Cique Studios is a consolidation of everything I make, including my animated short films, my podcast, and my comic. The studio primarily uses open source software.
Who are you, Ian Elsner?
I'm a student at the University of Florida.
How do you make this stuff?
My primary tool is Blender 3D, which handles all the modeling, animation, and rendering. For image manipulation I use the GIMP. I break my open source habit when I edit the rendered video files together in Final Cut Pro. My hardware consists of a workhorse MacBook Pro on OS X, a Dell Precision 680 running Ubuntu, and an Eee PC on Ubuntu.
Why do you make this stuff?
I'm not sure why creating something gives me so much pleasure. As a child, I focused my energies on the technical side of computer animation - not for the sake of art but for the scientific goal of simulating reality to better understand it. As time went on, I began to find meaning in the artwork itself. I started to create for the purpose of telling a story or highlighting an idea. Most of my pieces exist at the crossroads of science and art, using cutting edge open source software to create a simple story, which often draw heavily on my own personal experiences, travel, and science writers. Because of the wide appeal of films as a medium, public showing of my works, online or otherwise, is an important part of the artistic process, forcing me to balance my own individual artistic expression with pursuit of making it universal enough for a wide audience.
Have you had formal art training?
No. I took an extremely helpful IB Art class in high school, but that is it. You probably could have figured that out on your own.
Will you respond to my emails?
Yes, I would love to. I welcome all comments and criticisms of my work.
