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Interview: Marcus Conge - Lead Artist Ambrosia Software - Part 1
| Give a brief bio-view of yourself... | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Does creativity run in the family? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| How did you go about teaching yourself and training to be in the position you are now? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Believe it or not it all started in 1984 with a Mac Plus. I was not in college full-time at this point in my life. I was still figuring out what it was that I wanted to do for the most part. I did figure out real quick that it was cheaper to pay for my own computer and software than it was to take classes in it. So I bought my own computer and downloaded several programs over the VAX and taught myself. My first purchase was Swivel 3d and that was were 3D piqued my interest. It's all the same from that point out to this very day, I still just keep teaching myself. It's far cheaper than any college class, and probably better too. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| How did you come by being a 3D developer? Is it something you always wanted to do? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| It didn't start with Swivel 3D, that's for sure. Back then, it took 30 seconds just to place a simple polygonal cube on the screen. It was painfully slow, but fun none the less. I really thought I was going to become an Industrial Designer (some people also call this Product Design) while I was attending RIT. Anyway, in one of the design classes in my senior year, we were shown a tape of some TV program talking about this great 3D software that allowed you to create 3D models very rapidly and then export them out to a 3D printer. I was blown away! It was the first time I saw Alias|Wavefront PowerAnimator being used. I thought to myself, "why don't we teach this in our college?" The wheels were set in motion. Two months before I graduated I ran into an old friend that rented a space from my father. He told me he started a small company in town that sold SGI's and Alias|Wavefront software. I told him my background and he said to come see him once I graduated. I was sent to Alias in Toronto for certified training every 3 months and I was surrounded by SGI computers of all shapes and sizes. It was heaven at the time! I have to back up a bit here because I was working on the side while I was in college. The other part of my life came together while I was still in college and I had overheard one of my fellow classmates moaning about how the president of such and such company was sleeping on a couch during the time that his interview was supposed to be. I asked him what the job was and he told me it was creating computer graphics for games. I asked him if I could give the job a shot. He told me to go for it. So I drove over to Ambrosia Software where I found Andrew Welch still sleeping on the couch and I gently put my foot on his rear and and gave him a good shake. I then took two giant but gentle steps backward and cleared my throat. He awoke and I told him I was here about the job. That was how I broke into game graphics and built my first spaceship for a game called Swoop . | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| What do you draw most out of the work that you do in 3D? what aspects give you the most pleasure? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| For the creative side of things; the process of sculpting in 3D is truly amazing. I get great satisfaction dealing with the tools and pulling some cube into whatever shape I see in my mind's eye. What I truly appreciate is that I don't have to hazard myself with any toxic fumes or harmful dust from whatever media I would have had to work with 20 years ago. As for the technical side of things; It is an ever evolving field that is riddled with brutal competition that does everything in it's power to beat the other guy by creating the best 3D package on the market. The consumer wins in this category! Who competes with Photoshop? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Over the years what different software have you used in your development work? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3D software is like the flavor of the month. Right now I enjoy working with Cinema 4DXL. It has all the features I need and more for creating solid game art. Be it 2D or 3D art for games. The only other programs I currently use are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. I do keep Bryce around for handling skyboxes for 3D games - unfortunately Mac development was cut for that! The 3D programs I have used over the years in order of oldest to newest: Swivel 3D, Alias, Strata 3D, Ray Dream Design, Alias|Wavefront PowerAnimator, Alias|Wavefront Studio and Cinema 4DXL. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Are you happiest with what tools you have now? or would you happily change them? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes and no... No because nothing is ever fast enough for a thought process, interaction with tools are never truly expressive, most application interfaces are cumbersome and the upgrades don't ever seem to truly break new ground. Yes because I don't have to get sticky, staining, smelly and/or toxic stuff all over me like a traditional artist would have to. I do enjoy most of the tools available, they just have a ways to go before they truly become capable of duplicating ones thoughts as one visualizes. The computer is still not as fast or as expressive as a pencil and paper. The other problem is that you have to think like the author(s) of the software in order to use his/her application and work with that tool until you understand how that person(s) thought process gives you the result you desire. This stagnates style in my opinion, but changes are being made by those who are pushing the boundaries. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| You had a lot of publicity from the artwork you did on CroMag Rally, Did you enjoy working on that? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| I enjoyed it very much! I worked on the art for that game for 3 months solid (with 2 other artists). I would wake up at 8am and walk to my computer and then work until 8pm or 10pm and then sleep. I did take a day off every now and then to keep myself from burning out, but I was mainly working like a madman. It helps to stay focused on the job at hand. What really matters is the people that you are working with and Brian Greenstone was truly exceptional. Brian is a great communicator, so working with him was a breeze. The whole team was spread out across the US and Canada. We all used AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) to transfer files to Brian as soon as we had finished pieces of art. This helped to keep our lines of communication going constantly, it really made the art production move at a steady clip. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| What did you follow CroMag up with in terms of work? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| I didn't. I took 2 months off so I could recover. Seriously, I slept a lot. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| What have you been working on recently, and even not so recently? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
A whole lot! A couple of months ago I recreated the new look for the Ambrosia Website navigation, which I'm very happy with the way it turned out.
