Bio

My name is Wes Brown and I am a lighting TD/3d Generalist currently living and working in Orlando Florida. 3d has interested me since I was about 12 years old when I first saw early ray-tracings in books and I have pursued it with a passion since middle school. I have been lucky to have worked fairly consistently in Orlando since graduating from The University of Central Florida. Most of the companies I have worked for have been small to medium sized businesses with excellent creative people running the show. I’ve been fortunate enough to dip my hand into all kinds of computer animation projects ranging from theme park work (the Men in Black ride at Universal studios), to Scientific visualization (the Space Shuttle Columbia Investigation) and almost anything in-between (sports animations, TV spots and jumbo-tron openers, pre-viz etc). I am now moving away from the “jack of all trades” style of 3d and focusing more on lighting and environment creation. Great lighting can make or break a scene and I love to bring out mood, contrast and texture with my lights. If you are a modeler or an animator and are interested in collaborating with me on your lighting, please see the call for content section of my site. In addition to my full-time 3d job, I am also an adjunct professor in the University of Central Florida's computer animation program.

I’m often asked about my 3d influences and I must say they vary quite a bit:

Myst and Riven: These awesome environments and images combining nature and technology really hit me hard when they came out. They are truly stunning works that will go down in CGI history.
The Beyond the Mind’s eye video: Although now many of the pieces may seem out of date or overly simplistic, this video demonstrated the power of Music combined with early CG at a time when this medium was still so fresh. Most of the works showed what the computer likes to do best: hard, cold and slightly unsettling surreal images that sent the imagination wondering.
Terminator 2: Need I say more?!
ICO: This PS2 game creates a mood though lighting like no other game before it. BEAUTIFUL!
PIXAR: One of the most artistic 3d studios around.
Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exodus by Oddworld Inhabitants: The first two games from this amazing studio. They both utilized pre-rendered backgrounds with beautifully detailed models and textures. They are fine examples of perfect art direction.

I could go on and on…oh wait, I just did!

At any rate, aside from 3d I also love photography, traditional art, videogames, composing music on my keyboard and anything outdoorsy. (Gotta' get some sun after staring at those big monitors all day!)