Peugeot 907 for PSA (2005) (model supplied by Peugeot)
Click on Image to enlarge

MYMR: Hello Brendan. Thank you for taking time out your busy schedule to talk to us.
Brendan: Your welcome, I'm more than happy to.

MYMR: Tell us how and why you got started in the cg industry and what kind of training do you have?
Brendan: Since I was a child I have always been interested in art and illustration and, luckily, was always encouraged by my family to develop these skills. However, any thought of pursuing illustration as a career was quickly extinguished in school where I was told to concentrate on more practical things and, if I wanted, to keep art as a hobby. I went to University to study Mechanical engineering but I quickly grew completely bored of it and decided to change to Industrial design which I studied in NCAD, Dublin. I loved it but it still was not a perfect fit. After graduation I took a job in an arch viz studio where I had done an internship the previous year. I had learned 3D studio during that time and applied it to product rendering in my final year. I worked there for 5 years. I am mostly self taught in 3D and Photoshop but I did learn a lot from the guys working with me there. From there I moved to Singapore and took a job in an industrial design consultancy where I was in charge of presentation media and illustration. Most of the work I did there was for Sony Ericsson and included conceptual work as well as presentation material and eventually content creation and interface design. It really gave me an opportunity to expand my knowledge and abilities but still not exactly what I wanted to do long term. I then came to Spain where I decided to try setting up on my own for a while. I have been here for 4 years now and so things are going great and I am finally doing the type of work I always wanted to do and working for myself is a great bonus.

MYMR: When you are not cooking some cg what do you do in your spare time?
Brendan: Cooking actually.. I do dabble a bit in baking. Mostly from missing stuff from home, like ginger bread. I am currently renovating our apartment so that is also taking up lots of my time. It has been an interesting experience creating something real and really getting my hands dirty.

EF2000 "Eurofighter", Ace Combat for Namco through 3DI (2006) (My own model in this one) Click on Image to enlarge

MYMR:What is the process that inspires you to build your custom materials.
Brendan: Simply the need to have something specific. I would only ever invest time in this if there was some benefit to be had from it. I am very production oriented in that way.

MYMR: Do you use a lot of custom tools or techniques to make your lighting?
Brendan: Well you could say that but it would be more custom processes than tools. When I started using MR first there was little or no support and functionality was limited but at the moment there is a wealth of great tools and add-ons that make MR a very formidable and versatile render engine. Depending on the kind of project I am doing I will approach it differently. For arch viz I tend to reuse lighting rigs all the time and stick with the same couple of basic render setups.This makes the process much faster and as a result I can earn money from it. For more original and distinct subjects I usually go from first principles. In general my lighting setup is fairly simple. I either follow a 3 point system for studio type work, a single sun source (spotlight) and a light dome (sphere with a raytype shader controlling the various ray sources) for exteriors and window placed area lights for interiors. Once the basic render is set up I go about adding any additional lights and refining the secondary illuminations for speed v quality. Shaders are obviously a huge part of lighting and I always work these in tandem. I have a preference for using Maya shaders where ever possible but make use of what ever custom shader fits the bill. I don't get too concerned about mixing physical and non-physical shaders and lighting in the same scene. I try to make creative decisions on the quality of lighting and shading and find a balance.

Future Building and Monorail for Clerical Medical (2005) Click on Image to enlarge

MYMR: Which features of mental ray do you find useful? and which areas should be improved?
Brendan: Well I have to say here that I am still on Maya 7 so have not had an opportunity to really take advantage of newer features such as the architectural shader and sun/sky system. But in general I like the shader building which I guess is partly Maya. Render layers are certainly one of my favorite features even if it is a bit buggy. I use render layers and render passes all the time and could not do without it. I also find ray type an invaluable feature. I use this for almost every render attaching to it a HDR for reflection/refraction and a colour temp node to fg to get a nice colour in my diffuse light. Areas I like to see improved would be in handling of large render sizes. I generally work to an A3 300 dpi minimum but more and more I am having to produce larger images with fairly heavy models and obviously larger textures.

MYMR:We all know your are very active, knowledgeable and helpful in the all the forum, where does the drive to teach come from?
Brendan: I do try to participate as much as possible. Whenever I can give some useful information or some fairly constructive feedback I do so. I don't know if it is a drive as such but it is rewarding to help out when I have learned so much myself from others on various forums over the years.

EADS Facility exterior night shot for EADS through Preconstruct (2005) Click on Image to enlarge