BIO

I came to Bryce with a strong artistic background and virtually zero prior computer experience. The day I got my first computer, March 8, 1997, I plugged it all in, turned it on, and opened my "Windows 95 for Dummies" book to the page on installing software. I practiced the lesson with a Bryce 2 CD. By the end of the day, I had nine simple scenes created and saved. Two months later, as I continued to struggle mightily and unsuccessfully with the tutorials of two other 3D modeling programs, I had about 200 MB of finished Bryce work and a good start on my portfolio. With my keen grasp of the obvious, I started to realize how unique Bryce was, and so I focused most of my attention on it. I have no doubt that was one of the smartest things I've ever done with a computer. (It's a short list)

Before I started Brycing, I sculpted and painted various creatures for movies and pre-historic animals for museums. I actually started as a regular makeup artist for movies (the lipstick, powder puff, fake mustache work), moving from there into prosthetics, from there to full creature body suits, from there to animatronic creations, culminating with a full-scale 45 foot robotic T-rex for a museum in Holland. So we can safely say I've never been intimidated by challenges or complex processes.

My movie work included being the make-up effects designer for the first "SWAMP THING", the first "BEASTMASTER" and the first "Return of the Living Dead". 

My TV work included the make-up and wig design for the pilot of "The New Munsters" (the revival of the series in 1987), sculpting the Budweiser Frogs for the 1997 Super Bowl commercial (but not the other frog versions), the Texaco Macaws, and chimps for the HBO promo commercial about Jane Goodall (which won an Emmy).

My museum work included such clients as the French National Museum of Natural History, the World T-Rex Expo in Tokyo, the Archeon archaeological park in Holland, and the San Diego Museum of Man.

Once I started doing ultra-realistic animal work for museums, I started competing in the World Taxidermy Championships (in my specialty of wildlife recreations), and in 1988 and 1992, I was awarded "Best In World" honors for my recreations. 
 

I've always had a great love of nature and architecture. I just didn't have a medium to express what my mind saw, until I started computer graphics and discovered Bryce. Now it is my favorite artistic medium and I look forward to continually creating with it as long as I have a computer.

I continue to lay the groundwork for my original goal, which was creating ultra-realistic digital creatures, but there are still things to do and learn before I have work to show. So let's just say there's more to come . . . .

FAQ:

Q: When did you start using Bryce?
A: March, 1997. Bryce 2 was the first software I installed, the day I got my first computer. I had never used a computer before that day.

Q: How many hours a week do you spend on Bryce?
A: About 40-60 hours per week. It's the application I run to whenever I want to work fast, or when I want to create image texture maps for my current work in 3D Studio Max.

Q: Have you tried any other 3D modeling programs?
A: I do okay in Lightwave, sometimes modeling plant parts (like stems, trunks, leaves or petals) that I bring into Bryce. I'm comfortable with 3D Studio Max, and am working now creating VRML environments in it for a web client. I like Maya's Paint Effects module, which impressed me. I've tried several other 3D Modeling applications, which will go nameless, because all I accomplished in them was dangerously raising my blood pressure.

Q: What do you say to people who describe Bryce as just an "entry level landscape program"?
A: I just show them my images and ask them if the images look like "entry level landscapes"?

Q: Where do you get your inspiration for your scenes?
A: A few I copy from real photos (such as Machu Picchu, Emeisham, and my Pagoda), but most are just things I see in my head. I have an active imagination, and a genuine love of this type of imagery. I create scenes I love to look at myself.

Q: Who most influenced you when you started using Bryce?
A: Eric Wenger's many landscapes convinced me that Bryce was capable of beautiful and realistic nature imagery. Chris Casady's "Santa Barbara Mission" inspired me to try architectural subjects, and the infamous "Big Rig" by Robert Bailey and Jackson Ting inspired me to do "you can't do that in Bryce" things. And the Bryce 2 box image, with Eric's landscape and Chris' Torii Arch, remains one of my favorite Bryce images.

Q: Which one of your images is your own favorite?
A: I can't pick one, but my short list of favorites is: Emeisham at night, the Lighthouse at sunset, The Hanging Gardens at night, Stonehinge, the museum gallery, and A Path Less Often Taken.

Q: What kind of system do you have?
A: My first computer, a 166MHz PC with 128 MB RAM. I've now got a 400 MHz PC also for the "Seven Wonders of the World" assignment, and a 333Mhz PC set up with a Miro DC50 Video system for my video rendering and editing.

Q: How do you speed up your renders?
A: I don't. Mine run as slow as yours, if not slower. But I resigned myself to the philosophy that quality takes time. I don't want fast rendering junk. I wish Bryce rendered faster, as everyone does, but if I have to choose between speed and quality, I'll take quality every time, and Bryce is pure quality.