Doug Brown

From humble beginnings in New England, to snowboarding, muscle cars, bullfrogs and John Deer. Our interview with contemporary American artist, Doug Brown.

By Paul*PabloGrca*Hutchens

SQ - Tell us about yourself, where were you born? When did you become interested in art or computers? Well, I'll start with the obvious, my name is Doug Brown, I'm 26 and a gemini, I enjoy long walks on the beach.....Okay corny old joke, couldn't resist. I'm not single, I'm actually recently engaged and will be getting married in the summer. I am currently employed at AC Coin & Slot in southern New Jersey as a 3D Artist. I am really 26, I was born in northern Massachusetts, raised in New Hampshire and lived my summers in northern Maine. I feel growing up in New England and experiencing the four seasons helps me with my artistic eye. The colors of fall, the beauty of the lakes and mountains in the summer, the beautiful way the snow sits on the tree's in the winter and new life growing in the spring. I love being active, whether running, biking, snowboarding or any other interesting new thing I find. I became interested in art at a very young age I guess, always drawing, painting, and trying new mediums all the time. I'm a trained airbrush artist as well which I feel is a big advantage when it comes to texturing. I was always considered the "creative one" growing up, I always like to say "I don't think outside the box, I live outside the box". I became interested in computers when we got our first one when I was 8, though I'll admit, I thought they were quite geeky. I've always loved being outside, so sitting at a computer especially when I was younger didn't fit my lifestyle. It wasn't till I was in High School that I really took an interest in computers. I then realized I could combine my love for art with my interest in computers to produce a career. I didn't take a direct route to our industry, I was a machine operator in a factory, an IT admin and a web designer. All a formative time to place me where I am today.

SQ - Tell us about your background in 3D? My background in 3D started with playing around with Lightwave 5.5 for a few months. I couldn't do much, but I was hooked on what I "could" do with it if I could figure out how to use it. I know I could have picked it up on my own, but I'm impatient and wanted to learn fast plus learn how to compliment the software with other software. While doing a search for training facilities on the Newtek site, I came across the DAVE School. Four months later, I found myself in Orlando, FL starting classes in August 2002. The rest as they say is history.

SQ - How would you describe your style? Wow, you wouldn't think it, but that’s sort of a tough question. I guess whether I'm doing toon, photo real or something in between, my style is "clean". I don't mean in the sense that I don't add dirt to my projects (I love to texture, so I add it whenever I can), but that I like to make my work as polished and professional as I can. I'm always trying to escape my own personal habits and push my art to another level so at the end it doesn't look like something that I would have created. I'm always trying other styles and not to have one of my own, I like to adapt. Does that make sense? :)

SQ - What do you feel your best known for? I'd like to say for being such a great guy and killer snowboarder, but without a doubt its my American Bullfrog project. I did that on my own for fun as a personal project to learn and increase my skills. It was well received among my peers and the community in general. It can be seen on the Layout Manual for Lightwave 9, Issue 86 in 3D World Magazine, Issue 104 in Digit Magazine, in my "Plug into your vision" article in issue 11 of HDRI 3D and in William "Proton" Vaughan's office. I figured he hadn't seen enough of it between being on the Newtek booth and in the manual, so I mailed him a framed print of it. I'm guessing by now, its a dartboard for him and staff. That frog became a monster and really got away from me, I heard it might be doing the Leno shows soon. As you can tell while being proud of that piece, its old news and I get tired of looking at it.

SQ - On American Bullfrog, how did you get the water to look so real? The water was something I knew that had to be 100% photo real or the shot would be dead. The look of water was quite easy to be honest, but the behavior is a beast and my water wasn't even doing anything complicated! I give a lot of respect to the people who make water do amazing things like breaking waves in the ocean and what not. As I said earlier in my interview spending time outside and being observant is probably what helped me the most. I had a lot of reference photos as well from the lake I go to every summer in Maine. If you would like Dougs water settings in .psd form, click here

SQ - Were any software or plugins used to make the vegetation, or did you model and texture them? The vegetation was all modeled and textured by me, no plugins. It was all animated procedurally using displacements.