Legacy

It started with a Commodore 64, then an Amiga - the machine that turned into a love of digital creation and 3D that never really let go. The 3D side began in earnest in 1995: Amiga's Sculpt-4D and Imagine, then SGI's Softimage 3D and Lightwave, Windows' 3DS Max and Cinema 4D, before settling on Linux with Blender and Houdini for real-time VFX and environments. The first paid 3D work was modeling and animation for Solar System Wisdom, that same year, followed by freelance commercial work including a 3D product animation for Swatch.

Research and development on early versions of ArKaos, one of the defining VJing tools of its era, working closely with founder Marco Hinic and Jessi Deep on initial experimentation, artistic implementations, and concept development.

This is also where JArKaos came from: a scaled-down version of ArKaos bundled with Jean-Michel Jarre's 1998 remix album Odyssey Through O2, letting anyone who bought it manipulate visuals from their own keyboard while listening - the first meeting with Jarre.

A first prototype went live in 1997, right as the ArKaos R&D work was winding down; the public launch followed in November 1999. TDT3D grew into a French-speaking 3D community run for twenty years, gathering thousands of members and becoming one of the most visited 3D multimedia communities of its time - with 3D World partnering on it more than once along the way.

Developer on TVPaint, Mirage Studio and Demicron's WireFusion, and Cycore's Cult3D; also released a run of free add-ons on his own - TVPaint PowerBox, TVPaint PowerBrushes, Mirage Power Presets and FlyTools; testing and features for e-on Software's Vue & PlantFactory, Lumen RT, Vertice3D, Lightwave and Softimage; a collaboration with REALVIZ; technical writing for 3D World; certified Autodesk Trainer (2010) and trainer for Maxon Cinema 4D.

Two projects were nominees at the 2005 Golden Polygon Awards: a WireFusion piece built for Zenair's CH601XL aircraft (E-Commerce category, alongside Honda, Vodafone, Kodak and Sun Microsystems) and a HEAJ fire-evacuation walkthrough (Walkthrough category).

Visual effects credit on Les Gaulois au-delà du mythe (2013), a documentary directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix.

The following year, supervised the HEAJ student team - Arnaud Loir, Emil Matev, Quentin Gaspard, Felix Million and Quentin Graindorge, coordinated by Carole Demasy - behind Le monde du train, Belgium's first augmented reality postage stamp: designed by François Schuiten, published by Bpost in October 2014, unlocking three explorable 3D worlds from a phone camera. Other OpenVR-era work included train simulator integration for SNCB (the Belgian national railway), and further collaboration with Canal+.

CG Instructor and Technical Artist for VFX and real-time at HEAJ (Haute École Albert Jacquard), Namur, since September 2001 - one year into what Wikipedia calls Belgium's first specialized computer graphics program, launched there in 2000. Still the role today, now as Senior Technical Artist and Visual Effects Program Coordinator.

Between 2007 and 2011, the Minister of Higher Education in Belgium recognized this work with an "expert" notoriety in real-time 3D - the first such recognition in Belgium. HEAJ's VFX program is a SideFX Certified school, Houdini-centered from modeling through lighting and rendering.

Alongside the technical work, a parallel career in music and VJing: the creation of CD+ releases with artists including Prodigy, Moloko and St Germain, an editing credit on Moby's "Hymn," and releases through Sony Music and PIAS. That side of things - DJ sets, Green Mayday, the full story - lives on benoitsaintmoulin.com.