Nick Floyd, 3D Artist
by William Vaughan

Nick Floyd is a recent graduate of the Dave School and recently finished working on his first animated short, Spoonman. I sat down with Nick to talk about his role in Spoonman, past student projects, and where he hopes to be in the near future.

William: Tell us a little about yourself?

Nick: Well, I grew up in Montana and Wyoming and received my Bachelors degree in Art from the University to Wyoming before moving to Florida to attend the DAVE School. My hobbies include drawing, movies and playing games with friends. I love to tell stories and this love contributes itself to my hobbies as well my chosen career path as digital animator.

William: How did you first discover 3D animation?

Nick: Growing up I remember feeling excited seeing a tv spot or a music video that I could recognized as being computer animated and I was totally floored by movies in the early ‘90s such as Toy Story and Jurassic Park. I would have jumped at the opportunity to learn 3D animation at college but my part of the country is not known for its high tech resources and so I settled for an emphasis in graphic design. After college I realized something was missing and fate put my path to 3D animation on my door step.

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William: What was your reaction when you heard that the first animated movie you would be working on was going to be about a guy that fights with a giant spoon?

Nick: With having read only the tile I was a little leery, but the script quickly put the character’s motivation for fighting with flatware into focus and by then I was scooped up, so to speak.

William: What was your favorite stage of production on Spoonman?

Nick: The whole production was a whirlwind. We did the animatic, models and all, in about a week and a half. Though I believe animatics are an invaluable tool, it was difficult for me to create something so rough and unpolished and call it done. Though the three month production schedule meant we had no time to spare, the final models were done with much more precision over the course of several weeks. They turned out beautifully and really fit the look we were going for.

The majority of production time was spent in the animation phase. Though it was not without its frustrations it was, overall, an enjoyable experience that gave us terrific results. Compositing and clean up was also a good experience, though it got tedious at times when something need to be touched up frame by frame.

Out of all the stages of production I think I enjoyed modeling the most. I had the extreme pleasure of shaping the final look of Ino, our story’s hero, and his famous weapon.

William: Was there a lot of pressure on you knowing that you were creating the main character and the Spoon which both play a major role in the movie?

Nick: I asked for it. I came into the first day of production with the mind set that I was going to do everything I could to make sure that Spoonman was the best it could be and I specifically asked for the responsibility to model both Ino and the Spoon. I was ecstatic that I got the assignment to do both of them. I was passionate about the project and confident that I could do them justice because of that. I feel that I accomplished what I set out to do.

William: What are your top 3 favorite Anime movies?

Nick: Honestly, I’ve never been a huge animie fan. I love the style of the animation but I’ve just never really gotten in to it. Let see, Spoonman of course if that counts. And Princess Mononoke. That’s it. I don’t know the names of anything else I’ve seen.

William: Who would win in a fight between Spoonman and AstroBoy?

Nick: Oh, Spoonman, hands down… Who’s AstroBoy?

William: What tools were used on the creation of Spoonman?

Nick: First and foremost Spoonman was modeled, animated, and rendered in NewTek’s LightWave 3D 8.2 with the use of Butterfly Net Renderer. We used Adobe AfterEffects and Photoshop for texturing, clean up and compositing. It also needs mentioning that we used the AH CelShader surface plug-in that has shipped with LightWave for years to give the 3D character models their two dimensional hand drawn appearance. This is the original cell shading plug-in for LightWave but it gave us great results with the correct lighting and a little bit of touch up in post production.

I also want to mention the great staff of student animators and recent graduates that helped work on Spoonman. Without each team member using the other members as a tool of knowledge and individual expertise the project would never have been realized.

William: Do you have any favorite features in these programs?

Nick: A favorite feature? There are too many to count. The Spoonman project would have never been possible without the great modeling tools in LightWave and the vector paint and blur features in Adobe AfterEffects. I really can’t say any one of them is my favorite. They are all just tools that contribute to a whole finished film. Missing any of the tools we used regularly would have decreased the impact of the movie.

William: What were some of the challenges on Spoonman?

Nick: There were many. Lighting issues and extremely high polygon counts on background pieces were problems. One of the biggest issues I faced was getting the movable light reflections on the character’s eyes and getting them to flicker on the close-ups. We had to return to the drawing board several times and it took a day of production time to figure it out. The final solution I came up with worked perfectly and we got one of the elements that was considered optional at one time.

In fact there were several elements in Spoonman that were listed from the first week as “if there is time.” We did them all and within the final deadline. We found creative solutions and found the time to put the reflections on the characters’ eyes, create and warp Johnny Wisdom’s holographic computer screen, put the Quints’ numbers on their faces in post production, get the alley fire to flicker on the Quints, and get the specs on the eyes. All were considered optional in the early stages production. They were all a challenge, but we found solutions for them all.

William: What are your plans now that you have finished the movie?

Nick: Well after graduation at the end of the month I will begin seeking my first position within the industry. This means putting my demo reel together and getting it in the hands of those who are hiring. Meeting people and getting my name out there will be key. I had planned on beginning my networking within the last quarter of my DAVE School education, but I poured nearly all of my free time into making sure Spoonman was as good as it could be. I think that investment will payoff in the end.

I plan on working full time in the industry as a permanent staff member at a quality animation or effects studio. As a university graduate and a DAVE School trained 3D artist I have a well rounded skill set and will continue to learn about LightWave and other 3D packages in the future to hone my skills and broaden my knowledge.

