On your website, you describe JD3D as a boutique 3D visualisation service. How did it happen, this specific project?
People always ask me how I got into 3D and the answer is: by playing with Lego as a kid. Lots of Lego. And then not quite growing up enough, and that just changed into being a 3D artist and eventually going out on my own.
Being a 3D artist really stretches your brain, and it means a constant set of new challenges in different fields of expertise. In the last year I was diagnosed with ADHD, and suddenly it dawned on me that all the things I’m doing at JD3D are a result of that. Being self-employed and running your own company, you get to keep your own hours and dictate your own pace in your own time. Also, you’ve got the constant stress and constant challenges that keep your brain firing – running a business in 3D can be overwhelming. But it also means that my desire for learning new things and for novelty is always being met.
Sometimes I joke that life wasn’t quite hard enough, so I wanted to try running a business in a different country, in a different language.
Sometimes I joke that life wasn’t quite hard enough, so I wanted to try running a business in a different country, in a different language. It’s been quite the experience!
What does it take to start a business in Berlin?
In the UK, clients seemed to find their way to me, so it was kind of handed to me on a plate. But now, I’ve had to re-establish myself in Berlin, which means building up a new client base and new contacts. There’s definitely some variation when it comes to professionalism in Berlin, and that can be a bit difficult. Of course there are some really great ultra-professional companies, but until you know who you are dealing with or who you’re working with, it can be problematic.
There’s plenty of enthusiastic amateurs with projects they want you to work on for little or no money. I found myself banging against that wall a few times at the start which can be quite disheartening, and thinking, well, at my age, I shouldn’t have to deal with that!
Why did you move to Berlin?
Just for adventure and love, really. I’m one of these weird people who genuinely loves the German language and culture and I’m pretty sure I was German in another life. Based on my love of beer and wurst. I mean there are more obvious places people want to move to, especially people from the UK.
People want to go somewhere sunnier, or a little bit more exotic. So Berlin, especially if you’re not into techno and raving – which I’m not – it’s not the obvious place to move to. But I love it, and I love German people. Someone has to 🙂
What does JD3D do?
We do 3D graphics and animation, for almost any industry. Mainly architectural visualisation and explainer videos. Recently I’ve been working for an e-bike company, – and this is one of the more fun aspects of my work – where they’ve just said to me, “take a street and just re-imagine what it would look like if it was made for bikes.”
I’m one of these weird people who genuinely loves the German language… I’m pretty sure I was German in another life.
I’m also working on a project now for the European Union in the Metaverse. This involves working closely with European installation artists and recreating their work in 3D.
Previously, I was working with an events company to pre-visualise the Kazakhstan Pavillion at the Dubai Expo – our team won a couple of awards.
3D is very often about working with designers and showing what the end product will look like before any manufacturing or building begins.
So typically I will get some basic CAD drawings, or sketches, and someone will ask me to show what the finished product will look like. Having quality 3D renders helps with the design process, and then those same assets can be used for marketing.
The Q & A section of your website is extensive. How often do you have misunderstandings with clients?
My friends made me rewrite that so many times. It started out as a bit of a rant but then my friends said oh God, you cannot put that on the internet!
But a lot of my clients aren’t designers or 3D guys. They’re property developers. They are guys who say “Go and make a pretty picture!!” or something, which I kind of like because I enjoy working directly with the client. I enjoy working with engineers and developers; fellow nerds.
One of the problems with visual art and design is that everyone has an opinion – you get a lot of unhelpful feedback.
One of the problems with visual art and design is that everyone has an opinion – so when an image gets passed around the office it’s possible to get unhelpful feedback; it might not be obvious that changing the colour of a car in the background will collapse the entire composition and end up with a mess. Sometimes you have to educate the client, and that means getting them to trust my experience and expertise.
What’s your daily routine?
It’s very difficult to have a routine for me personally. In fact, this is the kind of job that allows me not to have a routine because it means I can get stuff done at my own pace, and do things when the dopamine comes to me at midnight. I think a lot of times, ADHD people thrive on adrenaline to replace dopamine. I like the pressure.
