Ethan Wilde: All right, welcome everybody to,
Ethan Wilde: our first presentation this semester for the Game Views series, here at Santa Rosa Junior College. I'm very pleased today,
Ethan Wilde: to have,
Ethan Wilde: Alessandro Brilla, an art director, character artist, and toy maker, originally from Italy. Alessandro has worked in Milan at Milestone on racing games, at Factor 5 in the U.S,
Ethan Wilde: Where he worked on Lair for PlayStation before moving on to Shaba games, and eventually Toys for Bob here in California, not too far down the road from us in Santa Rosa.
Ethan Wilde: Welcome, Alessandro.
Alessandro Briglia: It's a pleasure to be here, absolutely.
Ethan Wilde: You have such an interesting,
Ethan Wilde: story, I'm so thrilled that you're here to share it with us all.
Ethan Wilde: We had a chance to speak a little bit before today, and you shared a really wonderful,
Ethan Wilde: background piece that I'll share in the URL here for everybody to look at later on. It's what I have on the screen right now on the webpage from the department.
Ethan Wilde: In the story you shared, you described yourself in a really interesting way. Maybe with your background from a family of fishermen, you said that you felt like a salmon swimming upstream.
Ethan Wilde: You wanted to be creating, even when you were in environments where it didn't really, support that, and I'm wondering how you would,
Ethan Wilde: Talk to our students, who might feel that same
Ethan Wilde: drive to be creative, but maybe getting doubts, or maybe not in an environment that feels very conducive. How can they stay on the course in that pursuit?
Alessandro Briglia: is that when I define and make a joke, say that, I feel sometimes myself like a salmon, is more like, because, from the start, from when I was very young, I felt this…
Alessandro Briglia: pulls, this push on to… to do things.
Alessandro Briglia: To, to make creative. It can be… tell a story, can be, make a draw, or building something.
Alessandro Briglia: And it was something almost overwhelming. I can do everything else. I work as a waiter for a long time. I was a cook. I work as a blacksmith for some time.
Alessandro Briglia: But, always was, like, preparing myself for something else, for these kind of things.
Alessandro Briglia: I never… at the start, I never know that it was a job. It can be transformed, this passion, the thing was… can be transformed at a job. In Italy, that is, renewed for art and creativity, didn't give a lot of possibility.
Alessandro Briglia: So, when I tell to my family I want to become an artist, and I want to be enrolled in an art school, they say, perfect. And I find myself, study chemistry. So, I have, like, an industrial chemistry degree.
Alessandro Briglia: But, again, also when I studied chemistry, the passion was always to take creativity. Working, preparing myself.
Alessandro Briglia: take every possible small job that have a creativity connected, sometimes make a design for t-shirt, sometimes just, like, a banner for a sport event. But always in this direction.
Alessandro Briglia: When I arrived to Damon University, I was lucky. I win a grant, so I say, no, no, no, I want to go to do something creative.
Alessandro Briglia: And at the time for industrial design, because industrial design, at the time, it was the thing more close possible to special effect, because in one side, you have art. In the other side, you have technology. At the time.
Alessandro Briglia: time ago, computer didn't exist in this way, so the technology for the special effect, it was practical. Study design, it was the things that were more close possible to this kind of field. So I studied design.
Alessandro Briglia: when I finished the school,
Alessandro Briglia: I was, one of my teachers start to interested to have me working with him in the studio.
Alessandro Briglia: But again, it was creative, it was fun.
Alessandro Briglia: it was kind of itch, you know, I don't know how to describe. And a friend of mine, when I was preparing the thesis for this, for the class, he told me, oh, you must use a computer for, for art. I just have a computer that uses, like, a…
Alessandro Briglia: all very… Kind of, just for writing the test links.
Alessandro Briglia: And then my friend really pushed me. Come a weekender, Download this program.
Alessandro Briglia: Link me to the chair, really, and make me use it for today.
Alessandro Briglia: At the end of the day, I was happy… these two days, I was capable to make sphere, cube, moving around.
Alessandro Briglia: And, yeah, it was too late. So I started to try to make stuff that I liked.
Alessandro Briglia: And then I see, oh, I can do things. I remember my first mobile was a very horrible, horrible
Alessandro Briglia: pay saga from Eliana.
