Traditional animator Joan Gratz took the digital plunge at Oregon 3D.

Be warned: This article is written by a Luddite whose primary use of the computer is playing Scrabble. I am an Academy Award-winning director of animated short films and commercials. My career consists of pushing bits of colored oil-based clay with my fingers to create seamlessly-flowing images. I animate directly, one frame at a time, before my pre-World War II camera and have happily avoided contact with the computer in every aspect of my work beyond post-production.

I left this blissful state of computer innocence when I was offered the chance to take a class at Oregon3D. I took the class because I was intrigued by this well-funded, well-equipped training facility that had sprung up in downtown Portland.

The school offers a variety of professional courses in 3D modeling, animation, special visual effects, editing and compositing (as well as real-time image generation for data visualization and simulation.) I chose to take the Combustion class, which according to the user’s guide, “provides painting, animation and 2D/3D compositing, all within an intuitive workflow environment.”

Painting and animating are what I do alright, but from my experience nothing having to do with the computer is intuitive — all is learned with great effort and frustration. So I was curious to see what “intuitive” might mean in this case.

Instructor Gary Davis (standing) demonstrated patience with the four-day class for computer novices. Courtesy of Oregon 3D.

Our teacher, Gary Davis, is a trainer for Discreet products’ 3ds max as well as Combustion and a practicing production artist in Florida. As I learned from his interaction with me, as well as with others, he is a man of unlimited patience and enormous enthusiasm for his subject.

I could tell from his demonstrations in class that he is also a very talented artist.

Over a four-day period, Gary explained the various aspects of this complex program and led us in hands-on exploration of Combustion’s many features.

During class, I was often confused but never bored, uncomfortable, or without help. I have never had a teacher who was more generous with his time.