Interview with Imagenius™ Inc.

Interview with Imagenius™ Inc.

Imagenius Incorporated's CEO, Jim Warren and Creative Director Rob Honiball give CGarchitect the inside scoop on their studio, a few of the cool projects they are working on, the industry, and hint as to what life is really like in the shoes of an Imagenius crew member. Sit back, relax and prepare to be entertained.

CGA: Could you introduce yourself?

My name is Jim Warren, I am the CEO and founder of Imagenius Incorporated.
My name is Rob Honiball (pronounced: honey-ball), I’m the Creative Director and all round good guy. My hobbies include acting as ‘funeral clown’ in times of sorrow, and potatoes.

CGA: Tell us about your background and how you originally became involved with computer graphics and the architectural industry?

RH: First, I done finished skool. Then, after high school I started working in the pre press industry as an illustrator and airbrush artist. I eventually started to embrace the use of computers, which up until about a year ago I dismissed as a fad. From there I ran a HELL drum scanner and began computer retouching on a Chromacom System (basically a Photoshop equivalent retouching system, only the size of a luxurious homeless shelter). Becoming restless and in need of a change I eventually quit my pre press career and bought an animation package called Real 3D, made in Finland I think. Anyway, this new tool allowed me to learn the basics of 3D modelling, mapping, lighting etc and with this new knowledge I created a demo tape. To make a long story a little less long, they say timing is everything and as I was looking for work as an animator, Jim was looking for animators, go figure. We hooked up via a mutual friend and the rest is his story.

JW: My background is Architectural and I primarily chose this field because of my passion for model making. Now I wish I had taken an MBA program!

	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge

CGA: Can you tell us about Imagenius™ Inc. and how it was started?

JW: After graduating from Architecture I worked for an Architect who ‘dabbled’ in computer animations in 1994 but was blown away by the hardware we told him he would need to get into it. Later that year I quit and started my first company Warren Design Group, which supported and setup Imagenius. One year later I closed Warren Design Group and focused on Imagenius fulltime.
Imagenius was started in 1996 by myself, Rob Honiball, two other people who are following their own path now and Andrew Peacock who was working for Warren Design Group. Since 1996 Imagenius gained two more partners, Alaa Fangary (now heading up our Dubai office) and Lino Hilario (runs our sales and marketing department) along with many other current ‘nutbars’ who create the actual magic at Imagenius. Rob is the chief freak in charge of Creative and Production. I have never looked back and can’t wait for the future, but have learned to be a bit more realistic over the past years.

CGA: What separates Imagenius™ Inc. from other firms specializing in architectural CG work and new media presentations?

JW: I know people say this all the time but it is our team. We all know where we are going and absolutely love the work we do. Currently I would say that we are one of the top 2 firms in the world as far as the quality and realism of our architectural animations go, and our past growth has illustrated this. I don’t know about other firms, relating to vision and passion for the industry, but everyone at Imagenius is striving to be the Pixar of our industry.

RH: A legally binding contract between Imagenius and its employees. Oh, you mean as a whole. I’d have to agree with Jim, the team, but for different reasons. No one team member is satisfied just doing the ‘work’. Each member is credited with generating new ideas in order to aid realism, or to have introduced some new process in order to streamline workflow. We encourage input from the staff no matter how stupid their ideas may be, and frequently host tutorial days in order for the animation team to investigate more of what the software we use has to offer. Also this team of individuals is mature enough to look in the face of immaturity and walk away from their shrink wrapped work station upon returning from vacation long enough to go get a pair of scissors.

	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge

CGA: As one of the few Canadian based firms doing higher end architectural CG, do you work on many Canadian based projects or are most of your projects international?

