|
Autodesk® 3ds Max®
|
|
Autodesk® Maya®
|
|
Autodesk® Softimage®
|
|
Autodesk® MotionBuilder®
|
|
Autodesk® Mudbox™
|
|
Autodesk® Stitcher™
|
|
Autodesk® ImageModeler™
|
|
Autodesk® Sketchbook® Pro
|
At the age of 24, he learned to use Power Animator 5 and got a job in an Italian post house. After two years he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to work at Fathom Studios. There, Andrea helped to build the foundations for “Delgo: A Hero’s Journey”. He then moved to Hawaii, where Square USA had just started the production of “Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within”.
Andrea joined ILM in June of 2001 as Character Technical Director, to work on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Beside character related work, when he has time, he enjoys lighting and writing shaders. His other credits include: “Transformers”, “Evan Almighty”, “Eragon”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. “, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. “, “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith”, “Van Helsing”, “Hulk”, “Men in Black II”, “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”.
As a unique member of the computer graphics industry, his contributions to the community, to the projects he has worked on, and to Maya development have made a great impact on the industry and to the way digital artists conduct their craft.
The hallmarks of Andrea's career extend beyond his work on the silver screen and his many credits. They also reside in areas such as problem solving, innovation, teaching, giving back to the CG community, and technical and artistic knowledge that span a variety of skill sets. Andrea’s expert knowledge of Maya and its infrastructure coupled with his innovation and passion have truly made him a master at his craft.
His intimate knowledge of Maya and constant quest for knowledge consistently provide the breakthroughs needed to get a shot delivered above the client’s expectations. Andrea has a unique ability to combine his knowledge of Maya with an innovator's perspective to fulfill needs otherwise absent in a pipeline. For example, at the beginning of ILM's work on ‘War of the Worlds’ the company had not converted its skinning/binding pipeline to their new proprietary software. Andrea saw the need for a binding solution with which ILM artists would be familiar so, entirely on his own, he built from scratch a new skinning paradigm inside of Maya. He was able to deliver it to the artists at ILM within the short production schedule. These feats of production can come only when someone is entirely “tuned into” their tools and have a self-propelling desire to provide for artists’ needs.
Andrea has been a Maya user since the beginning of the Beta cycle for version 1.0. He has co-authored three Master Classes in 2003, 2005 and 2006, written web tutorials and published two Maya training DVDs on di-directional constraining. Among the several presentations he has given around the world, Andrea has presented a class about API code optimization and Maya data structures at the 2007 Maya API Conference. Since 2001, he has also been member of the Alpha-Beta forum.
After high school, I went to college to study engineering, but I was more attracted by the artistic possibilities of science than dealing with pure numbers. So, I decided to change studies and direct my attention towards computer science. I was hoping to get more exposed to the growing world of computer graphics.
In 1987, I changed my Spectrum for an Amiga and I had my first contact with 3D software packages. They were Videoscape, 3Dmodeler and Sculpt 4D. The next step brought me to change the Amiga with a zipping fast (at the time) 386 33 MHz PC and 3D Studio 1.0. With that, I started doing some freelance work and then became a consultant for a new interactive company in my city. The big jump towards full time employment as a 3D artist arrived when I exchanged the PC for a brand new (really expensive) SGI Indy. With the SGI, I learned to use Power Animator 5 (it didn’t even have a time slider yet) and became an operator for that software in an Italian company. At the time I was doing a lot of industrial visualization (Power Animator was really good at handling CAD models), commercials and interactive stuff. I even worked for a movie once, which is a really rare event in Italy. After two years, at the beginning of 1997, at the age of 24, I moved to the States to help build the foundations for one of the early 3D animated movies.The next step for technology is be able to stream line itself so that artists can spend more time being artists and less time fighting with the technology to bring their vision to the screen.
I think that the most important qualities to be successful in this job are:
Be modest. There is always someone more experienced or talented than you, and even if you are a supervisor in an academy award winning company, a good idea or opinion can come from anyone.
Be a hard worker. This is the kind of job where the final result can theoretically be polished and improved forever. Working hard ensures that you will get as close as you possibly can, in the available time frame, to your idea of perfection.
Accept criticism. Even if you have put your soul into your work, it doesn’t mean that it is perfect, and sometime even good. Someone else's opinion can perhaps open your eyes. Understand that teamwork is way more important than your personal aesthetic and artistic sense. A paid job is not like painting a sunset on the beach for your own pleasure. As a good and talented artist you will eventually emerge, but in the meantime don’t get offended or depressed if your artistic vision doesn’t match your supervisor's vision.“Transformers”, “Evan Almighty”, “Eragon”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. “, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. “, “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith”, “Van Helsing”, “Hulk”, “Men in Black II”, “Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones”, “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”.
