Here on the farm, we like to know that our efforts are helping you to produce quality work. We also like to help promote you by bringing attention to your site. This is why we have a Rendered@ResPower section on our site. When you produce something you're proud of, let us know, and we'll consider it for inclusion there. It helps us, because it shows prospective customers that we actually do render stuff. It helps you by drawing attention to your work.

We've seen at least one case where one of our frequent customers contracted a project to another of our customers based upon what he saw in the Rendered@ResPower page. So please, submit your work to us so that we can promote each other!

This month, we're placing the spotlight on Allan Liddle, founder of DNA Pixels in Somerset West, South Africa.

To see the whimsical animations Allan Rendered@ResPower, visit the page spotlighting his work here:
http://www.respower.com/page_rendered_at_respower_liddle

Mr Liddle got into animation professionally in 2007, and had immediate success with a public service announcement for water conservation. Allan was kind enough to take a few minutes to answer some questions for us:

How long have you been doing 3D graphics?
I actually only became full-time involved in 3D graphics and animation about 20 months ago. Before then I earned a living as electronics/software engineer and was studying Blender after hours.

That's an interesting switch, from an electronics background to something so artistic.
I am one of those "double-minded" people :-) who is both technically-minded as well as artistic. 3D CG and animation originally started as a hobby to combine my artistic skill with my analytical/computer skills. After about 18 months of self-studying Blender after hours I felt that I could "take the jump" to do it full time and make a living from it. My first professional production after only doing self-study tutorials was for the VUKA! awards.

What sources do you find for inspiration, i.e., where did you get the ideas for the shorts on your site?
Some of the work is obviously for clients, but my private work is usually to improve my overall 3D CG and animation skills as well as to advance my knowledge of Blender. I therefore then choose a topic that would push me harder in the direction I want to improve in. For example, prior to my "Rocky" animation, the only lip syncing experience I had was of a talking Humpty Dumpty egg when I was busy learning about shape keys. It did not even have arms or legs. I therefore chose Rocky to advance my rigging, texturing, animation and sound syncing skills.

How did you first hear about ResPower?
I initially read about ResPower on BlenderNation. However, when I wanted to start doing more serious renders of my own, I asked around on the Blender Artists forums. ResPower was one of the more highly rated render farms suggested.

A lot of the demo videos on your site were Rendered@ResPower. Did ResPower's Blender pricing play a part in your decision to use their service?
Yes, the Blender pricing at ResPower was definitely one of the big factors that played a role in my decision to render at ResPower more than a year ago. I am from South Africa and our currency is usually in the region of 6 to 8 times weaker than the US dollar. Taking that into account, it was still more viable for me to render remotely at ResPower than to set up my own render farm. The Blender-specific subscriptions are really in an affordability pricing category of its own. Another factor that played a role in my decision was the fact that I do not have to worry about managing and supporting my own render farm. And don't forget: rendered "boo-boos" don't cost you anything - not even Internet bandwidth.

ResPower's remote rendering also provides me with another advantage lately: South Africa's commercial growth has outpaced it's capacity to supply electricity, so we are subjected to power cuts ("load shedding") once or twice a week - until the new electrical power stations have been completed. ResPower provides me with peace of mind that my rendering can continue even if I may be sitting in the dark :-).

In keeping with our theme of promoting you, we've set up a MySpace page where we will be more than happy to be your friend and promote your services. Check it out at http://www.myspace.com/respower.