Since you are compositing with Flash animation, have you thought about outputting your LightWave stuff to Flash using the eRain plug-in?

The Swift plug-in isn't good for this sort of thing as it doesn't support textures. It can also be slow and gets confused on large scenes with lots of objects. I used it a bit on series two to render out cars for other directors' sketches, so they could drop them straight into their Flash animations.

In your opinion, should LightWave 3D stay separated or become integrated?

Separate is just fine for me. Fewer buttons means less clutter. It's important to be able to focus on modelling and rigging, without being distracted by rendering and animation at the early stages. However, it would be great to be able to do some basic point and poly edits in layout for animation reasons.

How long have you been working on Monkey Dust? (How many programmes, etc.)

I have worked on all three series of Monkey Dust - I got my own sketch, initially doing 2D in Flash in the first. I also had the task of compositing most of Sherbet Productions' output in After Effects. Then on series two and three I started to add 3D elements to the After Effects stage. There are usually at least four other directors working on sketches at Sherbet, so I do a bit of 3D and After Effects for them too.

Tell me about the style of Monkey Dust and the sequence you directed?

The overall style of Monkey Dust is set by the designs of Andrew Rae (art director). His style is a loose realism, using photos and defined line. The style allows a fast and loose approach re-using photo textures and rotoscoped line art. Damian's designs are somewhat different. They don't have a line and have a more stylised look. But the Bruckheimer-pastiche sketches aren't actually set in the "Monkey Dust world" as they are films shown in that world. When I have worked on other sketches, there are definitely more set parameters and visual signifiers in "Monkey Dust land". Certainly with this project the comedy is more effective if you don't refine and polish every section of animation, or fuss with detailed illustrations. You have a point and an angle to make in the script, and the real skill is achieving efficiently. When it comes to 2D combined with 3D you have to keep the camera moves pretty basic or you will notice the flat characters.

Tell me about "They All Come Home"?

Basically it is a pastiche of Black Hawk Down. Every Monkey Dust series, they write a script that sends up a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

Some of the animation is 2D, some 3D. Who did what?

The 2D was animated and illustrated by Damian Fox and I did all the 3D and compositing.

What did you build in 3D for the sketch?

Everything apart from the characters and a few props is 3D so I had to build helicopters, planes, buildings, all kinds of stuff.