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Erik Wernquist

 

27/02/2004
The artist behind the animation of the Annoying Thing tells us about just who it was that made the sound, his architectural and astronomical animation and what he's up to now.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am 27 years old (born 1977) and have been professionally involved with 3D since 2002, when I started my company TurboForce3D. Before that I had been eagerly gazing at it on and off for about two years.

And even before that I was writing, directing & producing theatre in team with a good friend and our company Stockholms Blodbad ("The Carnage of Stockholm", referring to a historical event in 1520). In that era, we also managed to produce a couple of short films. So, it was quite a change for me to dive into the world of CGI, but I had my reasons.

When did you see LightWave for the first time?

That was actually very much earlier than I care to remember most of the time. It was some time in 1994 or '95 I think, when I was still in the Swedish counterpart to senior high school. The school had an aim at media and some courses in 3D graphics, that I did not attend. However, I occasionally tried the stuff out and the (Amiga 2000) machines had LightWave running on them. I don't really remember but I think this was version 4 and the documentation was not even quarter as thick as it is today.

I remember doing some spaceship-scenes and car-chases with default content objects. I really enjoyed it so I don't know why I didn't keep on learning it at that time.

So, when did you actually start using it properly?

Several years after my first glance at that early version I got re-introduced to LightWave by a friend of mine. It was now version 6, sometime during 2000. He did his best to teach me the basics and this time I felt my interest for this growing. I was still involved in my theatre-business then, so it wasn't until 2002 when I bought my own licence that I really decided to start using LightWave and try to make a living using it.

What do you like about the package?

I like many things about it. Might appear silly, but at first I fell for the "social" aspects of it; the vast, talented and encouraging community surrounding it, and the heart and humour I imagined laying behind the construction of it. I actually enjoyed (still do) reading the manual, in a literal kind of way.

Then of course, it is the vast range of possibilities it offers out of the box. I am jumping on a cliché but I really think it is true you can run a full 3D production force with LightWave more or less as your only tool. I have never experienced any urge for the need of another application in the range of things I have done to date, and that is rather amazing in my opinion when you regard the price for LightWave.

I never understood the slogan "It's everywhere" actually, but sometimes imagine it says "It's all in there" instead - fortunate that I didn't choose a career as a copywriter, huh? :)

Erik Wernquist  
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