Alessandro Briglia: And, I said to make this model for fun. There is no market, there is no… Job.
Alessandro Briglia: And, I started to publish in this work in a magazine in Italy. I have a good feedback.
Alessandro Briglia: And, through this, somebody contacted me and tell me, oh, you know that you can make a job of this. We're looking for people like you. So, I went to this company.
Alessandro Briglia: And they asked me to do some specific job, create a very high amount of character in a very short time.
Alessandro Briglia: before I can connect the brain, I open my mouth and say, yeah, no problem.
Alessandro Briglia: I come back home, and I remember I was punching my face all the three tobacco, because why open my mouth? I don't know how to do this.
Alessandro Briglia: So, I start to do… approach, like, I was a learning study chemist, so a technical approach.
Alessandro Briglia: what they need.
Alessandro Briglia: where I find the tool that I need, who I need to bother for help me. So, I start to buy books about the programs, I start to learn.
Alessandro Briglia: And I was able to do it to the task. From this, it was step by step. I moved from another company, Milan, Milestone.
Alessandro Briglia: Were they doing wrestling games?
Alessandro Briglia: And, the, our director at the time, the milestone, was joking, because we hire you for desperation. I mean, we make the error to say to you, oh, you are not there yet, but
Alessandro Briglia: Can you send us your progress? So, every damn month, I send them the classical VHS cassette with my progress, every damn month.
Alessandro Briglia: At one point, their director, okay, we can hire him. At least don't send us material. And stop it. So I was hired to, to Milestone, and doing racing game.
Alessandro Briglia: For the truth, I didn't love a lot to do a racing game. I'm more a character person, so make a car.
Alessandro Briglia: motorcycle. It was fun, it was the… my entry point in the industry, but at the same time.
Alessandro Briglia: And I find the milestone, a group of people that, like me, loving to do stuff.
Alessandro Briglia: But… not really a racing game.
Alessandro Briglia: The art director, Marco Spitoni, he was… he was a movie guy. He wanted to make a movie.
Alessandro Briglia: And, we start to gather.
Alessandro Briglia: four or five people. Marcos Pitone was one, Alessandro Baldaceroni was another one, Minervino, Ricardo Minervino was another one.
Alessandro Briglia: And we start to do it during the day.
Alessandro Briglia: we make racing games. At night, we start to make our small video.
Alessandro Briglia: At the start were 1 minute. Then.
Alessandro Briglia: 3 minutes, 5 minutes. The last one was 20 minutes. CodeGuardian was created by 5 sick person at the time.
Alessandro Briglia: And, it was fun.
Alessandro Briglia: It was… we're challenging each other constantly.
Alessandro Briglia: I don't know, I didn't know at the time I was reading animating, so I tried. I learned something. Marcus Mittoni helped to combine everything, and he started to learn about composition, he started to make, like, music.
Alessandro Briglia: We finish, and then we… we were just happy, because, oh, we make something that we love it.
Alessandro Briglia: what we're doing now? So, why don't we send around? We send around the, the video.
Alessandro Briglia: And, in meantime, I find job here in the States.
Alessandro Briglia: And it was also thank you to the video, because I can show something very strong, very complete to show around.
Alessandro Briglia: And, one person here, I don't speak at the time.
Alessandro Briglia: English at all.
Alessandro Briglia: I study French in Italy.
Alessandro Briglia: And this guy speak Italian, a little bit, so he told me, like, you can come here to make an interview.
Alessandro Briglia: In the worst case scenario, You stay one week here, You try.
Alessandro Briglia: I come here, make the interview, it went well, and they move here in the States. At the time, I married my girlfriend, become my wife, and we move here.
Alessandro Briglia: At the start, it was,
Alessandro Briglia: Because, don't speak the language.
Alessandro Briglia: Also, if the culture is similar, there is a lot of differences.
Alessandro Briglia: And we're thinking, yeah, we are isolated. We don't know nobody.
Alessandro Briglia: We discovered an incredible Italian community here in Bay Area.
Alessandro Briglia: And, the people at the Hatter 5, all my colleagues, they're more than helpful in this.
