I suppose at this point, some people are hoping to hear that I use a 3D app and that there’s an easy way to do what I do, but I’m afraid there isn’t - at least for me. Making things look realistic is something I’ve been working on my entire artistic life, so applying that to OS X seems pretty natural. I generally start out sketching on one of my little pads I carry around. Sometimes I even scan a sketch in, if I feel I really got something right at that level. For a long time, I was building OS X icons in Freehand, but now I work more and more directly in Photoshop. The cherry icon in World Of Aqua 3 was the first icon I can recall doing exclusively in Photoshop. I still use Freehand a lot because it’s easy for me to draw in it. I block out the general shapes, compositions, and some details as vector art, but the really fun texture stuff mostly happens in Photoshop these days. I always do shadows there. I work hard on shadows, because I think they can really “sell” an icon - or sink it, if they are poorly handled. The “folder” icon in the LOTR/Third Age set has about 14 individual shadow layers, to give an example.

I used to play in Strata Studio Pro and Bryce years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to give 3D another look. We bought Carrara and I’ve done a few experimental icons in it, but I was hoping it would be a time-saver. What I’ve found is that I have to fiddle so much to get what I want that it would be quicker to do things the way I usually do them. In addition, I wouldn’t want any icon to have that “I was made in a 3D app” look, so I have to fight against the nature of the program itself. Maybe if I worked in a 3D app all day, every day like I do in Photoshop, it would be quicker, but right now it just slows me down enormously. I also take a perverse sort of pride in *not* using a 3D app to do insanely complicated icons. Maybe no one can tell the difference but me, but I still find it selfishly satisfying.

The interesting thing is, the techniques I use in Photoshop are actually very similar to how 3D apps use complex procedurals. By this, I mean that one of my final Photoshop icon files will have the equivalent of bump maps, reflection maps, global lighting, etc. - it’s just that *I’m* generating all of it instead of the computer doing that. I read a lot of articles about working in 3D applications, and I often incorporate what I learn from them into whatever I’m working on. Caustics, edge refraction - things like that.

MacThemes: So are you telling us that you are something of a human 3D rendering machine?

Not really! I just figure it’s better if I make the decisions, rather than the computer, even if I’m a lot slower at it.

MacThemes: Is it true that you don’t use a tablet for your art? Only a mouse?

That’s true, I don’t use a tablet. I have an Apple Bluetooth mouse. Most of the artists at Iconfactory swear by Wacom tablets, but I have been drawing with a mouse so long, I don’t even really think twice about it. In fact, I do a lot of icons on my iBook and tend to just use the trackpad. I’m pretty good with a trackpad! I liked the trackpad button action better on my Lime Green iBook, though. It had a softer, smoother click.

MacThemes: What do you work on?

At the studio I have a “mirror drive” dual 867, and at home I use an iBook G4 800. I think the iBook is great. I moved up from a Lime Green 466SE last autumn, and I am quite pleased with the performance of the 800. It handles the Photoshop work with ease. I even played some Halo on it! The only file I think it has choked on was the Freehand file for the Sentinel in the Matrix Rebooted set. That icon was almost totally vector art, and the tentacles were hellishly complex from the application’s point of view. It had to re-render them every time I did something, and it got old really quickly. To be fair, though, the dual 867 was grinding on that file just as much.

MacThemes: I’m sure you’re waiting for the rumored 3ghz G5’s like the rest of us. When are you going to get one?

I’m not sure, honestly. I don’t covet them aesthetically, so I’m not all fired up to get one the way I might be otherwise. I’m sure I’d enjoy the speed, but even now with the G4s, I don’t find myself waiting on the processor very often. I guess the answer is: when I can get a great deal on one!

MacThemes: We know you best for digital art on the Mac. Have you thought of entering other fields? Along with your recent Mordor desktop, you mentioned an interest in doing matte design for movies?

Yes, I’m really interested in movie production work and always have been. Growing up, I used to have prints of all of Ralph McQuarrie’s pre-production paintings for Star Wars and I bought some of the gorgeous art books for the Peter Jackson Lord Of The Rings trilogy recently when I was working on that icon set. It looks like great fun, but I imagine that it’s also really hard work and long hours. I think it would be amazing to see your designs actually constructed in real life, as artists like John Howe experienced with the LOTR films. I’m going to keep at it and we’ll see where it goes. I have some really interesting projects mapped out in this direction, but it’s too soon to reveal anything about them.

MacThemes: What about a system theme? There’s no denying that you could design a top rate theme to accompany your World of Aqua icons… or even one your movie inspired icon sets! Ever think about dabbling with a theme?

I really don’t know on this one. I was involved with the original Kaleidoscope schemer’s mailing list, and made several schemes, way back in those days. Baja and Circa are two I remember releasing. I got to the point where I felt I could really do a polished and technically thorough scheme, but it took a whole lot of time and effort to get there. Right now, I’d have to take time away from icon authoring to reach that point with themes, and it just feels like it would be “jumping tracks”, as it were. I also feel things are constrained quite a bit with OS X. There’s only so far you can go, and many aspects you can’t yet change. I’d probably want to do something radically different than is currently possible.

You know, it’s funny - I used to spend a lot of time customizing my computer, but I didn’t actually do much with it once I got it looking and acting the way I wanted. Nowadays, I spend so much time working on it that I no longer have the inclination to really customize it!

MacThemes: Themes have been included officially in Mac OS 8.5 and the unreleased Copland. Today, remnants of the technology are still used, to power the “Aqua/Graphite” switch. Yet, history states that Apple has never been a huge fan, though they have recently designed quite a number of separate interfaces for their pro apps (and Garageband). Do you think themes are viable as an official OS feature, or frivolous extras?

I feel like I can see both sides of this issue. I fully understand that people want to customize their interface according to their whims - especially if you got used to doing it under Kaleidoscope. I also see Apple’s point of view, and from a brand identity standpoint, it makes sense for them. I can’t think of another company that puts the care and finesse into their branding that Apple does, so it’s not a surprise to me that they take this position - and since stability is one of their main selling points with OS X, it certainly makes their lives easier to leave themes out. It’s one less potential problem area. I think it’s certainly a viable feature to desire in any OS, and I’m sure a lot of people would enjoy having the choice, but personally I wouldn’t bother hoping for integrated themes in OS X while Steve Jobs has anything to say about it. Still, as long as they don’t try to shut down third-party solutions, I don’t see why everyone shouldn’t be able to get what they want.

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