Tom Kluyskens

Tom Kluyskens credits reading The Lord of the Rings fifteen-years ago with sparking his interest in a journey that would take him on his own odyssey through the world of computer graphics, culminating in two years at Weta Digital in New Zealand. He punctuates the end of this 15-year period with the experience of watching Lord of the Rings:Return of the King on the big screen in Darwin, Australia. Prior to working with Weta Digital on the Lord of the Rings, Tom spent several years with Alias supporting and consulting with customers in Europe and the Middle East.

Early in 2004, Tom moved to Trollhattan, Sweden where he works as a CG Supervisor with Farmland Pictures.

www.tomkluyskens.com

Q. How did you get involved in the 3D computer graphics industry?
A. My first ventures into the world of 3D, are the result of a balancing act between two competing interests during my years of study. At high school, I studied Latin and Greek and, through that, got firmly rooted in Western history and culture. However, I had always been more of a "techie", so I decided to go for the total opposite at university, and study electrotechnics. I will never regret having studied either one of these disciplines. In the end though, I needed to combine both. As it goes in life, I just stumbled into CG, and before I knew I was working my PowerMac in ways that would make me part of the era of CGI.

Q. How do you use Maya software?
A. As a box of lego blocks. I try to forget the interface and dig deeper - see the exact purpose and function of every node, and put them together, like a puzzle, into little networked machines. I then write MEL scripts to control those machines and make them do their task. Shading networks, crowd systems, simple AI, mini games, etc. I use Maya as a visual programming tool, a 3D compositing package, a graphical calculator, and occasionally as a means of expressing my creativity.

Q. What projects have you worked on?
A. Long-time Maya users might remember my Maya Queen tips + tricks Web site from as far back as 1998. In 1999, my work was featured on the cover of the 1999 Siggraph issue of Computer Graphics World; I've conducted a few Maya MasterClasses, some of which have been captured on DVD, and I wrote the initial version of Maya Caustics, which had a cameo in Final Fantasy as a whiskey glass.

I spent two years at Weta Digital, working on Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers and Return of the King. My job involved a lot of MEL scripting and Maya setups for natural effects like fire, smoke, water, steam and lava.

As I arrived at Weta, I worked with Gray Horsfield, on the The Two Towers intro where the Balrog fights Gandalf. Then I helped Jason Schleifer and Bay Riatt speed up the Gollum facial animation system. My main task on was creating digital water flows, which was done using an elaborate Maya dynamics to Renderman pipeline, with some help from Renderman legend Steve Upstill.

On Lord of the Rings:Return of the King I was in charge of lava, together with CG whiz David Gould. The challenge was to texture gigantic volumes of splashing lava. Changing topology did not allow conventional UV mapping, and so we texture mapped the lava by 'bombing' the poly surface with 1000s of UV splats from an underlying particle system.

Officially, my title was 'Environments TD', which meant pinning down/integrating 3D objects in a film plate, or working together with matte-painters to extend sets in complex ways, preserving parallax in the Jackson trademark swooping shots.

I am currently CG supervisor at Farmland Pictures in Trollhattan (Trollywood) in Sweden. Farmland is a very promising startup company in the heart of the Scandinavian film industry, a region that could well be the next Wellington. We are currently working on a Discovery Channel documentary about the ice age.

Q. What makes this industry so exciting to you?
A. Its perfect balance of art and technology, and is a constantly new and renewed challenge. Its visibility and behind-the-scenes ‘incognito glamour'. Its versatility. The fact that it takes me places and forces me to integrate and reintegrate in different social situations and meet people. It allows me to travel, giving me the time and the money to breathe in between projects. All these ingredients are necessary to keep me excited.

Q. Where do you see the industry going in the next five years?
A. I see graphics hardware blowing Moore's second law and with that blowing our minds. Programmable GPUs. New superfast shading networks - woohoo! Maybe VR will finally make its comeback. I see a vast wave of new 3D talent coming that will dwarf our generation. I see 'the industry' becoming an art. I see a revival of drawing, painting and sculpting through the digital 2D and 3D medium, bringing back artists to these tools. I see more movies using 3D as a way to better tell their stories. I see even more movies using 3D to just sell more and better, because the audience has been tamed and is by now hooked on the special kind of fun a 'CG movie' can offer.

Q. What words of wisdom do you have for anyone interested in entering the world of 3D computer graphics?
A. One of the best descriptions I ever heard for 3D graphics, was to compare it with the work done by the scribing monks in the Middle Ages. A remarkable mix of technicality and creativity, of passion and intelligence, of beauty and awe, of patience and devotion. It is shaping up to be a great art form, maybe even the great art form of our time. When entering this world, I think this is the light you have to see yourself in, and those monks are the ones to measure yourself up against. Anything less than that might make you money, but won't make the difference.

It can also correctly be compared to Formula 1 car racing, always pioneering, pushing the boundaries within given limits, always thrilling audiences, always a slave to joy, progress, beauty and positive science. Wanting to join this world requires that state of mind.

As for "real" (practical) words of wisdom, when planning a project, always multiply your first time estimate by 3, or divide the complexity by the same factor. When approaching the deadline, you might think even that estimate wasn't conservative enough - and it might be. But keep in mind 50 percent of the work gets done in the last 20 per cent of your production period, and whatever happens, you will be ready 5 minutes before the end.