Alessandro Briglia: In meantime, to come back on another story.
Alessandro Briglia: my friend Marco was contacted by phone, and they said, hi, I'm, Peter Jackson, I saw the, the video about CodeGuardian, I want to hire you. And, he sent Peter Jackson to
Alessandro Briglia: F himself.
Alessandro Briglia: And put down the phone, because he was believing, it was me.
Alessandro Briglia: I'm a prankster, so, Peter Jackson called again and said, tell him, sorry, maybe there was a misunderstanding. Hi, I am a director, Peter Jackson, I want to hire you as an F himself again.
Alessandro Briglia: So, until time, he was the secretary, Peter Jackson, they called him, explained the situation.
Alessandro Briglia: And, to make the story short, my friend Marco and the rest of the crew, they move in New Zealand.
Alessandro Briglia: So, these first say that our passion at this time, we created something that… it wasn't for looking for a job, it wasn't for, have a price on the hand. It was just for a fun, from ourself, because it was so fun working together in something that we loved.
Alessandro Briglia: It was the thing that propelled us to the next step for our career.
Alessandro Briglia: I'm over here, Locker 5, I work on Layer. Layer was fantastic.
Alessandro Briglia: At one point, I found myself to be challenged to make all this dragons.
Alessandro Briglia: And, one other important things is when you're working a very big, three-play game.
Alessandro Briglia: Is… you are not alone.
Alessandro Briglia: At one point, you discover that it's not important that you are good to make a dragon, to sculpt dragon.
Alessandro Briglia: The important thing is the production.
Alessandro Briglia: you have, like, a concept artist that works with you to create, like, the best dragon possible, looking best Dragon possible. But then, you work with Riga, an animator.
Alessandro Briglia: And I start to make my dragon. They look good, but the lead animator will say to me, Holly, this is good, but…
Alessandro Briglia: We have a problem.
Alessandro Briglia: he tried to explain to me, and I feel like I'm… yeah, but, okay, stop making Dragon for one week.
Alessandro Briglia: For this rig, you just rig the dragon.
Alessandro Briglia: What is me? After a week, I was so miserable.
Alessandro Briglia: I understand what is my problem. I did understand what the rigor at the animator needed. So, working with the full team is me that you're not an island, you're not just focus
Alessandro Briglia: on your field, you start to need to be open, to understand you don't need to read or animate, but you need to know the problem, you need to work with them.
Alessandro Briglia: So when you make your work part of your brain.
Alessandro Briglia: is already thinking, this don't work. I need to change. I need to talk and see how you can help fix it.
Alessandro Briglia: He teach me a lot. It teaches working with a team, working with a different field.
Alessandro Briglia: As a concept artist.
Alessandro Briglia: I start to using this. So, at one point, I don't make just the concept in a way that is cool or interesting.
Alessandro Briglia: But also keep in mind that what's happened next, what the modeler, what the reader, what the animator can find is. To try to, stop redundancy. Going back, going back.
Alessandro Briglia: It was a very good school for me, a tough school.
Alessandro Briglia: Fatter 5, I moved to Shab again.
Alessandro Briglia: Shabba Game, it was an activation, company.
Alessandro Briglia: And the Shabba game was terrifying.
Alessandro Briglia: It was terrifying. Why? Because the people inside, inside the, the Shabba, company, working together for 14 years, together. So they are, they, in German, the word is, the word is gestalt.
Alessandro Briglia: When the final element is more than the single part.
Alessandro Briglia: They work in so well together. They look like working Using telepathy.
Alessandro Briglia: the meeting, they were terrifying. I was completely…
Alessandro Briglia: shocked. It was the art director, Scott Weber, who there, like, oh, you? Yes, and you? Yeah. What about… okay, perfect. Alessandro? And I was like.
Alessandro Briglia: Completely clueless, because they're working so well like a perfect machine.
Alessandro Briglia: You show me what is possible, what is… a team can do if they're working together.
Alessandro Briglia: And the key word was trust. They, because working so many times, so many years together, there is a high level of trust between them.
Alessandro Briglia: So, sometimes artists, we artists, we are…
Alessandro Briglia: Problematic. Because art is connected to ego, to think that we make, and sometimes there are friction.
