For International Women’s Day, we at LightWave 3D are celebrating the incredible women who make an impact in the world of 3D animation, visual effects and digital art. Despite the industry being male-dominated, these talented women are carving out their own paths, pushing boundaries, and inspiring the next generation of artists to shape the future of digital creativity.
In this Artist Focus, we spoke with two talented artists, Claire Lewis and Catherine Smallwood, about their unique journeys in the industry—how they got started, the challenges they’ve faced, and the inspiring work they’ve created along the way.
To further celebrate the power of women in this creative field, we’re also featuring a video interview with Marjan Moghaddam, an internationally acclaimed artist known for her ground-breaking digital artwork. Watch the full interview at the end of this post!
Join us in honouring these inspiring women and their contributions to the world of 3D.
LightWave- Hi Claire, tell us about yourself.
Claire Lewis- Hi, I’m Claire and in 2002 I teamed up with Julian Baum to create Take 27 Ltd.
LW- What kind of things do you do at Take 27 Ltd?
CL- I particularly enjoy 3D modelling and setting up scenes, so over the years that’s been my primary focus within each project, but we both do all aspects of creating 3D images and animations from start to finish.
LW- How did you get started in this career?
CL- I got into the field purely by chance as I worked as a project manager for an archaeologist and met Julian Baum when he was commissioned to create a 3D animation about a Roman fortress found at a site my boss was working on. Funds were tight, so I helped Julian out on certain aspects of the animation and really enjoyed it. My boss was due to retire in the near future, so Julian and I talked about setting up something together and thus Take 27 Ltd was born!
LW- What or who inspired you to pursue this career?
CL- Having got into the animation industry by chance, I wasn’t particularly influenced by anyone to specifically choose it as a career, but my parents always encouraged me to give things a go, and my mother, in particular, would say “if you don’t try, you won’t know!”
LW- Have you faced any obstacles as a woman in this male-dominated industry?
CL-The only obstacles are people still tend to defer to Julian in meetings we attend together, but sadly it's not just within our industry that that happens.
LW- What achievement in your career are you most proud of?
CL- The achievement that I am most proud of in my career is being brave enough to change careers, learn on the job and end up having some of our work, blown up to a large scale, hanging on the wall at NASA Kennedy Space Centre. That was not something that I had ever envisioned happening in my life!
LW- What’s your favourite project that you’ve created with Lightwave 3D?
CL- My favourite project is hard to pick because there have been elements in most of them that I’ve loved working on, and elements that cause frustration! We have specialised in recreating heritage sites and also historical machinery, so creating an animation of a working tandem compound steam engine that powered looms in a cotton mill, and only using photos for reference was challenging but it felt brilliant to see the film playing on a monitor at the museum for visitors to watch, before viewing the steam engine, which meant they had a better understanding of how it all worked and how the machinery in other parts of the building were connected to it.
LW- Do you have any advice for other women interested in this creative industry?
CL- My advice would be to try and identify which element within the film/animation industry appeals to you most – modelling, texturing, compositing, effects, etc. Use as many trial versions of software to try your hand at creating something and see how you get on. You might find you have a good eye for 3D modelling, or it might be the compositing element that draws you in. Just have a go at it all and see what feels ‘right’ for you.
LightWave- Hello Catherine, please introduce yourself to the readers.
Catherine Smallwood- Hi, my name is Catherine Smallwood and for several years I ran and operated a small business called Digital Aircraft Factory, working primarily within the aviation community in South Florida. LW- How did you start Digital Aircraft Factory?
CS- It was started when I was furloughed from my airline job in 2008. I ran this through around 2015 when my lack of being around potential customers really slowed down the business.
LW- What have you been up to since then?
CS- Since then, I have built and sold a few aviation 3D models and worked with Kelly “Kat” Myers on a small project for an independent movie in 2020 that also involved aviation. I have continued to occasionally create some artwork and hope to get back into sales of artwork in the near (and always busy) future.
LW- Are there any projects you are currently working on?
CS- Right now, my skills are being used to help design a new house, so they are still helping me even when they aren’t paying the bills. 3D still allows me to present ideas in ways I couldn’t dream of otherwise.
LW- What or who inspired you to pursue this career?
