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Jeff_Mottle_2 - Australian Association of Architectural Illustrators (AAAI) 
| Jeff Mottle Interview
| The man behind the screen…
|  | Jeff in Turkey, 2008
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| | How do you think new technologies will affect architectural visualization in the near future? Do you think holographic and stereoscopic (3D) rendering will legitimately enter the market place as a visualization medium?
| I have seen it in the last few years being featured a lot at different events. I don’t know if I see that, at least in its current state, sweeping the market in every single visualization shop. I think it is still a fringe technology that has an application in some cases. I certainly don’t see it going mainstream any time soon.
| Is the profession of the digital artist becoming more and more specialized? From what was previously a single job description, are there now increasing specialized sub categories (Modeling, Animation, Texturing, Concept work etc.)?
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| In Part 2, “The Name of the Game”, Jeff gives his insights into the profession, the role technology has played in the profession of visualization, the influence of software giant Autodesk, and what the real impact of the economic downturn is.
| THE NAME OF THE GAME …
| Do you think the diversity of software options has had any particular effects on the profession?
| I would say that in the early mid nineties, when architectural CG started to come into the light, it was a fairly technical exercise because the only people that could run the software at the time were generally the technicians in the offices or somebody who had the technical capabilities. Some of those people were very artistic and some were not. By virtue of that, a lot of the work that was created back then tended to be more mechanical in its approach and the walk-throughs were very robotic. Then the advent of global illumination and radiosity and those types of rendering engines came out and it kind of leveled the playing field because anyone with a decent amount of experience on any application could obtain something fairly photoreal without any sort of artistic experience. We probably saw that around 2002, 2003 or so.
With that level playing ground, the artistic part started to come back because there was no way to separate or distinguish work with everyone having the same photoreal engine. The only way to separate your work was to do something artistic and I think that is when you started to see the more cinematic films and the much better composed images and better lighting treatments.
| Did you find there was a growing maturity in the industry as well?
| The big studios, the Neoscapes and the dboxes of the world, were around in the early to mid nineties so they evolved with the industry. Certainly their ability to grow to their current sizes is indicative of not only that technical ability that grew, but also inate artistic ability that grew with it. I think the people that only had the technical ability didn’t grow as much - probably had smaller studios or maybe they remained as freelancers or one man shops. Certainly it takes a lot of business savvy to grow a company big in any industry.
|  | A keen hiker, Jeff at Lake Louise
| Do you think the architectural visualization community is large enough to have any direct influence software product development? Or are we too small as a collective to change / influence new products among the big companies, E.g. Autodesk?
| Certainly. Until the economy fell in on us last October, architectural visualization was the golden child of most software industries – pretty much every major software vendor in the industry realized that the entertainment and gaming industry was completely saturated and the potential for growth was obviously minimal. When you compare the size of the entire gaming industry and then compare that to the architecture industry, and other design visualization fields, it is exponentially bigger. A lot of software companies, Autodesk included, really started to focus their energies on that field. I think that has not changed a whole lot, but it has certainly slowed down its pace during the current economic situation around the world. Gaming is coming back into favor right now because that industry, despite the economy is still doing quite well. I think there is a shift or added focus back onto the gaming industry.
| Do you think there is a growing trend of game developers entering the architectural visualization industry? If yes, why?
| I have heard anecdotally that people have wanted to come from gaming to go into the architecture, Most don’t understand what that industry was all about – they figure it is just high end vis, not recognizing that you need to have a background in architecture to understand how the building goes together first.
There have been a couple of people I know that have gone from architectural visualization into feature film too. From what I have seen there are a lot of architects in feature film. I think it is just that skill set - creative thinking, design and lighting sensibility that they are looking for. They are not looking for technicians that can be taught. They are looking for artists that have that mindset.
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| | You do tend to see that in some companies. That is obviously the model that works well in feature film – they are much more segmented than any of the big firms that I have seen in architecture. It can go both ways. In some big companies you see dedicated modelers,lighters, video editors etc. Others are kind of segmented but they rotate people so they become good all-rounders. Most people’s experience of pigeon holing people into one specific task is that they tend to get bored. It also makes it difficult when one member of your team leaves. It is easier if someone can do everything, but certainly there are people that are going to be better at one thing than another.
| Do you think the technological improvements that have driven the profession of digital architectural presentation have had a significant impact on the process of building design? Has it lead to better design, or are we just about making better “pictures”?
| Perhaps not the marketing imagery itself but the higher end technology like Catia, Rhino and other organic freeform modelers. I think those have definitely affected architecture. Very organic architecture like Bilbao and the Disney concert hall would never have been built without the software that allows you to design and manufacture those complex shapes. Certainly that type of software has definitely affected the architecture.
| What do you feel has been the effect of the worldwide economic downturn on the profession of design presentation?
| There is an article coming in 3D World* I wrote especially about how the economy is affecting our industry. From the anecdotal information I have been receiving from friends and people in the industry, I had assumed it to be a lot worse it was and I was pleasantly surprised to learn it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
I would say based on the survey we did this year, the magic number that kept popping up over and over in all the questions was that 20-25% of the industry worldwide was adversely affected, but there were certainly a large percentage of people that were still experiencing growth or if there were slowdowns, it wasn’t significant enough to cripple their business. |
| |  | *To find out more about this subject, check out 3DWorld September 2009 issue which has just published Jeff’s article “Visualize and Thrive”.
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| They may have had to downsize slightly but the business is still going. They are still making their way down the path but definitely there are some companies that have gone out of business or have scaled back substantially – 30-50% of their staff let go. It really depends where in the world or even where in the country.
There are pockets in the US for example, where I have found things haven’t changed a whole lot and other (pockets) that have been dramatically affected. I think it depends on the local economy but also on the company itself in terms of how diversified they were. The big companies that focused on high-end architectural visualization, that really didn’t have any other markets other than architects and real estate developers, were hit quite hard. But companies that were a bit more diversified, maybe working on television, documentary, animations, product design for other companies, and diversified their business, will be able to make up some of the losses that they experienced in the architecture industry, at least in the short term.
| I think the name of the game in this economy is diversity. Whether you are a studio or a freelancer, there needs to be diversity both in your client base as well as in your skill set. The skills that are used in architectural visualization certainly translate into entertainment and a lot of other industries. There are a lot of other fields that utilize CG where where existing skillsets can be used.
|  | Jeff with wife Julia in Turkey 2008
| Following in Part 3, "The Future", Jeff looks at the future of the industry, predictions for software, new international competitors for work, how to survive in a tough economy, and reveals plans for CGarchitect that will shape the future of the visualization industry…
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| To read Part 1, "Chasing a Challenge" click here
| To read Part 3, "The Future" click here
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