Following your own dreams is the most exciting thing ever! Massimo gave up his own bookstore for the bright lights of the CG industry and has been working as a freelancer with his girlfriend Silvia ever since. After teaching himself Maya and, amongst other talents, he has become the master of the lifelike creature render. We asked him about his career so far and what is next...
Interview Massimo Righi Well, let s start with the usual beginning question: how did you start in 3D CG? Well, the way I started is pretty unusual... I actually owned a bookstore until a couple of years ago. I ve always loved visual arts and whilst selling books I felt that my passion for computer graphics was growing. After I sold the bookstore, I started looking for 3D jobs as a freelancer. At the same time I was learning Maya, doing as much training as I could, and was also involving my girlfriend Silvia. To be honest, I had never considered CG as a full-time profession, but we soon noticed that we were loving it and we decided to give it a serious go... as a couple. You now work as a freelancer on various projects. Which area do you find yourself getting the most work in? Our main area is more 3D illustration than animation, so let s say modelling & texturing pretty much everything - still-life as well as organics. Working as freelancers, we are open to any interesting projects. As a quick example, I never liked modelling cars, but I ended up making some as a third party project for Volkswagen. This work is always a continued surprise for us and we feel we won t get bored of it any time soon. www.3dcreativemag.com page 22 Issue 000 Month 2007
How do you start and then carry out a project? Do you have a workflow which pretty much stays the same or do you find that it needs changing from time to time? It s down to the kind of work, really. If we have to model animals our workflow is pretty much the same because we ve already modelled many of them and so our experience is good. But as I said before it is not all about animals, and right now we are working on very different projects and tasks so we must adapt from time to time. We recently finished characters for a short independent movie. Those kinds of modelling projects required us to save polygons. We won t have this limit whilst doing models for the reverse engineering market...
Your recent work with animals has brought you a lot of industry acclaim and a few awards! Is this the most enjoyable part of your job? The most enjoyable part? You mean modelling animals or getting awards? Joking... We just love the subjects, so when we see that our work is appreciated then that s a joy for sure! Sorry, I meant creating the animals! Do you enjoy this more than other projects? We definitely enjoy doing this. Most of the animals we create are just for personal projects, to have fun and also to improve our skills. We like to capture their peculiarity and in the future we would like to model scenes involving animals and humans, with the priority given to animals, obviously!
Interview Massimo Righi What are your secrets for creating these photo-real animal renders? I like to take photos, so this is my first resource. Whilst working on something I try to visualise the scene in the same way that I do with a camera. I am always learning and trying to get better results and improve my skills. What matters is the final result though, and often you don t need to use advanced tools if you can achieve it by keeping things simple... Your work is (or has been) featured on many sites, such as 3dtotal.com and cgsociety.org. How important has it been for you to use these sites as self-promotion? Very important. As a freelance CG artist this is the main way to get seen. Also, some companies have contacted me through those websites. Recently, I received a long-term job offer from a company in Bahrain and we are actually in the process of signing the contract! www.3dcreativemag.com page 26 Issue 000 Month 2007
That sounds interesting! Can you reveal anything about this project? Not a lot to say yet but we are pretty excited about it. We love travelling and we feel that it could be a great experience on both sides - in work as well as in our relationship.
What advice would you give to other aspiring artists who want to leave their day job and follow their 3D dream? Following your own dreams is the most exciting thing ever. It is always tough at the beginning but with training and passion I think everything is possible. So, don t give up! Just find your own way and try to identify yourself with what you do... A bit of luck also helps. Thanks very much for talking to us and good luck for the future.
Interview Massimo Righi Massimo Righi For more work by this artist please visit: www.massimorighi.com Or contact them at: info@massimorighi.com Interviewed by: Ben Barnes www.3dcreativemag.com page 30 Issue 000 Month 2007