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The Career Path of Eduardo Martin

Discover how top lighting director Eduardo Martin got started in his illustrious career in the animated feature film industry.

Who are you and what do you do for a job?

My name is Eduardo Martin and I work as a lighting technical director on animated feature films.

What were your childhood inspirations and earliest artistic memory?
Although it may sound cliché, Disney was a huge artistic influence when I was a kid. I also remember reading lots of comic books and watching TV series such as Mazinger Z, The Pink Panther, Woody Woodpecker, The Flintstones, Popeye, Mighty Mouse or Marco.

The earliest artistic memory that I have is when I got the chance to copy some frames of Disney's The Jungle Book onto a big display to cover some of the walls of my classroom when I was probably about 8 years old.


What training have you had (if any)?
I have been pretty much self-taught during my whole career. I got introduced to computer graphics back in the mid '90s, when I had the chance to sign up for one of the first CG courses available in my country. That course taught me the basics and also helped me realize that this was what I wanted to do for living.

At that time, there were very few places where you could go and learn about animation and computer graphics, so I decided that from that point on, and during the following four years, I was going to work towards my own college degree in CG.

As soon as I got my first job, I started buying books and working long hours, and treating it as if I really was in college. During those years I never thought I was working, but that someone was paying me to study, and that is an attitude and philosophy that I have kept to today. The world is evolving at a stunningly fast pace, so it is essential to keep up to date or you will fall behind incredibly easily.


Are there any particular schools or courses that you'd recommend?
To be honest, I am not very aware about what is going on in the industry when it comes to schools or courses. Nowadays, there are so many options that it could be overwhelming. The good news is that as a student, you have the chance to get taught in the way that best suits your preferences and budget; be it college, private schools, taking online courses or even learning by yourself.

From what I have seen over the years, it seems that while having or not having some kind of degree is quite irrelevant in Europe, in the United States having a college degree may set the difference between getting hired or not. Most of the big studios also look for talent at the universities and I have seen lots of recent graduates whose first job was already in a big company.

However, those degrees are quite expensive and only a few talented students have the chance to earn a decent paycheck out of school, which makes the burden of college loans something to be considered. In any case, by the end of the day, getting hired or not usually comes down to three factors: the quality of your work, contacts/networking and being in the right place at the right moment.


What was your first job in the industry and how did you get it?
My first job was in a company where I did product previsualization. We had an industrial designer who was in charge of designing and modeling the products with Alias, and I was taking care of the rendering with Softimage. The funny thing is that the Silicon Graphics computer that we had back then was so expensive that we had to share the same workstation and work on shifts!

I got the job through networking and I was lucky enough to realize early on how important is to have a good network of contacts. I recently read that most of the hiring happening nowadays is through referrals and very little through application forms.

What can people expect from working in the industry?
That it is a tougher job than it seems. There are a lot of people that want to become a CG artist because computer Graphics imagery looks beautiful once it's finished and displayed or screened, but not too many people are aware of the amount of work done behind every frame.

Computer graphics, as any visual art, is also an industry where people have different opinions about how things should look and unfortunately, they tend to change their minds too often. Sometimes, it can be frustrating to be redoing work over and over again because someone cannot make up his mind.

People should also expect long working hours, especially during production peaks or crunch time, often due to the previously mentioned point. The bright side is that after all the hard work, it really pays off once the project gets done and you can see the final result.

What are the key things that a great portfolio must have?
Something that catches the attention of the person looking at your portfolio. The CG industry has been growing very rapidly during the last ten years and there are a lot of people trying to break into it. For those people, I would recommend trying to differentiate themselves from the herd and offer something different, unique. Ask yourself: why would company "X" hire me instead of someone else applying to the same job? What can I offer that other candidates can't? Sell your potential.


Where would you like to be in five years' time?
Wherever my heart takes me. To me this job has always been vocational and the main goal has never been to make loads of money but to enjoy it, which I will keep pursuing all my life. Something that I would like to try in the future is to get into pre-production, development and even scriptwriting, and move away from production a little bit. In the past I've directed and produced a couple of short films and also pre-produced a couple of animated TV series, and I miss that creative part of the process.


Looking back with the benefit of your experience, are there things you would do differently in your training/career if you had the chance to do it over again?

I have always thought that each decision you make during your life is the right decision for that moment. Obviously, it would be awesome to be able to make decisions knowing how those would affect your future, but unfortunately that is not possible.

From my point of view, nobody should ever regret about decisions made in the past as there is no way to go back in time and change them. If you think you made a bad choice in the past all you can do is not make the same mistake again in the future.

Success and failure are also part of the learning process and both are necessary to progress. The only mistake that it is a failure is the one that didn't teach you anything.


If you could give one piece of advice to people looking to break into the industry, what would it be?

Besides the previously mentioned, I would say that people should work hard and do their best. I would also say that people should try to find which part of the computer graphics world is the one where they feel the most comfortable and focus on it. It is way easier to become proficient in a specific area that feels second nature to you than in something that you struggle with.

I have seen people that wanted to be animators where their true skills were in lighting, or talented developers that wanted to be artists. There is nothing wrong with wanting to learn and improve in those areas that you like or where you feel weaker, but what will help you succeed is to focus on those areas where you have your full potential.

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