Artist Interview: Philippe Poirier

Meet Philippe Poirier. Philippe is an animator and artist, living and working in Montreal, Quebec. He has a background in traditional and 3D animation, and currently works in the gaming industry at Hibernum Créations. Philippe has worked on projects such as Pearl's Peril in partnership with Wooga, and is currently the lead artist for an upcoming (soon to be announced!) X-Box One game. Philippe has also participated in past Light Grey Art Lab exhibitions, including Animystics and the recent Dream Arcade Exhibition and video game.

It is an honor to work with Philippe on these projects, and we are thrilled to present his work and process! Below, you can read all about his art practice, upcoming projects, and reflections on his personal and professional work! You see all of Philippe's work on his website and play his level for the Dream Arcade Game here!



Could you describe your studio practice? (Where you work, your studio, materials, favorite tools)

I work full-time as a 2D-3D artist at Hibernum Créations. When I am making personal projects, I have a desk at home with a bookcase next to me. I work mostly with Photoshop and a Cintiq, and I usually carry a sketchbook at all times. Cat owners will understand the struggle of having your pet hanging out right in front of the computer!

What are some of the things you surround yourself by for inspiration? -or- What are some of your biggest sources of inspiration?

I get the chance to work with incredibly talented people, and it’s always inspiring to see how active everyone is outside of work. Tumblr, Pinterest and Behance are amazing platforms that I often use to discover new artists, I am astounded by how much talent and passion there is out there. I’ve always been drawn to backgrounds, but I’m trying to do more characters: I really like Sargent, Ingres and Leyendecker’s work, to name a few. As for the contemporary artists, Jeremy Vickery was a big influence when I started to work more extensively on backgrounds and lighting. James Gurney’s blog is always really amazing- he posts every day on a variety of subjects. Also, I love Hchom’s art, with all her tidy lists and great illustrations!

Screen shot of Philippe's level for the Dream Arcade Exhibition

You were one of the participating artists in the Dream Arcade Exhibition. Could you describe the world that you were building? Character and space inspiration?

I went for a detective mystery/noire inspired level- I love how atmospheric these movies were! I looked up a lot of images of Los Angeles and movie stills for set design inspiration. I usually collect images and put them in a folder whenever I start a new piece, and I frequently go back and see them again to get motivation and specific details as I progress. For the final work, I incorporated haunted aspects and mystical fantasy to open up possibilities for enemies and different experiences.

Background by Philippe Poirier

What are some of your favorite parts of world building/ character building?

I am a big fan of layout design! The design was a part of my work when I studied in traditional animation. My layout teacher was one of my most important influences from school, and I still apply his teachings to my work today. I just love how a background can express the characters’ personality and set the mood through small narrative details. It can let you tell the story in a single image, what kind of characters evolve in there. "Setting the Scene: The Art & Evolution of Animation Layout" by Fraser MacLean is a great book on the subject.

Do you often work in a collaborative manner or with a team of animators? Could you describe that process?

Making a video game is an intensely collaborative endeavour indeed! I was lucky to be able to work as a lead artist on a video game project, where I had to supervise and assist the work of the art team and communicate with the other teams. It was really great to see everyone’s specialty up close- it provided a lot of insight into everyone’s particular field.

Usually, artists will work closely with game designers, who work on establishing the gameplay mechanics and the general flow of the game. The art team itself, will generally include concept artists, modelers, texture artists, animators, UI and FX artists. The programmers are building the game from scratch, making sure it all works nicely and they also integrate the art assets. We all work closely together as figuring out how to achieve what we want, which usually involves some back and forth. QA will then make sure the game is bug-free. And finally, the producer and art director oversee and manage the project as a whole. Everyone’s role is essential in the making of a video game! It all comes together through intensive collaboration and collective brainstorming when faced with difficulties.

Background by Philippe Poirier

What are some of your favorite projects to date? What made these project important to your practice?

Working on my 3D short as a student was a superb experience. The art direction was left to the student’s care and I really enjoyed the exploration process, sketching and illustrating in 2D so that my 3D work was already informed visually. I was really lucky to work for a 3D studio at the same time, and be able to apply this new knowledge to my school work.

Pearl’s Peril got me started at Hibernum Créations after graduating. It was a fantastic project, and I had the opportunity to work on some really atmospheric backgrounds. I’ve also had the chance to work with very experienced artists, and learning a lot quickly by seeing how they work. Animystics was my first gallery show, and I loved the experience and to actually hang the piece on the wall made me want to make more physical art.

