CGSociety :: Artist Profile
17 November 2009, by Daniel Wade
Giovanni grew up in the Philippines being greatly influenced by sci-fi, horror and anime. He moved to Canada with his family in his teens and studied Computer Graphics at Seneca College where he began his interest in all things CG.
He currently works for Industrial Light & Magic as a digital artist, creating creatures for films such as 'Pirates of the Caribbean 2', 'War of the Worlds' and 'The Spiderwick Chronicles'. His most recent work can be seen in 'Star Trek' in which he was the creature model supervisor.
Some of my earliest memories in art were a set of Crayola crayons and binder paper while watching a popular anime called 'Voltes 5'.
I was fortunate to have parents who helped cultivate my artistic side. My Mita (grandmother in Philippines) had cultivated my artistic potential during my formative years.
I remember drawing Michelangelo's David when I was around six or seven. I tried my best to copy it from an image my Mita gave me. From that point on, I've always revered Michelangelo's works. Whenever I look back to the important events that formed me into what I am now, I always recall the moment when I copied David. That was my very first memory of trying to do something as perfect as I can; something that I aim for in my career.
The Hag Oil-based clay (Roma)
If "Terry" was an exercise in rough, sketchy sculpting, this piece was me trying something a little bit more rendered. Having admired Miles Teves' Meg Mucklebones maquette for such a long time, this one is almost a homage to Miles' masterpiece in creature creation. Thought I'd give this particular hag a malformed hand to add to the creepy factor.
Horned Ogre
Mudbox, ZBrush, modo
This was one of my early attempts in trying to export out normal maps to modo for render.
I had baked out a low-resolution mesh from ZBrush and applied the normal maps which were derived from the high-resolution mesh.
I was fairly happy with the result and the subdued lighting.
I was fortunate enough to know that I wanted to be an artist at a young age. I wasn't interested in anything else when I was in school. Drawing would always be on my mind. Rather than listen to my math teacher recite formulas, I doodled along the borders of my notebooks.
There were more sketches in my notebooks than class notes. Near the end of high school, I had to think about a career. I was determined to be in the art industry, but being that I didn't have a path, I didn't know how to approach this goal. I chatted with my guidance counselor, and she suggested that I try the tech field since that's where the money is. The only fields that fit the bill were creative advertising and computer graphics. After a lot of thought, I decided to go with computer graphics. To this day, I thank my lucky stars I chose the right path.
The Archer Oil-based clay (Chavant)
This is one of my earlier pieces. It was of my favorite model, who has since passed away. I used to love every pose that he would do for us, and this particular one was no exception. As far as the sculpture goes, I was trying to experiment with the planes of the face and body in order to get good contrast and depth to the forms.
I took a two-year course on Computer Graphics in Toronto. The course was focused more on technical aspects of the process.
We only had a handful of traditional art courses. I think I would have had more focus as an artist had I taken more fine arts courses, but I can't really complain because I am where I am now because of the choices I made.
The Giant Mudbox, ZBrush
This piece was used in a Gnomon Presentation I had done some years ago. I originally wanted to create a creature that had an interesting face so this is what I came up with. I modeled him originally in Mudbox, took him into ZBrush to paint and did a lot of comp work in Photoshop to bring everything together.
I was also the gofer, making donut runs in the morning so our hotshot director clients were well-fed each time they visited for an editing session. These tasks were obviously not art-related, but I was thankful nonetheless because it offered a first glimpse of how a post-production facility worked.
After about five months of working there, I decided to move on to something that involved more creativity. I left The Daily Post to work for a graphic design company called Biographix. I learned how to produce graphics for websites via Photoshop and HTML.
Critter ZBrush, modo
This model is based on a design by my friend Kenneth Scott. I have always been an admirer of his work so I decided to do a 3D version of an illustration he had done. Hopefully he likes this version.
At school, I always made a point to stay after class to learn more about the software we were using. When I was laid off at Biographix after working there for several months, I had a lot of time on my hands. It was such a tough time in my career. Being laid off was a big blow for my budding career. I was determined to overcome my challenge, so I bought a copy of 3D Studio Max 1.0 and used that software as a vehicle upon which I based my future portfolios. With this tool, I participated in a lot of contests to help showcase my work. I recall joining a digital art contest for the Toronto Star. I didn't win any of the major prizes, but I was able to get an honorable mention. The action of putting my work out there forced me to excel in the software. I was not ready to put out work that I felt was sub-par.
Unnamed creature ZBrush
I had a lot of fun creating this particular critter. I was experimenting with a lot of the forms and prominent features such as the horns, both along the jaw line and the temples.
