An Interview With Dick Ma
by Mike Lynch

SQ - Tell us a little bit about yourself, where were you born? When did you become interested in art or computers?

Hi, I was born in 1979, in Hong Kong, China. I came from a traditional Chinese big family with 9 siblings and I am the youngest. I was a top student in art and design when I was studying in the secondary school. Then I studied diploma courses of multimedia design and technology in the university for almost 4 years - where I learned to use computers to create graphic illustrations and photography.

SQ - Tell us a little bit about your background in 3D?

When I was studying in the university, 3D computer graphics was kind of "pop" to me and I was fascinated by it, like the game CG shots of Final Fantasy VIII, or a French short film called "Un temps pour elle" ("A Day For Her," a story about a girl on a vacation and how she spends her time to photographing a solar eclipse), by Edwin Charrier - who won the IMAGINA AWARDS in the 90's for the film. Those CG shorts made a deep impression on me, and I wanted to do one. However, due to various circumstances I wasn't lucky enough to have standard animation training at that time. Later I learned my 3D modeling and animation skills on my own - and my first animation package is Lightwave 3D.