Travis
Price entered Art Center in 1992 with the intention of being
a photographer. However, one class in Alias, which started out
as a diversion from his regular studies, changed all that. In
that class, Travis fell head over heels in love with the infinite
possibilities of the 3-D environment.
He
discovered that with computers, he was able to go beyond what
conventional photography allowed. He was able to set key frames
and animate objects; build props and light objects; move them
over time, and delete them if he didn't like what he did! The
artistic liberation brought out the filmmaker in him that he never
knew he was.
Although
Travis was never good at math in high school, working with computer
graphics finally gave him a chance to understand difficult mathematical
principles, like trigonometry, in action. From there, he grew
to love the mutual compatibility of art and science.
MARS ODYSSEY was Travis's first project out of school.
That was where he met Derry Frost of Simex Digital Studios. Derry
recognized that due to Travis's photography background, Travis
would best suit the industry painting photo-realistic textures.
Valuing Derry's professional opinion, Travis has been painting
textures and backgrounds ever since.
Travis's
specialty as a texture and matte painter is that he can make the
work look as "un-CG" as possible. At its worst, CG artwork can
look too perfect, and too mathematical. So Travis undoes all that
by adding imperfection to the perfection. The resulting noise,
pollution, and randomness that he imparts to an otherwise sterile
environment can be unusually beautiful. In TravisΉs personal artwork,
he has been searching for ways to synthesize his diverse background
into a style that he can call his own.
For
the past couple years, he has been experimenting with infusing
old world beauty into his CG artwork, whereby digital prints look
neither like digital work, painting, nor photography. Printing
these on exotic watercolor papers gives the work an extra dimension
of interest. When he works in this fashion, he thinks of himself
as a "Digital Craftsman" incorporating the values of old world
craftsmanship with the cutting edge of digital technology. Since
digital prints are beginning to gain wider acceptance in the fine
art world, Travis plans to showcase his work with art galleries
in the near future.
Travis'
thoughts on production:
As a veteran in this industry, I have worked for big visual effects
companies, and small visual effects companies. What I like about
the big companies is their higher operating budgets. They can
afford to do many film-outs; they can keep artists around even
after a show; they have highly developed pipelines; and sometimes,
they even offer free food to the employees! The problem he I with
big companies however, is that turn-around time can be slow. That
is simply the nature of working with many people. Instead of going
from A to B to C, you are going with A to B to C to D to E to
F!
The
advantages I see with small visual effects companies, often the
product of former employees of big visual effects companies, is
that there are fewer egos to deal with. As as a result, production
turn-around time can be quite efficient. Also with smaller visual
effects houses, you have more to do, and can therefore, make bigger
contributions to a show. Additionally, the pay can be a bit better
then bigger houses. The downside to all of this is, there is sometimes
very little time to finish the work, and the hours can be grueling.
Also, because smaller houses want to operate as lean and mean
as possible, they may cut corners in areas like highly needed
film-outs, which can be scary.
But
like everything else, there are plusses and minuses to both, and
what you prefer depends on who you are, and what your circumstances
are.
