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Interview with Michael Scaramozzino, DreamLight
Interactive
April, 2007
Since founding the award-winning DreamLight®
Interactive™ twenty years ago in April of 1987, Michael Scaramozzino
has
been
pushing the limits of digital media in a wide range of computer
graphics
fields. With awards for digital design, 2D PostScript Illustration,
Interactive Multimedia, 3D Illustration and 3D Animation,
his work has been published in magazines from HOW to Art
Direction, books from the FreeHand Bible to The Best of 3D
Graphics, and exhibits from Siggraph to Imagine - Tokyo.
His first 3D animated short film - BlastOff!™ is currently
making the rounds at animation film festivals with over a
dozen screenings nation wide and awards including a Merit
Award from its initial festival screening at the inaugural
2D OR NOT 2D animation festival with keynote speaker Roy
E. Disney. BlastOff! was also recently awarded an Official
Honoree distinction from the Webby Awards, hailed as the “Oscars
of the Internet” by the New York Times. We recently
had the opportunity to speak with Michael about his studio,
DreamLight Interactive, and to find out
more about this talented artist.
Can you
tell us a little about yourself and your history with 3D?
I’ve been fascinated with computer graphics from the
first time I ever touched a personal computer, a Radio Shack
TRS-80, back in 1981. It was in my first computer programming
class in high school. I found the class work rather easy,
so the teacher relieved me of the normal class assignments
and allowed me to pursue my own programming projects instead.
I wrote a computer graphics program in Basic called ArtSketch
that worked like an Etch-A-Sketch using the arrow keys. I
used my ArtSketch program to create my very first computer
graphics.
Inspired by Disney’s Tron and the
ground breaking 3D graphics of the initial CGI pioneers -
MAGI, Robert Abel
and Associates, Triple-I, and Digital Effects - I went on
to study computer science at the University of California
San Diego (UCSD). With a couple years of software development
under my belt, I transferred to the Rhode Island School of
Design (RISD) where I earned a BFA in traditional illustration/animation
a year early through a special portfolio review to receive
advanced standing.
Upon graduating, I became the acting director
of RISD’s
newly established creative computer center outfitted with
the original Apple Macintosh 128K computers, a SKOK CAD system
and a few
Tech Graphics-II color paint systems. I created my first
3D computer illustration by designing 3D models of a chess
set with the SKOK CAD system, plotting out a wire frame image
of the scene and then scanning it into the Tech Graphics-II
color paint system where I applied the color shading. That
first 3D image and a few of my early digital paintings were
later published in the Verbum Book of Bitmapped Painting
and exhibited in the computer graphics shows Imagine in Tokyo
and Siggraph in Atlanta.
After leaving RISD I spent a year as a
computer software consultant designing software in C for
Unix before founding
the digital studio DreamLight Interactive in
1987, where I could pursue my dual interests
in computer science and artistic expression
in the
brand new
fields
of digital
design, 2D/3D illustration, interactive multimedia and 3D
animation.
How were you first introduced to
LightWave 3D?
Over the years at DreamLight I had worked through
a progression of various 3D applications on the Macintosh
including Easy 3D, Swivel 3D, Mac Render Man, Infini-D, MacroModel,
Macromedia Three-D, Extreme 3D, Bryce, Strata Studio Pro,
Form-Z and Electric Image. I had recently completed production
on KeyQuest - a 3D interactive CD-ROM for McGraw-Hill where
I used Form-Z for modeling, Strata Studio Pro for most rendering
and Electric Image for some limited character animation.
I was beginning work on Quipples™, The
Internet Game Show of Satirical Riddles™ - my proof of concept
research
project
to develop a new technology for DreamLight Autitons™,
Intelligent Interactive 3D Characters. I planned to use
Form-Z
and Electric Image for the 3D portion of Quipples when
NewTek extended a special cross-grade offer to Electric Image
users.
LightWave included modeling, ray traced rendering and animation
in one package. I was always trying to streamline my production
pipeline and Electric Image lacked modeling and ray tracing
at the time, so I grabbed a copy of LightWave 5.6 to try.
I used LightWave to render all the images I needed
for the ioSCOPE communicator, the interactive 3D
interface for Quipples.com.
I was extremely impressed with the high
quality of the texturing and rendering available in LightWave
3D 5.6. As a dedicated Macintosh user however, I found
the user interface was rather un-Mac like and far too modal
at the time though. So I continued to produce DreamLight’s
3D projects in Form-Z and Electric Image
for a while longer.
A few years later, DreamLight started production
on a large 3D rendering / animation project for Hearts On
Fire where
I needed to animate and render hundreds of pieces of diamond
jewelry. I needed ray tracing and caustics which Electric
Image didn’t do at the time, so I started the project
in Strata Studio Pro instead. It quickly became clear however
that I needed a higher level of production capabilities to
produce the hundreds of multi-pass animations that would
be required. So I gave LightWave another try. I upgraded
LightWave to version 7.5 and continued the project in LightWave
3D. The user interface in LightWave 7.5 had
become much less modal and more user friendly than it was
in version 5.6. The switch to LightWave enabled me to set
up a very robust production pipeline including an in-house
network render
farm of Power Macintosh computers that could handle the enormous
workload. LightWave also made it easier to incorporate external
model files facilitating the workflow with one of our
talented
off-site
DreamLight
associates,
Eric
Streeter, who built the vast number of 3D jewelry models
for the project. Using LightWave I was able to take Eric’s
models and place them in my LightWave 3D scenes where I could
texture,
light, animate and render them in a production line manner.
