MPC and the Guardians of the Galaxy

Heya folks!

Big news - I'm going to work as an Animator at MPC!

Sadly, I am moving out from TeamTO, way sooner than I had planned/expected. The studio is amazing and it is growing really fast - I'm sure it will be even bigger in just some months. They are currently working on 4 series and 1 feature film simultaneously! And all of them really cool projects. And the future projects, oh oh! They are brilliant, trust me! There's a LOT of talent, I've met countless good animators and made very good friends, that I hope to work again with in the future someday. It was hard to leave them as I was loving my life there, and it felt way too early.

So why leave only after a couple of months working there, if everything was going so great? Well, I had a really hard decision to make - This big studio contacted me to work on a feature film, a studio that I admire for a long time already now. That studio is MPC, London. A unique chance to be pat of such a big project, in such a talented and famous studio can't be denied! It will be a really big challenge and I will do my very best to be up to the standards. It will be a great chance to evolve as an animator - in fact, I'm going to be in the same studio as my class 5 mentor, Arslan Elver, who already helped me evolve a lot! That was nearly an year ago, and to know that we're about to be teammates is incredible.

MPC is a VFX Studio that does feature film and commercial work. It is based in London, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles and Bangalore (I will be in London). They are one of the top world studios in what they do, and I dare to say that I'm 100% sure that you were amazed by their work at least a dozen of times in your life, even if you didn't know it was them. Some projects they have worked on, just to mention a few, are: Harry Potter, The Life of Pi, Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men, Wrath of the Titans, Man of Steel, The Chronicles of Narnia. You can also check their Filmography. Here's an example of their work:

I will be working on a feature film called Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a Marvel / Walt Disney Pictures film, directed by James Gunn. The Guardians are a group of super heroes, from the same universe as the Avengers. I'll let you do your own research if you are interested in learning more, I hate telling spoilers ;)

So to end this post, I just want to say that it's such a big honor to be part of this. I will give my 110%, and I look forward to learn from "the masters"!

Wish me luck, I will need it!

TeamTO: My new studio in France!

So, big news! (and maybe old by now) - I got a job at TeamTO, an awesome studio in Valence, France,  that some really cool animated series for TV worldwide - it's one of the biggest studios of that kind in Europe. TeamTO is in Paris and Valence, but Valence is where all the animation is done. So in my point of view, it's the "cool" one! Valence is a nice and calm city in the southeast of France, between Lyon and Marseille. Here is a video that shows the studio, city and productions of TeamTO!

(As the video is not available anymore, you can check a cool interview about TeamTO here.)

The first week at the studio is over now, and I already was assigned to a project and started working on it. It's "Babar and the adventures of Badou", season 3. Babar is successful for years, I remember watching it in 2D when I was a kid (once I had a nightmare with Babar!) and it's awesome to work with this elephants! At the studio I have some friends from Animation Mentor that were hired at the same time as me, more or less. They are Timothée Billiet, Martijn van den Akker, Julien Reyes and Jordi Gaspar. Sadly, none of them was assigned to the same project as me :( But well I still get to see them everyday! And the studio is full of cool people, the ambient couldn't be better.

That's all for now I guess! Au revoir!

11 Second Club: Bronze!

What a fun month it was, and really rewarding as well! I will do it again for sure, when the time is right.
So, my final place was 3rd. The competition was though and I was surprised I finished higher than some awesome entries. I'm really delighted that I made it to the podium, it is very meaningful to me, specially now when a confidence boost was much needed! It was cool that a Romano used the Roman theme ;) Happy that the lack of breathing in the guards wasn't very noticed, and that the 3rd Roman shield at then end had a render problem and got the colors switched... Two things that I have to change sooner or later.
Here's the shot, finished and rendered:

And here are the final standings: http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/may13

11 Second Club: Render Breakdown

Hey peeps!

It is finished! I have already submitted my entry to the 11SecondClub servers. Soon, everyone will be allowed to vote, and in a week from now or so, the final results will be published. I'll keep everyone updated here :)

I've decided to show a little sneak peak of how the shot will look, and explain you a bit the process with a image. I have to give credit to Leandro Martins and Tom Pinon, as they gave me huge rendering tips, and also my brother Gustavo Romano, who helped me by "painting" the backgrounds. Something between texturing and mattepainting, it went incredibly well!

Here is the breakdown:

Well that is it for now, expect news really soon!