From his roots in South Africa, to the head of 3D Commericals at Framestore CFC in London, to his new job at Method Studios in Los Angeles; Andy has plenty of high end projects on his portfolio. Here he talks to us about the journey and how he came to use Houdini for many of the later projects he's worked on.

 

 

od[force]: Tell us a little about yourself: where are you from, how did you started in 3D
Andy Boyd: I am South African. I studied printing and animation was just a hobby.
When I was 21 I decided to make my hobby my job. I applied for a job at a small (one of two) 3D company in Johannesburg. I made my show reel by taking a personal loan and buying a 3d studio R3 and upgrading the RAM in my computer to 32MB!!! After offering to work for free (guess my reel was not good enough!), I got the job. Only not as a 3D animator but as a multimedia programmer. However I was allowed access to the SGI 3D machines.  I would come into work at 4am and use Jason Iversen's machine (his was the fastest!) and at 9am go upstairs and wait the day out and return at night for another session! After doing this for about 4 months I knew enough to get on the machine full time!

od[force]: You worked in this South African studio for how long?
Andy Boyd: I worked at Digital Directions (now the Refinery) for 3 years before leaving for London

od[force]: Did you use Houdini or PRISMS there?
Andy Boyd: No, Jason and Marc Horsfield did. At the time I was really into lighting and animating which was much easier in Softimage, and then in Maya.
I had a look but it seemed too hard to do simple things, but I always liked the nodal approach, though.

od[force]: ...and then you went to London, directly to Framestore?
Andy Boyd: No, when I moved to London and went door-to-door looking for work and finally did at Glassworks.
Funny though when I started there they were still using Softimage - it was like traveling back in time! I started to head up the Maya front slowly converting people, but it was only after about 3 years at Glassworks that I started to get into Houdini
It all started when I was talking to a friend about people learning new software. I said that software companies should have a free learning version available for download. He said Houdini already has this! So I downloaded apprentice version 5.5 and so began my Houdini life.

od[force]: I see... so you studied it for yourself or was Glassworks interested in Houdini at some point?
Andy Boyd: At first I did all my jobs twice, first in Houdini - then I would try to get Glassworks to buy it, they would say no - then I would have to redo it in XSI.  One of my reasons for moving to Framestore was that they had Houdini.