Hi there! I’m Phil – the berk behind the WickedP identity. Some years ago, an off-the-cuff comment from a high school friend stuck in my head. And, well, now we’re here.
I’m a born and bread Tasmanian, from down under Australia. The next stop south from us is Antarctica. Yes – it gets cold.
My journey into the world of digital arts probably started in the last year or two of high school. There I studied CAD subjects, and was one of only two students in the state at the time to use camera tracking techniques in an animation for a final project. I’m not sure who the other was, but we were quite possibly the first at a high school level to ever do it here. This was back in the late 90’s!
From high school, I went to uni, and in typical fashion got jobs that had nothing to do with my studies. I’ve done all sorts of work, from manual labouring, to office and case management work. I’ve also done the occasional freelance gig. No two jobs have been the same.
More recently, I’ve completed the Graduate Certificate in Compositing and Tracking with the University of South Australia, undertaken at Rising Sun Pictures in Adelaide. The course was great – highly recommend for anyone else looking for the same kind of thing.
After hours I spend my time dreaming up moving image projects and other programming and prototyping ideas. I have a stack of projects – some available to look through on this website. But like many, I find it hard to bring them to life. I own two cameras, including a RED with a cinema-grade lens. The lens is worth more than the camera!
To make my own software, I taught myself to program in C++. The hero image above is of a rusty metallic ball, one which I rendered from my own render engine called Hyperion (follow the link to read more). I can program in other web-based languages like PHP, HTML, JS as well. I’ve even done a bit of Python. I don’t consider myself a programmer – I have no formal training – I just enjoy learning it.
I have a 3D printer. Below is a print of my ProxyMan figure. He’s the demo character for one of my pieces of software I’m making, which is for applying motion capture data onto 3D characters. More of him and the tool can be found in my project section and in various blog entries.
This website is just my personal bubble and a place to spew my own digital rubbish. I programmed the theme myself, mostly for the learning curve, though I’m not a web designer (can you tell?). So, I don’t really make this for anyone else. It’s kind of my digital diary. But, still, others are free to look about and have a read if they like.
Plenty of things I’m trying to make coming ahead. I’m also developing WickedP Studios – a separate entity – which I hope you’ll hear more about in the future too.
– WP