JW: The Canadian market was where we got started but we quickly grew internationally over the years to our current mix which is 45% US, 30% Middle East, 15% Caribbean and Europe, 10% Canadian. It’s tough not to look to bigger markets considering our low population (L.A. has a greater population than our entire country). (Editor's note: Canada 31 Million, LA County 9.6 Million, California 34.5 Million, nice try guys)

CGA: Why do you think the Canadian CG market is not as prominent, or at the very least not as visible as it is in other countries?

JW: Same answer as above except that the Canadian Real Estate market has been demanding the service since 1993 which is why I think we have done so well in understanding the best positioning of Imagenius.

CGA: Can you describe a typical day at Imagenius™ Inc.?

JW: Rob should handle this because he handles the ‘visual’ side of Imagenius. If you ever met him you would tell me to give my head a shake.

RH: Ah, where to start, well I wouldn’t say any day here is typical, but no day should start without a good breakfast. A lot of people here really like their food and we harbour every type of human from hardcore fat eaters to committed vegans. Coffee is our other fueling source, once these two requirements have been met, the daily monitoring of job status and animation path quality is carried out, for two reasons, one to make sure the scope of the job is being adhered to, and two, to make sure the given timelines are not being strayed from. Every animation has approval stages and milestones. My job is to make sure the final product has a pleasing flow (there’s a joke in there somewhere). Animation paths are typically reviewed several times and tweaked accordingly to assure the highest realism possible while still fitting the budget. Snack time. A kick off meeting here, a résumé review there, and before you know it it’s lunch time. Many projects may be going on at the same time, each at different stages of completion, concept design and storyboarding may be in production simultaneously to final editing of a major piece for use on one of our touch screen kiosks. Snack time. The day starts to wrap up (for the animators anyway) by making sure any animation that requires rendering or re-rendering for that matter is submitted to the farm for over night processing, as we like to utilize the power of all the workstations as efficiently as possible. This way while we’re driving home thinking about that big juicy Fred Flintstone size Bronto burger we’re going to maul for dinner, we can take solace in the fact that the new improved animation will be ready for a new round of critiques in the morning, which by the way involve the whole animation team, the more eyes reviewing the work the better.

CGA: How are your projects divided amongst your team? Does everyone specialize in different areas of production or does everyone get a chance to develop their skills in different areas?

RH: Our typical job can be broken into 3 distinct portions, whichever animator worked on a pool area last job for instance will work on the arrival experience or some other area of importance. In order to have an informed opinion of how to improve each others work, one must know what goes into each path from the ground up. Each member does have their individual strong points however. We do mix and match tasks to a point, however we won’t go as far as having our sales assistant sit down and do animation.

CGA: What project are you most proud of and why?

JW: The most profitable and happiest client. I think they want to hear from you, Rob.

RH: That keeps changing, I think the latest completed project each time is the best, I mean it had better be or we’re not moving forward. Once the buzz of all the new innovations you’ve created for a project wears off, you have to look at the next project and determine what can be better, even if that means altering subtle details in a cars finish.

	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge

CGA: What were some of the challenges that you encountered during this project?

RH: I’ll have to answer that as global remark, in that, I try to create new challenges each time a new project is started by incorporating subtleties in to the storyboard I think will add to the overall look of the finished product, whether we have them already figured out or not.

CGA: What new or upcoming technologies (software/hardware) so you see making the greatest impact on the architectural CG industry?

RH: I think everything we need to create great architectural images is at everyone’s fingertips currently. The upcoming technology is here, it’s how you use it that counts. What’s that saying? - a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters will eventually recreate the entire works of Shakespeare, or something like that. Well I’m proud to say we have 3 of those monkeys right here. If I had to pick something it would be hardware. Until (they) release the latest toffee covered, water cooled, P1100 13 Terabyte processor, we will all have to wait overnight for the rendering of our globally illuminated 5 million face interior dining room. I guess the message here is that there are many ways to skin a cat, you just need to devise clever work-a-rounds for things that you want done, but that holds up the process.

CGA: In response to increasingly savvy and demanding clients, what is Imagenius™ Inc. doing to push the envelope?

