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3D Total: During your career, you've worked as a web designer, storyboard artist, director, photographer and artist/illustrator, amongst other things. Which has been your favourite industry and role to work in and why?

Robert Chang: It's funny, I've made my living mostly as a visual artist, but that actually ranks the lowest on my list of passions. Don't get me wrong, I love art, but I'd be happier doing other things on that list of passions. I think writing, filmmaking, and music rank the highest(don't make me pick--I can't). The kind of natural high that you get when you are arranging, performing, and recording music all through the night--even after having to do take after take of a part(in my case, either guitar, keyboards, drums, or vocals), is the most amazing thing. And just when you realize the sun is coming up and the song is finished, you lean back in the studio chair and listen to the final result of your mix, with a smile as wide as your face allows--I love that feeling. It's the same thing with writing--I get completely absorbed into the story, the characters, and I would smile, laugh, and cry--as I'm writing. Most of the time it doesn't even feel like writing--it's more like you are merely recording dialogues, emotions, scenery..etc as they happen--wishing that your fingers could fly faster across the keyboard so as to not miss a single detail. Filmmaking is like taking that same feeling you had in writing, and trying to get the entire film crew/cast to feel it, and then bring it to life with a camera. Drawing/painting/CG..etc to me in comparison, feels far more laborious and tedius. I think it's just that creating visual art is less immediate in emotional feedback, and more caught up in technicality.

Look out for Rob's short film, Promise when it's released.

3DT: You're pretty well known for your paintings but now you're working on a short film, "Promise". What can you tell us about it?

RC: The story came to me in 1998, and I had begun sketching it out in the comic book format, but I left the industry that year and the story was put on the shelf. It's always been on my mind all these years though. Then, in 2001, I rewrote it as a short story--taking another angle to tell the same story. Around that time, I had started to teach myself 3D in Maya(I had some prior experience in 3D with Max, but only doing textures for games), and I was pretty bored with the idea of doing tutorials and making a demo reel. So, I decided to use my time wisely and just make a short film, and let that be my education in 3D--just like how Brian Taylor was when he started making Rustboy. Guys like him and Tom Taylor(who did Dark Age of Light) really inspired me, because they were 3D newbies, and they started making their short films right away. I thought, if they can/are doing it, why can't I? So, I rewrote the story yet again--for the screen as a screenplay. And I've been working on it ever since. I finished the screenplay in July of 2002, so preproduction officially started then. Many people ask me what it's about, and even though I've shown early drafts of the screenplay to some people for feedback, I'm usually pretty tight-lipped about giving away the story. All I can say is that it's a modern fairytale about love, faith, and sacrifice. It's not your typical slap-stick comedy, clever gags, or super slick sci-fi/fantasy. It's a labour of love about something that is dear to my heart, and I hope it will touch the hearts of others.