Alessandro Briglia: In Shabba, they show what a team.
Alessandro Briglia: with very low level of friction can achieve. And it was, like, incredible.
Alessandro Briglia: Sadly, Activision decided to close the Shabba.
Alessandro Briglia: And, I find myself, almost without my knowledge, moved to another company in Novato, a Twice for Bob.
Alessandro Briglia: I'm, at the time, a very hyper-realistic, focused guy.
Alessandro Briglia: Move on Novato.
Alessandro Briglia: It was this thing, like, these critters, like.
Alessandro Briglia: weird little things, and colorful, and my… okay, stop. I stay here one year, prepare my portfolio, and then move on.
Alessandro Briglia: 10 years later.
Alessandro Briglia: I started working there as an environmental artist. I didn't care, because just one year.
Alessandro Briglia: Then I, the art director at the time, Yi Wei, see that in my spare time doing character, like, oh, you're doing character, can you try to do something?
Alessandro Briglia: And they start to do character. They start to have a team for character artists.
Alessandro Briglia: And, opens something magical.
Alessandro Briglia: I decided they make the, prototype in China. They just sent image, and the China team…
Alessandro Briglia: make all the prototype for the final toys. Skylander, the prototype that they were working at the time. Also, the idea was have the toys put in a base.
Alessandro Briglia: And the toys appear in the game.
Alessandro Briglia: So, make the toys alive.
Alessandro Briglia: we started talking about how to make this process better, because it was a lot of going back and going back. Also, the language barrier was very strong.
Alessandro Briglia: And we try, like, why don't 3D print here? It was at the start of 3D printing. So, we buy an industrial machine, 3D printing, industrial machine.
Alessandro Briglia: And, we start to do it.
Alessandro Briglia: And it was magical. We started to make… see, for the first time.
Alessandro Briglia: What you're sculpting in the computer, you have in your hand.
Alessandro Briglia: We're joking that, about the cry moment is the first time every artist see their own art become real. It was a very emotional moment.
Alessandro Briglia: So, we start to make prototyping, we buy more machines, different machine.
Alessandro Briglia: And, we make it the choice for ourselves.
Alessandro Briglia: After 10 years, the Skylander franchise was decided to close.
Alessandro Briglia: I work to Crash Bandicoot, to Spyro.
Alessandro Briglia: But one thing that always, propelled me is,
Alessandro Briglia: when they start to know exactly what I'm doing, I'm too comfortable. I feel the itch to find something new, something different, challenging me. I'm a sucker for challenge.
Alessandro Briglia: my friend, our director, Iwei, know it, and use it against me, like a, oh, you know, I make this character, but I don't know, I don't think it's possible to do it.
Alessandro Briglia: done. I spend a night to find a way to define, to create a new pipeline, a new methodology for creating the character that you're looking for.
Alessandro Briglia: This all three was something that they started to propel me in also managing the team, because at one point, I had the knowledge to start to direct other people, to help other people, and I asked to try to become a lead.
Alessandro Briglia: And I think it's very easy. I know everybody from my life. We have friends.
Alessandro Briglia: what kind of problem it can be to be a lead for them? It will be easy.
Alessandro Briglia: And I suck, horribly, because make, model, and manage your people is a completely different kind of set skill.
Alessandro Briglia: It's not like the best modeler, he become a lead. No. Lead become the person that is capable to leading the people, to help them to achieve their own goal. The lead goal is the success of the team, not the success of himself.
Alessandro Briglia: So, again, based on my training in chemistry or design, so more…
Alessandro Briglia: I don't want to say scientific approach, but technical approach.
Alessandro Briglia: I went into a chart and say, I suck.
Alessandro Briglia: enroll me in every possible class you have for leadership. And I spend…
Alessandro Briglia: Probably 4 or 5 months to enroll in all possible class, try, reading… And, I become better.
Alessandro Briglia: And better. So, at one point, I was able to help my team. This is… was my goal.
Alessandro Briglia: After 10 years, I find myself the itch, and a friend of mine let me try PR.
Alessandro Briglia: And I started thinking, oh, this is amazing. I love doing VR. And the potential is insane.
