, at a minimal. Fortunately, I have enough talent with manipulate realistic images to obtain the results that I desire. So, I'm able to suppliment my lack of drawing skills with a completely new and different talent. However, hand drawing skills can be vital to conveying your creative ideas to programers, game designers, and other artist. Storyboarding, logo design, texturing, and most of the other pieces to any good 3d animation requires at least a 'fair' skill in pencil sketching.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Stay informed about new products and other artists work. If another artist creates an animation or a model that inspires you... take the inspiration and build on it. Who's to say that his model wasn't simply an extension of someone elses ideas?

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Do your own work. Don't think that by recreating tutorials from books that you will be hired by another artist. Its very likely that the artist that is going to hire you has already done those exact same tutorials. And its even possible that he/she may have been the one that created the tutorial in the first place. ;) Don't give up. There are a lot of oppurtinites for 3d artists today. Not all of them are in the game industry. Don't become discouraged if noone replies when you send out demo reels. Sooner or later someone will notice you.

Name : Landon Montgomery
Company : Rebel Boat Rocker
What 3D package did you start off with? :
Caligari trueSpace 1

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
3DSMAX 2.0 at work and trueSpace 2 for personal stuff.

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
I've been involved for about 3 1/2 years...my career really began in late '95.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field > of 3D modeling/animation? :
They were not that important for me. It helps to be able to think on paper, so to speak, to establish details and correct any difficult or costly mistakes ahead of time however. A lot of employers are very concerned with an established past in traditional mediums, but I've noticed that in some cases they've kind of relaxed on that lately.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Talent, patience, and a little bit of networking. It's important to know who you're trying to impress...where they've come from and what they've done in the past. I've seen a lot of reels and samples where the artist has simply thrown together something without much thought as to how it may fit in with his prospective employer's lineup. Know your audience. If you know ahead of time that you want to work for Big Joe's Games and that they focus primarily on strategic military titles, then do something for them that they'll be able to associate with.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Have patience. Don't feel that when you've finished something that it's "done". If you have any second thoughts about the quality of something you've just completed...start over or try as best you can to fix the problem. Showing off stuff that doesn't truly represent your skill just to have something to show can be very damaging. In the "industry", you're always working under deadlines but if you're just getting started and you're doing it on the side while working at Blockbuster or something, you can afford yourself the time to perfect your skills. Take that time. I spent the better part of 8 months working on my first portfolio 5 hours a day and I see now how I would do almost everything differently. It may feel like forever, but if you wait and allow yourself enough time to build the skill to do some really nice work, it will be well worth the wait. Also, remember detail. When I built furniture for a scene, I worried about how it was held together...where the nails or screws would go and I'd build those. Was the screw a Phillips? Did your nails need to fit flush with the surface? Was the furniture more If you're looking at real time stuff, you can do the same with textures. But attention to the little things like that will enrich your work and make it stand out.

Name : K. Capelli
Company : Accolade
What 3D package did you start off with? :
TrueSpace 1.0 was the first 3D package I played with... it was great to learn with, but wasn't robust enough for the production environment I was working in. I then started working with 3D Studio Release 4 and got all of my in-depth 3D knowledge from that tool. 3DS R4 was great for giving me a real nuts-and-bolts understanding of how 3D art and data works. I had spent a little time with Wavefront for high-poly character facial animation.

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
I'm currently using 3D Studio MAX 2.

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
I began working in the game industry in 1994 after graduating from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco with a degree in Illustration. I started doing 2D sprite cleanup and miscellaneous 2D pixel art and transitioned into working with 3D art later that year. So, I've been doing this for 3+ years.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Terribly. To a degree, they're more important than knowledge of any particular tool. Traditional hand-drawing skills are less about the ability of your wrist and more about perception... learning to use your eyes to "see". Good drawing skills give you a strong base to build other skills on. If you know how to look at things and understand their properties (form, mass, contour, color, motion, etc.), then things like modelling, texturing, animation, and design can yield much better results.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Being versatile... knowing how to do a number of things very well and being to pick up new tools quickly. Being a team player... knowing how to work in a collaborative environment with other artists, designers, and programmers.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Get a good base of traditional art skills that will last in the long term... sculpture, color theory, figure drawing. Applications come and go, but these skills will stay with you throughout your life...

