Canadian Illustrator and Designer Trevor Nelson has fantastic retro style that brings the imagination to life. From robots that could be right out of war of the worlds, to nostalgic radios in a shop store. He also has a fantastic love of classic automobiles and makes them come to life with amazing modeling and texturing skills.

Trevor is a regular in the 3D community in general. His art has been featured in online galleries such as 3dtotal.com and 3dcar-gallery.com. A lot of folks in the community see Trevor as a real veteran of 3D and his app of choice is Strata.

SS: We all have our beginnings, how did you get into 3d illustration?

TN: My first experience with 3D was visiting the Alias offices as a student here in Toronto. Extremely expensive software and computer equipment kept it on a back burner though until about seven years ago when someone mentioned to me that Stata had released a new version of their 3D software, and was giving the old version away for the cost of shipping. That was Strata Studio Blitz.

SS: You do a lot of cars and transportation stuff. Where do you get your inspiration?

TN: Most of the cars I do are early cars. I have always been fascinated with mechanical things. Early vehicles (or any mechanical devices)  have a function over form approach that I find interesting. If you decide you need a light to drive at night you get an old oil lamp and screw it on to your front fenders. That's what often inspires me. Anything that looks like a "contraption".

SS: I see you have been active in the 3d community in general, like 3dtotal.com, 3dcar-gallery.com and kotapress.com not to mention stratacafe.com. What sort of things are other artists saying about your work?

TN: In general I usually get a pretty good response. I like to get opinions from people on forums that are not application specific. That way people are judging the work itself. When you judge work on a site for a specific application often people will know the strengths an weaknesses of the program, and will critique based on that.

SS: I get a lot of grief from other 3d artists for using Strata until I show them what I can do with it. Do you get that same sort of attitude from other 3d artists using other software?

TN: Usually people don't know what application I use until after they have seen an image and then ask specifically what software I use. Often people are surprised.

I think there were a few years when Strata floundered. After Blitz, when they were with 3D.com. They fell behind. But in the last few years they have been making great strides. I think with the release of CX, and the new modeling abilities there may be more converts.

SS: Gotta’ ask, what do you drive?

TN: Well......A Dodge Caravan, and a Chevy Cavalier. I know how disappointing this must sound, but I am a family man.

SS: Your latest car you did, the alpha romeo, what can you share a little with use about your process, modeling and texturing?

TN: I spent about a day searching the web for as much reference material as possible. Blueprints and photos. Modeling is all done with splines. I started with a skinned object, converted it to a bezier shape then edited. I do one side of the car, save it as a shape, then mirror the entire shape. That way if I go back in and make revisions to one side they are automatically updated on the other. The basic body of the car was not too difficult, the only tricky part was the vents. For that I made a copy of the hood, then in the bezier edit mode eliminated all the geometry I didn't need so that I had a patch that precisely matched up with the hood in the location I wanted the vents. I then added the geometry I needed to model the vents. I could have modeled them without creating the patch, but that would have made the entire hood so much more complex. The rims were also a bit of a challenge. It was difficult to figure out how the spokes were positioned.

SS: You have a mastery of texturing, where or how did you get to be so good at it?

TN: It was when I first discovered what I could do with textures that I really got excited about 3D. It's just taken a lot of time and experimentation to figure out what is possible with textures. I rarely do an image that doesn't have at least on texture layered on top of a base texture. In the case of the Alpha Romeo I started with a base paint texture, Then on top of that with a stencil map applied a layer of dirt and mud. Put a bump map on the mud and it looks like the mud is actually on top of the paint.

With some of my robots I will have a base metal texture. Then with a stencil map apply a layer of chipped paint. Then finally a dirt layer. With all the layers being separate textures it's easier to edit just one without having to redo the entire texture.

SS: What do you find your clients asking you do for the most part?

TN: Usually product or logo illustrations. Or putting a headline in a marquee. Stuff like that.

SS: What do you see as the strongest area of growth in the business of 3d illustration?

TN: That's hard to say. Right now 3D has pretty much permeated the movie industry. It's hard to think of a film out now that doesn't make use of some sort of 3D animation. I run into a lot of people though who think 3D animation and illustration is reserved for huge budgets and shy away from it. They are often surprised to find that a single person on a personal computer can create a 3D illustration or animation. Maybe as more clients become aware of the fact that this kind of work can be done by individuals and small studios you will find a growth in this part of the industry.

SS: Mac or Windows?

SS: We have seen your little red robot walk cycle are you going to explore animation more?

TN: I've actually done a few 30 sec animations, and many quick little logo animations for presentation videos. I'd love to do more but it can be so time consuming.

SS: What is your plans for the future with your art? Some have dreams of there own animated short, some have dreams of graphic novels, what about you?

TN: All of the above. I would love to do an animated short or a graphic novel. It's just a matter of finding the time, and the right story.

You can check out more of Trevors work at his website and his stratacafe.com profile.