Here's a logo I did for a free utility that Ambrosia Software created for Mac OS X users. Escapepod is a little application that lets you terminate the frontmost application by hitting Control-Alt-Delete, terminate the Dock by hitting Shift-Control-Alt-Delete, or do a force-logout by hitting Command-Control-Alt-Delete.
I also worked on a logo, interface buttons and an icon for Ambrosia Software's first audio offering called WireTap. WireTap allows you to record any audio playing on your Mac , saving it to a file for later listening or processing. For more information regarding WireTap or Escape Pod: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/freebies/ I also created a web page for our newly released game called Uplink (which is a PC port). In addition I recreated the icons for Mac OS X and a couple of other little things. For more information regarding Uplink: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/uplink/ I'm currently working on artwork for three upcoming game titles for Ambrosia Software. I can only talk about one of the games which is Redline. Redline is real time 3D game that has a physics engine which provides incredible realism and control. I'm very excited about this project as it evolves more and more everyday. Here are some shots of work I have done on the game, keep in mind this is not considered finished art.
Just a couple of weeks ago Factor Software released Germs. This game is completely sprite based. Germs is a game that combines quick thinking with even quicker reflexes as players manipulate scads of colorful, killer pathogens in order to neutralize a biologial threat and save humanity. In Germs, the player picks up germ sprites from a "culture dish" and arranges them on the gameboard in patterns of the same color to make them disappear. For more information regarding Germs: http://www.factor-software.com .
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| You now work full time at Ambrosia SW, how do you enjoy the atmosphere there? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| I have my 2 incandescent lamps on my desk (I hate those life sucking Fluorescent lamps), some Spawn action figures, fight club soap (I bought it on eBay) and a couple of posters that my father illustrated for the Syracuse Lacrosse team. I work with a great team of people. Although not a person, Hector our company mascot and attack bird (an African Grey Parrot) is a constant source of entertainment and audible annoyance, I do love her though. David a longtime friend, is the spine of the company doling out tech support to the masses. Charlene is our wonderful receptionist who keeps the crew in line and calms the hot heads down that call in on rare occasions. Bernard is the accountant who goes beyond his normal duties and covers just about every facet in the office when needed, he'd give you the shirt off his back. Matt, our resident bitwise operator who usually has some remark about how nice my shirt is and likes to call me "sunshine" (I'm a little concerned about that). I should also mention Tom who is abroad finishing school right now but will be back to bless us with his British humor and developer support. Of course I can't leave out Andrew the president of Ambrosia Software, whose balance of brains and brawn grease the wheels to keep it all working. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Give us the scoop! What's it like working with Andrew Welch? Does he really like his green tea? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Andrew does love his tea, in fact he keeps quite a variety of tea at the office too. As for working for Andrew, I won't tell! I can't! I'm bound by an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) regarding just that! All I can tell you is that I enjoy working with him, and that's the truth. :-D. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Proceed to part 2...
| Discussions? --- Interact with the writers and other readers... |
| rwhitlaw | |
| http://www.geniesongs.com/personal.html | Genie |