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with Nick Hower of Kitchen Sink Studios Kitchen Sink Studios is a full service architectural rendering firm based out of Phoenix, Arizona. Founded by Nick Hower and Kory Kapfer, Kitchen Sink Studios has grown to become one of the top firms in Phoenix in only a few short years. CGA: Could you introduce yourself, tell us about your background and how you originally became involved with computer graphics and the architectural industry? NH:
My name is Nick Hower…..and my business partner's name is Kory
Kapfer. After graduating from the University of Arizona (Bachelor's
of Landscape Architecture, '93) I headed up the computer animation
studio at the largest architecture firm in Arizona (Cornoyer-Hedrick,
Inc.). Kory and I quickly cultivated the studio before branching
out on our own in 1999
. CGA:
Can you tell us how Kitchen Sink Studios was started? CGA: What is the primary focus Kitchen Sink Studios? While
we got our start creating animation and still imagery for the architectural
and development community, we see ourselves expanding into other
markets that we feel could really use the services of our company.
The legal and educational industries are the two largest markets
we are currently getting into.
We feel it is our job to always be researching, testing, and exploring new technologies that could help us help our clients. Sometimes it comes in the form of and entirely new service we can provide or something that streamlines our production process. In either event, our clients benefit. We also feel that we provide more than just a computer generated image or animation. All of us here have backgrounds in design, architecture, and marketing as well as the digital arts and that allows us to put together complete and useful productions for our clients. A picture is "worth a thousand words" so being able to clearly demonstrate the design through multiple senses such as physical interaction, audio, and video brings the presentation tools full-circle. We also see the value of contracting with specialized talent. We have great contacts with talented designers for specific projects so that if need be, we can bring them on to add more value yet! CGA: Could you tell us a little but about your team? Our
studio is comprised of several key members. Kirsten Lewis has a
strong background in marketing strategies and networking. She heads
the business development side of things and keeps the team focused
on new target markets. Sean Looper has a background in Architecture
(Arizona State University) with a concentration in animation, audio
production and video-post production. He is indispensable for research
and development as well as contributing to multiple projects artistically.
Mike Heuschele specializes in texturing, lighting and modeling with
interest in rendering technologies, gaming and architecture. Kwok
Ke Or is artistically talented, while specializing in complex modeling
and interactive media. Marc Cattapan received his training for interactive
media from Sheraton in Toronto in addition to a Bachelor's Degree
in Film and also has great talent in writing music.
CGA: What type of timelines do you normally have to deal with? Although we've delivered images within hours, our average turn-around time for a project that has animation, still imagery, and an interactive CD-ROM/DVD is around 4-6weeks. Everything we do is totally customized to the clients specific needs so there really is no 'off the shelf timeframe/price'. CGA:
How do you typically divide a project up when you go into production?
CGA:
Can you walk us through a typical day at your firm?
As I'm sure with most studios we use a multitude of products. In terms of hardware we are primarily a PC based company but we do also utilize the Mac. All of our workstations are dual processors with 1 to 2 gigs of memory and high quality graphics cards. We also have audio recording and mixing hardware for voice as well as music. CDROM and DVD burning in small quantity is also done in house as well as a render farm. Software is pretty much the same story. Our primary packages are 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, After Effects, Director, Flash, and DVD Studio Pro. We use many other packages for various tasks but those would be the essentials. CGA: What do you feel has contributed the most to your studio's success? The fact that we are our own worst critics and truly want to do the best work we can is our cornerstone. We also want to give our clients the best value for their money. Animation of every room in the house 'so to speak' isn't always necessary. Showing and doing enough to do the job perfectly is the optimal scenario. CGA: Which project(s) are you most proud of and why? As
a studio, we are always most proud of the projects that were the
most challenging and had the most hurdles to jump. We created an
interactive DVD for The American Heart Association that covered
the gamut on everything we do. It was in conjunction with the Arizona
campaign "tumor causing, teeth staining, smelly puking habit"
in the fight against the use of tobacco. We created many DVD quality
animations that were medical in nature, narration in English and
Spanish, and sound effects and music in 5.1 Dolby Digital surround
sound. It was quite the rewarding project. There are others we're
proud of but I don't want to bore everyone.
CGA: What were some of the challenges that you ran into while working on the project? Render time was an enormous challenge. Our scenes became so complicated with volume lights, raytraced materials and geometry that a 30 minute frame time was commonplace. Its not bad if are only doing a still but we had close to 54,000 frames by the time it was done! Currently, we are in the first stages of assembling a compact render farm to alleviate some of the computing pressures. CGA: What do you find most rewarding about the work you do? The most rewarding aspect of what we do is that we truly love our jobs. We work in an open and creative environment and most importantly, our clients appreciate what we do for them and they are great to work with as well. CGA: Who has influenced your rendering style or techniques the most? Our
style has sort of developed on its own from day one. Techniques
change weekly. Recently, we have been pursuing methods of rendering
and treatments that help to 'soften' the look of our work. We find
that architects specifically enjoy seeing computer-generated imagery
that feels hand-drawn or at least appears organic in nature. On
the opposite end of the spectrum, we also have pushed ourselves
to explore the possibilities out there for photo-realistic rendering,
lighting, and texturing. There is a growing appreciation for the
appearance of reality in renderings and we feel this experience
also aids in our broadcast and potential film work where realism
is often crucial. I really can't name people or companies but there
are a growing number of websites that showcase some pretty incredible
work.
CGA: Where do you see the future of architectural rendering, and how will new rendering technologies affect the future of Kitchen Sink Studios or the industry for that matter? I see it getting better and better and I see better and better software being created at very reasonable prices. This will raise the bar on a general level so a company like ours will have to continue to adapt and grow as well. Technology moves too quickly to get comfortable in what you are doing. When your next door neighbors kid shows you animation he did at home and it rivals yours, it's too late to decide you better upgrade your software! As a whole I think it strengthens our industry. It might push us harder than we like sometimes but it also ensures the acceptance and demand for better, faster, and more innovative work. Eventually, the only differentiating factor between most companies will be the creativity and artistic talent. The software and hardware will make everything else child's play. As long as we stay on top of things and do our jobs, we will come out ahead. CGA: What do you feel are the limitations of current rendering technology? Horsepower.
The software always seems to be ahead of the hardware. Every time
we get a new machine we think nothing could choke it but we always
do. Getting new hardware makes us bolder in the creation of our
scenes so we produce better looking work but it still takes just
as long if not longer!
CGA: What tip(s) can you give our readers to improve their architectural renderings? Lighting
has always been something in my eyes that can give the biggest boost
to the final product. If you don't know how to use light and shadow
well it will always hurt you. Textures are also a big sign of an
inexperienced animator or a rushed job. If it tiles its not good
enough! Repetition must always be avoided. Plants, people, cars;
should all be modified in some way if used repeatedly in an image.
We have a tutorial section on our website with a few more in-depth
discussions. We try to put more up as often as possible.
CGA: What do you not like to see in computer generated architectural work? Lack of good shadow and poorly masked landscape. CGA:
What is in the future for Kitchen Sink Studios? www.cgarchitect.com
of course! |
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