Name : Jeramy Cooke
Company : TeamFortess Software
What 3D package did you start off with? :
ez3D for the mac (1 bit)

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
Lightwave5.5, 3DSMax, Electricimage

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
I've been doing 3D since 1987-88 when the first crappy 3d programs came out for the mac. I didn't really establish myself till around 1994 when I got seriously into doing multimedia. I have since been evolving into the realm of games which have allways been my true obsession.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
They are probably the single most important aspect of learining to be an artist of any kind.
Life drawing, classical animation, and just plain creative scribbling are probably the bast place to start when learning 3D computer animation.
Like a pen; the computer is just a tool. Color, line, form and motion have universal properties that apply whether you are using Alias Animator to animate Stroggs or using a knife to carve a wooden head.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Having an imagination and having the drive to get down to it and create your vision.
If I had a dime for every TC or PC out there that was based on a movie or a comic or whatever i'd probably be a rich man. It's the people I see that take an original concept from their heads and give it form that will really succeed.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Create stuff every day. Don't do it for anyone but you. Remember to always keep learning. In this industry you have to stay on top of the latest tools in order to stay, not just saleable, but also find better and more creative ways to do what you do best.

Name : Allan McKay
Company : TeamFortess Software
What 3D package did you start off with? :
3D Studio Release 3

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
3dsmax2, 3ds4

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
5 years, I started getting into it a bit after an architect friend introduced 3ds3 to me. I then began reading books and doing tutorials and learning independantly.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
They can be, depending on how well you plan, when you go to create body parts through lofting where you create 2d shapes and then loft them into one model, you'd be better off drawing the shapes on paper first so you can get a better idea of how they will look, then you can use those sketches as reference as you begin to model the object. Plus you can sketch out what you want and keep looking at your sketch as you model it on computer so you don't lose track on what it's meant to look like.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Learn your tools well. Be confident and don't be afraid to apply for as many jobs as you can. Try to get a background in the gaming industry, perhaps join a team of people and work on a TC for free, if it's successful you could be offered a job (take steven polge, giggler and plenty of other talented people). Put lots of samples of your work on the net so if anyone asks to see your work you can point them right to your best work and also people will contact you saying they saw your work and might have a job for you. and most importantly ... be there are the right time :)

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Study human anatomy and character animation, learn all you can about the program you are using and the character you are modelling. try to give the model personallity, if he's real bulky and overweight make hime move overweight, such as if he's running then don't have him leaning forward and running, have him with his back and head slightly titled back trying to keep ballance. Try to study reality and learn what things look like and how they move. Watch heaps of movies for inspiration. Try to get as much help as you can, such as with friends who do the same thing as you, so if you have any questions you can ask them look at other peoples work and look how it's done (but don't rip it off :))

Name : Jonn Gorden
Company : Zero Gravity Entertainment

What 3D package did you start off with? :
3DS v3, which was fairly quickly upgraded to v4

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
Lightwave 3D

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
I have been into 3D and all computer graphics/animation since computers have been capable of 16 colors
My career started at the beginning of '91 when I showed a small games company my graphics on atari. I spent a year or so on just 2d graphics/animation, then went on to learn 3ds.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
For sure. Without the theory of 2d animation and drawing your 3d animation will not be anywhere near it's best. Everyone who i have trained in 3d animation has had to learn about 2d animation first. Unless you are not interested in character animation of course.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Perseverance and a total dedication to beating the quality of everything else out there. Once you have these, the rest just falls into place. Once in the industry make sure you are constantly challenged so you become better at what you do.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Practise and more practise. When you can look at your work and can say "That's as good as or better than anything else I've seen" then keep going and get even better. Constantly put yourself in a position so that you're challenged. Unless you challenge yourself you will not improve.

