Lucas
Young is an eclectic mixture of creative ideas that span everything
from video production and animation tools, to sound design and editing,
to 3D modeling and design. And that's just what he does when he's not
busy creating websites for some of the biggest companies in New Zealand
where he makes his home. His toolkit spans workhorses like After
Effects and Maya, Premiere, Photoshop and SoundForge and World
Construction Set. He's also adding Commotion4 to his list and Acid Pro
and FruityLoops give him the music tools he needs to create the kinds
of sounds he needs.
At
31, Lucus says he's always been driven by curiosity and a drive to
learn everything he could. So it came as no surprise when he told us
that: "I studied Astrophysics at Massey and Auckland Universities in
New Zealand when I left High School. I loved it but while there I
realised my primary interest was in film and television. So, in 1995 I
transferred to South Seas Film and Television School
(www.southseas.co.nz) and qualified as a director/editor. I worked at
Television New Zealand for a year until I realised that with a PC of my
own I could move into freelance digital video production. Trying to
optimise a DX4-100MHz for video production taught me a lot about PCs,
and I started a company -- along with Daniel Crothers (a qualified
printer and graphic designer) -- called Digital Motion. We grew sick of
big city life and returned to the rural town where I grew up (Hawera:
population 13,000) and thanks to the location-insensitivity of the
Internet were able to move into computer training. We taught a number
of classes in Windows and the use of the Internet. We were contracted
to work in IT for a local dairy firm and now focus on web design as a
primary source of income."
Lucas
is a founding partner and director of Digitalus Ltd and Talus Films
Ltd., which creates web development projects as well as video
productions. The company has created sites like fencepost.com (one of New Zealand's largest websites) and supports local television shows like Right Click.
About the company, Lucas says: "We work on short films in our spare
time, and are involved in boosting the film industry here in New
Zealand. Currently the South Island is the place to be ('Lord Of The
Rings' is being shot there) but we're pushing Taranaki as another
filmmaker's paradise. Digitalus Ltd is also made up of Peter Keller
(financial manager) and Daniel Crothers (graphic designer). I'm the
technical side of the team, and the writer/director. We also employ a
programmer (Rhys Jones) for our web work."
Strictly speaking, photogrammetry is the process of measuring and extracting data from photos, but in the film and video world there is a more exciting twist to the idea - if you've seen Panic Room you'll know what I am talking about. Photogrammetry is used to create or replace real-world objects with CGI models - in the case of Panic Room, the camera was able to swoop through banister railings and through the handle of a coffeepot because these objects were created digitally. In this tutorial, Lucas Young gives us a quick example.