Alessandro Briglia: we, make some tests, we convert to part of the Spyro game in VR, And a fundamental me.
Alessandro Briglia: You know, there is a company in Alameda that, is using VR for, health people, for medical purpose.
Alessandro Briglia: Boom.
Alessandro Briglia: I want to do it. So…
Alessandro Briglia: leave, twice for Baba, it was very traumatic, but I was looking to apply what I learned from video games.
Alessandro Briglia: To help people with disabilities.
Alessandro Briglia: It was fantastic. It was, incredible, but… For the company.
Alessandro Briglia: the company at one point decided to make a step back and come back to produce what they already making. There wasn't… there wasn't a big interest to bring ahead this idea.
Alessandro Briglia: From this, I arrive to… back to video games, to Stilvo Studio, as a director, and started working on Five Night Afraid the franchise.
Alessandro Briglia: It was a very interesting experience, because after COVID, now, we… the full company was in remote.
Alessandro Briglia: These changes everything.
Alessandro Briglia: Because, working on, on remote, and not directly with people that I was, usually, doing, it was…
Alessandro Briglia: challenge.
Alessandro Briglia: But again, it's a challenge. So, Masaka, for this, go.
Alessandro Briglia: The team was very young.
Alessandro Briglia: There were a team of very young artists that had fixed experience in the field, in a company, just mostly of them, they were… come out from school.
Alessandro Briglia: So, it was the first approach to a production, and this, it was, like, One moment of friction.
Alessandro Briglia: Because, obviously, when you are in a school, all these periods.
Alessandro Briglia: Go around you, around a student, to make you better, to make you learn.
Alessandro Briglia: In the moment you move on production, the focus moves from you to the product.
Alessandro Briglia: And it's a very strong shit.
Alessandro Briglia: A lot of students start to… a lot of persons that was there, they start to struggling.
Alessandro Briglia: Because, timing.
Alessandro Briglia: You have, like, for example, if you are a character artist, we need this character done next week.
Alessandro Briglia: Not because the timing, it's because a modeler needed this.
Alessandro Briglia: rigor need the model after. Animator, if we don't have the concept done, the wall production, the wall pipeline, stop.
Alessandro Briglia: Sometimes, the pressure is done.
Alessandro Briglia: That, oh, okay, I'm ready, but I'm not too ready. There was a shift.
Alessandro Briglia: Responsibility, pressure. It was very high, because the wall pipeline depends sometimes for… by one or two people.
Alessandro Briglia: During this step-by-step.
Alessandro Briglia: And my job was helping them.
Alessandro Briglia: To adjust to this, shifting their own perspective.
Alessandro Briglia: you don't have any more time to do it. You don't have your timing.
Alessandro Briglia: As a new school, sometimes they give you, like, more, freedom.
Alessandro Briglia: It's more like product driving.
Alessandro Briglia: And, he's… I think it was one of the big problems.
Alessandro Briglia: The thing was, like, my primary job, it was helping them, as our director, helping to grow all this team, this young team, to the next level.
Alessandro Briglia: So, helping them to work.
Alessandro Briglia: understand this. Try a different way.
Alessandro Briglia: to, produce a different way to communicate with everybody else, with all the team. Because now, as I described before my experience, you are not anymore alone. Like, in a school, you're working, but sometimes you're
Alessandro Briglia: one main Army Corp. Everything… you do everything. In this moment, you need to interface with so many people. In this case, so many people.
Alessandro Briglia: through Zoom, you have a meeting with sometimes 20, 40 people different, and it was… kind of chaotic.
Alessandro Briglia: all the information that you have tool, like Slack or the other tool for communicate.
Alessandro Briglia: But again, it's a completely different way to work.
Alessandro Briglia: We go through, and then we start to grow together.
Alessandro Briglia: Me, as an art director, understanding the production, understanding the product.
Alessandro Briglia: Five Night and Freddy have, like, a very complex, convolute lore to learn. And today, if you ask me things.
Alessandro Briglia: I probably tell you, mistakes and wrong things. It's very complex.
Alessandro Briglia: And for the team, start to understand how to move to a repetitive style and product to something more, to something different.
Alessandro Briglia: It was, like, fantastic. See how they grow it.
