3DTotal -
Hi there, could you introduce yourself to the viewers and tell us a bit about yourself? Ila
- Hi and thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am Ila Soleimani, a Tehran (Iran) born freelancing 3d artist, animator and TV Ad developer. It was PIXAR’s short film ‘Tin Toy’ which awakened my desire for being a 3d artist exactly in the year it won the Oscar award. Since then I follow my career experiencing with my beloved C64 home computer by making simple 2d flying logo animations and sprite designing. I got into the professional CGI market in 1993 while I was studying Graphic Designing at University. I started my first 3D experience with Autodesk 3dstudio 2. I am totally a self-taught in the field of CGI and 3D (The reason was very simple, there was no CG school back to early 90’). I went freelancing since I left Hoor Animation Studio in end of 1999.
3DTotal - With Pixar igniting your fire for 3D do you think that the movies have
influenced your work at all?
Ila - Absolutely, it is obvious in my works and animations. I saw The Incredibles 9 times in the week I got the DVD (My son has watched it - and Monsters Inc. - more than 40 times, and you don’t believe that he is watching it again while I am writing this!). Back in 1993, we had got a VHS demo-tape of Pixar’s Renderman™ and that was Incredible! To make a film like legendary old-school Pixar’s shorts (Red’s Dream, for instance) is still my strongest temptation!
3DTotal -
How do you compare working in the industry to working freelance? Ila
- When I stared freelancing at home I had a hard time to balance my work time and home time. It got even worst after my son was born! My working hours shifted from the daytime to the late night, I remember a period that I was awake till 6 AM! The good thing about full day-time job is that you have separated working hours and free time; the down side is that you have limited of free time and you probably cannot make a short film for your own or go to holidays more than a week! But I can say that I really I missed the team work option since I am doing almost everything myself. If I get a good offer, surely I will go for it.
3DTotal -
Can you tell us how the idea for your latest project 'Quest for the mystic Moogoo fruit!' came about? And can you give us a quick outline to what the story is all about?
Ila -
It was October 2004 that I and my friend Paolo Daolio were chatting in MSN and I showed him some of my sketches of spaceships and aliens. We decided to make a short film based on those designs. We developed a simple story about a journey-man who is searching for a mysterious galactic fruit which is located on a distance planet! Unfortunately Paolo had not enough time to spend on it. I continued it alone but I was using his and other friends’ comments and suggestions. I wanted to do comedy homage to 60’ B monster and alien movies and Ray Harryhausen film. The development started in the same month and after 13 months in November 2005 the sound-mixed version was ready (Thanks to the young and talented musician/composer Marijn Jongewaard!) . It really didn’t take 13 months to be made because I was working on it only in my spare time so it could be said it took about 3 months of full-time work for a 135 seconds film.
