Interview with Pete Draper
Hi could you tell us a bit about yourself and how long have you been in CG and what is your current job?
 Hello, I’ve been in CG since the late 1980’s to early 1990’s so roughly about 17 years or so… that really does sound like a long time when you think about it!! (What have I done with my life?! Hahaha!) My current title is “Director of Visual Effects” which covers the full gamut of CG production from concept, on-set supervision through to managing the animation team, animation and technical direction, and final delivery.
Were you trained in 3D or self taught and what software program(s) do you use for your CG and why?
I’m 100% self-taught, the main reason for that there were very little CG courses around at the time I started getting into animation. I literally stumbled upon it when I was at university doing another (unrelated) course, and managed to bag my way into the animation lab and use their facilities. I think the only book I ever bought was one of the early New Riders’ “Inside” series for the DOS version of 3D Studio, which I still have to this day. I do envy the students going into higher education these days because of the amount of facilities available to them, yet I very much doubt I would get a job these days with the reel I produced off my own back in the ‘90s as the bar has been raised so high now, even for junior positions. You now really need to stand out from the rest as they’re churning out thousands of animation students each year and there simply isn’t the work for everyone as the industry reached maturity in early 2000.
Software-wise, my weapon of choice is 3ds max, mainly due to the amount of exposure I’ve had with it. However I use other packages as and when necessary; once you’ve learned one, you’ve pretty much got it covered once you get to grips with the (unfamiliar) interface and workflow as they’re almost the same with regards to feature set… it all just depends on what pipeline the facility you’re working at is based on. Apart from animation tools, I tend to use Combustion, Photoshop, Painter & ZBrush… plus other animation plugins for 3ds max that boost its feature set beyond the core program, such as Afterburn, the excellent Particle Flow boxes and some in-house custom tools I’ve developed over the years.
Tell us about your book “Deconstructing the Elements”, do you planning any other book?
It burns really well on a fire :-) Hahahaha! Yeah, it came about purely by chance after I was approached by Focal Press (my publisher). I was freelancing at the time, so the original idea was a book on just that – Freelancing with 3ds max, though after submitting the initial proposal and having it approved I had a change of heart and decided a different approach was needed. The way I tend to work is to grab reference material and inspiration “on the fly” by working out in my head how I’d create something in CG when I’m out and about, for example a nice cloud formation, an interesting texture or object, how certain things move or deform and so on, and then break it down into its core components in my head, what procedurals I could use, what modifiers and other features, and if I could simplify or automate the process. So from the get-go, the book became one about teaching people to become more observant and to be more critical of their reference material and more intuitive about the construction process; in fact I intended it to be less of just another tutorial book and more about the reference analysis which I feel very strongly about. I’m currently considering writing a third edition after being approached by the publisher to update it for the final time before a new volume is written. I haven’t made any official decision yet due to my schedule, but it’s definitely on the cards. I’ve also got ideas and initial conceptual scenes for some heavy video tutorials along the same lines, so that may become a set later on if I decide to develop things further…
How much it is difficult to achieve natural effects in comparison to other effects and give some important tips to the readers on how to achieve realistic looking effects in 3ds max and which things to remember?
They’re one, if not the most difficult type of effects to produce as virtually everyone is a critic when they see something like this on the screen. The reason behind this is that we see these types of effects every day in our daily lives, from the flame that heats your breakfast, to the cup of tea before bed, so were are used to how they appear. Anything to the contrary stands out as being fake. The key to getting the effect right is to be observant, studying tons of reference material and breaking down the effect into its core components. Ensure your visual scale sizes are correct, especially when it comes down to texturing and lighting as these dictate scale and can immediately make or break a scene. Take care when compositing; even the basics such as matching your black and white levels can make a ton of difference. I could go on and on (and on) but there are only so many hours in the day…!! I think someone wrote a book about it once… hahaha!
Do you find that people in the industry said…Max is for games and Maya is for movies? How much you think this is true.
I don’t really find that it’s true to be honest; it all depends on which company you work for and what you feel most comfortable with. Personally, I prefer 3ds max as it’s the software I used when I first started out in the industry, that’s pretty much it. The majority of 3D software apps out there nowadays are so similar they are all pretty much generic apart from a few separate tools, so it could be said that Maya is for games and Max for movies as both are making good headway into “each other’s” territory…
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