Alessandro Briglia: And how they discovered that their potential
Alessandro Briglia: it was just the start. It was the… sometimes when you are in a school, you're thinking, I am at the peak of my game.
Alessandro Briglia: I know how to do things. You are just in your infancy. It's the start.
Alessandro Briglia: is infancy of your career, and then you discover that there's another level, and another level. And when you discover, it's fantastic, because, oh, I can do this? Oh my god, I can do this.
Alessandro Briglia: Oh my god, and go and go and go, and become exciting, crazy, And sometimes stressful.
Alessandro Briglia: But it's worth it.
Alessandro Briglia: And this is more than… In the short, my career.
Alessandro Briglia: is, I'm joking that, I feel sometimes like, Torres Gaunt.
Alessandro Briglia: I mean, I have the luck to work with amazing people.
Alessandro Briglia: people that are smarter than me. For example, the person, my friend, my dear friend that forced me to do, the 3D,
Alessandro Briglia: He's the guy that invented the normal map.
Alessandro Briglia: Paolo Cinone.
Alessandro Briglia: We are childhood friend, and it was him to force me to do 3D. Who better than him
Alessandro Briglia: And, I ain't hidden.
Alessandro Briglia: I meet so many great artists, and professionals.
Alessandro Briglia: And every time I have this luck, my thinking is always, Shut up.
Alessandro Briglia: Listen.
Alessandro Briglia: More than everything, because these people know more thing than me.
Alessandro Briglia: And I want to… to grow. I want to learn from them.
Alessandro Briglia: Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was, like, very, very hard. When I was in the university to do design, I have the insane luck to have, like, as a teacher for simulogy.
Alessandro Briglia: Humberto Eco.
Alessandro Briglia: the Creator.
Alessandro Briglia: Of the semiology.
Alessandro Briglia: He lost a bet when play card, when I play poker, with one of my teachers.
Alessandro Briglia: And the bet was like, if he loses, he can go to teach semiology in the school for 2 years.
Alessandro Briglia: Los.
Alessandro Briglia: You lost?
Alessandro Briglia: And we have him for 2 years. He was like a… incredibly angry.
Alessandro Briglia: Rude guy.
Alessandro Briglia: It was… working with him, it was like a… Wow.
Alessandro Briglia: But it was, like, insane. I learned in 2 years about language.
Alessandro Briglia: And it's still using also today.
Alessandro Briglia: have, like, a kind of imprinting. So, in some way, I think myself, again, like a Forrest Gump. This is just a couple of the examples.
Alessandro Briglia: To have the possibility to work with great people.
Alessandro Briglia: Learner. Again, sometimes it was tough, learner.
Alessandro Briglia: But it's worth it that every single thinks.
Alessandro Briglia: You're very…
Ethan Wilde: generous in your,
Ethan Wilde: In your observations about how important it's been to make all the connections with people that you've made,
Ethan Wilde: Amazing to know that you had a chance to work with Umberto Eco. Everybody, if you don't know who Umberto Eco is, please look him up later on. I'll share some links later on. But I didn't mean to interrupt you, Alessandro. I just wanted to take a moment to
Ethan Wilde: To capture some of what you were sharing, and,
Ethan Wilde: and see if you have any advice for the students. You talk about yourself as, like, Forrest Gump. As I said, you're very generous in,
Ethan Wilde: In observing how much
Ethan Wilde: You got from the relationships that you had with the people that you work with that pushed you, that gave you knowledge, that inspired you.
Ethan Wilde: And brought you to a leadership role where you then, yourself, were bringing a young team of character artists and collaborators, into, a more…
Ethan Wilde: mature, professional career. Do you have advice for the students of today? There's so much that is changing around the tools.
Ethan Wilde: As you mentioned, you've had a chance to work in VR,
Ethan Wilde: And you've had this opportunity, as you've shared a little bit, to work with people that are new
Ethan Wilde: Coming out of school, what recommendations might you have for students today?
Alessandro Briglia: Today, the big challenge is AI.
Alessandro Briglia: So there is a lot to talk about AI, what it is, what it can do.
Alessandro Briglia: It's good, it's bad.
