Can you briefly introduce yourself?

Hi! My name is Lucas Piazzini and I am currently a Jr. Generalist at Industrial Light and Magic.

Cell you share us about your childhood. What inspired you growing up, and how did those early experiences lead you to your current career? Were there any unique challenges you faced during those early stages?

I’ve always been into art without realizing it. I was grabbing the old camcorder and filming stuff when I was 7, and I would draw all the time too. My favorite thing was asking my father to draw goofy cartoons so that I could draw more on top. I had never taken interest in 3D until my parents took me to watch Avatar. I remember watching hours upon hours of all the behind-the-scenes I could get my hands on in repeat. It made me so interested, and I discovered the craftsmanship behind my favorite movies, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean along with it…The interest in moviemaking and 3D would only come back stronger and truly reshape my life years later when I closed Counter-Strike and launched 3DSMax.

Moving into your creative mind, what lights the spark for you? Where do you find the most inspiration when you're deep into a project?

Nature and light come first in my mind. I don’t think anything sparks as many ideas in my head as watching sunlight hitting a cliff, a moody lake, or a misty mountain…music also plays a huge role in inspiring me for future shots, future projects.

Let’s shine a light on one of your favorite projects. Walk us through the creative process and the magic that brought it to life. What makes it stand out in your portfolio?

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I recently did an Amazonian jungle I’m quite fond of. It had been so long since I had done a personal project, and with 2 years of experiments, school projects, productions at Unit Image and more, finally having a few weeks off was the perfect time to do something new and possibly make a new breakdown –which I love doing-. I initially planned for 15 pages of breakdown but ultimately became so passionate about it I pushed it to 40 pages, and actually shortened it because I was exhausted. I think that’s what makes it stand out in my portfolio : while I am satisfied with the fidelity for the time I invested on the 3D side, I think this project really illustrates my enjoyment for sharing.

Check the full breakdown Amazonian jungle here, https://www.artstation.com/artwork/K3rNbB

What's the most challenging or unexpected task you've encountered during production, and how did you navigate through it?

Could be a boring factor to some, but RAM management was definitely the hardest and most challenging aspect of that project. I hit maximum ram multiple times and had to find new ways to optimize, as I absolutely did not want the project to be defined by how many transistors my PC has. After a few rounds of optimization always stopping when I reached a few gigabytes below my 64gb limit, I decided enough was enough and spent a couple evenings optimizing : TX conversions, map-type based compression, mesh LODs, digging deep in the different systems in my scene to benchmark and decide on various settings, where to reduce fidelity etc... It was worth it, as the final scene weighs a bit more than 35gbs in RAM, for an estimated initial weight of far above 125gbs.

How do you manage your time, especially with side personal projects? And when stress creeps in, how do you handle it and keep your energy levels up?

When a personal project starts, I alternate between light evenings of a couple hours of work max and hardcore evenings going from 8pm to 2am, it really depends on my motivation and energy. I don’t set too many rules for myself to avoid stress : if I feel like geeking on some games instead of working, I will do just that and keep working for the moment my brain is craving 3D. Doing this “do what you want when you want” approach spared me stress for the past few years, and personal projects remain a pleasure from beginning to end.

As a Env Artist, with working on various styles and projects showcasing detailed Environments in your showreel, what specific challenges do you encounter in these projects?

For me that would be Lighting and Compositing, but it’s also one of my favorite aspects of it all. I just love a good lighting challenge, trying to emulate a camera exposure and the different effects from an image.. I’m one of those who thinks that lighting and comp can account for the majority of why an image is photoreal, so that’s what I pay extra attention to.

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Reflecting a bit, what are the things you wish you knew or learned earlier that would have made a significant impact on your current situation?

Definitely how to work iteratively. Not going for the final detail, look or quality from the start when the rest of the scene barely reached a V1. It is something that is worth knowing from the very first day, as it allows for more efficient work, management, and output on a day to day basis, and is absolutely crucial in production as the worst case scenario would be to meet your deadline with a very lacking scene with one very good asset in it.

