Jeremy Vickery has recently found himself in the role of teacher nearly a decade after his time as a student in Full Sail’s Digital Media program. His first art-training DVD, Practical Light and Color, finds him using the skills he’s honed as a Lighting Artist at Pixar Animation Studios, where his credits include such genre-defining hits as The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Jeremy recently spoke with us about his latest project.

“I do a lot of 3D lighting, and there was almost nothing on the market that talked about what light really does in the real world,” he says. “So I called Gnomon Workshop [a visual effects school and video production house] out of the blue and said ‘This is my background, and I have this idea, would you be open to it?’ And they said absolutely!”

The DVD was released in September, but it took about a year to produce with Jeremy squeezing it in during his busy work schedule on Ratatouille. That extra time obviously paid off. The end result covers topics ranging from basic lighting techniques to some of the more advanced skills that Jeremy uses to create films at Pixar – including demonstrations of color, bounced light, shadows, atmosphere and camera effects.

“I did a ton of research during that time,” he explains. “For months I’d have my camera with me and took a ton of pictures wherever I went – like zooming in and taking shots of the sidewalk and all kinds of other weird things. My wife thought I was the biggest nerd! After that I compiled all this information and tried to figure out how to describe these concepts to other people. And as I dove into it, I actually learned more about these things myself.”

Practical Light and Color uses that photography — along with 3D computer models and a substantial amount of painting — to take an artistic look at how light reacts in the real world. “If you understand light, it really helps when you go to create something from scratch in 3D,” he explains. “There’s a lot of visual information we take for granted, so I spend a good bit of time in the video going through concepts of what our brain is doing when we see things – what it is that tells us all of this information. And if you understand that, then you’ll be able to apply it to a painting of a 3D scene.”

More of a study in art than a straight-laced instructional video, Practical Light and Color has given Jeremy a new outlet for his talents. The video fills a unique void by presenting the latest in 3D lighting topics in a clear language, so even newcomers to animation can feel comfortable sitting back and taking in his view of the world around us.

“It’s funny, I’ve actually had a couple of friends who aren’t artists at all who have said to me ‘Wow, I view the world differently after watching that,’” he says laughing. “Even though they wouldn’t apply the concepts, it was still fascinating for them to get behind the eyes of an artist and see the world from a different perspective.”

To order Jeremy’s DVD, visit www.thegnomonworkshop.com.