Gavin Camp, The Mill

Sometimes the starting point from creating good work is to simply keep your eyes open. That’s especially true when your aesthetic consists of creating realistic worlds with digital tools, as is the case of The Mill’s Gavin Camp.

“The number one key is just being a constant observer of everyday life,” says the Louisville, Kentucky native. “Because you’re trying to fake that in a 2D environment, you need to watch how light bounces off things or how water trickles off a building.”

The 29-year-old Indiana University grad largely taught himself the technical aspects of his work through on-the-job observation of his colleagues at The Mill, and a few online tutorials for programs such as Photoshop that he needed as a freelance production artist before joining the visual effects studio in March of 2008.

His skills of observation were put to work on Playstation 3 “Mural”, where scenes from PS3 games move along city walls, leaving destruction in their wake. Camp, who was the assistant Flame operator on the job, researched the way murals interact with the texture of the various surfaces they’re painted on before creating a mock up to show the client.

“I just remember thinking that when I was a kid, I would always look at how the sun bleaches certain colors and doesn’t others; on a poster in front of a window for example. So what would that look like on the side of a building if it was painted on concrete?” Asking these questions helped Camp, who created mattes for each shot, achieve the realism the project needed. It was also the first job he did where he participated from the early conceptual stages to the finished project, which, he says, helped to push his skills forward.

Alongside being an observer, Camp was somewhat of a risk-taker in his youth. He participated in regional competitions as an amateur mountain and road bike racer for seven years. “I’m out here in LA and there are mountains and roads everywhere, so it’s just laziness why I don’t do it anymore!”

He still has a little motor oil in his blood, however. On set for Audi “Chase”, where he assisted lead Flame operator Phil Crowe, Camp watched the car stunts pulled off by the spot’s star, actor Jason Statham. He was so enamored by the ’88 BMW that Statham crashes through a billboard in one scene that he bought it.

“There were two of those cars on set,” says Camp. “They are such cool cars. I’m going to drive it until it dies. It’s an old car so there’s no point in holding on to it for too long!”

The Mill