William: What are some of your favorite projects that you have worked on in school?

Nick: The DAVE School has a terrific curriculum with each assignment designed to teach one or more elements of the software and also give some room for creativity. My favorite assignments were the MiniMate project and the personal character project. In the MiniMate project the student chooses a scene from a movie and models a MiniMate based on the Art Asylum toys to resemble the movie character. The students direct an instructor to motion capture a chunk of animation and then lip-syncs from a clip of the film. The complete project looks something like the DAVE School film, Batman: New Times but the characters can range from Pee Wee Herman to Hannibal Lector. I used Forrest Gump for my MiniMate project.

The personal character project involved taking a character from concept through the stages of modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, and lip-sync. It is in reality, many projects all wrapped into the same character. This project was my favorite because it allowed me to model a character, give her a background, a personality, and a storyline all her own.

The final element of the project is to create a scene and give the character dialogue and animation. Although I tried to go beyond what was expected on every project, I took this one much further than the others by modeling and animating a second character for the shot.

William: Describe your dream project.

Nick: My dream project would be something with a great story that would appeal to both adults and children. I enjoy clever twists and humor more than anything and a good story is the most important element of any production. Even the most amazing visuals can’t save a weak script. Of course in order to make a dream project a reality it would take a dream team. I would hope to have a great group of artists who collaborate well and are all passionate about the production.

William: Who do you look up to artistically?

Nick: My instructors at the DAVE School come to mind. Each one of them imparted on me some knowledge and respect for what they know. Also, several of the graduates that helped out on Spoonman have earned my appreciation. They each had at least one production behind them and their knowledge was invaluable. At a further distance, I have a great respect for the work of the artists at Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. I have enjoyed all of their 3D animated films and look forward to the release of each one. I have also gained a great admiration for the greats of the past. The DAVE School has taught me to incorporate the teaching of Disney’s Nine Old Men and other animation pioneers into the new genre of computer animation.

William: If you had a chance to do something different from the beginning of the project what would it be?

Nick: I would have fought to get the numbers on the Quints’ faces before the start of animation. Instead we had to do it in two days during post production after the edit had been locked and sent to sound. We found a creative solution to get it done that looks flawless and was done fast, but it would have made more sense to make it part of the original render.

William: Any suggestions for someone thinking about a career in 3D?

Nick: Do it. Quit thinking about it and do it. Find a school that works for you, find a way to fund your education, and find your passion for it. If it is what you really want and you are willing to develop your talent you should be able to find a way.

William: 3 months to do a movie...wow...how'd you and your team make that happen?

Nick: I’ll be honest, it was a grueling experience. There were a lot of late nights and long hours, but we had a talented and dedicated crew that worked well together. We did what it took to meet the deadline and make the best movie we possibly could. Pacing and organization was essential. There were hitches, but it was all about getting over them and moving on. We all learned from our own mistakes and the mistakes of other team members and that is what school productions are all about.

William: Did you worry about not making deadline?

Nick: Oh, yeah. Shot 25 was a huge problem on meeting the first deadline. I think I’m one of the few members of the team that didn’t have a try at animating Johnny Wisdom’s arms in this shot. At the final deadline it was Shot 64A. This 15 frame shot was a personal nightmare for me. Three hours before the deadline I was adamant about fixing the shot. The animation was just really bad and most members of the team agreed. We put our heads together and pulled some tricks to get it into the edit with 50 minutes to spare.

William: Can you share a funny moment while working on the project that your team might not want us to know?

Nick: I believe there was a curse on Johnny Wisdom’s office. Though it is true that almost half the film takes place in that little room, it had more than its fair share of problems. They all started during the animatic production. Deep into animatic animation we began to realize that there were major scale issues in the office. First, animatic Johnny was modeled too large. Then the desk was too wide for Ino to attack across it with the spoon. Also the door that hides Johnny’s gun was too far away for Johnny to reach it. Once we fixed the animatic and started the final shots, a new group of problems arose. The office needed to be relit four times by at least five different team members because of poor color and slowing down render times with area and linear lights. The polygon count was also obnoxious at one time. I led the crew that went through the geometry and removed 400,000 polygons from the 600,000 polygon set with no visual change to the background.

Then Johnny himself had one issue after another. Bad deformation on his elbow joints had to eventually be completely remodeled and for some reason the UV textures on his jacket had become disjointed from the rest of his cloths and had to be welded back into place. We had to add lip-sync morphs long after modeling was supposed to be done and Shot 25 was an animation nightmare for more than one team member. Johnny’s desk had several versions with completely different textures and the wooden inlaid version kept appearing at random times in the film for some unknown reason. It wasn’t funny when it was happening, but we got through it, fixed the problems and now we can laugh about it. Ha, ha.

William: What was it like getting such a positive response to the first and second trailer for Spoonman from the online community?

Nick: It was great. Spoonman is the second DAVE School student film to have a trailer posted online and the first to have three trailers. The school is getting progressively better at promoting itself, its films and its students. The response of the online community made me and the other team members become even more enthusiastic about making the film. Every DAVE School film is better than the last and I am proud to be a DAVE School graduate and a member of the Spoonman production crew.

Be sure to check out the Spoonman Movie: www.daveschool.com/spoonman