A : Well, it's a bit of a dream come true. I've been a huge fan of the book since I first read it when I was 17. I've read it 4 times since then. Everyone working on the films is here because it's The Lord of the Rings. We're creating movie history and it's very exciting to be surrounded by so many talented and creative people all working towards the same goal.
When I was a small child my ideal job was always working in the film industry, either as a concept artist, matte painter, modeller, stop motion animator, special effects makeup artist, I wanted to do it all! However, I ended up as a fantasy/horror/illustrator, which I always hoped would lead me into the film industry.
After 10 years I found the fantasy book cover work, which was my main income, was drying up, as visual styles changed from airbrushed images to realistic computer generated ones, and art directors started creating their own book covers with Photoshop. Around this time I saw an advert for concept artists to work on Lord of Rings. This was about 4 years ago. Instead of applying I went back to college, and did an MA in Computer Animation/Visual effects, as I felt the the best way into the film industry would be digital effects, and I needed to keep up with technology and learn some new skills or I was going to be left behind.
On the course I began to learn texture painting, digital environments, lighting and modelling, basically just building on my illustration skills. I realised that out of a course of 72 people, most of them wanted to be animators, which would mean a lot of competition for an animation jobs, but none of them wanted to texture paint. I began to research what fx companies were after, and found that there was always a demand for good texture painters.
After graduating, I got another dream job, as a modeller and texture painter at Framestore, London to work on Walking with Beasts and Dinotopia. I'm a huge Ray Harryhausen fan (I finally got to meet him when he came to visit Weta) and had also always wanted to work on a dinosaur movie. However, Lord of the Rings was just ramping up at the same time, so I applied, to see what would happen, got offered a job a week later as a texture painter and accepted the job. It was a hard decision leaving Framestore and missing out on the chance to create some dinosaurs though, but instead I got to paint the textures for my favourite creature from the books, the Balrog, and work alongside people such as Alan Lee and Gino Acevedo (the lead fx makeup artist).

Q : Do you see yourself doing more film work in future or do you plan on returning to freelance illustration later on?

A : At the moment I'm on film work for the next year. We're just finishing up the digital effects for The Two Towers (which is looking stunning), then it's straight onto The Return of the King, which will take me to October 2003. After that, ideally I'd like to move into art direction, which would be the best of all worlds, creating illustrations both digitally and traditionally, while still working in the film industry. It would be great if I could also balance that with some freelance work, especially if its involves horror or some bizarre creatures.

Q : What kind of hardware and software do you use in your digital toolkit?

A : My main weapon of choice is Photoshop on a Mac for illustration work. For 3D work and texture painting, I'll use whatever the company I'm working for provides me with, software or hardware. Some visual effects companies have their own proprietary software, other use off the shelf packages. Once you understand one, it's pretty easy to switch to any another, I just wish the software companies would all start using the same keyboard shortcuts though!

Q : Do you still enjoy working with traditional media or do you find computer graphics are taking their place now?

A : I haven't touched my airbrush for about 3 or 4 years! I think it still might even be clogged up with paint. Actually I really miss it, sitting in front of 2 computers 14 hours a day in a dark windowless air-conditioned room isn't the healthiest existence, and I miss spilling paint all over the carpet. However, computers are just another tool now, and digital art is here to stay. I think people are going to get bored with too much hyper-real imagery eventually, and there's going to be a demand for the warmth that you can only get with traditional media. With so much digital imagery around I find it quite funny that people now look at traditional painting artwork with a certain sense of awe - they find it hard to believe that you can still create incredible images with just a pencil, paint brush and airbrush!

Q : Will you return to the UK to work at any point, or continue your career abroad?

A : There is a whole nomadic tribe of visual effects artists following the film projects from country to country, so I hope to move around a bit and make the most of the opportunities. I'd like to come back to the UK, if the right project comes up, but for the time being I've made New Zealand my home. It's incredibly beautiful here, and where else can I wake up and watch dolphins playing in the bay below my house, before driving for only 5 minutes to go and work on the 3 biggest movies in history.i