Nino with the Poseidon character he helped rig up for Promotions Studio's 2006 Asian Games opening ceremony animated sequence.

In 2006, Nino took 4 months off from his day job as a database programmer to do the 3d Character Animators course in Sydney and during this time he discovered that he had a particular talent for character rigging and scripting.

After graduating from the 3d Character Animators course Nino secured contracts with Sydney's high profile studios MonkeyLab and Promotion Studios along with fellow student Justin Miller, working on major tvc and corporate projects.

These included the currently airing(Mar2007) coke TVC "Endless Summer" adverts and the spectacular 2006 Asian Games opening animation sequence in Korea, that was telecast throughout asia and the world in December 2006.

For more about Nino visit his website here >

Whilst working on the 2006 Asian Games shots, what technical barriers did you have to overcome because of the large screen (160m) projection and how where the problems solved?
We didn't really encounter that many big issues other than having to render the frames at 4k. It just meant having more render nodes available to render it out. The fine particle effects had to be rendered at the full 4k. With the background and some minor layers, we could get away with 3k.

What was the team like that you worked with? Where they all new to the industry or were there any veterans there?
We had about half a dozen or so people on the project. Everybody played to his individual strength and expertise. Some are veterans, and some are like me, new players in town.

Did you work with any other mad academy graduates on this or other projects? What was that experience like?
Yeah I did work with other mad graduates, and it just provided a bit more comradery. You make friends along the way.

What does working on such a project mean for you in terms of what you learned along the way or for your confidence in your future career in the 3D industry?
Completing a project like this just gives you confidence, and the reassurance that you can tackle any complex projects ahead.

Can you give us a brief breakdown of the Asia Games Opening Ceremony project as a whole, and also detail some of the tasks that you performed within the 3D team that worked on it?
Our project had 2 major characters for the opening and closing ceremony. One was a poisedon like mythical creature of the sea, and a genie.

Each character had to be realisitic and detailed as possible. We mocaped the performance of actors at Weta, and hand tweaked the animation afterwards.

My major contribution to the project was rigging, skinning, scripting, muscle jiggle, hair, facial rigging, creating morph targets for the characters. Basically anything that had to do with body and facial deformation, and secondary motion.

Most of the work was done on 3ds Max, Vray, Photoshop, and Zbrush.

Did you think that you’d be involved so closely in such a major international 3D project so soon after leaving mad academy*?
I'm happy to be working on any projects that pushes my knowledge and skills forward.

Were you happy with the work you achieved on this project, what might you do differently next time?
I'm pleased with the results. Well next time, some of the more tedious aspects of the work will hopefully be scripted for automation.

What was the feedback on the job from the client and the audience at the games?
The client was very pleased at what we delivered, and I think you can hear the reception from the audience if you were lucky enough to be in the stadium at the time.

Do you feel confident that you are a fully fledged professional 3D artist now?
I'm confident that I need to keep learning, and improving. Just like any field of technology, you have to keep up, or you will be left behind.

How would you advise trainees to progress from training to production?
Jump into it. Don't be afraid of looking stupid.

Where are you working now?
I'm just back from Monkeylab, was working on Coca Cola TVC. Now I'm back at Promotion Studios.

What kind of projects and tasks are you presently involved in?
A short animation piece. Can't really say much. Script, designs and concepts are still up in the air.

Since working in some demanding commercial project environments, how would you say your (3D) skills have developed?
Well, you learn from other people, and surrounding yourself with other like minded people can only boost one's own knowledge.