Illustration from Petite Douceur

What are some of your favorite things to do outside of art making?

I’m kind of a reference material hoarder- one never has enough books, right? Whether it’s trips to the library or just hanging out with a coffee, I love looking at books, magazines, sifting through images. I’ve also had a superb trip in Paris this fall and I’d really love to get out and travel more in the future! Playing video games is a big hobby of mine as well!

Detail of Philippe's work for the Animystics Exhibition

Do you have any upcoming projects you can share?

I am starting on a new mobile game project at work which is pretty exciting and as for personal projects. I want to make postcards for the holidays, and I’d also love to print a small illustration book in the coming year. I’m always keeping my eyes peeled for new calls for art too.

Thanks, Philippe!

You can find more of Philippe Poirier's work on his portfolio site, behance, instagram, and follow his tumblr here! You can also play Philippe's Noir level for the Dream Arcade Exhibition and Game on the Light Grey Website here!

Artist Interview: Joey McCormick

Today is the last day to see the Dream Arcade Exhibition at Light Grey Art Lab! This collaboration, show, and creative endeavor has been an incredible adventure in both art-making and game playing. Throughout the week, we will be celebrating some of the artists that contributed to exhibition, getting to know their work, and sharing their process through artist interviews!

Dream Arcade prints will be available on the online shop through October 10th. All of the work is also permanently archived on the Dream Arcade Gallery, on the Windows App Store, and available for playing on the Light Grey website!



Meet Joey McCormick. Joey is a graduate from the Savannah College of Art and Design, specializing in Animation. He has worked in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York City as a graphic designer, freelancer, and animator. Over the past several years, Joey has been working with talented animators and art directors on projects such as 'Oreo' with Hornet Inc. and 'Chobani, Fruits and their Mating Games' by Borja Pena at Psyop. This is the first time Joey has exhibited here at Light Grey Art Lab, and we could not be more excited about his contributions and process!



Hi Joey. Could you describe your studio practice? (Where you make, studio habits, materials)

My studio space is a small desk in my living room. It's pretty uninteresting. I do most of my work on a surface pro 2 and computer paper. I like computer paper since I can toss it if it doesn't work. The surface pro 2 is excellent, I also use a Cintiq, but I like being able to move around freely because I’m sort of flinchy!

Usually I freelance with studios in-house, and when I work from home I try to stay on that same schedule. I head out early in the morning for a bike ride. It burns up extra energy so I can focus. Then I get back and put on head phones. Even if I'm not listening to anything, it's like having blinders on.



Could you describe your creative community? Do you often work in a collaborative environment?

The creative community I work with is fairly small. Mostly people I've worked with already and a few people from school. But the community is extremely talented and ambitious. We all work with each other supporting and pushing to produce higher quality work. We also share contacts as much as we can. I've begun reaching out on social networks like tumblr and instagram. Making friends with other artists and inspiring each other. It's really a great way to grow!

I usually work in a collaborative environment. Even when I'm the only designer on a project. I'll work with directors or producers. When doing personal work I get feedback from people I trust. I'm working on a short now with a small team. That way we can all bring a lot of our own choices to the project.



Could you share your process and inspiration for the animations and characters you made for Dream Arcade?

I love space and scifi! I also enjoy using graphic shapes in my work, especially triangles. So that was the jumping off point for the Dream Arcade. That interest translated really well to pixel art animations. All my effects were simple geometric shapes enlarging or flashing. For the character, I was originally planning to make a space knight with a sword, but I wanted the character to look cleaner than that. Eventually, I went with the energy claw type weapon that just appears during the attack. For the character animation, I roughed it all out in Flash, then exported it as a .png sequence and brought those into Photoshop. Each frame was a layer. Next, I cleaned it up in the pixel art style. My 'effects animations' were all created in photoshop. I made loops of squares and triangles flashing or exploding then repeated them in most of the effects. I was really happy with how they turned out!

What were the initial concepts and considerations for your world?

Originally, I wanted the world to be a mix of scifi space and medieval fantasy, but I wanted the world to feel cohesive- combining the textures. After doing some sketches, I decided to create a meteor world that is still in development. It includes big, chunky designs that are still futuristic, and the texture of the ground would read clearly against the metal assets.



What are some of your favorite subjects and imagery to include in your work?

