Dreamscape Studios: a Tale of Husband and Wife Reaching the Heights of 3D Industry

What happens when you're passionate about the things you make? Rick Johnston can answer this question: since 2004 when he founded his 3D modeling studio, Dreamscape Studios has built over 10,000 models for our publicly available 3D model library and over 2400 models for clients around the world. More of them are coming. Models range from low poly to ultra high poly, from modern planes to old-fashioned aircraft and lots of more. The variety of designs will blow your mind making it hard to believe that it is real.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how getting into the 3D industry?

My Dad worked for Eastern Airlines and I grew up around planes and airports. I studied Aviation OCI, History, Drafting I, II, AFJROTC I, II, III, IV and art, doing very well in all these subjects. I earned my pilot certificate just before I graduated high school. I built hundreds of plastic models of aircraft and ships during my teen years and did some more as a young adult. I also got into building balsa wood aircraft models and large scale ship models too. The largest model I built was a 6 foot USS Missouri in wood. With each of these experiences I gained knowledge and understanding about airplanes and ships that benefit me now. I also did 3 years of Air Force Reserve time and 3 years of Army Reserve time, expanding my experiences to helicopters, firearms, military vehicles and more military aircraft.

In the mid 1980s, I began working for a couple airports loading cargo charters, fueling planes and flying co-pilot for cargo outfits on my off days. I flew Beechcraft B18, North American Aero Commander 500, King Air and DC-3 as co-pilot and logged 100s of hours of flight time. Then I went to college and studied Computer Aided Drafting and did exceptionally well with AutoCAD r9-12. In the mid-1990s I returned to college and earned an Associates of Arts degree for Computer Aided Drafting and Design with an emphasis in 3d modeling. After graduating I signed up for another AAS course in Animation and Imaging using first 3dstudio 4 and then 3Dstudio Max 3 – 5. Again, I graduated with honors and once more signed up for a degree program for a BS degree in Multimedia Management. I earned that degree in 2004. From 1997 through 2004 I taught Computer Aided Drafting at all levels at the same college.

In 2004 I started Dreamscape Studios and launched my first model library projects. I built 1200 architectural component models within a few months using AutoCAD. These were all scale models. I sold the entire library to a friend also in the modeling business for a couple thousand dollars. Then I started building aircraft models in 3DStudio Max 5 and lots of them. At the end of my first year I had 450 models for sale on the web and was selling more than a few. Once I started working on the business more and adapting procedures and techniques to improve quality, I was able to do 1000 models per year using my own special techniques. After 9 years I had a library of 10,068 models posted and selling. We were forced to change our marketing last year and are in the middle of redeveloping and posting our library. As of now we have more than 12000 although we have only about 4000 models posted at a couple of sites and 2100 at our own site. View all models on CGTrader.com

What kind of research process do you have?

I will do some cursory research into a subject aircraft, ship or spacecraft, building, or other subject. After making a decision to build the object based on information availability, I turn research over to my wife Signe. She spends sometimes hours looking around on the internet to find drawings, illustrations, pictures, and other reference materials of the target object. Sometimes this takes a full day of her time. Once she gets the information as complete as she can, I review the materials and study them before building. I also develop very near to scale 2D drawings, 3 view or 4 view of the object using AutoCAD 2002. When this is completed, I import this file into 3DS Max for a guide. Note, we never use any manufacturers’ blue prints or drawings unless we are hired to do so and those drawings are provided by the client. I continue to use the picture and drawing references while building the subject model required.

How do you market your products? Can you share some tips & tricks?

My wife does most of the marketing, making decisions about where to sell what models. Some models we specially build to add to our library at a particular web site while others are built to be posted on all websites. If a particular model type or aircraft or ship type does well at a site we will add more to that category as we can. We also note which models do not sell and then do not add similar models to websites where they do not sell, but may try them at a different website or change pricing or other things that could help sell them.

I also try to build models that are historically significant and as such they tend to sell better than others. Since I have more experience with aircraft that were built and flown in the 1930s through the 1990s, I tend to build more of these and if no one has a particular aircraft from that period that was popular, I will build it and post it in several historical liveries. These usually sell very well. The availability of a lot of liveries of a particular aircraft also helps in sales by giving customers a good selection to choose from.

What do you enjoy most about working in 3D industry?

Creativity, freedom to experiment with different techniques and subjects, being independent and only reliant on clients and customers sales. I like doing special orders and have done more than 250 in the past 10 years for clients all over the world. Some were large orders for 10 or 20 aircraft models, some for movies, military or engineering. I enjoy such projects, building a long-term relationship with the clients and getting repeated orders from them.

What’s the hardest thing being a professional 3D designer?

Lack of communication and instructions from clients. Over ten years we have done a lot of special orders and very often the client’s purchase officer really has no idea what he is ordering. The descriptions may be vague and incomplete. On the positive side, models, which were not delivered to the customers were successfully added to our library. We have rebuilt models on occasion to insure the client is always satisfied.

Competition gets harder and harder. Being in the US, I have the advantage of technologies at my fingertips. I also have the advantage of many 3D artists that I can tap for ideas and techniques when I need them. However, the cost of living is much higher and regulations are getting worse all the time. It is difficult to compete economically with the artists in Asia and Eastern Europe. Those regions are full of 3D artists who have a much lower cost of living. Keeping up with software changes is also extremely expensive and difficult for the small studio. Training up on new software versions also takes time away from production and slows production for a while.

What software do you use?

We are using AutoCAD, Photoshop CS5, Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5, 3DSMax 2011 and 2014. We use Deep Explorer 6.3 for translation and reviewing different format models. C4D is used for reviewing and importing, Blender only for reviewing the models.

What are you working on next?

We continue to upgrade and re-render our model library with another 4-5K models to be added to our online libraries at CGTrader and other sites. We have some specific models that will be finished soon, including Grumman FA-18 Hornet and EA-18 Growler, Cessna T-37 Tweetybird and A-37 Dragon Fly, and the battleships New Jersey, Missouri, lowa and Wisconsin. The Aircraft Carriers Lexington and Saratoga CV2 and 3 are also coming soon. We also have a series of 15 highly detailed cruise ships. These models will only be sold on CGTrader and our own site Dreamscape Studios.You will also see several series of models exclusively at CGTrader that are designed by me. These are various types of aircraft that are realistic in modeling, aerodynamically sound but not real aircraft. 8 series of these aircraft were just posted this past week. More are coming. We have just posted near 650 models and another 200 are on their way!

Please finish the following sentences (being as honest as you can)

My greatest inspiration is… My life-long love for aircraft, ships, sailing, flying, history, and building models. My office is filled with models of subs, aircraft carriers, planes, space shuttles and books.

I abandon some of my works because… Time limits or lack of information, but I always return to them and finish the project.

When I catch myself procrastinating, I … I get my butt back to the computer. I used to be a serious procrastinator when I was young. Now I am a workaholic (the other extreme). I guess workaholic is better and less likely leads to trouble.

I’m most productive when … I work alone on a project with specific goals and specifications, or building a model that I really love or see a great potential in it.

I take a break from my work when… I eat meals, spend a couple of hours each evening with my wife away from work, or my eyes are tired, or I get frustrated. I take a day off only when I am sick or there's a major holiday. I take an evening off about once or twice a week. Most of the time I work from 8am to 12 midnight with 2 hours of breaks in that time. I have worked about 116 hours per week for months straight, but that does lead to burn out and frustration, so I do not recommend it. Currently I would say I realistically work about 72-86 hours per week. About 75 percent of that is model building and texturing or uploading.