Please tell us about yourself & where you grew up

I am originally from the Lancashire area, being born into what is now called the “hospitality industry” (pubs back then). My first experience of living on the Isle of Man was in 1958/9 when I was but a nipper and my parents came to the Island to run the Athol Hotel on Loch Prom. Mustn’t have been able to cope with a Manx winter on the Prom as we went back to Lancashire after a year.

In 1966 the Casino in Douglas moved from the Castle Mona to the newly built Palace Hotel and we came back to the Island to manage the Castle Mona for 3 years. As an 11 year old it was a wonderful building to live in and explore and it must have been the spark for my interest in old Manx buildings and Manx history. Whilst on the Island we stayed, running hotels and pubs. The last link with the hospitality industry was me and my mother running the Saddle Inn the quay from 1975 to 1978 which further aroused my interest in the history of the Douglas quayside.

What made you do the videos and what research was required in finding the buildings / layouts / locations in the area?

With the constantly changing face of Douglas and the tantalising hints at what used to be, it is hard not to ask “what was there before”? There have been many local books covering the history of the area, and some with very interesting photographs, but it has really been the creation of the iMuseum that has enabled me to undertake the videos. The hard part was deciding what period to base them on. The iMuseum collection for that area of Douglas ranges from the late 1800s to the 1930s.

In the end I opted for 1886/7. Thankfully the iMuseum, (due to the Covid lockdown) made the newspapers section free to browse and so I lost myself in there for several days researching the names of the shops and the publicans that ran the many pubs in the videos so that they were as correct as I could get them for that period. The best map I could find was the OS map of 1868. This is available at the Manx Museum but there are some very good scans of it on the CD version of the “Manx Notebook.

What software was used to create these 3D models, videos and roughly how long did it take to create each video?

OK, the techie bit. If you have an accurate map you know the length and breadth of the building you are making. If you can then find a full frontal photo of it, you can work out the height, window and door sizes etc. You need a 3D drawing package that will allow projections of the map and photos when viewed from the top, sides etc.

In my case I use a product called MODO. I have an old version that I bought many years ago when it was affordable but now is very expensive for hobbyists. There are lots of similar products out there but a popular and very capable free one is BLENDER. Once I have made the model (which can take from 2 to several days depending on complexity), I export it using a .obj file format. At this stage it is all one colour so it needs to be “textured”.

To do this I use a product called “Substance Painter”. I was fortunate enough to buy this on a perpetual licence but since Adobe got their hands on it, like most of their software it is by subscription. There are alternatives out there.

Now the fun bit. Having made the model and the textures I bring them into a superb piece of software whose primary ability is as a games engine. Many large games developers use this but the beauty is, if you don’t make a fortune with it, the software is free! It is called UNREAL. This allows you to create the scene, bring in the models and textures, make the landscape, sky, lighting etc. and also the ability to walk around the scene. If you have played a recent PC game the chances are this software has been used.

The characters and animation I make using two pieces of software by a company called Reallusion, their “Character Creator” and “iClone”. Once all this is done I “do the walk” and use the built in screen capture software in Windows 10. These captures are then put together (post production) using Vegas Pro and the final video uploaded to YouTube. And before you know it, 6 months of your life has gone! I started the last video Christmas 2020 and finished it by June 2021.

My current collection of old building in the area now runs to just over 120, I almost own a housing estate!

If someone is interested in researching old Douglas where would you recommend starting from?

If you want to give it a go I would recommend the following sources:

• The iMuseum (just don’t lose your life in there)

• The CD version of the “Manx Notebook”

• The Richard Davies “Those were the days” collection

• “Manx Inns, a pub crawl through history” by Suzanne Cubbon

• “Streets of Douglas - old and new” by Stuart Slack

• And of course all the very helpful people on Facebook