Triangles. That's not really a subject or imagery, but I really like to include that shape. And I always love to use with a fantasy or scifi imagery. Drawing a guy drinking coffee is fun, but drawing a robot powered by arcane magic and drinking coffee is more fun!

What projects are you currently working on?

Outside of professional work, I'm working on two short films. One is called “Onions Stay in the City”. It's just me working on this one, and it's going very slowly! I'm on the background stage now, hopefully I’ll move on to animation soon. The other is “Sugar Rush” by Alex Horan. He's directing and animating it and I'm doing the backgrounds. It's really fun, and is going to be a little inappropriate for younger audiences. It involves a lot of ice cream cone strippers!



What are some of your biggest inspirations to your work? (artists, mediums, books, etc. )

I'm constantly inspired by other artists. Kevin Dart has been one of the biggest inspirations of mine. I love his use of lighting and color. Another big influence of mine would be McBess. His use of typography and character feels very modern, but throws back to classic cartoons. More recently, I've been into Fabien Mense, and a lot of French illustrators. And I don't think I can talk about scifi without bringing up Creature Box! They're an amazing pair of artists that do some of the best robot, monster, alien or anything weird like that designs. Really dynamic and always have incredible color. And Erik D. Martin and Ryan Lang taught me so much about digital painting and how light works. And if you follow my tumblr you can clearly see that whatever video game I'm currently playing is inspiring my work!

Thanks, Joey!

You can find more of Joey's work on his website here, and follow his current projects on tumblr. You can also see Joey's work for the current Dream Arcade Exhibition on the Light Grey Shop and play the game on the website here.

Artist Interview: Sarah Marino

This week, I had the opportunity to catch up with In Place artist, Sarah Marino. Sarah is an extremely talented illustrator, designer, and visual developer currently working at Reel FX Studio in the feature animation department. She graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2009, and since, has been extremely busy creating works for companies such as Simon & Schuster, Blue Sky Studios, and CMYK Magazine, and has been exhibiting illustrations in galleries throughout the country.

It has been great getting to know Sarah through her participating in the exhibitions. It is clear in her personal practice as well as at work, she is collaboratively focused- a true team player! In this interview, Sarah shares her perspectives on feature animations, studio practice, keeping busy, and being passionate about your profession.



Can you tell us what you currently have in the works? What you are looking forward to?

Currently, I am on cast working on a film called the “Book of Life” with Guillermo Del Toro as creative producer and Jorge Gutierrez as director. It has been an amazing project to be involved with! I also recently wrapped on a project with Simon & Schuster.When I’m not at work, I like to make my own children’s book illustrations. All of these projects have been great because I like to keep busy! I feel guilty if I’m not working, so I’m glad I love making art so much!

You are a visual development artist for Reel FX. Could you talk a little about your role at the studio, your favorite parts of the process, and the community?

Working in animation doesn’t really feel like work – you’re making movies primarily for kids, so it’s great to use your imagination all day. As a vis dev artist, I work in the art department, which is the group of artists responsible for bringing each director’s vision to life. One thing that I really love about working on movies, is that even though you might be on a project for over a year, the range of assignments you undertake keeps it interesting and fun. Working at a younger studio like Reel FX also means the talent is fresh and passionate- it’s a really inspiring environment. Everyone I work with is amazingly talented and we’re all friends outside of work, which I don’t think is always the norm for most larger studios. I love the tight-knit community that’s developed even though our company has grown.



What do you think most people would find surprising about the type of work you do at work or the way an animation studio works?

Making movies is extremely collaborative. I would say a majority of the assignments I’m given have been worked on by someone else in some way, whether they already did sketches, designs, color keys, etc. I’m primarily a painter/surface artist, so a lot of the time I’ll be given a designer’s drawing, and flesh it out with color and form, explore what it’s made of (e.g. stone, wood, organic material, etc), and how it might be lit in a scene. A lot of the work you do in the beginning is exploratory, but once production deadlines hit, you just have to commit. Every assignment given to you is the art director trusting that you’ll make it happen in the allotted amount of time. Deadlines are so important in animation, especially when you’re at the beginning of the pipeline like those of us in the art department. Everything we do has to be passed on to the next department so they can begin bringing the movie to life.

What styles and work from your professional work carry into your personal work? Are the processes similar different?

