Software Trials
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Autodesk® 3ds Max®
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Autodesk® Maya®
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Autodesk® Softimage®
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Autodesk® MotionBuilder®
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Autodesk® Mudbox™
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Autodesk® ImageModeler™
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Autodesk® Sketchbook® Pro
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Autodesk® Smoke on Mac®
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David Baker is a freelance 3D artist mostly known for his work at MAXPlugins.de, which he started in 2000 as a collection of plug-in links. He is now responsible for keeping a vast amount of plug-ins alive that would otherwise have disappeared.
He started experimenting with 3D as a teenager in London in the early '80s and, in 1991, started to work with 3D Studio Release 1. He has been freelancing since 1996. David's work mostly consists of commercials and industrial animations, together with some commercial MAXScripting.
A conversation with David Baker
How did you get involved with 3D computer graphics?
David: I started in the early 80's as a teenager, with very simple graphics programming on a BBC Micro with 32KB of RAM. Around 1987, I got an Archimedes
A310 which opened up the world of raytracing to me. You had to type the position of every single triangle in the scene and then wait a week or more to see how the image
looked. In 1991, I started working professionally with 3D Studio Release 1, and have carried on using 3ds Max ever since.
What are some of the projects have you worked on?
David: Most people only know me through my plugins site, but my day job mostly involves making TV commercials and product visualisations. Readers living in
Germany may have seen my work if they happen to watch daytime TV, but there is nothing very high profile that I can name here. The biggest project is my work for my plugins
site, trying to keep old plugins alive and making them available for everyone to use. I am also always on the lookout for extinct commercial plugins in the hope that I can
persuade the programmers to let me update and re-release the plugins as freeware.
As an Autodesk Master, for what do you use the 3D software? (For example, character rigging, modeling, texturing, lighting etc.)
David: I am a freelancing generalist, so I use 3ds Max for just about everything except character animation, which I'm not particularly good at. A large
number of my jobs are one-man shows, where I do everything including all of the compositing and editing. I also do a fair bit of scripting with MAXScript, both for myself
and commercially.
What makes this industry so exciting to you?
David: As a freelancer, I get to work on a great variety of jobs, mostly alternating between 3D, compositing and writing MAXScripts. It's the variety of
work available that I find most exciting, I never know what I will be working on in the coming months.
Where do you see the industry going in the next five years?
David: As Avatar has shown, it looks like the 3D side of the industry is going to be big over the next few years. It won't be long until other branches of
the industry jump on the 3D bandwagon, such as architectural visualisation and product visualisation. The possibilities are huge, and the technology keeps getting better.
What words of wisdom do you have for anyone interested in entering the professional world of 3D computer graphics?
David: Be prepared to never stop learning. The 3D world never stops advancing, and if you don't keep up with it, it will leave you behind. If you are not
interested in learning, then you have already been left behind.
For images/information, please see links below.