Alessandro Briglia: We all lost our job because of the AI… what's happened now? What is the next? I start to work with AI, I start to… because I want to understand that there is a lot of confusion.
Alessandro Briglia: And, I have a lot of friends that are the opposite side of this battle. They're friends that… if I name… if I say AI, they leave the room.
Alessandro Briglia: And have, like, instead, a friend that, a couple of years ago, they decided AI is my life. I can want to… I want to learn and want to use. So I have, like, the possibility to see two opposite things.
Alessandro Briglia: Is very problematic, especially for creators.
Alessandro Briglia: AI is a tool. As a tool is good and better. Like, for example, years ago, when they come out, for rigging the animation, oh my god, I have all in my head the, when you have, like, the costume with all the sensor on.
Alessandro Briglia: And, Russian capture.
Alessandro Briglia: All the animators say, okay, we lost our job because now I want motion capture, do everything.
Alessandro Briglia: They learn how to use, they become a normal tool, nobody blink anymore.
Alessandro Briglia: AI is incredible.
Alessandro Briglia: And you see a lot of AI slob around.
Alessandro Briglia: People say, oh, I want to make my cat like a character in Brinjito. Puts a button, done. Beautifully.
Alessandro Briglia: Yes, if you make a slob, if you make derivative art.
Alessandro Briglia: is perfect. If you… I saw, for example, a video, Spider-Man versus Darth Vader. Wow, this is amazing, but it's derivative.
Alessandro Briglia: Derivative, because you use Star Wars, Dark Father, and Marvel, Spider-Man. Don't create nothing new.
Alessandro Briglia: He just combined the two things together. It's fun for 5 minutes.
Alessandro Briglia: Then it becomes boring for… a lot too boring, because… Again, it's derivative.
Alessandro Briglia: Nothing new, just the wow effect at the start.
Alessandro Briglia: So, AI is very good to create a derivative and slob, but when you're an artist, I have, like, a friend that is using very well AI, when you start to define, I want to use AI to do art, using my experience to do it.
Alessandro Briglia: it among amazing things, unique amazing things. I was shocked to see what this… it can do it.
Alessandro Briglia: So, what is the problem? The problem is the AI is a derivative and pushes you, as an artist, to do what is good to do.
Alessandro Briglia: For example, if you say, I want to make a robotic armor Like a mech.
Alessandro Briglia: Yeah.
Alessandro Briglia: Do it. I make a man. I don't want a man. I want a robotic arm, or blah blah blah.
Alessandro Briglia: a maker of men. Why? Because he's a kind of child.
Alessandro Briglia: Everybody know Iron Man, he has an amazing experience to do understanding Ironman, so he push you.
Alessandro Briglia: to have Iron Man. A push to do what is good to do.
Alessandro Briglia: So, if you want to do something for yourself, exactly what you want, sometimes you need to write to
Alessandro Briglia: 3-page or prompt.
Alessandro Briglia: It takes hours. It takes understand photography, it takes to understand composition, it takes to understand character creation.
Alessandro Briglia: So, if you have experience, the knowledge.
Alessandro Briglia: about these things, you go to talk with AI and express what you want, and you force the AI to do exactly what you want.
Alessandro Briglia: And he's good.
Alessandro Briglia: But it's a long, tedious process.
Alessandro Briglia: A, you need to have an understanding of these things. If you don't have, you'll just go there, like, make a dragon.
Alessandro Briglia: Fuck! And you have the perfect dragon, but it's the perfect boring dragon.
Alessandro Briglia: Instead, I want a dragon. I want his anatomy like this, like this, like this. I want the light, 3-point light studio, the camera. I want the camera with this focus. I want the dragon to have, like, the membrane. I want this membrane to have, like, surface scattering. If you don't know all of these things.
Alessandro Briglia: They come from the experience, or the study.
Alessandro Briglia: You're asking for nothing. You're asking for a blob, for a very simple, boring things.
Alessandro Briglia: So, the next challenge for a young artist is…
Alessandro Briglia: Try don't be lo… bring by the eye to the simple things.
Alessandro Briglia: It's very easy. He's simply, he's fast. Don't… don't bother, he's good. Look, he's shiny.
