3DTotal : Hi Greg. Thanks for talking to us. Tell me, where are you currently working?
Grzegorz : Hello. Currently, I’m working at CafeFX in California, as lead animator on Frank Darabont's Mist, a film based on Steven King's book.

3DTotal : And what have you worked on recently?
Grzegorz : I have just finished working on my second short film “ARK". It had won Best of Show award at Siggraph 2007, it has also been nominated for Golden Palm Award in short film category at Cannes film festival. It was a very long project (it took almost 3 years to complete) and I worked on it mainly after regular work hours. Together with my friend Marcin Kobylecki, who was the producer of this film, and a team of very talented people, we have finally finished this 8 minutes long animation. Before completing		  
    "ARK" I had the pleasure to work on Guillermo del Toro’s film “Pan’s Labyrinth” as a lead animator. It was a big character project, great story and visuals. I was responsible for animating and rigging of some of the CG creatures that appear in the film. Along with Sin City, that was the most rewarding feature project I have ever worked on.

3DTotal : So did you learn anything new tricks from working on Pan’s Labyrinth which you later used on ARK?
Grzegorz : I was working on Pans Labyrinth at the same time as on ARK,
    the difference was that on Labyrinth I was doing mainly character animation in Maya On ARK on the other hand I have been using Softimage and doing pretty much everything. Observing the way Guillermo's film was shot and lit, was definitely a great help for me, but I don’t recall any particular tricks that I might have used on ARK after Pan's production experience.
3DTotal : With the ARK finally finished, did you imagine you would get the sort of response that it has?
Grzegorz : It was so fast, I didn’t have a time to think. We had finished on day, and the next weekend we knew it won Siggraph, It was surely great and overwhelming. It’s hard to say that I was expecting this, but I can
    
say, I was hoping for it. After all you do the movies to be seen, and appreciated.

3DTotal : Has this inspired you to get cracking on your next short film, or are you going to take a well earned break?
Grzegorz : Martin and I have a pretty good idea for next short film. I still haven’t decided if we should do it live action or animated. I’m also thinking of a feature, polishing the script nowadays, time will show. What I definitely would like to do though,
    
 
is to create a film during normal day work time, not after-hours and not for next 3 years!!

3DTotal : Your skills range from Illustration work to 3D Animation, how important do you think it is to have these skills in relation to each other?
Grzegorz : Depending on what your tasks are in 3D, it’s really good to have some background
knowledge and I find traditional art skills most important. After the entire final product is an image, and nothing helps to achieve the goal better than a traditional understanding of colour, composition and drawing. Simply being able to sketch, design, and visualise your shot on paper before you even touch the computer, shortens the amount of time you going to spend on Research & Development for the project. Art skills help you know what you want without spending hours and days of unnecessary CG tryouts.

3DTotal : Which areas of your work do you enjoy the most?
Grzegorz : Everything. Literally. The most rewarding is the composition of the shot though, putting all the elements together and adding those final touches. If you have worked on all your 3D and 2D elements - compositing is even more rewarding :)

3DTotal : Mantis, your animated short film, which must have been an enormous
undertaking for 1 person?
Grzegorz : It was pretty painful but I had a great time. I was working on it by myself, using one
Power Mac workstation and Cinema 4D. I have learned a lot. After finishing this film, I got a job in
Platige Image, one of the best polish animation studios, and then, after 3 years, - at CafeFX,
where I work now.
    
 
 
 
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