Gregory, Gringo as he is known throughout
the VFX industry, talks to eyeon about being a VFX artist in
Russia, how he does what he does, and why Fusion is his tool
of choice.
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| Q: Can you tell me a little
about yourself? | |
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I was born in the city of Kemerovo, West Siberia,
surrounded by the great Taiga forest, where Russian bears
drink vodka and play balalaikas when they feel
sad.
Then I moved to Belarus, the East European country
famous for its potatoes and huge tracks, with my parents. I
graduated from school and went to study at the Architectural
Faculty of the State Polytechnic Academy.
Now I live
in Moscow and spend most of my time creating VFX for films and
creating new compositing tools.
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| Q: Can you tell me what made
you decide to become a VFX artist?
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It wasn't a one-time decision but rather a long term
decision I made as a transition from architecture to interior
design to TV design to VFX for commercials and feature films.
Architectural education gives you many options and a
lot of possibilities. It incorporates artistic disciplines as
well as technical ones, just like compositing does.
I
used to doubt if I could apply various technical knowledge,
like chemistry or physics and math, but amazingly, my first
real job was about creating 3D-animations showing chemical
reactions and physical phenomena. Then I used different
opportunities in the architectural or design field until I
came to the VFX industry.
For a young person, it's
important to try different trades to find what the best
occupation is for him or her.
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| Q: What artist/event/person
inspires you? | |
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I like cinema, especially one that is VFX rich. It's
interesting to watch other people's work and guess how things
were done. If I see mistakes, I think to myself it could be
done better in appropriate terms. If effects overwhelm me with
the quality and beauty, I understand there is a lot of space
for further growth.
Probably, the most inspiring
aspect of my work is when strangers on the street or people on
the internet discuss your work and find it interesting. I felt
this for the first time when we'd finished Night Watch.
Walking in the city and hearing pieces of people's
conversations about our film made me think all those sleepless
nights and working without days off for many months weren't in
vain.
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| Q: How long have you been
working with Fusion as an artist? Where did you learn
your compositing skills, and how did you first get
started using Fusion?
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It's hard to say how long I've been creating CG, whether I
should count from my first exercises back in 1993 or from my
first real architectural works or CG for broadcast
commercials, but I remember exactly the moment I opened Fusion
for the first time. It was December 2002, right before the New
Year. I was working as the lead designer on a Russian-American
TV-channel. When I first saw the interface of Digital Fusion
3.12a I thought Wow! It seemed to be the best New Year's gift
considering all those CG fireworks and snowflakes a designer
has to create by the end of the year.
After the first
excitement, I found Fusion very intuitive. I was able to start
working immediately. Furthermore, node-based structure lets me
create much more complicated projects without being
lost.
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| Q: What is the VFX industry
like in Moscow? | |
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The Russian VFX Industry started evolving not
long ago. I think of Timur Beankmambetov's Night Watch
(finished in 2004) as the starting point. It was a big project
for us with a relatively big budget and it made a tremendous
impact on the industry. Many people and studios that had been
busy with commercials got film experience on the project and
changed their profile completely towards film making. The
industry's youth defines involved people. The artists are all
big enthusiasts of their profession and the average age is
around 26.
Before Shot
After Shot
Although Russian companies still suffer from
poor organization, people's passion and intention to do their
best help us achieve great results.
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| Q: Fusion has some amazing
tools, which ones are your
favorites? | |
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Having used many different compositing packages in the
past and trying new versions of competitive software from time
to time, I can say Fusion's workflow and toolset are superior
in many ways. What really distinguishes Fusion from other
software packages is the amazing 2.5D particles and almighty
Text+.
I use Fusion particles on every single feature
project for various purposes: sparkles, fireworks, fire,
smoke, rain, snow, crowd replication…and find it a
comprehensive solution. Ultimately, a Fusion artist can create
almost any particle effect. Even if you are missing some
peculiar particle tool, you can use pCustom which allows you
to create your own forces, dependencies, and styling effects.
Now, Fusion 6 has a unique 3D suite. One can discover
some tools like bumpmapping, falloff, different shading
models, and UV-mapping which you never expect to find in a
compositing software. I'm a long-term Softimage user; still,
I've already used the new 3D-tools successfully in an upcoming
Russian film with the working title Black
Lightning.
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| Q: How did you enjoy your
experience with the eyeon SWAT team at IBC in
Amsterdam? | |
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It was a great pleasure for me to meet the eyeon team in
Amsterdam. They were nice and helpful with all the questions I
had concerning my presentation. Although I hadn't expected to
learn anything new about Fusion, I picked up some new tricks
and techniques which were shown by Robert Zeltsch and Eric
Westphal from the European team.
What can I say...you
should know that people developing such great software are
great themselves! |
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| Q: What trends do you see
emerging in Visual Effects? How do you see the role of
the VFX artist changing, and where do you see yourself
in 10 years? | |
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As I can see, the most evolving contemporary trend is
stereo. It's another great step in visual presentations like
color cinema after decades of black and white or like sound
after silent films. It takes you to a completely new level of
perception and submerges a spectator much deeper in the plot.
About myself, I like traveling and I want to try
working on VFX in a foreign environment to gain new experience
and to work in a well-organized, creative team. Shock from
relocation is what I need to shake my bones and set new
priorities.
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