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Who in the industry do you look up to as an inspiration or role model? Is there someone you’ve said, "I want to be like them when I grow up"? or “I wish I collaborated to work on a project with”

That would probably be Steffen Hampel, he currently is a Senior generalist at ILM Vancouver. I first discovered him with his Gondor project and immediately saw his work as an inspiration. I’m fortunate enough to be in great terms with him now and we often share wips and opinions, he’s the nicest!

Edit: Since writing this, I’ve become one of his coworkers! He has great tastes in hamburgers.

That’s really nice and Steffen Hampel is very talented artist too, What's your favorite part of your job? Is there a particular feature or tool that you love and couldn't imagine working without?

Challenge! I don’t think there’s a feeling quite like thinking of how to approach a challenging task, trying your strategy, and seeing positive results. Many of the tips I share started as eureka moments when I was exploring how to approach something, I still remember messing with blend modes and discovering Hardmix some years ago. Overcoming challenges is such a fulfilling aspect of the craft, whatever those challenges may be as they are different for everyone!

When it comes to a tool I can’t imagine working without…I’d be lying if I said anything in my day to day life came anywhere close to how useful Blend Modes are to me. The “all you need is add and multiply” is a myth! All blendmodes are worth learning. I use them in texturing, lookdev, displacement and terrain generation, compositing..everywhere! So yeah, they would be my pick for favorite tool.

On the path of personal development, how do you continue to challenge yourself and grow as an artist?

I purposefully pick projects that are difficult for me with specific goals each time. Sometimes it’s a whole new kind of subject I’ve never done, sometimes it’s trying to reach a new level of realism in a certain aspect.... I always try to find projects with added value and avoid going into a rince-and-repeat “habit” workflow. Part of what attracts me in 3D is getting to take a step back and appreciate things I had never taken the time to look at before : The colors on a leaf next to you, the way water falls on your window.. and grow as an artist training my eye to understand these new things in order to faithfully recreate them.

My current challenging obsession is finding that little realism ingredient that makes a photograph of a seemingly empty, boring spot actually infinitely interesting.

Tips and Tricks: As Env artist / Generalist, Do you have set of tips and tricks your can share that you find helpful and would like to share.

Life is pointillist! Even surfaces often have all kinds of multicolored spots that make them a specific color overall, but also extremely interesting at different scales. It’s not just “adding variation” using versions of the same texture, as this often ends with a diffuse color going through a couple dark or bright masked variations, it really is about adding new colors to enrich the surface.

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For artists who want to check out your work and learn more about you, where should they go?

I am most active on Artstation and Linkedin, sharing updates or potential WIPs on LinkedIn while Artstation is reserved for posts and breakdowns!

https://www.artstation.com/lucaspiazzini

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucaspiazzini/

Do you have something for the community?

I have bundled together 2 TyFlow setups I used to generate lianas for this project : The ones that gravitate around tree trunks, and the suspended messy ones for you to explore ! On top of that, I included one raw frame of the project for those who’d like to explore and play with it in compositing, practice, or test tools onto a fullCG environment render!

Get it here.

What is your secret for a good render?

Thick chocolate crêpes and lots of photoshop paintovers. It doesn’t have to be clean or well drawn, it just needs to be quick, efficient and accurately depict behaviors you see in your references. Many quick mouse-based paintovers can transform a project, but really, the most critical aspect is to spread the chocolate evenly across the surface.

Is there a type of environment, biome, setting or style of project you like to do more than others?

Not a biome specifically, but I want to give a shoutout to the complex beauty of spacious and  simple natural places. I find that real simplistic environments like grassfields or dunes have a little something that, for some reasons, makes their simplicity still incredibly captivating, which is -to me at least- one of the most challenging and most difficult aspects to get.

As we wrap up, what final words do you have for your fellow artists?

Do your own thing! Even if people around you say it’s not worth it or that you’re putting too much effort into it, if you’re having fun with your project just do it however you like. When it comes to personal projects, fun is too often forgotten about in the favor of efficiency. Oh and take the lens defects you think are final and reduce them by 50% haha!