CG Artist Interview: Marco Iozzi wins VES Award with Fight for Life
Marco Iozzi won the 6th Visual Effects Society Annual Award for his contribution as a Lead Artist on the documentary Drama “Fight for Life“.
He received a nominative award along with other members of his team at Jellyfish Pictures.
Marco Iozzi, Jellyfish Picture. Fight For Life. BBC Documentary. 3D CG Render of a baby.
Copyright © 2008 BBC, Jellyfish Pictures and Marco Iozzi.
I decided to contact Marco because I had the opportunity to share thoughts with him in different contexts, on professional matters and for some educational articles I wrote in the Computer Graphics field. Marco has always been available and since the quality of his works is great and he has an exceptional sense of aesthetics, I felt honored to have him as an adviser.
In the context of his Award I reached again Marco, now in Varese, Italy, but flying back and forth across America, to ask him an interview.
(Massimo Curatella for CG Explorer): Marco, thanks for your availability, as I told you privately I always loved the visual style of your creations and your latest website is a rare gem among the many I visit every day. Would you like to tell your story to the readers of CG Explorer?
(Marco Iozzi): I’m a Shading and Lighting artist with a generalist background. I love traditional photography and I hope my career will allow me to dive into the matte painting realm which I see as a natural evolution of my passions and background.
I started more than 8 years ago as a generalist because that’s what the market was asking for and also because the specialization and understanding of one’s stronger skills comes naturally after working some time with different tools and covering different areas.
Australia 006. Marco Iozzi. Photography.
Copyright © 2008 Marco Iozzi.
How did all started?
As lots of other people in the industry I remember that when I was about 10 years old I was blown away by Ray Harryhausen’s “Clash of Titans”. I told myself: “this is what I want to do, I want to work in the movies and create monsters and stories”. Of course at that time I did not know anything about cinema nor which technique I would have wanted to learn.
I started seriously thinking about a career in this field when I was about 18 years old and I had the chance to have a copy of 3D Studio Dos. I remember that there was this example scene with a rigged wireframe dinosaur, and I could actually grab the foot and drag it as well as tumbling the camera! Just tumbling the camera in wireframe and so actually seeing the object in 3D space was unbelievable, and I remember exactly that I felt like opening a treasure. It gave me this idea of being able to create really everything I wanted and the way I wanted. It was really the beginning of a passion that never left me.
When and if the passion will fade, then I’d better find a new job…
