Bentroductions

Hello.  I am Ben Bays.  My friends call me Beans.

I am going to teach you how to model, surface, light and animate in 3D.  You will need Maya from Autodesk.  Along the way, I will point you in the direction of other useful and/or free software and tutorials.

If you would like to know more about me, follow the jump...

I have been making cartoons and video games professionally for about 15 years now.  Take a look at my resume if you are interested.

I love to draw and build models in 3D packages like Maya, Max, Z-Brush and Mudbox.  Environments are my passion.  When I watch a cartoon, I am usually looking past the characters into the world.  When I play a video game, I usually go very slowly and check out every little detail the artists have paced in the world.  I am fascinated by world building, which has led me to build a career out of making environments for video games and backgrounds for cartoons.

I have had the opportunity to work on console games and Gameboy DS games, which was a great joy to me.  Here is a sample of some games I have recently worked on:

Environment Reel 2009 from Ben Bays on Vimeo.

In my own time, I am working on a project which involves taking hand drawn images and moving them into 3D space.  I love to celebrate the texture of paper, pen and pencil into the context of motion and 3D space:

Asteroids from Ben Bays on Vimeo.

I have a lot of influences: Miyazaki, Moebiius, Bilal, Herge, Uderzo, Syd Mead, even some guys I have met along the way, like David Levy, Thierry Diozon, Jason Manley, Manny Carrasco.  I love French comics and a lot of Anime.  Although most Anime is garbage, some of it is really stellar.  I love cheesy science fiction book covers from any era and old 1970's space station art.  I love special effects in movies and can forgive just about anything in a flick if there are cool explosions and matte paintings.

I have a job.  A few jobs actually.  I teach motion Graphics and Visual Effects at the University of Texas, I teach 3D Modeling and rendering at ACC and I am the In-World Composite Director for Videoranch.  I have had my share of cool jobs, and every job goes away at some point, only to be replaced with something better.  These are the three best jobs I have ever had in my entire life.  I also do contract work just about every chance I get.  When you do something like making games, or visual effects, or motion graphics, jobs just seem like extra fun.