Simon Crane

Case Study Link:
Nice Day Video

So tell us a little about yourself ?
I started animating in flash for Monster Animation LTD in Dublin, Ireland in 2000. Since then I have moved to New Zealand where I started my own animation company Crayon Animation LTD. We have been going since 2005.

How did you get your start with Swift 3D ?
An animator friend of mine told me about it when I moved to NZ. I think it was the first thing I installed on my computer! I have always been interested in 3D but have found it very time intensive. I love Flash because of it's quick turn around, and find Swift has the same benefits.

What Swift 3D projects have you done in the past? Any other work you’d like to share?
The first thing I ever used Swift for was the crayon box at the start of our website. Since then I've tried to slip in a bit of Swift into everything I do.

If you go to the Music Video section of our website you will see a number of music videos that have used a combination of flash and Swift - the latest being NICE DAY. All the planes, buildings and boats were done in swift. I like the way Swift blends seamlessly with the Flash work so the vewer can't tell if theyre looking at 2D or 3D animation.

Your featured work is breath taking! What was your inspiration / how did you come up with this concept??
I was mostly inspired by the song - the band wanted something dark, so the futility of war sprang to mind. I was also inspired by comic book art.

Give us a little insight to the modeling, texturing and lighting techniques you used for this project.
When modelling in Swift I always consider it as the biggest and best box of Lego I've ever had. You can even build your own bricks! I basically just draw shapes in Flash, import them into Swift and extrude them. I then use the advanced modeling tools in Swift to fine tune my models. Rendering with pen outlines is a fantastic feature, and was essential for the look I wanted to acheive for the Nice Day music video!

What was the most challenging aspect of this project?
The most challenging thing about this project was the fact that it was 6.30mins long! I knew I only had 3 months to make it, and I knew I was going to need a lots of different drawings of planes. This is where Swift really helped, as all I had to do was build 2 planes, and shoot them from different angles. Same with the city backgrounds. I built 10 buildings and shot them from different angles as opposed to having to draw 32 different BGS.

Any additional comments, inspiration, ideas, food for thought you’d like to share with the community?
II've found Swift 3D is great for achieving the "wow" factor in projects.
Clients are always impressed.