An Interview with Michael and Richard Founders of CGSphere
By: Tim - aurora - Dunn

(copyright Richard Rosenman)

CGF – Tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you got started in CG?
Richard:
I started out fairly early in my youth – more specifically, in 1985 when I saw my first visual effect in a feature film. “Young Sherlock Holmes” was the first movie in history to feature a CGI character. When the stained glass window of a church came to life before my eyes, I was hooked. Soon after that, I began learning some of the very few consumer-based 3D applications available at that time, which were very crude and rudimentary. This led to an interest in the mathematics behind computer graphics and soon I was programming small graphical applications, including, ironically enough, a simple sphere rendering program. I decided to study classical animation for three years at Sheridan College in order to then take the one year computer animation post-graduate program. However, I left after my classical animation graduation and worked in the field for some years instead. It wasn’t long before my 2D projects started involving more and more 3D in them, and ultimately, I made the switch back to 3D animation. I worked in Vancouver for a year, in San Francisco for a short period and then back in Toronto, where I landed an animation position at TOPIX and an instructor position at an animation college. I worked there for three years and eventually went into directing, always with a hands-on approach. From TOPIX, I went to Redrover Studios Ltd. to build, direct and lead the 3D department, which I did for about five years. From there, I left and started my own company, Hatch Studios Ltd, which I currently own with two other partners. All this brings us to where we are now.

Michael:
For me, everything started 1984 – with Apple’s famous commercial “1984” and the introduction of the Macintosh. They had me hooked soon after that when I saw my neighbor using a mouse on a computer. Unfortunately it took me almost 10 years to get my first Mac because I couldn’t afford one. Despite that, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had seen and therefore started to build my own computer from a pre-made kit. It was the Yashica YC64 - an 8-Bit MSX machine with everything but a graphical user interface. Since I didn’t have much of a choice, I started to work with what I had and my first application was born soon after that. Entirely written in Basic, it was able to beep and draw circles and squares on the screen. Since then, my passion has always been to code and develop things without using a pencil. And believe me when I say its better that way. I think it was in the late 80’s when I saw my first painting application called “ImagePro“, what later became known as PhotoShop. I was simply amazed with what could be achieved using such programs. I decided to study at a technical school in order to work in the graphics industry after graduating. Soon after that – around the time when desktop publishing arrived – everything in my life was quite chaotic and so I decided to do a three year, post-graduate program in management and sales. I was working for a few companies as a consultant before I went to Zurich (Switzerland) and started working for Xerox – yeah, the guys that have invented the mouse and the GUI - which I did for about four years. While there, I was responsible for the Central and Eastern European Sales and Marketing before I took over the TeleWeb Department. I left in 2002 and started my own company, infosection e.K. which I still run.