Due to LightWave’s robust production capabilities,
I’ve been using LightWave 3D as the backbone of our
3D production pipeline for all DreamLight’s 3D projects
ever since.
What feature of LightWave do you
like most?
There are many features of LightWave that I like a lot,
particularly some of the new LightWave 9.2 features such
as photo real motion blur and
nodal textures, but I’d have to say that the one feature
that I like the most is still the unlimited network render
nodes that enable DreamLight to run a very robust in-house
render farm at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.
I can even configure the network render farm to utilize remote
render nodes across the Internet, which is very useful when
I need to harness additional render nodes for a burst of
speed on any particular project.
Are there any plug-ins you use on
a regular basis?
Yes, there are a few plug-ins and third-party programs that
I use with LightWave every day. I find Worley’s FPrime
indispensable. I primarily use it as an interactive previewer
for lighting and texturing. Now with FPrime 3 and LightWave
9.2 I can also use it to interactively preview the new node
based texturing. This makes working with nodal textures in
LightWave much more productive and powerful than in any other
software.
Other indispensable components of DreamLight’s
LightWave production pipeline are two screamernet controllers
that
I use to run our in-house render farm. I use Jonathan Baker’s
robust ScreamerNet Controller for OS X and Bruce Rayne’s
excellent RenderFarm Commander, depending upon which features
I need on any particular project. In addition to many other
features, ScreamerNet Controller for OS X has powerful scene
queue management, including queue recovery in the event of
a power failure or crash. Render Farm Commander can split
a still frame across the render farm and also assemble it
when done, as well as many other features. I find them both
valuable additions to our pipeline.
I’ve also started to use LWCAD quite
a bit when using LightWave Modeler. I really enjoy how it
makes LightWave’s modeling
tools much more interactive by adding features like heads
up displays and dynamic snapping.
What is your position at DreamLight,
what does it entail?
I founded DreamLight in 1987 to enable me to pursue
my interests in computer graphics and computer programming.
Ever since DreamLight’s inception I had intended to
ride the wave of digital media based upon what the Mac was
capable of at any particular time, starting with digital
design, through 2D PostScript illustration, interactive multimedia
design & programming
to 3D illustration and finally 3D animation. I’ve
always strived to push the leading edge of whatever area
of computer graphics I was currently focusing on throughout
DreamLight’s extensive history. Over the past twenty
years I’ve been having a blast riding that digital
wave. With my keen interests in the field and my hands-on
approach, I either work directly on most of the projects
at DreamLight Interactive or I closely direct the work being
done.
What are some projects you’ve worked
on recently?
BlastOff! - My First 3D Animated Short Film
To maintain a healthy balance between cash flow and
creativity, I typically work on a few select paying client
projects
and then focus on my own DreamLight creative R&D projects,
like my first 3D animated short film - BlastOff! which
is currently making the rounds at animation film festivals
across the country. BlastOff! is currently playing on Telebites.com
BlastOff! was primarily intended as a simple
dry-run test project where I could exercise and refine the
skills necessary
to produce a 3D animated short film, from concept to completion
including web publishing and festival submissions.
I especially wanted to focus on many aspects of 3D character
animation and build a viable LightWave 3D animation pipeline
with our in-house render farm at DreamLight in preparation
of beginning production on our upcoming 3D animated web
series,
the Autiton Archives. I also apply many aspects of what
I learn on these R&D projects to our paying client projects.
3D Architectural Visualization Illustration
When the largest premium roofing manufacturer in the country, Elk Corporation,
approached DreamLight to show what their line of premium roofing products would
look like on actual homes, I used LightWave to texture and render a 3D virtual
house
with various color combinations of roofing and siding products. I then composited
the photo realistic 3D rendering of each home into a photograph of the site with
Photoshop.
3D Architectural Visualization Animation
I’ve recently completed a 3D architectural visualization
animation project for a hospital development in LightWave
3D. The project consisted
of various 3D fly-by animations of the complex as well as
a number of still renderings from various angles including
an aerial view where I composited the LightWave
3D rendered site into an aerial photo of the surrounding
area. In this particular DreamLight project the building
models were supplied by the architects as Sketchup files
which I
merged
into my LightWave 3D scenes. This worked remarkably well,
considering that the architect’s building designs were
in constant flux and we needed to incorporate their changes
into the renders very quickly. 3D Product Animation & Illustration
For clients such as Tyco/AFC Cable
Systems and Kidde Fenwal, I’ve used LightWave 3D to
create photo realistic illustrations and animations for products
as simple as cables
to more complicated
products like fire/explosion suppression systems. LightWave
enables DreamLight to create extremely realistic looking
product illustrations and animation.
