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Massimo Righi : Beautiful Things

Massimo Righi

My name is Massimo Righi. I am 35 years old and I was born in Forlì, a small town in the north of Italy. In 1992, I met my soul mate Silvia Puliè -- we share our life and work together, and now work as a small CG team. We previously owned a bookstore and while selling books, I felt my passion for CG grow. Running a bookstore is in someway nice, but not so much challenging. I started learning CG while working in my shop and once I felt that the time was right, I decided to dedicate my full time into this newfound passion. Silvia and I have since freelanced for numerous companies like Volkswagen, Siemens and Daz3D, amongst many others. Recently, we collaborated with Lifeblood Games LLC, providing 3D models for an IP based on the UE3 engine. We like traveling and we’ll keep following our love of nature by modeling CG animals. We truly enjoy what we do, while at the same time, our work brings to us a lot of interesting job opportunities.

Little Green

The Area: Hi Massimo, it’s nice to finally talk with you about your work. For those of us who have seen it, nearly all your visual work is nature inspired. What is it about the animal kingdom that consistently draws you in to capture its beauty?

Massimo: I am fascinated by nature, the animals and all the creatures in it. It is difficult for me to explain with words, but I feel like a child when I look upon those things

The Area: Do any of the animals have significance to them – why did you choose to create them specifically?

Massimo: Some subjects I chose to create have a specific meaning to me. The Doberman image "Ironie Swarze" is a portrait of my lovely dog that died eight years ago. Same for "Little Green", my lovely iguana.

Ironie Swarze

The Area: Now that we understand more about where your passion for your subjects began, what about your passion for 3D? What was your start in 3D? Did you use computers for 'visual things' before this time?

Massimo: I've always been involved in the traditional arts: from photography to airbrushing and painting. Hence, the process of encountering the CG field became fairly natural since I also shared a passion for computers. I can fondly recall my first Commodore VIC-20, then the C64, C128 and finally, an Atari 1040, which was the last ‘home computer’ I had. Interestingly, I used it for music more than anything else. It was then in the early ‘90s that I bought my first PC and began experimenting with early 2D painting software like Ca-Cricket Paint and Paint Shop Pro.

I would say that owning a bookstore obviously gave me the chance to read many books, but it also provided access to many specialized magazines. Expanding from 2D to 3D was simply a matter of time. Curiosity became passion and I felt a growing interest in learning about it more and more. I started doing 3D as a hobby in 1999 and in 2005, I decided to sell my bookstore and give it a shot as a professional... and here I am...

The Area: What was your initial feeling and reaction when first working in 3D space?

Massimo: My first attempt with 3D was with Rhinoceros. The initial feeling was amazing and I must admit that I got used to that new dimension pretty quickly. After experimenting with NURBS modeling, I wanted to try using polygons so I downloaded Maya PLE -- and since that time, I've never felt the need to change or try out another 3D package.

Trapped

The Area: Certainly your work has evolved since those days

In "Trapped", for example, the image is quite striking. The pose is characteristic of parrots and the cropped shot and angle make it difficult to differentiate between whether it is a snapshot or a composed image. Generally, how do you choose the subject, the setting and pose?

Massimo: Generally if I have the opportunity, I like to take photographs of my subjects. I used to take tons of photos and sometimes, it happens that a photo catches my eye more so than the others. This was the case of "Trapped". Upon my return from South-east Asia, I started poring over the photos taken at a bird park in Kuala Lumpur, and I finally found the pose to work from.

The Area: Which version of Maya are you currently on?

Massimo: Currently I am on Maya 8.

The Area: You have a great feel for textures.

. In the "Male Green Frog" for example, one can feel that the skin is coarse and moist just by looking at it. Can you tell us how you prepared the texture for it?

Massimo: Well, thanks! The workflow is pretty common. First, it is important to correctly unwrap the UVs. For the textures, I used Photoshop with a mixture of photos and a Wacom tablet with custom brushes. Then, I used the Maya Paint tool for correcting the texture seams. From the color textures, I then extracted from the specular, diffuse and bump maps and applied them to a Blinn shader

The Area: What software renderer do you use for your images?

Massimo: I use mental ray.

The Area: Currently, you and your partner Silvia freelance different types of projects. What was your last project and where are we able to see your previous work?

Massimo: Working as freelancers, we work on parallel tasks. Most of them are currently under NDA so we can't speak or show anything about it. By the way, the companies that contact us come from different fields. We’ve provided assets for games, done renderings for magazines, created models for reverse engineering, modeled commissioned animals and other stuff. Every day, there is some new challenge so it is exciting and we don't get bored easily

You can see some of our work on http://www.massimorighi.com, even if it’s mostly personal work

The Area: Do you and Silvia work on different aspects of a model/project?

Massimo: I can do rendering while Silvia is modeling or texturing for another project or vice versa. We work mainly on the same aspects while learning and trying to grow in this field together.

The Area: Freelancing has allowed you the opportunity to travel and work. How was the experience to work in the Middle East as 3D generalists? I guess you don't have any pets at home now if you are able to temporarily relocate for work

Massimo: Well, unfortunately the company had some major problems so we left the Middle East after only two months. We did have the chance to visit another country where we worked and became friends with other artists, so speaking of life experience -- it's been great.

As you can guess I would really like to have pets, but due to this kind of job it's just not possible. Actually, I am forced to be satisfied with watching animals on TV and if I am lucky, in their natural environment or in the zoos ;)

The Area: Is any of your 'nature' work professional work, or is it strictly personal?

Massimo: Some of the images are make up a body of personal work, while other images are based on specific commissions. For example, the iguana was made for an animation company, upon which I later used for a composite render as a personal project. We also created many dog breeds such as the Neapolitan Mastiff for commissioned projects.

The Area: What do you enjoy most from your 'nature' images?

Massimo: Creating those models give me the chance to learn more about these animals. What I enjoy most is the research that is behind some of the images.

The Area: Have you considered doing a 3D version of 'Noah's Ark', to document as many animals and creatures that are on this planet? 3D is an excellent resource that can help preserve the memory of endangered and extinct organisms.

Maybe National Geographic has been in contact with you?

Massimo: It would be great to model all the animals and I think it will be my lifetime project!

About National Geographic, no they haven’t contacted me yet...I am just waiting! ;)

The Area: The bookstore that you once had before starting your path on 3D, what has become of it -- does it still exist?

Massimo: Yes, it still exists...with another owner of course ;)

The Area: What project are you currently working on now and do you have any plans for the future like moving to an exotic country?

Massimo: One of the projects I would like to mention is an unannounced Next Gen console title for Lifeblood Games LLC. The project is intended for both the PS3 and X-Box 360 platforms. The company has planned a major press release and I am very excited to see the results of this. The game is more of an epic film in its writing, with the use of cinematics and story hooks, production values and focus on bridging the gap between storytelling and interaction with technology. The team is made up of some of the best talent from games and visual effects and this property not only gave me a chance to collaborate with those top artists and game designers -- but really presented me with the chance to stretch my abilities into a new genre and medium where I have not had the opportunity to go before. Although I cannot describe to you the specific content that I worked on, I can tell you it is going to be an exciting experience.

In regards to the future, my plans are to travel as much as possible and yes -- moving to an exotic country is one of our dreams

Thanks for your time, Massimo. Take care and all the best to your future dreams.

Making of Male Green Frog by Massimo Righi