Art studio.(Richard Baily designs his own 3D software)(Brief Article)

When Richard "Dr." Baily formed his Hollywood-based fine-art studio Image Savant in 1992, he set an unusual goal for himself: "Within 10 years, I wanted to be doing all my work using proprietary 3D software. I didn't want to be limited by commercial programs."

Although Baily still uses off-the-shelf 3D software, he accomplishes most of his work using the hundreds of applications he has written over the years. The newest of these is Spore, a standalone particle system that can render some 20 million particles per minute. "Commercial particle systems get bogged down when they reach high particle counts," he explains. "But with Spore, I can accumulate data on a much larger scale and manipulate it as though it were photons. In this way, I can create images that possess a rare quality of photographic light, and appear to be self-illuminating."