3D Scientific Animation
Cubist Pharmaceuticals
wanted to show the suspected mode of action (MOA) of their
new super drug. Using LightWave 3D’s particle system
and DreamLight’s in-house render farm, I was able to
animate hundreds of individual molecules and control their
motions with inter-object collisions. This enabled me to
create a 3D animation that effectively simulates the
drug’s expected mode of action, showing how the molecules
create a channel through the cell wall which leads to the
rapid depolarization of the cell’s cytoplasm proving
lethal to the affected bacteria.
3D Jewelry Animation / Illustration
For Hearts On Fire, makers of the world’s most
perfectly cut diamonds, I animated and rendered hundreds
of pieces
of diamond jewelry in multiple metal colors in LightWave
3D from models built by one of our talented DreamLight Associates,
Eric Streeter. The jewelry included everything from solitaire
rings to necklaces encrusted with hundreds of individual
diamonds. I created 3D animations for the interactive CD-ROM
that DreamLight produced for Hearts On Fire as well
as high resolution still renders for use in their printed
catalogs. This enabled Hearts On Fire to send their salesmen
out, armed with a complete 3D virtual representation of their
entire product line on CD-ROM while only carrying a few pieces
of actual diamond jewelry.
Have the recent changes in LightWave
impacted the way you work?
Yes they have. I’m very excited about NewTek’s
latest efforts for LightWave on the Macintosh. DreamLight
recently added our first new eight core 3GHz Mac Pro workstation
to the studio and the LightWave UB open beta just screams
on it. We can’t wait for the LightWave UB’s final
release to add a few more eight core Mac Pro’s to our
render farm to really accelerate our animation rendering.
This dramatically increased render speed improves our overall
3D creativity by enabling the artists to see the results
of their efforts in record time, there-by allowing much more
experimentation and refinement.
Are there any new features of LightWave
v9 you’ve found particularly useful?
I particularly like the new photo real motion blur and depth
of field (DOF) which fixes a long time Achilles’ heel
of LightWave. It was usually easy to spot LightWave animation
by the stepped
motion blur and DOF. Now with LightWave 9.2 we can have fantastic
looking motion blur and DOF that even works correctly through
transparencies and reflections. I also find LightWave 9’s
new nodal texturing system to be a stupendous addition. It
enables all sorts of new possibilities for extremely complex
texturing effects that would be virtually impossible to
create if we were limited to the typical layered approach.
Do you have a "LightWave tip or
trick" others might find helpful?
I periodically write case studies, called DreamLight Insights,
about various projects and computer graphics topics.
While setting up our in-house DreamLight render farm
I wrote the DreamLight Insight - Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet
on Mac OS X. Most of this tutorial has already been incorporated
into the LightWave 9 manual. The complete tutorial is still
available online and also covers using the third party controllers
ScreamerNet Controller for OS X and RenderFarm Commander
along with SharePoints to run a production level Macintosh
based LightWave 3D render farm. After the LightWave UB is
released, I’ll
update the online tutorial for any necessary network rendering
changes
for LightWave UB on the Intel Macs. [Dreamlight.com/insights/10]
What’s next for Michael Scaramozzino
and DreamLight Interactive?
Ever since DreamLight’s inception twenty years ago
I’ve always
wanted to create my own 3D animated short films, but the
technologies available on desktop computers always seemed
to come up short of what I really needed to be able to realize
my
vision. Now with the incredible power of LightWave
3D v9.2, phenomenal workstations like Apple’s new 8-core
Mac Pro and a direct link to the
entire
world
through
the World Wide Web, iPods and Apple TV, all the technology
I’ve
ever dreamed of is finally in place.
BlastOff! was conceived as
a simple test to see if I could produce a 3D animated short
film at DreamLight and release it directly on the Web.
With the success of BlastOff!, which has been much more successful
than I ever hoped, I’ve recently begun production on
The Autiton Archives™, a 3D animated series
of shorts to
be
released
on
the Web. The Autiton Archives will follow the adventures
of a couple of 3D characters, NineOh™ (0090™)
and ThreeBeDee™ (03BD™),
who are object-oriented software "Autitons" in
search of meaning in a digital universe. An early version
of the NineOh model textured and rendered in LightWave 3D
can be seen at left. You can follow my
latest progress throughout this production on the Autiton
Archives WIP Blog. [DreamLight.com/insights/autitons]
Do you have any advice for someone
new to the 3D industry?
Don’t be afraid to dream, and don’t
give up if your first attempts don’t succeed. Just
keep on truckin’ and
eventually if you’re persistent enough, you’ll
get to where you want to be. Just don’t forget to have some
fun along the way!
Any final thoughts?
I would like to thank NewTek for the opportunity to chat
and show my work as well as for making LightWave 3D which
is what
makes all this work possible in the first place. I’m extremely
impressed with the recent advancements that NewTek has
made with LightWave, particularly on the Macintosh platform.
I can’t wait to see where NewTek takes LightWave
3D next and where LightWave 3D takes me next.
Thanks for taking the time to talk
to us, Michael!
To learn more about Michael and his 3D work,
visit his website: DreamLight.com/3d
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