Kyle: I really enjoyed working and supervising in the texturing department. You spend so much time looking at the flat gray object and once we get the textures applied they really start to come together.

Papa: Can you tell me what some of your responsibilities were on this project?

Kyle: I was responsible for a number of departments and roles within the departments. At the beginning of the production I served as the modeling supervisor and worked with John to manage the teams who built all of the models. I was responsible for attaching all of the pieces together into one final character. This meant I had to supervise each modeler and make sure their work fit into the full pipeline so all of the pieces would fit the first time. I then transferred to the texturing department where I supervised and created many of the character textures. Towards the end of the production I then moved to the lighting department where I supervised and helped Dustin with the lighting both interior and exterior.

Papa: What did you do prior to working at Digital-Tutors?

Kyle: I was one of the lead instructors at MMDC for almost 4 years and prior to that I did freelance work for Cingular Wireless and RSI.

Papa: Which character did you like the best?

Kyle: I liked Rusty the best. I was really pleased with the way he was constructed and I really liked his textures. The textures are really in-depth and complex up close. <smiles> The bad guy is always the coolest.

Papa:  I know you played a character on this project. Which character did you play?

Kyle:  I played the part of Ringo, Rusty’s little side kick, he isn’t quite right in the head. Ringo is a really fun character. It was fun playing him. 

Kyle: Well you (Papa) helped me a ton in that area. We all used the development site to check in and out files as well as stuck to a strict naming convention for all of the files. This communication tool kept us from doing work over and over again.

Papa:  That’s great. You also did a number of lighting rigs for the shots. Can you tell me about them?

Kyle:  I was responsible for setting up the lights for the interior shots and we wanted a soft even lighting setup for the interior shots. I used a mixture of volume lights and regular lights linked to the sets and characters. There is so much the lights can add to the textures.

Kyle: It was something I always had a love for and knew I wanted to get into. I started as a Softimage animator and then a Softimage instructor. From there we moved to Maya and now I have been teaching Maya for almost 4 years.

Kyle: I am currently finishing up a B.F.A in Graphic Design which will complement my current skills as a texture artist. It will also give me a greater depth of knowledge when teaching my students about texture creation.

Kyle: I would like to thank everyone who worked on my teams for their hard work and dedication to completing this project. They really came through and proved themselves as professional artists to me.