By Steve Fronczek
04 November 2007

Future-Past.com received the opportunity to interview Kelly Lee Myers about his position as a Visual Effects Consultant on Seasons II & III of Battlestar Galactica. "Kat", as he prefers to be called, is an accomplished VFX artist. You can see a tiny sample of the immense volume of work he did for BSG on his VFX web site and his film credits at IMDb. Not only does Kat create amazing VFX he's also an accomplished DJ hitting the club scene with his alter persona DJ Lithium. You can tune into his trance radio station with Winamp at Black Tiger Recordings. Kat provides great insight into the processes involved with making 3D Graphics for Battlestar Galactica, along with some of the behind-the-scenes magic he performed to make the visual effects so believable. This exclusive interview was made possible by the great folks from Happy Mushies Marshmallow Snacks, Caprica City, Caprica.

First off, for those in our audience who may not know, what is a Visual Effects Consultant responsible for?

(laughs) That's a good question. I don't even think the people who hired me to work on BSG understood what that title means. In short though, I do a lot of research and development working with our preferred visual effects tools and the companies that produce them, along with the hardware vendors to create or test out new VFX that haven't really been done in house before. That, and when certain things come up that get dropped into the VFX department's role of responsibilities, such as motion-control camera work or specific FX shots, I tend to do all the ground work for it and come up with a set of potential solutions.

Was there an initial event, experience or interest in your life that most affected your decision to pursue 3D computer graphics?

Not really. I had always wanted to work doing VFX. I remember blowing up a rather pricey collection of Star Wars™ toys -- by today's eBay® rates -- in my back yard as a kid, however I had a lot of influences from family members who work in the Industry and have done so for decades. This lead to a lot of equipment being left in the basement of my house left to collect dust. Everything from video cameras to super 8 and super 16 mm film cameras and developing equipment, to full audio recording set ups on reel to reel multi-track tape. So I attribute that influence of those hand-me-down bits of gear and a lot of boring weekends as a kid to my current career. With out even realizing it at the time I was teaching myself how to do stop motion VFX which is the foundation of pretty much all CG VFX methods with respect to 3D and 2D compositing.

Being a Visual Effects Consultant involves a lot of different skills and knowledge like animation, modeling, lighting, blocking and compositing. Did you go to school to learn these skills?

No. I did at one point want to go to the Vancouver Film School however it was way to expensive and most of the students I spoke to had less knowledge than I did -- to the point of them asking me for help on their final projects -- so I decided it wasn't for me. I learn better in a hands-on environment and most of the schools out there barely scratch the surface. Not to mention they are stupidly expensive and for what?

I have found that most of the schools out there, not all, but most, just push software. Not skills. It's like you are going to school and paying to have someone demonstrate and sell you a package. It's a joke.

Not all schools are like this. The DAVE School for example teaches practical and usable skills which can move cross-platform. That's probably why their students do better at finding work right away. Practical hands on experience counts a lot more than a piece of paper.

Was there one person in your life who influenced or assisted you in shaping your career and skills in 3D computer graphics?

I don't really have any influence in that regard, but both of my uncles, who are what you might call gear heads and work in the business, influenced me a lot. It was one of my uncles who was an editor and camera man for the CBC and had one of the first VideoToaster™ systems in Canada. That is where I was introduced to a program called Lightwave® 3D, back in 1990 or 1991 as it shipped with the VideoToaster system and ran on the Amiga 4000. Later on, when Lightwave 3D came out on the PC, he helped me out by putting a copy of Lightwave 3D 4.0 on his credit card for me. That is where things really started to get interesting because shortly afterwards I started making money with the software. Probably the best investment anyone has made into my education or career. So I thank him for that certainly.

How has your profession in 3D computer graphics affected your life as a whole concerning family, friends or even where you live?

I travel a lot so I don't have much for family that I stay in touch with. We are spread all over hell. At one point I think half the family was in 6 different countries on 3 continents! It's hard not being able to stay in one place though. LA and Vancouver have been very good to me though, and I still have my place in Vancouver even though I am here in London working.

After moving around most of the 1990's I went back to Vancouver to do film and TV work using the modern PC version of the VideoToaster doing motion control and on set visual FX compositing. I did it because I was the only person a lot of people could think of who know how to do this stuff with very little money involved, but with high-end results. That and the money.

How did you become involved with the BSG Visual Effects (VFX) production crew?

That came from my work using the PC version of the VideoToaster for doing on set VFX compositing and other specialized shot checking. They called me in to work on "Act of Contrition" back on season one. I didn't hear from them again (because they lost my phone number!) until the start of Season II almost a full year later.

How many people were involved on your VFX production crew?

For Season II we had at the start only two VFX artists on board. Myself and one other, plus our CG Supervisor, VFX Production Assistant, VFX Producer and VFX Supervisor. Later on, Melissa Best joined us as part of the compositing team along with Jonathan Macpherson who came in to replace a departing VFX Coordinator who left mid season. So in total in house, for artists in Vancouver -- our CG Supervisor left and went back to LA to start up the LA in-house office -- there were just the 3 of us including myself doing all the tech work, networks, system administration, rendering and art duties.

Did you watch the original Battlestar Galactica?

Yes. I really enjoyed that series as a kid although I really only watched in re-runs. One of the things I think the original show did a lot better was deal with the mystical components of the story line. During Seasons I and II of the new series, the writers started to deal with that a lot more and it was really well done but I think things went a bit sideways at one point near the end of Season II. Too much politics and embedded political statements about things going on in our real world that totally missed the mark most of the time. It went too "Star Trek" frankly and I think that affected the ratings of the show.

Did you try to emulate the original Battlestar Galactica look and feel into your VFX shots?

Yes and no. There are certain things done on the new BSG that have their roots partially in the original but the shooting style of the new series is a major departure from anything like that from that era of Sci-Fi let alone TV or film and that includes Star Wars.

It has its mixed results. Sometimes I found the whole "doco-mo" camera movement stuff in space a bit lame. Part of the reason why people watch the show was because they loved the space combat sequences which felt so "real" for the most part. Zoic Studios, the VFX company who did the mini-series and a large chunk of seasons on and two also worked on Firefly and Serenity, where they nailed the look before BSG really came along. However when its been tried outside of Zoic for the most part (Atmosphere VFX does some great work and it really shows), it comes across as contrived and used as a tool to cover up things (mistakes) instead of being motivated by action or dramatics. It became more and more hit and miss as the series drifted away from the established looks in the mini-series an Season I. I always tried to aim for that while not copying it straight out and I have a few shots I am really happy with.

Next >