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... We've been so impressed with the support that it has motivated us to contribute back, all for the better good. For the Lighthouse project, we've supplied rigs and models to programmers needing to test their tools, and we've given back shader libraries and other development work to the Blender project to be included in the mainline. Matt is currently working on developing a volumetric shader for a job we’re on now, and it has already been released to the community for testing. We're constantly providing beta software feedback to those developers who need some production exposure before their tools are ready.

The open source model doesn't sound like it would make sense to a classically trained business person, but being both an artist and business owner; I can see so many benefits that I just can't believe the larger studios aren't adopting it faster. We're speaking at the Australian Effects and Animation Festival in depth about our pipeline and I hope that some representatives from the large studios around will be there to see our breakdown and hear our experiences. To adopt it and test its capability would have an immediate and tremendous effect on their bottom line, and I imagine that is something every finance department would want to hear.

IA: What other software and hardware do you use?

JN: All our 3D work and compositing is done with Blender, it's just the best result for us. For texturing, we use the Gimp. Although, there are a few people on freelance contracts who like Photoshop and one guy who loves to use ZBrush, which I'm OK with as long we still get good results. Otherwise, we have a few old license of 3DMax which a lot of juniors know how to use from their schooling and in the transition period while they’re learning Blender, they use 3DMax to do basic models or help with simple production work as needed because they happen to be faster. We're exploring the use of external renderers like VRay, but so far the internal Blender renderer has proven rock solid and there hasn't really been a need to find a different solution. Our exploration of external renderers comes from my own interest more than anything else. I just like to explore that realm these days to see what can and can't be done.

As for hardware, we're purely AMD 64 bit. We've got about 30 machines. There are 8 workstations and the rest are render nodes and all are dual boot between Windows and Linux (mostly Ubuntu, although some guys like OpenSuse or Fedora). Day to day, I'd say we're mostly Windows on workstations but I'm phasing that out each time we upgrade our workstations, ultimately we’re aiming to be a pure Linux studio.

IA: Do you think that the fact you're based in Australia influenced your style?

JN: Definitely, the Australian advertising industry is actually quite conservative, yet it is clearly unique on a world stage. Our work has been commissioned by companies all around the globe, which shows that our style is able to compete with current advertising trends. I believe that being in Australia puts us in a very strong position. Firstly, the time difference (which is initially thought to be a negative) works to our advantage. If we get asked to make a change or a tweak we can usually get this work done during our production day, meaning the client over on the US or Europe can wake up the next morning with the changes completed as requested. Secondly, our lifestyle isn't tainted by the big busy city bustle as many American and European cities are, so our artists have a great life, living close to beaches and plenty of parkland while being in a major metropolitan area. I do believe our studio style reflects that ease of lifestyle.

IA: What are your sources of inspiration?

JN: I hate to say it, but what affects our work mostly is popular culture. Most of our work is advertising based so we are constantly exposed to general trends and campaigns that are very broad. Our work is supposed to appeal to that. I do regard our work as naive in that respect, and not always truly art for art sake, yet it does always have our flavor while meeting the requirements of the client.

The guys here in the studio are tremendously flexible in their interpretation. One job may require dark and moody work, creatures or something threatening, yet the next job will be a fluffy rabbit on a colorful childish background. We tend to chose artists that can handle that diversity. Another source of inspiration comes from games, as we play a lot of first person shooters in our downtime. It’s good for team building plus the added bonus of giving us exposure to current game trends, which heavily influence many advertising campaigns.