You are now watching: Brad Swardson: A Mix of 3D and Motion Graphics

Brad Swardson, a native New Mexican, had a passion for computer animation and special effects since before he knew what it was. He still remembers being in awe of such films as Jurassic Park and The Abyss and defiantly staying up far too late to catch re-runs of Movie Magic on the Discovery Channel as a child.

Brad currently works as the lead animator and technical director of the Motion and Graphics Department at Boeing-SVS where he leads a team of animators to create fully 3D scenario based animations as well as still rendered product visualizations.

Was there anything in particular that sparked your imagination as a kid?

Most of my creative spark came from the normal influences on a late 20th century male child; cartoons, movies and video games. I used to love squiggles and art lessons in grade school because I was able to draw, color and actually make something artistic. I can remember sitting down with a friend to come up with our own Mega Man game villain designs and drawing sports logos, power rangers and ninja turtles to no end. It was a lot of fun.

For a lot of kids, they obsessively draw a particular thing over and over – from horses to robots…and everything in between. Was this true for you?

I don’t know if there was any one thing I obsessively drew like characters or environments or anything. I mostly just drew something when I felt inspired or when there was a contest among friends or classmates. I did seem to have a weird obsession for a season with football helmets. I remember drawing every team’s helmet and their logo a few times. Might have been a bit of a young graphic designer in me there.

What was your impetus for getting into 3D and motion graphics?

As a child I always loved movies and animated cartoon shows. Even more then watching them I always thought it would be the best possible job in the world to become an animator for Disney or work in visual effects for a living. I can remember defiantly staying up far to late at night to catch re-runs of Movie Magic on the Discovery Channel completely glued to the TV as they described things that happen behind the scenes. Even now I am often more excited to see the “Making of” features of a movie then the actual movie itself. The shear amount of times I have watched every appendix disc of the extended Lord of the Rings Trilogy DVD’s is embarrassing really. It was only natural that I end up finding a love for 3D and motion graphics and am lucky enough to actually be doing it for a living.

Did you have any formal training?

My first foray into the world of 3D graphics was with Bryce 3D when I was in 9th grade. A delightfully painful program that allowed me to create landscapes and reflective spheres to wet my appetite for graphics. While being a limiting program for animation and modeling it gave me a brief but exciting introduction to 3D. As a freshmen at UNM I stumbled across the CGI and Animation course they offered. At the time I did not know there were any classes like that available. I was so excited about it I instantly switched my major to computer science and enrolled in the class the next semester because I heard it was an upper division computer science course. It was in that class that I was introduced to Maya and began my 5 semesters of that course utilizing the machines and software to learn and explore the vast world of 3D. It turned out that I didn’t have to be a CS student to do the class so I switched to Studio Art in my sophomore year and finally found my grounding as an art student. I owe a lot of my training to my internship with Boeing while I was an undergrad. At the time I worked under the supervision of Jim Van Allen who currently works for Industrial Light and Magic. He is really one of the most innovative, creative and driven CG artists I know. Working with him on projects and learning the nuances of CG production whether it is 2D or 3D really propelled me beyond where I could bring myself at the time. Lastly I cannot forget the wonderful community of CG artists across the world that are so eager to share their knowledge and assistance to even the most introductory students. The amount of knowledge I have gained through online articles, forums, tutorials and critique sessions has been a priceless entity to my education. Thanks everyone! You rock!

Do you find that your training as a studio artist influences your work?

I have to admit, there were times I was frustrated taking studio art and art history courses during my undergrad because all I wanted to do was play in Maya. However, my drive to earn a degree and understanding that even though I didn’t see a direct connection between courses like “Early 20th Century African American Art” and visual effects, it’s influence on me and my experiences would be an overall benefit to my career. Looking back on my education now I am really thankful for all of the courses I took in traditional art creation and art history. They have helped me to see more possibilities of depth and meaning in art today and have elevated the quality of my work more than anything else could. There is so much more to film making, animation, motion graphics and graphic design than simply hitting the record button on the camera or slapping some shaders on a model and rendering it. I consider myself a life-long learner and find that I have more of an interest in learning traditional methods and history even now that I am working in the industry.

Are there any individuals or companies that influence your work?

That is a very hard question to answer in too specific a manner as I consider everything I see and hear as something that influences my work. I have always been inspired by the genius storytellers and production teams at Pixar. The way they meticulously dissect every minute detail in order to ensure that nothing is done without purpose really inspires me to do the same for myself. In terms of visual effects I love to see the innovation that comes out of ILM, Weta, Sony, Digital Domain, Framestore, etc. I am always fascinated to see how they do the things they do. Some of my favorite commercial spots have been created or assisted by The MILL and the Digital Kitchen. I am also highly inspired by great film directors and DPs like Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, M. Knight Shyamalan. As you can see I find inspiration in a lot of places which I think is the way to do it because there is so much creativity to be found all over the place. You simply have to look and listen to find it.

