Starting out, tell us a bit about yourself?
Thanks a lot for this opportunity.
Hi guys, I am Gennaro, at the moment I am Lead Asset in Pixomondo. I am an Italian guy that is leaving in Stuttgart at the moment.
I am specialized in Hard Surface and Environment modeling for VFX and Commercials, I love my job and my principal goal is to share my knowledge/experience with the new generation of the 3D Artists.
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How do you get into the VFX/ Animation Industry?
I love to build whatever stuff when I was a kid I loved building whatever with LEGO, so the modeling is more or less building digital stuff and It is “natural to me actually”
I get in VFX industry just for the case, my idea of the future was very different, to be honest, my principal goal was to work in the Motion Graphics,
but maybe I was no too strong for that, so the 3D world it was my plan B. I started on the 3D world when I was 30 years old, without any regular learning path, many colleagues started younger and many of them graduated in big VFX’s schools.
So if you want, you can!
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challenges and experiences in the early years?
I started in the Commercials as Motion Graphics, I worked for a lot of company in Italy, then I started as Modeler for international Commercials,
I remember that my first interesting job was to model the principal asset in the commercials of the Razer brand.
Then I did my first demo reel where I put inside 75% of my personal projects and I got my first job in a big company for the VFX industry, MPC in London.
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4- Tell me More about your experience in MPC and would you like to share some of your memories of your favorite shows?
I worked in MPC twice, in MPC I worked for 2 different projects, The Lion King as environment Artist and on Sonic as Senior Modeler.
I learned a lot of stuff in both experiences, I meet a lot of awesome artists, the good thing when you work in the VFX’s big companies, is the possibility to compare your skills with the best artists in the world. I worked on one of the Classic Disney’s movie, our department won the VES in the 2020 (environment), I am very proud about the team, but in the same time I loved work on cool ships and drones for the Sonic movie,
I am an old man, and Sonic for me is an Iconic Character of course.
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How do you get into Teaching?
I love teaching I started teaching motion Graphics and now I am teaching my modeling skills. I did tutorials, workshops, online courses, Masterclasses, now I am focusing on the Mentorships.
10 weeks one to one Mentorship live with me on Modeling for production, that is now my activity, it is great to share my experience with new 3D artists generation. In my career I got a lot of satisfaction about teaching job, I collaborated with GNOMON WORKSHOP,
THINK THANK Training Center, I founded a school in Italy Digital Shark Academy, now I am teaching live here in Stuttgart in 3D Akademie, I am teaching Hard surface modeling and environment for production.
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you were a Senior Modeler on Sonic and Midway would you like that experience?
I worked on Sonic on all Hard Surface stuff there is in the movie, it was awesome, I helped the team also in the concept stage for some ships and drones. The first asset assigned me has been the Robotnik’s Egg Pod, then I did all of the rest.
MIdway it was the first project that I did in Pixomondo after MPC experience, I helped the team to finalize some shots, I learned a lot of stuff on that project. For both projects, my final goal was to help the team with my skills.
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Sonic, How did you handle the challenge of changing the character’s design?
Unfortunately when I left MPC to start in Pixomondo this kind of story was not yet started, I don’t know how the team has managed that decision, to be honest.
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How do you get into PIXOMONDO?
MPC was a good experience but London was not a good place to live for a long time to be honest, in that period I remember that was starting the Brexit so I decided to change the country. I am not living to work, I am working hard to get a good life.
Pixomondo was the first company that showed me a real interest in wanting me in the team. Pixomondo is giving me a lot of trusts, the team is awesome, after 3 months they given me the Lead position, so now I have a lot of responsibility, it was great to me.
I am working on awesome projects, I am very proud of my asset team, I am trying to give them everything I can to improve every single artist and the team as well.
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you worked on 2 movies and 2 big TV series can you share that experience and challenges you faced?
in every project there are a lot of challenges at the same time, I understood in these years that the engine of everything is the Team.
If you can be part of an awesome team you can win whatever challenge, I got this gift in my career.
Another big thing that I learned in these years is: isn’t important the software that you use in production, the best software is your brain.
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you were an Environment Artist on The Lion king tell me more about the experience and your role?
I worked on Canyon Set (where Mufasa dead) I worked on modeling sculpting for terrains, cliffs, set dressing, also I helped the team in the R&D section that we did before start the official’s task, it was awesome.
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Can you talk about The Mandalorian project?
This project was the first project as Lead Asset, we did a lot of hard surfaces and environment stuff. It was a very good challenge to me because my job was to manage all team assets, but at the same time, it was easy to motivate my guys because we were working on the Star Wars project, you know. For this project we worked with ILM together, the goal was to find the best solution about a lot of challenges in the show, ILM Lab worked with a Virtual set approach, new approach that is opening new scenario in our industry.
The Virtual Production of The Mandalorian, Season One
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Future film making would be in Virtual Production?
The Virtual Production is the present in the VFX industry, I think the future will be awesome for us, we will able to create awesome stuff in an easy way, that is the final goal since a log of time.
Virtual Production and Collaborative Filmmaking
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The future 3D Modeling will it be AI originated or will it evolve?
The technology is AI, can help us to resolve the technical issue and to become more fast about complex operations, but I think the modeling job, there is more, it isn’t only to change the vertex positions, in the modeling task there is a big artistic component, I think a lot of people believe that can do modeling but it isn’t true. In Pixomondo I doing a lot of interviews and the company is involving me to hire people in the asset team, It is very hard to hire a good modeler to trust me.
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Advice /tips to Young artists how they can grow fast and be more efficient?
Good Training Path is the secret, alone it is hard to learn this job, today it is not 90’s anymore. Invest in yourself. Doesn’t matter whatever software you wanna use, it is important the solid workflow and the final result: Good DemoReel = Get a Job!
Vfxexpress -prabu thank you, Gennaro Esposito, for explain well
Gennaro Esposito – Thanks prabu for giving me an opportunity
