about: ARITZ AIZPURUA ARAKAMA

I am Aritz Aizpurua and I am 2d-3d (generalist) artist. I have drawed and painted since I was a child. My father painted too as hobby and booth learned painting with traditional techiniques like oil, watercolors, pastel or ink. With 14 years my parents gift my a 486 DX2 66 Mhz with 4 Ram computer .

I made my first digital drawings with Paint in windows, and first animations with Deluxe Paint Animator in MS-DOS. I have learned 3d mainly in the company where I worked during 7 years, making mainly low cost 3d films. Two years ago I (and my partners) decided to left it, and start our own adventure as company. And here is where I am actually, in Ikso Studio.

If you have a bachelor degree/education background; what is it?
I have done all the studies until my first year of university. I done only the first year of computer science. I left it and started working as freelance for an animation company doing in inbetweener work for 2d tv shows.

Where are you located?
I am living in Irun. A small city in Basque Country, in Spain. It is really a great place to live. I have the sea in less than 10 minutes by car, and mountains, in less than 5 walking .

Tell us about this movie you made, titled “Zapping”. What was the idea behind it originally?
Before Zapping came the main character, and before this our logo, and before this a small reptile toy I have on my desktop . When we created Ikso Studio, I have bought a little reptile toy. Then, we have decided that we want a reptile as a logo for the studio. After some sketches I have done our actual one. Then we started thinking that it would be great to create a character from this shape. So I made some sketches again and comes to live Ikso – I like to call it Ikso… sounds like a cat name -. Then we thought about his personality, and decided that fits really well in something like mix of Garfield/Pink Panther. Once we got the character, we started thinking in a short gag sequence.

Would you explain a bit about the process of creating the movie? What were the challenges and how you went around it?
First thing was to write a little script. Then I have draw a quick storyboard and put all in our studio wall. Then I started modeling and creating our character in 3d. Our friend Patxi Pelaez made the background a props design and Mikel and Juan did all this in 3d. After that Juan animated all the short – I only animated the first scene until the main caharacter sits the firt time -. While this, me and Avelino rendered the scene. Avelino did all the composition work, working with all the rendered passes and layers. He added also many fx in composition, like glows, ambient fog, depth of field or motion blur.

It is a personal work, I think this was our challenge: It is the best thing and main obstacle at same time. When you have a client, you know the time and limitations you have. But for a personal work, it is hard to limit yourself. This can be a good or bad thing. You can jump into a never end loop, and lose the goal. Second, we was feel that we do the first 3d job in our lives. We worked many years in another places, but we never was happy with working pipelines and workflows. So we tried many new  techniques (for as). I can say that we have learned a lot… and that was the main goal

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Zapping from Aritz Aizpurua on Vimeo.

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What would be your strangest assignment you have done? Why so?
Umm… I can´t remember any particular work. I had done motion capture with myself, fix MANY computers…

Describe how you feel at the starting of a new project?
I feel fear and emotion at same time. Each project is different, and each one has different challenges.

How do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I see myself doing the same thing… but better. I see a bigger studio, with more talented new people working in the same fun project. And I see my self with a better portfolio, one to be proud.

Could you share any insight for people just entering the field?
Be constant, and always has ambition to learn new things.

Who is the person you look up to in this industry? Why so?
There are many people that I admire, and if I must choose, I know I have forgotten many people’s names. I always try myself become like a sponge, and learn the best thing from each one.

How do you overcome creative block?
Working or trying more. Some years ago I always thought, that the better way was to relax, disconnect and the muse ideas and inspiration would came. This no happens. I think that ideas don’t came to you, you must go to ideas and catch them. But it is true too that sometimes it is not a bad idea to take a break

What’s one thing you wish you knew when beginning this passion?
All the thing that I know now . It is really fun to learn every day new things, but here where I am living there was no much or nothing information about graphic design, animation… and I feel that I have loss many years learning for myself… I am really happy to have internet

If you have online portfolio (website/awards/credits/client’s showcase), what is the URL?
Our studio’s site : www.iksostudio.com

My personal sites:
www.vimeo.com/aritz
aritzaizpurua.blogspot.com
http://aritz.cgsociety.org

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