Who is 'avidflame'? Avidflame is David Fleming, age 42,
living in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and someone whose
honoured to have been selected as May's Artist of the Month 2004.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me and congratulations all those
nominated, there were some superb galleries of work entered. How
long have you been rendering/doing computer graphics? I've been
using computers for many years. Starting with a ZX Spectrum back in
the 1980s. Three or four years ago I became fascinated by the
stunning computer graphics artwork people were producing and its
only since last year that I've begun rendering and posting CG
artwork myself. I actually discovered Mojoworld 2.O back in April
2003 and started out working with the free version of Mojoworld,
the Transporter. I used that for about three months before moving
up to the full Generator package. So I've been rendering/doing
computer graphics for about a year now. Do you have traditional
art experience? I loved drawing and painting as a child, but
only had the 'basic' school art education. Later in life I
supplemented my income, as a student nurse, by painting peoples
pets in acryllics. So I have a basic aptitude for traditional arts
and can draw and paint, if I want to, but much prefer working with
Computer Graphics. What are you currently working on? At
present I'm putting the finishing touches to my first full website.
I've also begun working on creating the outlines for some ebooks on
'direct learning' applied to CG artistic development.
Professionally I have a training and development background. The
ebooks are a way of distilling what I've learnt and applying it to
the area of CG artistry. And finally, with a huge sigh of relief.
(At not having to keep so quiet about it any more). Currently I'm
part of the content development team working with the next version
of MojoWorld software. Basically, I'm a kid in an (eye)candy store.
Its great. I get to test out the new functionality and work on
producing new content with the more advanced tool set. Some of the
things I've been testing are the new animation features and also
the new abilities to procedurally create trees, plants and
'placeable/moveable' rocks. I can't divulge too much as I'm bound
by a Non-disclosure Agreement and there should be a full
announcement from Pandromeda in the next few months. So more
details will be forthcoming then. What software/equipment do you
use and why? The main softwares I use are Mojoworld Generator
(existing and development versions) and Photoshop 7.0. I also have
Xfrog 3.02, Bryce 5, Wings 3d and recently I got Maya Personal
Learning Edition. For basic rendering quality and the power to
create astonishingly beautiful worlds ... not just single locations
... Mojoworld blows my socks off. Photoshop is the swiss army knife
of artistic/imaging software with which I'm able to do postworking
and touching up of renders. I also occassionally use Chaoscope and
KPT fraxplorer to enjoy working with fractal images of a more basic
kind. The hardware I use is an AMD XP 2000 with 512MB Ram and 32MB
ProSavage video card and I also have a Wacom tablet (that sees very
little use). What do you think your best piece of work is and
why? My best piece of work is my last piece of work (sounds
cliched!). But I was really pleased with the results I
accomplished. I was actually tempted to say my best piece of work
is my next one (sounding even more cliched). The one that currently
exists purely as in-formation inside my mind. However, I haven't
seen that one clearly enough, yet, so I'm not going to say it
....lol! So yeah I think my best piece of work is the last one I
did 'Three Pawns and a Castle'. I really enjoyed getting to play
around with an existing masterpiece Shadowatchers world by Armands
Auskelis and changed a few of the elements to give it a slightly
different look. Why do you like to work with 3D software? I
don't like to work with 3D software! I love to work with 3D
software and I love it because of the astonishing flexibility and
freedom it provides me with. Mojoworld especially, I love the
semi-immersive experience which comes from exploring whole worlds.
The sense of wonder and adventure as I discover astonishing new
vistas and pick out the most beautiful views I can find to render
and the abilities to adjust the way things look using simple
parametric controls. Excellent! Who/what inspires you? I
find mountain-biking in the countryside where I live, inspiring.
Chatting with and viewing artwork from, other Mojoworld artists.
Also soaking up the creativity on sites such as Renderosity itself.
Films and music often inspire me. Plus I use trance states,
image-streaming and other wild and whacky stuff ..to allow my
subtler non-conscious faculties to work their magic(mojo) for me.
How has this online community (Renderosity) enhanced your work,
relationships, and learning? I've been a member at Renderosity
for almost three years. Initially I was one of the none-posting
could be/might-be-an artist-someday members. So on some level I
guess the online community here, as a whole, inspired me to take
the plunge and get into producing my own artwork. Then, since
becoming active I've rapidly grown in confidence in my own
abilities as a CG artist, learned and developed new skills and made
lots of great new friends globally through interactions in the
forums and various gallery posts. All the best David
Be sure to check out
avidflame's gallery! Click on 'AOM 2004' on
the sidebar to learn more about Artist of the Month and to view our
past winners.
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