I’ve learned just as much, if not more so, at my job than I did during school. The amount of talent that I’m surrounded by is really high, and I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from my peers. The biggest difference between what I do at work and what I do at home is the final product. When I do a book illustration or a personal piece, I’m putting a finished painting out there as a standalone image that I created from start to finish. Animation is a lot different – most of the work I do will never go public, and mostly everything I work on is only a concept of the final product, not actually the final.

For example, if I do a painting of what a certain prop might look like, I’ll paint it the way it should look in the movie, and then the CG artists will take my painting and sculpt, surface, animate, etc. the actual asset for the movie. It seems discouraging at first, but I actually find it really rewarding to see what the CG artists can do with the work I handoff to them. When I watch a movie I worked on, I can point at a certain prop or character and say ‘I created that. And my one friend modeled it, another textured it, another animated it.’ That collaborative part is something that I really love about animation.



What personal projects do you have in the works? Is there anything you have been dying to create?

Storytelling is my passion, and even though I primarily tell stories with illustrations, I also love to write. One of my books in progress is an illustrated middle-grade fantasy novel. CTN Expo is coming up in a few months, so I’m going to try to see how many new pieces I can put together in time for that. There are a lot of old Russian and Eastern European fairy tales I’ve been researching in hopes to use as a jumping off point for a new body of vis dev work. The last thing I’ve been up to (this is the first time I’m saying so publicly, in fact), is that I’ve had the pleasure to do some voiceover work for FUNimation Studios, an anime distribution company here in the Dallas area. Being able to dub over for anime has been crazy fun, but also incredibly surreal! My first credit will be on the Fairy Tail movie coming out later this year.

You create beautiful landscapes and scenes everyday, and are well versed in fantastical imagery. How did you select your location for In Place? What were you drawn in by?

I'm really big on watching documentaries while I work, and luckily Netflix has a great selection of them. I had recently watched a documentary on Myanmar, and the Bagan Temples really stood out to me visually, despite the current disparity in the country. I instantly wanted to learn more about the history of the temples. I try to set goals for my work, and adding more larger scale landscapes to my portfolio was one of them. The In Place show was a great opportunity I had to jump on while the images of the temples still buzzed around in my head. With my work, I'm definitely attracted to subtleties and quieter moods, so learning about the history of the Bagan Temples and the monks who still inhabit them really resonated with my aesthetic and design philosophy.



I spent some time searching for photography of the temples and referred to other documentaries. Especially with a piece like this that was so grounded in reality, I wanted to make sure I honored the history and architecture of the culture I would be illustrating. I think with the case of this piece, the reference images I found really inspired my thumbnails. I was drawn to the photographs that showed the temples in the early morning or late sunset and I knew I wanted to explore the foggy glow that bounces off the tops of the gold-gilded buildings. I was also really drawn to the monks and their day to day lives; how after all of these years, they still walk with purpose throughout such ancient and impressive structures.

What other topics inspire you when making? What are some of your favorite types of characters, scenes, stories?

I’m a sucker for anything whimsical, fantastical, or romantic, so if a story or character or place has anything to do with one or all of the above (huge bonus), then I’m immediately drawn to it. I actually made a list of a bunch of my favorite characters, and I found that my favorites tend to either be heroes (especially the reluctant kind, like Harry Potter or Sailor Moon) or dashing rogues with sensitive souls (e.g. Han Solo, Spike Spiegel). I’m a seriously hopeless romantic, and if two characters fall in love despite all the odds set against them, I’m completely invested emotionally. I’m sure this is probably why a lot of my work tends to feature heroines or couples. At least I’m consistent!



And lastly, do you have any advice for aspiring character developers?

Draw every single day. If you’re having a bad drawing day, seek out things that inspire you! Play guitar, go for a walk in the park, go to a bookstore or see a movie. There are so many resources out there today for people that want to work in animation–from workshops or online classes, to CTN Expo or SDCC. Networking will get you the job, so be friendly to everyone you meet in the industry–your work ethic and good attitude means more than your portfolio. Don’t be afraid to edit your portfolio. Submit your portfolio with work that applies to the job you want. It’s a competitive industry, but if you want it bad enough, and you work for it hard enough, you’ll get there. My path to being a vis dev artist wasn’t easy, but with a lot of hard work and dedication (and a little bit of luck), I made it. You can, too.

Thanks to Sarah for such a great and insightful interview! You can check out more of Sarah Marino's work on her website as well as check out her artwork for the In Place Exhibition and the In Place book on our Light Grey Shop.