October 19, 2020

For THE WAY OF SUCCESS column , we meet Vincenzo De Cesaris former Rainbow Academy student and now Animator in Rockstar, one of the world's largest video game companies. 

Hi Vincenzo,

Let's start by talking about your journey and how we met. We were in the biggest trade show in the industry at Lucca Comics and Games and you won a contest with an amazing Joker made in 8 minutes, remember?

Hello everyone!!! Gosh, it seems like a century ago... I was in Lucca with my publisher and we were presenting a new collection of stories from up-and-coming signatures (at the time I was mainly active in comics and illustration). The temptation to tinker with the Cintiqs at the Rainbow booth was too strong, so I decided to give it a try, but I never expected to win the contest! After a long talk with Francesco Mastrofini, CEO of Rainbow CGI, I was definitely won over, and from there, Academy enrollment became a sticking point, until I managed to get into Class 6.

Your career started with The comic strip and illustration, then the experience in full cg animation and the jump abroad to start a career in the world of video games, your great passion. A succession of emotions isn't it?

Quite an adrenaline rush! it all seems to have happened so fast, in fact...after Academy and Rainbow CGI experience as a generalist I found myself catapulted to Hamburg, Germany, as an animator on a mobile RPG title for Goodgames Studios. Finishing the contract, and after updating the showreel, I receive an email from Rockstar North for an open position...it was the classic offer you can't refuse.

I've carried a love for comics pretty much forever, and all the things I learned in that field have come in very handy later on. I like to think that there are universal notions in common to all strongly visual mediums: composition, staging, pacing, the interpretation of characters, and generally the language and rules of storytelling by images. Instead, the one for video games "blossomed" a bit later but with a devastating impact: after trying Valve's Half-Life and Acclaim's Shadowman everything changed for me. Since then I have spent years accumulating as much information as possible about how to create a game and have also managed to pile up a more or less long series of (clumsy) experiments and tech demos. Digging them up today from the hard-disc is tender, but they served their purpose.

You currently work for one of the most important Videogames companies in the world, how does it feel?

It was and is a great satisfaction and excitement. Rockstar is a huge team, full of great talent to learn from, and the Scottish office is one of the nerve centers of the development process: New techniques and workflows are being experimented with all the time to meet ever-increasing challenges.

Many people don't know the uniqueness of the Animation for Videogames specialization, how is it different from the one used for full cg?

The commonalities are many, whether animating in keyframes or using motion capture: one of the fascinating things about animation is precisely the universality of its basic concepts, which apply whether in real-time cg or traditional 2D technique. The very big difference in a video game is definitely the player. Every artistic choice and every decision is made based on the impact on the gameplay: fluidity, response time, the right pace and readability... everything has to be adapted and trimmed to give the player the most enjoyable and least frustrating experience possible. Often times it can happen to have something in the editor that looks completely banged up, but once tested in game it works perfectly!

What, in your opinion, is the difficulty most frequently encountered by an animator and the differences, if any, with other departments?

In the case of game development, a crucial point is collaboration with designers: ideas come and go, and bounce from one department to another until a feature is fine-tuned, refined, and "shippered."
It is vitally important in the process to be able to communicate your ideas well and to be diplomatic when needed, because it can happen that the confrontation is not always all rosy.
I remember one instance in particular: in the Hamburg team, it happened that we had a meeting to decide whether or not the characters in our mobile title needed animations to run across the playing field. One of the designers simply proposed to speed up the walking animations. It was perfectly logical to him: walking + speed = running. Me, my colleague Paula, and my lead, Jay (badass ex-Blizzard veteran) looked at each other for endless seconds, then grabbed a notebook and played a clip of the Benny Hill Show to prove our point. It was pretty funny.

In your opinion, what characteristics should an Animator for video games have, artistically and technically?

In addition to the basic background common to all animators, trying to train the eye to recognize the right performance and body language can make all the difference, especially when working with motion capture, as is the case with most of today's triple-A titles. Writer Ed Hooks argues, among the fundamental precepts of acting, that a mental process leads only to a conclusion, and it is emotion that leads to action. That is why, when directing an actor in a shot, we always try to give instructions that can help evoke a mood or emotional state as well, always trying to push the sincerity of the performance.

It certainly helps, then, to have an understanding of how design and coding work shapes the creative process, precisely because synergy with programmers is so important. In a medium- or large-sized team, it is generally agreed that in-depth knowledge of all stages of processing is not necessary, but having a smattering of all aspects of the pipeline helps to optimize the work and to anticipate and prevent problems that might arise later-this ultimately makes life easier for those who come both earlier and later in the production chain.

Is there an artist you are inspired by or have been inspired by over the years?

Tough question, since there are so many. When I was working on comic book stories, giants like Jack Kirby, Frank Miller or Mark Bagley were my constant inspiration. Same with sacred monsters like Chuck Jones, Eric Goldberg and Milt Kahl. Today among illustrators I adore Dave Rapoza, and every time Pascal Blanchè posts one of his works or Stephen Vyas posts one of his fight loops I remain as if mesmerized looking at them.

What are the latest projects you have worked on, the one that has given you the most satisfaction, and what are the future ones if they can be mentioned?

I was lucky enough to be involved during the last year of development of Red Dead Redemption 2, a boundless and enormously complex western epic that was already breathtaking when I first tested the build. Upon release, seeing the enthusiastic reactions of players from all corners of the globe was perhaps one of the most surreal things that ever happened to me. It was a great, great satisfaction for the whole team.
The next title we are working on is still top secret, but we are all very excited and look forward to being able to share more details when the time comes!

If you could send a message to all those young people who would like to approach this profession, what would you recommend and what would you not recommend?

Do not force yourself from the beginning to choose what to focus on; rather, try to be curious, fluid and open-minded and learn as much as you can from every single thing that fascinates you. Try to understand how a film was made that shook you, how a canvas was painted that bewitched you, or how a piece of music was composed that moved you. All the different stimuli in your creative engine feed, enrich and connect each other in an unbroken chain that constantly feeds your drive. There is always time to specialize in something that resonates with you in particular, but don't deprive yourself of the chance to figure out exactly and truthfully what.

Choose one sentence that you think would be helpful to all those young people who would like to pursue this career.

My former Lead, Jay, used to hum (and not without a hint of sadism) the verses of a Steely Dan song: "You go back, Jack, do it again....". For him, it represented how important it was to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch without thinking too much about it when things don't work out the way you want them to. I'd say that as a general rule of thumb, it's not a bad one -- plus it's a great song!

Thank you Vinz and come back to visit us soon!