PlanIt 3D - Interview - Frank Little

Welcome to the fantasy world of Frank Little; where imagination and digital art fuse together to form strange lands and ecosystems.

For Frank the world of CGI has allowed him to bring his imaginary worlds to life and share his visions with others.

Let's discover his journey and where evolution may take his world in the future.

Welcome Frank; please tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Frank Little, I'm 31, born and raised in California, though now I live in Portland, Oregon. At an early age I first saw the cartoon versions of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and fell absolutely in love with them. I soon read all of Tolkien's books and began the process of creating my own world.

How did you get into CG artwork?

Well, I had decided to move from California to Oregon, but before I could do so I moved back in with my parents for a few months to save money. While living at home my dad mentioned, casually, how I might find using Bryce interesting. I realized right away that it enabled me to achieve visually what I always wanted, to really show people the world I was creating.

Have you always been artistic?

I'd like to think so. When I was young I loved to draw, and even at a young age I was creating imaginary animals and plants. My second love is music. I started late, playing guitar with my friends before eventually moving on to the piano.

What software do you use?

My CG experience began with Bryce, though more recently I've changed over to Vue. For modeling I use a variety of applications, mainly Silo and Xfrog 3.5. For post production I use Paintshop. I hope to one day begin using Poser so I can start to add people to my pictures.

How long have you been using Bryce and Vue?

I used Bryce for about two years before switching to Vue, which I've been using now for a couple of months.

How did you learn the software?

Mostly by troubleshooting. Both Bryce and Vue are relatively easy to figure out (the basics, that is). I remember fondly those first pictures, orbs and mountains set with green skies, and even now that my abilities have grown I look back on those images with a certain nostalgic appreciation.

How much do you use Xfrog and what are your favourite features?

Xfrog is easily one of my essential programs. I use it to create everything from basic trees to strange oddities. What I find most helpful about it is the wide variety of parameters it gives me, allowing me to really explore the possibilities.

Do you use online forums, tutorials or other training mediums?

I use forums frequently, as well as tutorials, although I have to admit that I'm often a little stubborn about learning and want to do it on my own. However, there comes a time when you need the help of others and I've found that forums are essential for growth.

What part of Bryce or Vue do you find the most challenging?

With Bryce I find the lighting is the most challenging. With both Bryce and Vue I find the difficulty in creating cast scenes that come together cohesively without too much noise. Often when a picture is too congested things begin to bleed together, and you lose the sense of where one thing ends and another begins.

What do you find are the main differences between Bryce and Vue?

A major difference between Bryce and Vue is the lighting. Vue gives you the options of using global illumination and radiosity, giving a picture a much more realistic sense of lighting. But the greatest difference, by far, is Vue's ecosystems, which allow you to easily populate a scene with basic grasses, shrubs, or more complex vegetation without using massive amounts of memory and space.

Your work is based on a fantasy world, is this part of a larger project?

The fantasy world itself has always been the larger project, from my early stories, maps, and lists of kings, to my work with Bryce and Vue. When I was really young it was much more fantastic, involving dragons, wizards, elves, etc., but as I got older it became less a "fantasy" world and really just another world. At least that's my goal. I want it to seem like another world, yet seem plausible.

So do you think getting older has eroded your earlier imagination and creativity?

No, I think getting older modified it. I have nothing against the fantasy norm that's so prevalent these days, but as I got older I realized I wanted my world to be different. If anything, I think it's helped me be more created. Now, instead of creating variations on what has already been done, I'm trying to imagine things no one has ever seen.

Do you plan your images or see what happens?

Both. Often I create a new model and place it in a scene and just see what I can do with it. Other times I want to create a scene based on an idea I've been working with, perhaps from a sketch or just from some notes jotted down. I think more often I just play around and see what happens.

How do you link your images together so they seem to come from the same world?

I try to create ecosystems that are similar, for one thing. Also, I'm sure my overall style has its own signature, so to say, and that gives them the sense of coming from the same place. However, I think that as I get older I would like to return also to the written side of my world, and through that give it greater cohesion.

Do you use much post production?

Not really, except for some basic color adjustment and the adding of borders and titles. I am not opposed to the use of post production. Indeed, I think that anything that helps make an image more memorable, more beautiful, should be used and I hope to use it more as I improve.

Do you share your creative work with friends and family?

I try to share it with anyone who's interested, and I'm always happy when my family finds them interesting. They are family, of course, so, in a way, they have to find it interesting. What gives me great joy is to realize that when my dad first gave me a copy of Bryce he didn't know how much he changed my life, and I hope that through my pictures I can let him know just how much it means to me.

What do they think of your hobby?

I hope they find it interesting. I know that what I do can be pretty bizarre and I don't really expect people to get as into it as I do, but if my family (or anyone else for that matter) find anything interesting about them that makes me happy.

Where would you like to take your artwork in the future?

As with anything, I hope my skills will increase and I'll be able to continue to show people new parts of this world. With the advent of newer technologies I hope to be able some day to create a virtual world where people can explore and play and see things they've never seen before.

Have you ever thought of taking your world onto a virtual system like SecondLife?

Interestingly, I was recently talking about that possibility with my father and sister. I just started playing around with SecondLife and saw right away that there were similarities with it and with what I hope to do someday. However, I always saw my world as being more of a game. I always thought it would be most interesting if the world itself could be played in all manner of ways, so that if you wanted to explore, have adventures, wage wars, etc., you could. RPG games are evolving so much that I can foresee a time when games are crafted for specific users, and I hope that my world will be there for exploration and adventure.