Foreword

Several years ago, while I was trying to finish my first book, exhausted, demoralized, and with a deadline looming, my publisher told me I needed some sort of CG expert—some well-known public figure—to read a draft and write a foreword for my book. I told him I didn’t know anyone who matched the description, because back in those days I was just a struggling artist and had met only a handful of others who pursued computer animation as a career. You have to remember, there just weren’t that many of us in those days. “I have just the person,” he said. “Proton.”

“What’s a Proton, other than a positively charged subatomic particle?” I asked.

“Exactly,” he replied.

I was pretty puzzled at the time, but I soon came to learn exactly what he meant.

“Positively charged.” That’s the key. William Vaughan is one of those people who is able to discover the amazing in anything that possesses it and who has no compunction about sharing those discoveries with the world. If something is awesome, he lets everyone know about it. So when I received his feedback from the first draft, it was so positive and filled with such excitement that it gave me the energy I needed to finish the book and get it out there. That was very early in my career, and the success of that book is reflected in nearly everything I do professionally today.

Now here we are many years later, and I am faced with the privilege and problem of writing this foreword for William. My immediate urge is to write, without regard for the contents of the book, a glowing review so that I can repay William for his enthusiasm and advice over the years. But I don’t need to do that because the book stands on its own, without my platitudes. William is an artist of immense integrity, which means that he puts the best of himself into everything he does.

Over the years, I have seen so many artists, hundreds certainly, perhaps thousands, benefit from the influence of this man’s work, and I know this book is simply another expression of William’s love for the art—just another way he can share his passion with the world, just another in a long list of gifts to us.

So why should you read this book? Because passion drives excellence and because William is one of the most passionate artists I have ever known, so I know with certainty that he brings all his excellence to it. Why on earth would anyone not want to read that?

Nicholas Boughen
VFX Supervisor
Owner CG-Masters.com