Interview Ed Harriss

AN INTERVIEW WITH Ed Harriss

Q. Hello Ed, could you tell us a bit about yourself and family?

I’m a computer animator that lives in the United States specifically Raleigh, North Carolina. I work for a company called SAS in their video division. (Called SAS Studio Productions) I also run my own company, EdHarriss. com, INC. Where I do freelance work, create training, books and videos.

Q. In terms of CG, How did it all begin for you?

One word: Tron. With out this movie, I might not be where I am today. When I first saw Tron I was amazed. I had always liked animated movies, but this was different. In my opinion, this looked a lot more interesting. I knew from that day on that I had to find out what it took to create images that looked like that.

But it was not just Tron that drove me to 3d. I had another other major influence: The Last Starfighter. While didn’t think that this movie was as enjoyable as Tron, its graphics were just as good, and in some places better. After seeing these two movies, my desire to create 3d animation grew even more. But as I soon found out, it took a team of computer geniuses, really expensive computers and months of time to create just a few frames of this type of work. I was disappointed, but that did not stop me. I began doing CG in the early 80s by trying to learn how to program graphics on TRS80, Applee, Comodore64 and Coleco ADAM, computers. It was difficult, and I didn’t get much done. But I learned a lot of basic skills that I still use today.

Not too long after the “Comodore64” days I got an Amiga. On that Amiga I ran a program called Silver. (Now called Imagine.) It was like a dream come true. Finally, a program that didn’t require a lot of math, was comparatively easy to use, and had a real point and click interface. I spent a few years working on Amiga machines and that’s how I produced my first demo reel.