One thing you have to manage well is the contingent nature of the work. There’s a lot of plate spinning – whether it’s waiting for a client to give me information, waiting for a render, you know, often just waiting for the computer to do basic stuff. There is this desire to get things done to a certain point, and then wanting to get the render started at the end of the day so you can leave it running overnight. You’re always pushing towards some imaginary goal.
What’s the best moment of your day?
I know this sounds crazy, but I recently discovered coffee. I was always a tea drinker, but I couldn’t drink tea in the morning. Then, weirdly enough, the concept of having that morning coffee occurred to me. It started out as “I’m just gonna have a little bit of the Nescafe instant thing, I don’t want to get into the heavy stuff“ and then next thing, I’ve got a French press, I’ve got all the gadgets. A coffee maker with those pads… it’s exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I’ve become a coffee junkie.
I know this sounds crazy, but I recently discovered coffee. I was always a tea drinker.
What’s your management style?
Probably a mix of Gordon Ramsay when he’s being nice, and Jamie Oliver (laughs). I’m kidding. I think I’m quite technically nerdy, so I think one of the things I always remember is that I can almost sense what people are doing by how they’re pressing the keys. I became notorious for saying “Kyle, why aren’t you using keyboard shortcuts? It’s costing me money by not doing that!” (laughs) I don’t think I’m that bad when I’ve hired people generally. I’m quite sympathetic to what it’s like to be hired.
What’s your motto?
I don’t have a motto. Every unique situation has its own bits and pieces, and I have to react to that. I can’t have just one driving principle. What applies to talking to a customer doesn’t apply to helping my neighbour up the stairs with their shopping.
If you went on a three-month sabbatical, what would happen?
To be honest, the older I get, the more I get interested in men’s mental health. I would love to retrain in the mental health field. I find myself more and more drawn to it because it’s such an important issue. I come from a working-class environment so I relate to the types of men who would never dream of talking to a therapist, and I see who they are underneath the bravado. I think it’s really under-addressed. The amount of crime and suffering that poor mental health causes is ludicrous. It’s an area that drastically needs to be improved.
Any advice for a young Berlin entrepreneur?
I think everyone knows an irritating start-up bro, and I would say, just because you were lucky enough to get funding, or were lucky enough to have a business idea, doesn’t mean that you’re a great HR manager, doesn’t mean you’re a great project manager. It doesn’t mean you’re talented in any other field or dimension. And don’t let that one aspect of success lead you to think that you are inherently more clever or more capable in other fields. If you’re lucky enough to get that money, just hire people around you to do the things you can’t.
What do you love about what you do?
I just love being able to learn a little bit about everything. I get to work with people from all walks of life, in all sorts of fields, talking about any kind of subject, so it’s a great way to learn about, say, jet engines or bike lanes. Or origami horses! It massively fulfils my quest for curiosity. But it is a massive time investment, it’s a vocation that takes years to master. But if you want to start, start now. The game industry is screaming out for more environmental modellers.
People think they know what CGI is and they really have no idea.
What’s something about your business that you’ve never told anyone?
A lot of people think that I’m super organised, super motivated and planning everything to the nth degree to be running a business. But I think the actual skill is just not caring, not worrying about things, because you can worry yourself into a corner and not get anything done. I mean I’ve seen so many people try to start a business, and they just keep putting obstacles in front of themselves instead of just getting on with it.
What is something that the layperson doesn’t know about your industry?
I think probably that we spend more time trying to make things look imperfect than trying to make them look right. A lot of people always say they hate CGI, or they spot CGI, but chances are that they’ve only ever seen like one or two percent of what’s out there, and they only notice what they notice.
The whole point of the job is to be unnoticed, which means you probably don’t realise how much of what you see is CGI! There’s so much going on. Every time you see a car on TV, it’s almost certainly CGI, because it would be impossible to do multiple takes, but then say “Oh now we want it green. Now we want it blue”. People think they know what CGI is and they really have no idea.