CS- My first biggest influence of course would be ILM, with the first Star Wars movie. I was 4 years old when my dad decided he wanted to check out this number one movie in the theatre and since I liked watching airplane shows on TV with him, that I might enjoy the film. Between those shows and my immediate love of seeing the effects and story in Star Wars, I was hooked on aviation and space.
Later on, many more moments appeared, but I’m not sure if there was any other influence quite as strong as Star Wars in shaping my life and interests.
LW- What sort of obstacles have you faced in your career?
CS- Firstly, being in the wrong place, eastern Tennessee and south Florida, and at the wrong time, 2008/2009 with the financial downturn, these factors slowed down my business as I got started into it. Secondly, we faced a market locally which had a very hard time understanding what we could create for them. These people were used to working on a physical jet engine or landing gear or cargo, etc, and were exposed to this whole realm of digital art, which took some effort to convince them of the viability of it all. They could showcase their business in a way that others didn’t and gain additional sales and contracts by having something people could see and remember.
LW- How did you try to overcome these things and develop your career?
CS- Originally, I started working a few volunteer projects to help gain some traction and visibility in the community. I created ideas for a DC-7 that was being rebuilt at Opa Locka Airport in Miami, that later appeared on the Pan Am television show and I worked with the survivors of the Eastern flight 401 crash in the Everglades, as they were looking for ways to get attention and funding for a tribute, of what came from their crash, which has helped improve safety in aviation.
Through those efforts and the imagery that came from it, along with my attention to detail, I started to gain the trust and interest of clients. The community there was large, but they all knew each other and eventually when my artwork would end up suddenly appearing in various places, everyone knew who it was that created it.
LW- Have you faced any problems as a woman in this male-dominated industry?
CS- In uniform at my day job flying jets, I’ve often not been noticed as the pilot but called a flight attendant instead. In my 3D work and when trying to get businesses onboard, many are owned by men, and they weren’t sure what a woman could bring to the table to help them, nor believe that I could have the aviation knowledge and attention to detail that I bring to my work. When one gentleman told me my image had something in it that he didn’t remember on planes he had worked on for many years in person, I immediately showed him details on my 3D model that existed on the real plane. He was beyond impressed that I got something right that even he didn’t remember.
LW- What achievement in your career are you most proud of?
CS- My most proud achievement came about through a phone call at 3 AM from Switzerland. I had a blog at the time for Digital Aircraft Factory and a business in Switzerland was about to lease some Embraer 170s, an aircraft I had showcased on my blog. Initially they simply wanted a white blank canvas to try and paint on in Photoshop, flying over their airfield, to show off. In discussion, I was quickly able to convince them of the difficulty of trying to paint lettering and stripes on a 3D rendered image whilst getting the correct shadows and highlights, without losing the detail of the model they were being painted on. With that out of the way and them sending me over the files, I helped them to refine and adjust their ideas to work on the Embraer 170 aircraft and to provide files that they could deliver to the painters of these aircrafts. Through that work with them, there are now several jets flying around Europe painted in a scheme that I helped to design!
LW- What’s your favourite project that you’ve created with Lightwave 3D?
CS- While I’ve done other projects, the Eastern 401 Tribute project is still my favourite. It was a volunteer project and started when I met one of the survivors of the crash speaking at an aviation business community event. I felt like it was something I wanted to be involved in and while I was furloughed and had little income, I did have time and skills I could offer to their cause. The core group of people, several flight attendants and passengers, have become some of my best friends in the world.
In addition to building the L1011 that crashed in the Everglades and making it look realistic as a print and a digital image that we could show off and sell to those interested in helping the cause, my pilot background allowed me to help them create presentations to give at safety events around the United States. As time progressed the physical idea of a tribute at the crash site was tried out and a local architecture firm designed one with their input. That early idea was turned into a 3D model and during a remembrance of the crash in 2009, images I had created in LightWave made it onto CBS News at the end of December 2009 about this crash from 1972.
It’s been truly an honour to volunteer and help this group of survivors who didn’t want the lessons learned from the losses they suffered to be forgotten and how aviation is safer today. The best part is still the friendships I’ve made with these amazing people.
LW- Do you have any advice for other women interested in this creative industry?
CS- I simply try to do things I love. In my aviation career, many women were of course pivotal in opening that field and I’ve absolutely benefitted from their trailblazing efforts. In the field of visual effects or flying for the airlines or any other field, never give up the dream because you don’t feel like you’ll be accepted.
