I suppose creating characters from my imagination is my greatest love. The idea that there is virtually no limit to what those creatures may be used for is the greatest thrill.
My name is Chris Kautz and I am an Australian commercial artist and designer living in Holland. I have experience in product design, both in Australia and Europe. In Australia I worked for a dynamic design consultancy before starting my own business. In Holland I practised commercial product design and illustration together with a co-operative studio. In the beginning I resisted the urge to explore computer graphics because I wanted to stay faithful to brush and canvas, but they say the art chooses the artist and not the other way around, and in my case that is certainly true. Since I began using 3d graphics there has been an explosion in the level of technology and it’s application. I started commercial illustration because I wanted people to see around corners in my work and be able to experience an idea. These days with interactive technology that idea will walk up to you, shake your hand and start a conversation!
I have a passion for computer games, that does not stop at playing them but extends to how they are constructed. The concept stage right through to publishing is a riveting process. I am not only interested in designing and building characters but also how they will be animated and the contribution they will make to the end product. Staying current with development trends has led me to participate in specialist forums on the Internet, and I am a forum leader at CGTalk.com, an administrator on Game-Artist.net and the owner/ operator of Game-Artist.net Linkedin the networking web group. At linkedin the GAGroup has 7000 members and is growing all the time.
Client List
Some of the clients I have worked for directly or indirectly through agencies or production houses include:
Nickelodeon
Unilever
Volkswagen
Nais Japan
Ritmeester
Esso
DAF Trucks
Philips Lighting, Communications and Consumer products
Omni Drink
VNU Tijdschriften B.V.
Compaq/Quadram
Radio 2 and 3 Holland
TRN
Simpson
Digital
Clark Rubber
Nylex
Amsterdam Police Corps
Rotterdam and Nijmegen City Councils
Province North Brabant
Still a very young and exciting industry this is just the beginning. Business models have evolved and we have seen the open-source dream slowly become a reality that demonstrates the free spread of knowledge benefits the entire community and thus the individual. Many forms of digital software have become freely available to ‘try before you buy’. These givaways have more often than not cost many millions and countless people hours to develop. They are not cheap previews but full featured, state of the art professional tools that perform and deliver results only limited by the skill and imagination of the user. Two examples of this are the amazing game engines you see to the right on my sidebar. A further unsung hero of this philosophy is Autodesk, who make their products (all of them) available to students. I am also very impressed by the fact that for the modest cost of an average powered computer plus an internet connection any individual interested in 3dcg can learn how. In the tutorial section here you can see I like to contribute to online resources by putting together lesson on things I have learned along the way.
I hope you find this site informative and enjoyable.
Chris Kautz
art-werx.com
