Evan went to college for business, but decided that he was better suited for a career in fine art. He ended up taking degrees in both fine art and commercial design. It was while he was working on his degree that he first encountered the Macintosh computer. "The Mac immediately opened so many possibilities in art and graphic design," Evan says. "I saw so many obvious advantages in using the Mac over older methods. But they didn't like me using the computer in design school." Evan pursued his interest in computers anyway, building expertise as a computer artist in spite of the resistance he found at the time. (No one is begrudging him use of the computer now.)
"Then the movie TRON blew my mind," Evan recalls. "The world that created TRON seemed so far away, but that's where I wanted to be. I had read Famous Monsters and other sci-fi magazines throughout my youth, but when I started reading magazines like Computer Graphics World and Cinefex I really got serious about my interest for the first time."
Over time Evan found that he had a natural ability with three-dimensional composition. His training in sculpture had given him a good grasp of three-dimensionality, and this background found a new application as he worked with off-the-shelf 3D programs. He decided to take a plunge and moved to the San Francisco area to start looking for a job in the computer graphics field. A variety of projects including visualizations and animation for multimedia projects built his increasing familiarity with the needed software and kept him in touch with the user community. One job led to another, until Evan had worked with industry players such as famous sci-fi designer Ron Cobb and ILM Art Director Alex Laurent. With a partner Evan founded the successful computer game and 3D design company Meshworks, which he ran until Episode I caught his attention. Then Evan met ILM's Alex Lindsay in a software users group meeting. Alex soon suggested that Evan submit a portfolio for the new Star Wars: Episode I project, and in May of 1997 Evan put together a sample of his best work, including a CG Cloud City shot that looked as if it could have been in The Empire Strikes Back. It was on the basis of this work that he was selected for the animatics team at Skywalker Ranch.
If he does have a specialty, it is in working motion-capture into his animations-a process which takes data from a live person's movements and translates them to a CG character for added realism. "I'm kind of slow and meticulous about modeling, so the other guys tend to do more of that since they're faster. I do more animation, in programs like Softimage."
The whole purpose of the animatics team's work is to better realize George Lucas' vision for Episode I, but this affords the animatics artists great freedom. "Animatics are a good tool for George because he likes to be shown material to react to." This allows the animatics artists the flexibility to explore, since their initial directives are so open-ended. "Sometimes it's like, 'Let's do a cool shot and see if George likes it.'"
As he sits at his workstation looking out over the Marin hills, Evan is more than pleased with how things have worked out. "Certainly this is a dream job," he says. "This is my chance to do storytelling, to create shots for this story." It is a unique position to be in. "Where else can you do this kind of work, without actually being the director?" At the same time he is still on the path that has brought him this far. "I have to be learning to enjoy my position, and there is plenty of learning going on since we are all experimenting with a new way of filmmaking. I'd like to do my own animated short film, eventually. But I still have a lot to learn here."
Being part of the animatics group has had unexpected rewards as well. "Early on in my career, it was all about me. There was a great pressure to try to do things on my own," he reflects. "Here I have realized that I could get fulfillment through being part of a creative team. I've realized that what I really wanted was to do this kind of work. Being on my own has turned out to be not as important as learning to be a great storyteller."