Name : Cyrus Lum
Company : Iguana Entertainment

What 3D package did you start off with? :
I started with 3D Studio version 1.0

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
Alias PowerAnimator and Max2

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
I've been doing 3D modeling, animating, and texture mapping for 11 years. I have been in the computer gaming industry for 9 years. I got my start at Strategic Simulations Inc. creating graphics for their Advanced Dungeons and Dragons line of games. I then worked at Crystal Dynamics where I founded their art department and got them into Alias Poweranimator. I am now the Director of Advanced Technologies at Iguana Entertainment. My department is primarily responsible for doing 3D modeling, animation and texture mapping. I'm currently working on a BOSS monster for Turok2.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Drawing skills are very important. Drawing is the artist's way of comunnicating ideas and concepts to the other team members. Its also still the best and fastest way to work out ideas.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Being a multi-talent. The 3D programs these days are so easy to use, that the specialization of just being a modeler or just being an animator is vanishing. Good character animation skills is a must. Being able to work within the limitations of the game platform and produce quality results is also good.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Don't be to ambitious in the beginning Be conservative with your polys - put your detail into the textures.
If you're doing quake stuff, paint the shadows into the texture map.It'll make the model seem more detailed - paint the shadows as if the light was on top. For those of you who can't paint, Take a higher polygon version of your model, texture map and light it, then render it from the front and back. Use this as your texture map for the low polygon model that goes into Quake.

Name : Rowan "Sumaleth" Crawford
Company : Animagrafx Pty Ltd / Impact Dev Team

What 3D package did you start off with? :
Lightscape 3D, then AutoCAD, then POVRAY.

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
Alias Power Animator, Lightwave 5.5

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
3D art has been a side interest for about 7 years although I never really had a big enough machine to really get into it. But I always liked looking at it. I remember Tobias Richter animations from way back in the early days of the Amiga and eventually Lightscape 3D (the grandparents of what is now Lightwave) was included on a magazine disk (which Tobias used) so I played around with that a bit. Later at uni I had a chance to play with one of the first versions of AutoCAD to include 3D features. Then a while after that I came across POVRAY which I used entirely without an interface (all scripted modelling, very cool). Around that time I was big into the B5 phenomenon (even tho it took 2 years to eventually get here) and REALLY wanted Lightwave but it was attached to Video Toaster which was NTSC only. So I was just about to buy Real3D when Lightwave was finally released as standalone which I bought instantly. I had been using that for about two months when I was lucky enough to get a "fill in" position at one of the leading animation studios in Australia (doing 2D artwork which I was mainly doing all this time) which lead into a fulltime position working with Alias Power Animator (*deep breath*).

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Not necessary (because I know lots of exellent modelers and animators who can't draw to save themselves) but I'd say it would be a BIG benefit.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
Doing professional quality work FAST. Doing something that looks fantasic is defintely an important starting point (kinda goes without saying), but if you can do it fast too then thats when the potential employers take note.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
The biggest thing to realise is that your own work only looks as good to you as you can "see". By that I mean like how you remember a few years back to something you did that you were really proud of, but looking at it today it's kinda cheap and tacky - over time you understand more and more about the finer qualities of the subject and until you learn each step you won't "see" that missing from your own work whereas others - who do understand those things - will see them missing. It's not linear either, all these "steps" are actually in parallel so that someone might have a better understanding than you whereas you have a stronger grasp of composition or proportions. And there are an infinite number of these steps...
So the point is, always be really examing the work of people who are considered to be good and try to understand WHY. Because for each revelation you find, your work will make a significant step towards being as good as possible.
Or something :).

Name : Dave Manuel
Company : SunStorm Interactive

What 3D package did you start off with? :
I started out with "Playmation" from Hash In

What 3D package are you currently working with? :
I am still using Hash's current product "Animation Master" version 5.

How long have you been into 3D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
Since about 1992.
In late 1993 I joined Maranda Productions in Portland Oregon. I worked as a runner aquiring props and doing set assembling and dressing for local and national television adds. At one point an oppurtunity came along to do some 3D animation for a Hewlett Packard inkjet printer add. I jumped in with both feet thrilled and scared shitless. The lead animator on the project subsequently offered me 2D and 3D work on the cinematics for "Captain Quazar" a 3DO console game. After that I worked as an independent contractor for several projects for Hash Inc. including 3D modeling and animation for a video only feature film. I did a game project with Computoons for Dynamix "3D Pinball." I was contacted by Sunstorm Interactive after they visited my website and offered a contract to work on an official add-on for "Blood" entitled "Cryptic Passage". After that I worked on Utopia Technologies 3D puzzler "Montezuma's Return". Sunstorm offered me a permenant position as lead artist in September 1997 and I accepted the job.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Most definately. My background of drawing, oil painting, color theory, and clay sculpture have served me well in the 3D CG arena.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
That is a tough question to anwer due to the scope of the industry. Without resorting to platitudes I would emphasize a good work ethic that includes both hard work and long hours on the job along with continued self-learning and experimentation on your own. All that assumes a good basic skill set (talent). Aquire and use any knowledge you can get your hands on. Books, articles, *a mentor*, and make it your business to duplicate and ultimately exceed what you are shown.

