About Me

Me? You want to know about me?
Ok, where do I begin?
My name is Gary Parkin, and I am married and live in New Jersey, which is in the eastern part of the United States, where you can usually find me spending too much time on my computer, behind my camera, or watching Pixar movies.

From the time I saw Star Wars back in the 70’s, I have had a love affair with digital special effects and because of the changing technology, and I can now pursue my dream. Working for Industrial Light and Magic was always my dream career.

I started my movie making career at age 15 with an old Brownie 8mm movie camera.
It had a thing called stop action photography, and my friends and I made a lot of movies. Stop action graphics were used by Ray Harryhausen, who was probably one of the most influential special effects artists ever. His creations include King Kong, Clash of the Titans, Sinbad, and a ton of movies.
He used a technique called stop motion photography where he had a clay model, photographed it, and then moved it a tiny bit, photographed it again. He then compiled all his frames into a running movie.
Today, we have a lot of programs that create animation exactly the same way, starting with a large group of pictures.

When I was in my late teens I started messing with computers. I bought a Commodore Vic 20 and connected it to my TV - “What a great machine. 4k ram, I'll never need more then this…”

Next I moved up to a Commodore 64 and also connected it to my TV - “What a great machine. 64k ram, I'll never need more then this…”.
They also hooked up to my VDR and camera. I used to use ASCII characters to create moving titles for the video stuff I shot.

The cameras back then were cabled to a 2 part RCA VCR that you had to carry along with you. The camera weighed in at about 5-10 lbs., and the recorder part was heavy too. Because it wrote to a full size video tape, it did not have stop action photography.

Next I purchased a Commodore128 - “What a great machine. 128k ram, I'll never need more then this…”
Got tired of that really quick.
Next I purchased a real IBM PC. It had no hard drive and only 1 floppy. The floppy was a 5 1/4 inch monster that took up a lot of space. Next was a 286 processor, then a 386 processor, then a 486 processor, then a Pentium I, II, II, VI.
Graphics cards got cheaper too.

I got addicted to video games. Not playing them, but tinkering with them.
I started in 3D graphics back when the DOS version of Castle Wolfenstein was big, back when you had to get your games either shareware or from a BBS.
I built a level editor for it and made additional levels for the game.

Anyone remember DOOM? I built levels or worlds as they were sometimes called for DOOM I, DOOM II, Quake I and II, Duke Nukem, Heretic, and Serious Sam, which I won the privilege of having my level added to the game CD.

It seems that Serious Sam has gotten cartoony but if you are looking to get into this kind of thing, Serious Sam’s world builder is one of the best I have seen. It’s all done in real time with lights, and moving cameras. It was created by Croteam over seas, and it’s as close to a modern day DOOM as you can get.
I may be using the world builder for some backgrounds for my movies. I checked with them and they game me permission.
Always check with a software vendor before using any game footage for other projects.

I'm also involved with Auran's Trainz Simulator, where I modeled some of the content for the simulation. I have a web site dedicated to my Trainz models.

Last year I bought an up to date Sony digital video camera and learned blue screen compositing techniques.
I also mastered a few special effects, but I was looking for something other people did not have.
Maybe a 3D character that I could campsite over an existing live film.

I stumbled onto the DAZ3d site while looking for a CGI character for my video production shop. I fell in love with the characters and what could be done with them.
I bought Poser 5 and 6, but I really like using DAZ Studio. And you can’t beat the free price.

I was also interviewed by Steven Oberbeck of the Salt Lake Tribune for my work in 3D animation. You can read this interview here.

I am fairly skilled in 3DS Max, another really great program, so I am now working on creating models to bring into Poser and DAZ Studio. I still love to tinker.

I just purchased Bryce 5, and Vue Espirit 5, and I am learning to use them.

That’s about it for me. Now you know my background.

Computer graphics can be a great hobby, and for me it’s turning out as a second career.
There are many uses for CGI characters from advertising to children’s programs at Churches and schools.

See you next time.

~Gary