You spent a lot of your career as an animator, do you still do animation work or have you entirely into concept work?

I’ve never stopped animating, and I try to benefit from it whenever possible. For instance, on Naruto: Rise of a Ninja I created all the storyboards, animatics and cinematics in the game. From paper to compositing and editing of my work. A small production pipeline of one person! I even animate 3D characters in these sequences. The last Exodyssey trailers are good examples too.

What insights have you gained since your time as a student?

Diligence and rigor. I had to learn to be constant in my work, to keep motivated and stay objectivity. I had learn to define my skills, to fill my weaknesses and to turn my strengths into a signature. One of the more important skills, to learn to control my creativity, as a flow, and to be productive even when inspiration goes up and down.
“…videogames are images in motion. So it seems natural to me to put this motion in my images.”

Can you tell us how your work has changed from Skyland to games like Thief 4?

Wow, you couldn’t set up more opposing projects than these two, because my job position was completely different on Skyland than Thief 4. On Skyland I had work on rigging, setup and animation, and on Thief I am working as a concept artist. Both represent two worlds I really enjoy. When you have a background like mine the advantage is that you have a very good global vision of the project. On Thief, I work everyday with animators and 3D artists to define our characters and they listen my advice more than usual, thanks to my background. I am a key person for them cause I can solve a lot of constraints and problems in my early sketches.

Did your animation experience contribute to your career as a concept artist?

Definitely. There are a lot of incredible artists better than me, but very few people able to put energy, dynamism and life in their concepts like I do, this is the benefit of teaching animation. When I paint, think, design characters, props or environments, I always try to define them in action or in a situation. I’ve been doing concepts for videogames for a few years now, and videogames are images in motion. So it seems natural to me to put this motion in my images.
Your personal work has an intense visceral feel to it, how do you achieve this look to your character work?

How I do achieve it? By going to the source. What is the personality of the character, what is his motivation and meaning in my image. In a game, what is his role? I have a fascination for explosive and controversial characters and I love to paint these. It could be a punk, monster, warrior or serial killer; I‘ll try to paint with the most appealing rendering possible, that’s why my work attracts the glance. Beautifully dangerous.

How do you face a blank canvas or artist block?

Never happens anymore. I draw all the time, and if I have no idea, I’ll draw another hip hop figure, spaceship or sexy girl, mechanically. No need for ideas to start a sketch, but the reflexion phase for my personal work is another question

Any advice for aspiring artists who want there concepts to make more of an impact?

To observe a lot. The most important is to draw as much as possible and whatever the subject, to get a excellent technique. It’s only when you are skillful that you are able to create from scratch, deform the reality, interpret things, stylize and control your art. Artistic growth is a long process.

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