Interview with Terrance Walker
by Jeremy Rayment

When you think of North American anime films and art, you'd be hard pressed to ignore Terrance Walker and his production company StudioArtFX.

Terrance took some time out of his busy schedule to sit down and talk to us about his current projects, anime, new technologies, and time management!

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your background and how CG became your career of choice?

A: Well, I've been drawing since I was probably five years old. In those days it was about Marvel superheroes and imitating my favorite comics. Different from what you may hear with many digital artists who note Star Wars as a turning point in their lives, the turning point in my life where I found out for certain what I wanted to do, was when I saw an anime TV series called Robotech. It wasn't just about the images. It was about the story as well. I had never seen anything like that. I started reading books and learning how to do animation from a traditional standpoint, but in a few years I started to see that the future was in computers.

Q: You are very outspoken about the concept of independent animation. When did you first believe that a one man studio could literally do it all?

A: As early as the late 1980's, particualrly with the advent of the Commodore Amiga computer, I believed in the concept of the one man studio producing a professional quality anime. I couldn't actually do it, but the vision was there. I had never heard of a PC or Microsoft products, and don't recall anything about Apple, but having come from the Commodore 64 before it, the Amiga created another major turning point in my career. A little known company called Newtek was constantly creating hardware and software that pushed the envelope of what the home user could do. In 1990, I believe, they came out with The Video Toaster, which was a low cost "studio in a box" as they called it and for the first time allowed the "man on the street", so to speak, to do professional quality productions. That system included software called Lightwave 3D.

Q3: Independent artists require many skills. What aspect of film making gives you the most satisfaction? Does it vary from project to project?

On every project, nothing gives me more satisfaction that seeing images go across the screen. Particualrly on my first short Understanding Chaos, I had just recently bought a large HDTV and when I finished the first few scenes I would plug my DV camera into it and play them back there. It was like seeing my work playing on a real movie screen.

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration to create from?

A: My inspiration comes only from seeing great art. As far as visuals go, nothing motivates me greater than seeing the works of Production I.G.. When I see the artwork in films like Jin Roh and Blood: The Last Vampire, I just want to make something. Encountering great stories in any form, by which I mean being emotionally moved, makes me want to create great stories. The same goes for music.

Q: Have you ever experienced modellers block or any sort of stagnation in producing your art? If so how did you combat this?

A: Modeller's block has been a plague to me since modelling has existed. In fact, I can't stand model work as it is. Unfortunately, I have never come up with an effective way to combat this. Were it not for this issue, I wonder how much greater a body of work I would have today. The only thing I can do is to always keep in mind the reusability of assets I create for any show. When I create characters now, there is very little involved because I have a history of assets to pull from because of my previous shows. Without this, if I had to start from scratch today, I wonder if I would ever do another project.

Wanting to see the work done is the only thing that gets past this point. Wanting to see a final scene go across that screen makes it possible. For this reason I never, and I mean never, enter into a project with the idea that I must model everything needed for a show before I can begin. It would never happen. I model what is needed to see the first scene happen. Then I watch that completed scene on screen and move on.