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Illustration
Case Studies
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Griff Wason - Driving Force
Griff is a technical illustrator based in Southern England,
who creates accurate, photo-realistic images of technical
subjects for clients worldwide, supplying artwork, animations
and specialist media to aerospace manufacturers, software
and hardware vendors, distributors, marketing and advertising
companies, museums and educational establishments.
Griff's distinguished client list has included AMD, Apple,
Dell, DEC, GE, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Maxtor,
Microsoft, NASA, Quantum, Rolls-Royce, Seagate, Smithsonian
Air and Space, Sun, United Technologies, Western Digital,
and Xerox, among many others. |
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His illustrations have appeared in the pages and on the
covers of National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, Scientific
American, and other world-renowned publications. At
the right is his latest cover image, from the June 2004
edition of Popular Mechanics.
“For me, time is money, and as soon as I tried trueSpace
I knew immediately that I would ‘just get on with it. I
didn't even have to read the manual, it just seemed obvious,”
Wason said. “The immersive user interface is intuitive,
easy to use and logical."
A self-proclaimed
“diehard perfectionist to three decimal places,”
Wason said, “I create models that are as accurate to
the original as possible - sometimes to 0.01mm, sometimes
much higher. My clients demand this level of precision.
The trueSpace user interface has the unusual facility of
giving me a full spectrum of direct manipulation from completely
freeform through to 0.001 unit precision."
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“I can completely
immerse myself within its operation -it’s as if I’ve stuck
my head through the computer screen, and can now create
“real” objects, colors, textures and manipulation controls
as in the real world."
In order to create his meticulously precise
models, he typically spends as much as 60-70% of the time
devoted to a project on research. After the research is
done, he often works in series, creating multiple versions
of an image from different angles or with different colors,
styles, lighting, etc.
“For these
engine illustrations, I trekked to museums far and wide,
then spent days taking photos, making assembly diagrams,
making notes of materials used, colors and so on. It is
from all this research that I drew up my base set of engineering
drawings, and it is from those that I used as references
for my illustrations."
With a background as a computer software engineer, Griff
has used both 2D and 3D computer graphics in his work
"pretty much all my career." Griff studied
music, art, and illustrating, and although he has no formal
graphics or 3D training, he did study fine art and art
history, specializing in ancient Egyptian art and Renaissance
art. |
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Griff notes that he "does not like
or appreciate the CAD approach for 3D art," elaborating
that "creating and manipulating objects using CAD
methods is akin to those wacky scientists in those old sci-fi
films awkwardly manipulating objects with those clunky mechanical
hands behind glass screens!"
Saying
he prefers "the real time 3D feel of trueSpace,"
Griff remarks that "when I discovered trueSpace
it was a breath of fresh air, and has given me new vigour
and interest in producing 3D artwork."
Contact Griff at griff@griffwason.com
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Copyright © 2007,
Caligari Corporation
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