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In the Beginning
July 22, 2009
I have always been interested in art and was the one at school who was “good at drawing” I spent most of the time drawing space ships, bug-eyed cartoon characters and then perfected the art of drawing a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle (earning maximum kudos among my peers, obviously.)
With the arrival of our first proper ‘computer’ – the superb Amiga 500, I was introduced to the world of digital art – and began to learn programs like Deluxe Paint. I use the term loosely, it was more low-resolution scribblings of obscenities aimed at my sister, but it was an important turning point in my journey through the world of art .
I then began to play around with 3D modelling. I dabbled with Imagine 2.0 on my Amiga 500 first, but the learning curve, especially to a 12 year old, was pretty insane. The process would generally involve making a primitive, then sitting intently watching the machine take (literally) hours to render it. The end result I would then deem ‘rubbish’ and so the process would start all over again. I guess you could call it ‘iterative self-tuition’
I was then very lucky enough to be given an A4000/030, which at the time, was a beast of a machine (Only beaten by the Amiga 4000/040 and then then 060 upgrade card). The waiting times were significantly less between renders, and I started to grasp the basic terms of points and polygons and slowly the ball began to roll.
It was at this time I began to get into the Babylon 5 TV series. B5, for those that don’t know, was a TV series running during the 90′s (also, the only series which I have ever watched from start to finish..to date, at least.) Not only was the plot rather intriguing, it was the special effects – the spaceships, the explosions, the sheer scale of it all – that really set the spark off in my brain.
In the wider context – the B5 series single-handedly introduced CGI as a viable option to smaller production houses.. prior to that it was reserved for only the biggest of movie blockbuster budgets, scooping an Emmy for the effects for Foundation Imaging, the company behind it. The key to this was the relatively low-cost techology utilisted by F.I to create the effects – and that was Newtek’s Video Toaster, and a 3D package called Lightwave.
The very same Lightwave that was lurking in the deepest depths of the 100mb hard-drive of my Amiga.
So it then dawned on me. I had the inspiration and also the very same tools.. it was just a matter of putting the two together. Hampered by the lack of manuals, learning materials, etc (and of course no existance of the Internet as we know it) that was a pretty frustrating time too. But, very slowly, I went from making spheres and boxs to tanks and helicoptors. It was all pretty basic stuff,but gradually grew into more complex models, better textures, lighting, composition etc. to then deciding to have a stab at the Starfury from B5 – one of the most iconic designs in sci-fi.
Again, it was all trial and error, an iterative process of making a first version, then a second, third.. up to about fourteen versions of the Starfury until, even looking at it 10 years on, a pretty damn good clone – far better than most that were released at the time on the Internet.
Looking back now, I can see that while I was purely intending to make a perfect replica of the ship, I was actually learning a lot of valuble modelling skills, self descipline, and a very keen eye for detail. At the time, I was so critical of the smallest error, that I would often scrap large chunks of work and start over.
And so, the perfectionist in me was born.
12 Comments
you did great . was my dream to
Ah those good old Amigas! You know that I only switched from Amiga to PC in 2001! And only because the Power supply sent 220 v to the mobo and the 24bit GC, which was evidently fatal. A sad day!
Oh really? Cool!
What Amiga did you have?
An Amiga 2000, built into a Big Tower with FlickerFixer, the 24bit GC (to use it you needed a switch box for the screen, the normal Amiga mode and the GC mode, since you had two different screen connectors) and I think I had 12 megs of RAM plus a 100 MB hard disk! I used as well Deluxe Paint (IV I think) and a 3D app called “Reflections”.
What I miss today are the animation possibilities of Deluxe Paint, that was a great app.
Sweet..
Never got a go on an A2000.. did it have the Commodore monitor?
DPaint was amazing!
Have you seen the app Amiga Forever? It’s a package of Amiga roms and WinUAE and is real easy way to fire up Workbench again. I’ve got quite few games and stuff, nice to reminisce about the glory days of old school computing.
All this sounds like i’m talking to somebody about myself.. the same thing exactly step by step , just starts after ZX Spectrum with Amiga 600 (still owned one with hacked mouse port to use pc-mouse
)
regards
D.
@ Denis: I started with the C64 (first with the tape drive and later with a floppy (more expensive by that time than a good PC today), bought a C128 later and than jumped on the Amigas, Started with a 500.
@Jack: No, I never had a Commodore monitor, I can’t remember the first I bought.
I will take a look at that app, but I have no longer any stuff for the Amiga. Would be fun to play the original Civilization, Colonization and some of MicroProse’s simulations.
There’s a healthy Amiga scene out there, with most of the games available to download. You should be fine getting hold of those games especially.
Nice to know I’m in such good company with you guys!
This is a great job, stunning works,
Bravo
Greetings from Germany
Thanks!
Babylon 5 – one of the best sci-fi series i have seen… i like a lot of others to, but this one i actually have in a deluxe box version… first bought one box… watched all episodes of the first season in one go… rushed to the store and bought all the remaining boxes. sleep was an annoying disturbance. but had to be done.
I have worked on several classic computer models like the C64, Sinclair ZX80, and then 8086 and up. I have dabbled a short time with the Amiga, but that was only a very short time. recently i worked on a apple computer for the first time.
I did draw a lot of spaceships when i was young and as a engineer with the navy i didn’t draw anything at all. I never was putting a lot of time in drawing people so i learned myself that i could not draw them. I guess i just need to practice a lot.
i’m new to 3D (although i own a lot of 3D software i never worked with it, I played a little with it and thats it.)
Now for the first time in my life i’m without a job and that forced me to rethink my options. What do i really want to do? what gives me real pleasure? (it all started with a few words from Waldemar Belwon)
I am learning 3D with tools like DAZ3D, Carrara and Maya. I have fun with it and will keep looking at the things you (and other people) make for examples and i know that i will create things i like. So thank you for sharing your thoughts, samples of your work and everything else!
Paul Fijma (Netherlands)
Sorry to hear about the work situation.
But, good luck on the next chapter – look forward to seeing what you come up with