Lastly, have you got any tips for rookie 3D-Artists? :
Whatever 3D package you choose, learn it inside and out. If you don't know painting programs like Photoshop and or Painter, learn to use them. Study classic 2D animation principles (go buy "The Illusion of Life") for those who aspire to animation. When you get to feeling down and out go look at the works of other artists on the web for inspiration. Don't completely set aside your own ideas and goals. Use them as practice projects to further your skills. When you do land a position as and artist or animator don't sucumb to the notion that you have arrived. If anything you better work harder at learning and keeping your skills sharp. Above all don't take it all so seriously that it becomes no fun.

Name : Rich Fleider
Company : Rogue Entertainment

What 2D package did you start off with? :
& What 2D package are you currently working with? :
As far as paint programs go, I'm considered to be an archaic dinosaur. I still rely on the first program I ever learned. You guessed it, it's DeluxePaint 2 Enhanced by Electronic Arts. Up until about three or four years ago, it was the industry standard but now that the "Age of Sprites" is drawing to a close, it's rapidly becoming obsolete and is not even available or supported (as far as I know). I constantly catch hell from some of the guys at Rogue for being one of the few people still using this old pack-mule but it does everything I need it to do and it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles that I don't need. My job still primarily boils down to pixel pushing and it's sometimes easier to do that on simpler programs.
Just recently (as of the beginning of Rogue's newest project) I've started working extensively with a 3D paint program written by John Carmack for skinning Quake models. Our lead programmer, Peter Mack, has modified it greatly for me in an attempt to wean me off of DeluxePaint and drag me into the 20th century. Only time will tell if it works better than "old faithful".

How long have you been into 2D-art; and when did your career first get established? :
I first professionally got into computer art back in 1989 when I got hired by a fledgling game company called Cygnus studios. Under that name we successfully released the scrolling shooter "Raptor: Call of the Shadows". I was basically in charge of making the background tiles and reworking most of the enemy ships. The game caught the eye of Apogee and id and got our name known (if not much else). After a lot of restructuring within the company, we changed our name to Rogue and released the 3D action title "Strife" to critical acclaim. Now that we are riding on the huge success of the second Quake mission pack "Dissolution of Eternity" (CGW's Best Action Game for the last 3 months now) and busily working on our next project with id, I feel that I have finally established myself as a quality contributer to a company that consistently makes creative and innovative products.

Do you think hand drawing skills are important when entering the field of 3D modeling/animation? :
Many 3D artists that I've talked to tell me that they wished that they had spent more time refining and practicing their hand drawing skills. These skills are of incredible importance to all of us at Rogue, not just to the art staff. We regularly have company wide design meetings and everyone contributes to the flow of ideas. The ability to quickly draw out your thoughts on paper is invaluable. At Rogue we don't currently focus heavily on cinematics but when we do, storyboarding on paper is our first step. Even our 3D artists find it much easier to draw out their animation sequences and designs on paper before they even touch their programs. Since we just hired on Won Choi as our conceptional artist, our workload in this department has been greatly reduced but we all still rely heavily on hand drawing skills.

What do you think is the key to being successful in todays industry?
The desire to work as fast as possible for as long as possible. The ability to generate a few versions of a design to present to other people really helps them to narrow down what they are looking for in a concept. Many times our game designs have been radically altered (sometimes in the blink of an eye) and it's hard to keep up with the major changes and still work on a normal schedule. In the course of an hour meeting, all of your work for the last month could be scrapped and you could be asked to fit the changes into your next milestone in addition to your normal workloads. We still constantly find ourselves cramming as much as we can manage into a monthly milestone and wishing that we could have done more. I guess the real lesson is to not get too attached to your work and be willing to accept any possible changes that need to be made.