Till Nowak is a digital artist, designer and filmmaker. He is based in Hamburg, Germany. Since 1999, he’s worked as a professional computer graphics artist on his own independent projects and as an efficient one-man production company.
Till’s work has been exhibited in hundreds of international film festivals, featured in books, and at SIGGRAPH 2006, 2007 and 2009. He’s been awarded more than 35 first prizes, including Annecy and the AFI Fest in Hollywood, primarily for his 3D animated short film "Delivery".
Besides his studio work, Till has given lectures about his workflow at international events and universities in places such as Korea, in Australia, at the 361° conference in Mumbai, and at the NIFFF in Neuchatel. He has also worked as jury member at various film festivals.
Within the 3D community Till has become known for providing detailed “making-of” material about his body of work as well as for his large variety of visual forms of expression. These range from short films, music videos, and still images to light projection installations on large buildings as well as other experimental work and are all done mainly with Autodesk® 3ds Max® software.
How did you get involved with 3D computer graphics?
Till:My parents and my brother are artists, but none of them has much to do with computers. When I was twelve, I got my first computer and became crazy about it. After years of playing around with programming, gaming, producing music and experimenting with graphics software, CG visuals turned out to be my passion, probably also because this was the field in which people started throwing job offers at me. I could make a living. I then started to work as a freelancer and founded my small studio “frameboX “in 1999 when I was 19.
What are some of the projects have you worked on?
Till: Right now, I am working at Aardman Animations as a designer on the CG feature film "Arthur Christmas". Last year, besides many other projects, I created the music video "
Spring" which was also screened at SIGGRAPH in New Orleans, and performed a
light installation on the walls of a castle in Naples . I am jumping all the time between different media such as TV documentaries or abstract digital art -- as well as photorealistic still images such as "
Salad", shown at SIGGRAPH 2007 or the independent short film production "
Delivery", shown in SIGGRAPH 2006 .
As an Autodesk Master, for what do you use the 3D software? (For example, character rigging, modeling, texturing, lighting etc.)
Till: The main base for everything I do is Autodesk 3ds Max. I use it for sketching out and pitching ideas in the early stages of a project and go on using it until the detailed final modeling and rendering. Besides that, I often use it to plan light installations on real buildings as well as to plan where to put furniture in my new flat when I move. It became as essential and universal for me as a piece of paper and a pencil would be. Besides 3ds Max I use vray, After Effects, Photoshop and SynthEyes.
What makes this industry so exciting to you?
Till: It started with the fascination with the endless possibilities and the power of CG, but working with digital art can also be a search for a certain lifestyle. Working on new projects all the time creates a life without stagnation. It’s constantly developing and challenging. In the world of movies, CG and art, I find people on my wavelength and the whole world seems to be a village. For example, I can meet people at a film festival in France, then work with them in England and meet them a year later in Los Angeles or New Zealand. Sometimes, it even becomes necessary to remind myself that there is also a world outside in which CG or movies do not mean everything, because I tend to forget.
Where do you see the industry going in the next five years?
Till:Predicting the future is always difficult. The big new thing certainly is 3D, I mean "3D" in the meaning of stereoscopy, the visual impression of depth, as we see it in recent movie productions. Then I ask myself, “When will I be able to, or be wanting to, or be asked to produce something in stereo myself?” So far, I must say I enjoyed watching "Avatar" better in 2D than in 3D. Charles Chaplin refused to shoot "talkies", that's how they called films with sound, when they arrived around the 1930s, but after a couple of years of resistance he shot his first "talkie". So right now I wonder if the new CG world will really switch completely to stereo or if it will be another short hype of stereoscopy as there was one already in the 1950s.
What words of wisdom do you have for anyone interested in entering the professional world of 3D computer graphics?
Till: To get started --technically -- I recommend video tutorials. However, after the first steps try to just do things on your own and invent your solutions instead of looking too much at how others do it-- at least that was always my way. It will make you very flexible, independent and fast. And generally, the good old piece of advice, “Don't lose the focus on original ideas”, still stands. Of course, in the beginning effects are exciting, such as using tons of “lens flare”. Everybody started like that-- but in the end only an original idea counts.
