Meet Will English | Photorealistic Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Will English and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Will, every day, we think about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I began learning about 3D rendering by making video games. I always enjoyed pushing the realism and detail of my 3D environments and characters as far as computer power and time constraints would permit. I routinely search 3D art websites for inspiration, and I have found so many artists who can push this limit in amazing ways, creating art indistinguishable from reality. Eventually I found that many of these artists don’t work in video games, and they use a similar but very different rendering technology than we use in the games industry. This prompted my curiosity about photorealistic rendering. The more I learned about it the more I realized that photorealistic rendering is all around us, every day. It is used widely not only in movies, but also in TV / social media commercials, industrial visualization, and signage. Learning these facts inspired me to take my 3D knowledge and provide photorealistic rendering services to other creative professionals in my network. I started small and over the past two years have been taking on more and more ambitious projects.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As an artist and animator, my work is both very technical and very creative. This combination makes it constantly challenging and constantly rewarding. Also, as a visual effects artist, my role is often not to lead the creative effort but to support the creative director. Therefore it is sometimes important to keep my own creative opinions to myself when they are not needed, but to be able to readily share them when they are helpful. This diplomatic approach to creativity must be combined with a great deal of technical skill. Striking this balance is very important to best serve the art. The main thing I always try to do is to make sure every single thing I do is serving the art, and that every frame is as well made as it possibly can be while operating within the project’s needed constraints.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Whenever friends visit us in Lakeland we love to hang out at Lake Morton and feed the birds. After that we often will get lunch or dinner at Mr. Fish nearby. It is also always fun to walk around downtown and visit all the great places there!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to give a shoutout to all my friends at Skunkape Interactive. It was making video games with them all throughout our teenage years, working shoulder to shoulder in a hot, Florida garage that I learned the basics of my craft, and together we honed an attitude of uncompromising work ethic and unconventional thinking.

Website: https://realisticpicturegroup.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realistic_picture_group/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/realisticpicturegroup

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCobhPhrHj2-nSjxGgqtYLCQ/videos

Image Credits
Catapult Lakeland, Realistic Picture Group