Interview with Geoffrey Kater of S4 Studios
by Wes Beckwith
Along with business partners, Dale Hendrickson and Larry Le Francis, Geoffrey Kater is co-owner and CGI Designer/Director for S4 Studios, a busy animation and visual effects house with clients such as Viacom, Isuzu, Cartoon Network, Sony and Disney. His work has covered the full range of visual effects and animation in film, television and new media, and includes such unusual projects as "Thumb Wars" and "The Groovenians". I recently had a chance to visit S4 and talk to Geoffrey about his work, S4's varied projects, and their plans for the future.
Recently Geoffrey finished his highly anticipated book, Design First for 3D Artists. Working on a project for most 3D artists means hitting the keyboard first without ever touching a pencil. But in the world of animation, the pencil is revered as the most powerful tool in the animation process, because it directly addresses the design aesthetic of an animated project.
Production design is the process by which an artist estab-lishes the tone for a particular film by offering a unique aesthetic vision that is in support of the story. As a 3D artist, to overlook design is to overlook the fundamental process that greatly influences not only the film itself but also your contributions as a professional. To combine the disciplines of traditional design and 3D animation is a choice that only you can make. The result of this choice is a broader artistic skill set that increases your creativity and consequently increases your worth as a professional.
(click for larger image)
CGF – Tell us a little bit about yourself, where were you born? When did you become interested in art or computers?
Let's see, I was born in Dayton Ohio and then moved to nearly 7 different cities while I was growing up because my Dad was in the Air Force. I first became interested in art when I was around 5 years old. Naturally, I would draw planes and tanks, but once I saw Star Wars at age 7, it was all over…all I could do was draw space ships and build lego space stations…I was totally addicted.
(click for larger image)
CGF – Tell us a little bit about your background in 3D?
I first learned 3D at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where I studied Transportation Design. We used Alias to visualize our car designs and create renderings for presentations and stuff. Later when I started working at Saban Entertainment as a lead designer and designed, modeled and animated 3D spaceships for the show “Silver Surfer”. Almost 10 years later, I now co-own and operate S4 Studios, LLC. with my partners Dale Hendrickson and Larry Le Francis, where we do visual FX and animation for trailers, commercials and features..
(click for larger image)
