dvGarage: 3D education and something more

Alex Lindsay is dvGarage's alma mater, a noteworthy company working in 3D learning with a difference. Alex has been over 15 years in the field, running through most creative areas (printing, real-time 3D, coding, broadcast...) and taking part, through JAK Films and Industrial Light & Magic's "Rebel Mac Unit", in films like Titan AE and Star Wars: Episode I. He has also been an accomplished user of Electric Image for seven years.

Just to top it all he is also one of the best educators in the fields of design and 3D animation. We've interviewed him about his new company, dvGarage.

How was dv Garage born?

dvGarage began as a concept I had almost a decade ago related to using visual media in global communication. In the early 90's anyone could see the probable outcome of the existing technologies. You could see that eventually, everyone would be able to be interconnected with some sort of visual communications device. But what then? Would we just watch TV or talk on video phones? Maybe. But I thought so much more was possible. I thought that if the video market opened up the way the print market had opened, that there was so much to be communicated. So much wisdom in far off areas to be shared with the rest of the world. I love information, especially anthropology and philosophy. With 99.9999% of the knowledge still left to be communicated, there seemed to a great sea of possibilities.

But who would build this?

I had worked in the Music Industry long enough realize that nothing revolutionary would come from the establishment. They had too much to lose by the decentralization of media. They thrive not on a spectrum of choices but the lack of choice where simple formulas can accurately model the success and failure of products. It would have to be a grassroots effort. We would need to train a new generation of media developers and interconnect them with others from around the world.

And I had another problem. I didn't understand the industry very well. I knew alot about radio and music but little about graphics. So I spent the following 8 years training...in Print, Interactive, Real-time 3D, TV and Film. I worked on projects for Broderbund, Prime Sports Network, HBO, ABC, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, and Industrial Light and Magic. During this time, I also trained myself to write articles, speak at conferences, and teach anyone I could find. Essentially, I spent nearly a decade preparing for broadband and media revolution I could see coming.

When I finished working on Star Wars: Episode 1, I decided I was cooked and began to gather the resources to build dvGarage...and with it generate a global conversation where no one is left out.

Why and when were these two apps from dv Garage (Surface Toolkit and 3D toolkit) born?

The Surface Toolkit was born out of necessity. I needed images that weren't just wallpaper but rather a swiss army knife I could use with everything. I started working on it before beginning work on Star Wars as mostly a hobby.

As time passed and I used the images more, I refined the process a great deal. I made larger images, figured out what worked, etc. I used it extensively at both JAK Films and ILM on my work and made many converts to my layering methods.

It's really a simple concept based on the idea that our reality is not a function of where we are going but where we have stopped. As we move through life, the organic nature of the this coagulation forms our surface of reality. It's impossible to model this effect for it is created by the complex interaction of millions of factors and we can't even tell you what the weather will be like tomorrow. But, I felt I could see glimpses of it in photographs of surfaces...and through Photoshop processes, extract the essence of this reality in a way that I could apply it to anything and infuse a subconscious detail that is generally missing from computer graphics.

It's hard to really understand for many. It's a true production tool and many artists who don't do production don't get the immense value of ready-to-use grunge that doesn't look procedural and feels real.

The 3d Toolkit really fed my desire to give everyone the opportunity to do 3D work...whether it was professionally or for their school project. Cost and complexity are the greatest challenges to getting into 3D. With the 3D Toolkit, we handle both. I started talking about it years ago but many opportunities and circumstances had to line up perfectly to make it a reality. It's really only possible in this small window of time.

Basically, I wanted to give people like me a paved road where I had to hack at the vines in the path. I wanted to do this because if they can get to where I am 10 times as fast as I did, they have more time to take the process forward and break new ground.

What's the current situation of dv Garage? And what will its near future be?

We are growing very fast and dealing with the challenges of fast growth. We are not big company but we're doubling our staff every 2 weeks. Our next steps are finishing the 3D Toolkit, revamping our site, and preparing all the follow-on products for the 3D Toolkit...we have over 20 already planned to deepen users' understanding of Electric Image and 3D.

From there, we are focusing on where we can take the most ground in our quest to democratize content creation and bring it to everyone. We are currently working on a longer trip to Africa as well as ways to work with outreach groups and High Schools to make the sure the information age doesn't pass them by.

What's the relationship with Mac? Is it simply another platform in the market or is it something else for dv Garage staff?

I admit, we are a bit biased. dvGarage has one lone NT box, a Linux Box and a host of G4's, Powerbooks, and iMacs. The truth is, for what we do, a Mac is simply the best production platform. The integration of the platform is really necessary for the kind of work we do.

dv Garage chose Electric Image Animation system, a Mac only 3D app. Why this choice?

For a few reasons,

First, It's what I use. I have used it for over 7 years.

Secondly, It's what Electric Image had available. Giving us the PC version would have cannibalized their Universe sales so it wasn't possible.

Third, I knew it was truly a production application. I knew it was capable of doing film level work. I didn't want to train users on something they could take all the way.

Finally, a Mac-only solution reduces the support issues for dvGarage by a factor of ten. We are a small company and currently cannot afford the level of support we would want to provide to our customers if we had to address multiple platforms.

Maybe a lot of people don't know anything about "Mac Rebel Unit" in ILM, could you give us more info about it? What's the current situation of the Mac inside ILM?

The Rebel Mac Unit was created to find cheaper and more effective ways to do some types of shots. The rest of ILM is very complex and cumbersome. While this is necessary for many shots, it can multiply the cost of some shots dramatically. In most of of ILM, many artists do small pieces of a single shot. The Rebel Mac Unit took some of these shots and vastly reduced the cost and overhead by incorporating off-the-shelf software and consolidating the work to a few artists who could perform many tasks. Most of the space battle and many of the city shots were all touched in some way by the Rebel Unit and the Matte department. Both of which were Mac labs.

As far as Macs in ILM, I can't really get into it without getting into trouble. But from my understanding, OSX has many friends at ILM.

Apple has launch Mac OS X, what's your impression from a 3D artist point of view? And about the current situation of Apple?

I'm very excited. I think Apple is quickly positioning itself at the center of the media development market. While the port of Maya to OSX won't effect the average Mac user, it starts a great trend that is bringing production powerhouses like RealViz and Kaydara to OSX.

Has the Mac a future in this very wintel & UNIX market? What do you think Apple must do to build a pathway into the 3D market?

I think Apple is currently on a great path...in a very UNIX world...they are producing a UNIX operating system, OSX. This is a huge step forward and with it will most likely make it very difficult for most companies to stick with Wintel solutions and make it increasingly inefficient for users to work there. As Windows becomes more cumbersome, the real production solutions are turning to Linux and OSX. I think you will see more and more large houses moving to a Linux backend and OSX front end. It's really the best of both worlds.

The real focus for Apple needs to be the infrastructure issues they have. They need to make OpenGL really work on OSX. Currently, it's not really finished.