RH: Each project is created with what we want the end result to be in mind. We try not to let the limits of the software and hardware dictate the end result. If the storyboarding calls for a big juicy flamingo in the foreground of the first shot and we don’t have one, then we’ll model one. If we need to show an underwater scene as the opening shot, we’ll create it using custom maps and 3rd party plug-ins. This way the client wins in terms of a more realistic product, and we have one more effect or digital asset to add to our library for use some other time.

CGA: Has Imagenius™ Inc. won any awards for their work and if so, for which project(s)?

RH: In Cadalyst’s AEC Caddies 2001 award competition we took first place for best professional interior still showing off Emaar Properties West Side Marina project, and third for best professional animation showcasing Marriott’s Aspen Highland project.
We continually enter various other competitions throughout the year. We were also publicly recognized as Canada’s 15th fastest growing company in 2000 according to Profit Magazines criteria.

	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge

CGA: What type of project have you not yet had the opportunity to work upon, but would like to try?

JW: True immersive Virtual Reality and gaming environments are ok too.

RH: Personally, I’d like to do those dogs playing poker in 3D, that’s classic stuff. Also I think it’s inevitable that we dip out feet into feature film animations similar to Shrek, Monsters Inc, that kind of stuff.

CGA: What one strength do you see as contributing most to the success of an architectural CG firm?

JW: Don’t let the creatives make the business decisions. Seriously.

RH: Flexibility. When you drop that last donut, and rolls under the couch in the lounge, you have to be flexible enough to bend down and retrieve it. But seriously, a company must be able to continuously embrace new processes and new ways of thinking especially in a technology specific industry. If you sit back and ride the wave too long, rest assured there’s a bigger one coming up behind you.

CGA: What tip(s) can you give our readers to improve their architectural renderings?

JW: Keep the doors open…

RH: I don’t know what the hell Jim’s talking about but if you want to improve the realism of your renderings, send them to us. Just kidding. Most of the time your trying to mimic real life, so open your eyes, leave the computer and look around, you won’t find a better example of how something is suppose to look than looking right at it. When I take my son for a walk in the woods and the sunlight is filtering through the trees, I don’t just see leaves and trees and foliage, I see transparency and shadow and colour bleeding everywhere. Look and remember what you see, it’ll come in handy one day.

CGA: What do you not like to see in computer generated architectural work?

RH: My mother in law. Also, hard edges, nothing in real life has a razor sharp edge, uh, except of course maybe a razor. And nothing screams CG louder than right angle with no radius.
Bad mapping comes in a close second, with all the websites out there hosting free seamless maps there’s no excuse for blatant tiling.

CGA: What is in the future for Imagenius™ Inc.?

JW: Capture 50% of our current market and enter at least two other complementary verticals. Then make Rob buy me out and retire with his wife…

RH: Funny, I was going to say sell 50% of our current market, ignore at least 2 other complementary verticals (whatever the hell that means), sue Jim for slander and retire with his wife…

	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge	Imagenius™ Inc. Click to enlarge

CGA: What is your favorite link to visit on the web?

JW: www.faceoff.com (I wouldn’t be Canadian if I didn’t have a favorite Hockey site)

RH: www.ebay.com You can make a lot of money selling your used junk during work hours…………I mean, on your own time.
And of course www.guraphicart.com, what’s an interview with out a gratuitous plug to promote your personal wares?
Plus 11 bookmarks of competitor’s sites. By monitoring the competition on a regular basis, we can identify areas in jeopardy of becoming commonplace among the industry. We don’t like commonplace. Commonplace bad.

CGA: Which/What web based resources that you have found the most informative?

RH: www.cgarchitect.com for giving us the inside scoop on our competition.
www.renderosity.com a good site for keeping an eye on what’s out there as it relates to CG imagery, and www.finalrender.com for keeping an eye on the GI scene.

Website: http://imagenius.com