As a break during the middle of the conference, I got to sit down to lunch with an extremely well known 3D CG Artist from Pixar - who received the Autodesk Max Masters award in 2006 - Neil Blevins. Neil had been accompanied by his wife Kat.

(That's Neil on the right in the picture. Notice the B&L logo on his shirt – the Corp from in the Wall-E movie!)

I've known Neil Blevins for several years, and was delighted to finally meet him in person. He has been an artist in my Gallery for several years - after winning the award of Max Master at Siggraph.

Neil has been working with Pixar for 7 years now, and he previously worked at Blur. His major contribution at Pixar is in the modeling and shading of the beautiful environments in the movies. He worked on the Incredibles, the Cars movie, on various spaceship scenes and trash filled environments for Wall-E, and now on the upcoming movie called Up.

At work he uses Maya and Pixar Renderman, those are the main commercial 3D SW applications used at Pixar, as well as Pixar's own proprietary 3D application Marionette. He also continues to do much of his modeling using 3ds Max, and continues to use Max and the Brazil Renderer as his main 3d apps for his home personal art projects. What I found also to be very interesting is that his wife is also a CG artist - and well known in many production houses and artists circles for her expertise in camera matching - using tools such as Boujou and SynthEyes. So they make for a very interesting couple and a unique match with their similar CG talents.

Q&A follows:

KW: What made you decide to choose to work in 3D CG?
Well, I always wanted to do something artistic, I've been drawing spaceships and monsters since I was like 3 or 4 years old. At one point I wanted to get into practical film effects (since there were no digital effects at the time), at one point I wanted to be a toy maker, at one point I wanted to make artwork for videogames, drawing characters and environments pixel by pixel. Then I got a copy of povray, an early programming based 3d application that came bundled in a book, and from there I got totally addicted to making 3d objects.

KW: What or whom were some of your influences?
I have lots of influences. Films have always been very important to me, such as Transformers The Movie (1985), The Matrix, Robocop, Starship Troopers, Predator, and of course the original Star Wars films. I've been very inspired by videogames, and of course many artists such as H.R. Giger, Heidi Taillefer, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Dave McKean, Ashley Wood, Dale Keown, Marc Silvestri, Michael Turner, JMW Turner and Paul Klee just to name a few.

KW: What advice would you give to students and artists looking to break into the 3D industry?
You know, it's tough, since I broke into the 3d industry over 10 years ago, and a lot has changed in those 10 years :) But overall, 3d has to be something you're passionate about, something you are compelled to do, obsessed over, because that's the only way you're going to do this enough to become really good at it. Make an image or animation the very best you can, then make another one even better. Don't get frustrated if your first stuff looks bad, everyone's first stuff looks bad, just keep pushing forward improving with each new piece of work. Then get a good demo reel together and shop it around to your favorite studios, big and small. If you don't get in, keep working at new work, and then try again and again. Spend time online at forums and chat areas specific to 3d to meet people and make connections. Don't expect to be amazing in 6 months, these things take time. You don't have to go to school to get into 3d, but school can be a good place to get access to equipment, and to work with other people who share your passion. Just make sure you have some traditional art classes as well as classes that teach you software. Knowing Maya or max or getting a piece of paper will not guarantee you a job, only good work will do that.

KW: What is your all time favorite Pixar movie?
And, which movie did you like working on the best and why?
My favorite is probably the Incredibles, followed close behind by Monsters Inc. Those films just perfectly balance action with strong emotional attachment to the characters. As for which film I liked working on the best, probably the Incredibles, since it was my first Pixar film, and I really enjoyed my role in the film, and Brad Bird is a fantastic director. But I've had lots of great experiences working on lots of films and working with lots of fantastic people.