You do both 3D and motion graphics. Do you prefer one over the other?

I have a bit of ADD going on when it comes to graphics. I definitely have a strong tendency toward 3D, but I find a lot of enjoyment and passion from extending myself to the motion graphics, graphic design and web design arenas. I find if I spend too much time on one specific thing I have a strong pull to learn something new, or work on something completely different. My interest in motion graphics really stems as an extension of my 3D knowledge rather than it as something different. It started as I became more comfortable with the concept of compositing using After Effects. The more I learned After Effects, the more I saw it as an extension of 3D. Some of the most inspiring 3D pieces I have seen involve a great amount of motion graphics and almost all of the motion graphics I enjoy involves 3D or at least 2.5D. I find that my knowledge in all of these fields in computer graphics expands my envelope in the others. This includes computer programming and computer networking.

You currently work for Boeing. What’s it like working on military scenario work?

Much of the work I do on the scenario based animations is not that different than any other 3D production. It still involves a planning of the story and mood as well as the usual modeling, animation, lighting rendering, editing processes. One of the interesting things about some of the work I do for Boeing is that at times a piece of hardware or an engineer’s design becomes the “star” of the show rather than a character. I have found it really extends my understanding of cinematography, timing and framing to create shots that are interesting even though there is no character mood or development to back it. Another thing that is interesting is that I often work with and for people that are more technically minded then artistically. While this creates some problems and challenges I have found that it makes me really understand exactly what it is that I am doing in order to explain it very clearly and concisely. Throughout that process I not only learn far more about what’s going on, but I have a much greater understanding of how to control what I do in order to get the exact look and effect I am going for.

Do you find that you are able to push yourself creatively in that environment?

Most of the direction of how to tell the story we are trying to tell is given to me. While this seems like the biggest blank canvas one could be offered, the projects tend to have some repetitive limitations. Since each project’s story can be told much like the others it is a creative challenge to present similar ideas in completely different ways. Much like a painter will depict the same person in different poses, environments and lighting to change the result of the piece. An interesting affect of working in aerospace is that my customers and audience often do not have a clue as to what or how I do what I do. As such the only thing they have to compare the work I do to is the productions they see on TV and at the movies. As you can imagine this puts some pressure on our small group to produce work that is on par with the top studios in the world within budgets and timelines that are even less realistic for us. A lot of the creativity for our productions is in creating processes, workflows and solutions that are fast and quick to implement, but still produce results that are competitive.

What kind of creative projects do you work on outside of work?

When it comes to 3D, a lot of my personal work usually involves R&D tests for things I would like to learn to enhance my work or some effect that will be needed for the next project. I like to create mock scenarios where I would need to produce some effect or look and then work to solve that problem so that when it becomes required it will be a lot easier to implement. Through my company, Swardson Studios, I also do a number of contract based projects. Whether they are in graphic design, web design, motion graphics or 3D animation really just depends on what comes up. I enjoy working in all of these fields and find that the knowledge and time I put into one will often push my abilities in the others just the same. Could be called the DaVinci effect I guess.

You also teach 3D animation at the University of New Mexico. What is the number one thing you teach your students to prepare for the ‘real world’?

If I could instill one thing in my students to prepare them for the real world is to NEVER STOP LEARNING. In this industry constant learning is something that is not only advantageous but is required to stay competitive and employable. Faster computers are constantly being developed and software is being designed to utilize those computers to the limit almost as fast. With this new software and their processes and abilities comes an ever increasing learning curve that fresh young minds are picking up faster and earlier than ever. If I were to be able to instill two things, the second would be to NEVER SETTLE. You may not get to where you want to be immediately but persistence and drive is the key to get there. Always push yourself farther than you think is possible, faster than you think is needed and more than you think is required.

Do you have plans for where you want to take your creative skills in the future?

I have been working a lot more with traditional filming techniques recently and think it would be great to try and push my abilities within this medium to produce some live action short films. There is a simple beauty to shooting something in real life and not having to worry about the technical hurdles of 3D animation. Working in both production and education simultaneously has given me the unique insight into the inseparable link between the two. Finding new and innovative ways to bring education to production artists and production experience to students is something I hope to explore and implement over the coming years.

speaking at motion09
Brad Swardson will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

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author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
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copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

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