We were lucky to catch up with Scott Knapp recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Scott, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far was Avengers Infinity War. It meant so much to me for many reasons. I’ve always loved comics growing up, and have been especially drawn to Marvel heroes and stories, so working on this film was amazing.

I was working full time at Turtle Rock Studios in Orange County on a video game, when Digital Domain reached out to me for the role. Digital Domain has pioneered a lot of important tech and VFX for a ton of huge movies, so I always wanted the chance to work with them. When they told me they were looking for help on Infinity War, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I spoke with my team at Turtle Rock and we worked out a situation where they allowed me to work full time on Avengers during the day, and work for them at night and on weekends as long as I finished all my tasks.

I would wake up at 5am, drive to LA from South Orange County, and work from 8am-6pm on Avengers, then drive straight to Turtle Rock to work on our game from around 8pm-1am. Then, go home and go to sleep and wake up the next day and to it all over again. I worked both jobs for about 5 months until we were all wrapped up with Infinity War.

As a lighter, we come in towards the end of the pipeline. Characters, environments, and FX all have their textures and material properties setup, and are animated to digital cameras in scenes that match the on set cameras. So we receive these scenes with beautifully animated characters and FX and our job is to help make the digital assets look like they’re real and belong in the scene with the practically shot actors on set.

Despite being a ton of work (and sitting in traffic), it was such an amazing experience. The team at Digital Domain is truly world class. The quality of artists I was working alongside were top tier. Everyone was incredibly talented and fun to work with. I was mostly responsible for lighting 3D characters and FX as well as developing materials for characters’ skin, armor/clothing, and props. Our team in particular handled a lot of shots involving our big bad purple boy, Thanos. Being able to light and integrate Thanos into sequences with my childhood heroes like Captain America and Black Panther was so rad.

I also got to collaborate with artists in other disciplines like animation, fx, compositing, tech anim, and texturing to help finalize shots. We also worked with other VFX houses like ILM, Weta, and a few others to make sure sequences felt consistent. There were so many amazing people involved in bringing Infinity War together. The level of quality we were able to achieve on that film was a career highlight and landed us an Oscar nomination for Visual Effects.

After we finished working on the movie, my family and teammates at Turtle Rock went to watch the movie together in theaters. After the movie ended and my name rolled through the credits my family and coworkers started cheering and clapping, and it made all the hard work (and sleep deprivation) worth it.

Scott, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve always been really passionate about games, movies, and art in general. I got really interested in working as a 3D artist from watching making of videos for the World of Warcraft cinematics as well as behind the scenes for movies. Watching artists working together on projects as well as how fast quality was improving for both film and games got me really excited about the idea of working as a 3D artist.

I decided to pursue a degree in Digital Media at University of Central Florida. I initially wanted to work as a character artist, but quickly found a passion for lighting. I loved how drastically I could affect the mood of an environment, or help focus viewer’s eyes and add shape and definition to models with light and shadow.

After graduating, I got a job lighting at EA for Madden. After that, I decided to take a risk and move with my family to California where I began working the VFX industry. I worked on a couple TV shows and commercials for a while, but bounced back to work in video games. I always love learning new things, and switching between industries provided ton of opportunity to soak up tons of new information. I eventually moved up to Vancouver to work on some feature films which was an amazing experience.

After about a year and half, I moved back down to Southern California and started working full time at Turtle Rock Studios and got to ship a couple games while there including Evolve, Back4Blood and a few VR titles. I’m currently working at Dreamhaven which has been amazing so far because I’ve been able to wear many hats and grow into new positions.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love seeing people interact with something I’ve helped work on and really enjoy it. Movies and video games are part of my core memories growing up and watching a favorite movie or playing a favorite game can take me back to a happy moment in my life. My hope is that something I work on can provide that for someone else and hopefully inspire them.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Understand the amount of time and effort artists put into mastering their crafts. Often times people try to do things on the cheap, and deeply undervalue what an artist can do. A lot of young artists are taken advantage of and grossly underpaid. Making good art and being creative is something that takes a lot of practice and patience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/scottknapp
• Instagram: @takahashi19
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-knapp-2814641b/
• Twitter: @scottthelighter
• Youtube: @scottyknapp19