Alessandro Briglia: Instead, and it's very…
Alessandro Briglia: hard to resist, especially when you are at the start. Instead, it's… the next battle is not about tool.
Alessandro Briglia: The next battle is about your creativity, your capacity to stay focused on what you want, know what you want, how you want, when.
Alessandro Briglia: And then, if you are not happy about what you see, it's not exactly what you want, you can say, no, I say you this and this and this.
Alessandro Briglia: This comes from experience. This comes from knowledge. The next button for the young artist is not a tool.
Alessandro Briglia: The two change is more creativity.
Alessandro Briglia: Be focused on what you're doing. Be original. Be yourself.
Alessandro Briglia: Try to push this tool, don't drive… I make the example, like, you have a car.
Alessandro Briglia: You have a two choice.
Alessandro Briglia: Sit in the shotgun, and say to the car, bring me someplace fun.
Alessandro Briglia: And everybody go to Disneyland, because the car thing, this is a funny place. Everyone, all the artists go to Disneyland. Or, you sit on the driveway.
Alessandro Briglia: Drive the car, it's painful, is annoying, long drive, Crazy people on the street.
Alessandro Briglia: But, you go in a different place, in your place is originality. And when you'll be original, you'll be…
Alessandro Briglia: yourself, you have something different, this is the battleground.
Alessandro Briglia: This is the real battleground from the next step. So, now more than ever, it's very important to learn.
Alessandro Briglia: Not just the… the tool. Again, tool changing. Next year change, in 10-year change.
Alessandro Briglia: But, it's understanding. You love a…
Alessandro Briglia: make movie. You have a tool that makes movie in 10 minutes.
Alessandro Briglia: The problem is what you say to this tool. You need to understand cinematography, composition, Light. Timing.
Alessandro Briglia: these… beautiful, shining little movie. They are so boring and long, and they have a bad composition and bad…
Alessandro Briglia: Oh my god. So, you have the possibility to have a magical box and do whatever you want.
Alessandro Briglia: But.
Alessandro Briglia: You need to be ready to ask what you want.
Alessandro Briglia: This is the thing.
Alessandro Briglia: AI is, is the genie out of the battle. It don't come back.
Alessandro Briglia: Mmm, is… is terrible, he will be…
Alessandro Briglia: Push people out of job because they make everything faster.
Alessandro Briglia: But in the same time, Open the door for anyone that understands the basics, understand how to use it.
Alessandro Briglia: To make their own movie.
Alessandro Briglia: their own game. Five people, they can create a game that now requires 10 people.
Alessandro Briglia: So…
Alessandro Briglia: If the moment starts to be better, the economy starts to start again, everything is start to, become less, crazy.
Alessandro Briglia: We will be a new kind of renaissance for a small company.
Alessandro Briglia: Because the small company, now they can produce a full product, And they can challenge.
Alessandro Briglia: Microsoft, Google, Activision, because at the same time, they are more flexible.
Alessandro Briglia: different from me that I start to be a little bit more rigid on my creativity.
Alessandro Briglia: You are completely flexible. You can have amazing idea, different idea. Don't be derivative. And then start to… a group of people like me and my friend at the time, Marcus Pitone, other people.
Alessandro Briglia: We make our little movie, with a tool at a time.
Alessandro Briglia: 5 people make 20 minutes moving. It takes 2 years, now it take 6 months.
Alessandro Briglia: But it's the same identical things. We take our passion, what we learn from each other, from the movie, from everything else, and we try to make something. It's the same identical things, just a different kind of tools. So these create a great possibility, but again.
Alessandro Briglia: is also, A terrible prop, because when things are easy, Mmm… is very…
Alessandro Briglia: probable that, oh, it's good enough. Good enough, it will be the kill of art in the next step.
Ethan Wilde: Wonderful advice.
Ethan Wilde: for everybody here. We have a little bit of time left. I have at least one question shared in the chat here, and… Yeah. I'd like to give our,
Ethan Wilde: our students who took the time to be here today a chance to ask questions. Patrice shared a question in the text chat. They said they're a huge fan of Skylanders and Spyro. They wanted to know if there was a relationship between the prototype of Skylanders, if it was called Spyro Kingdom originally.
Ethan Wilde: Do you have any stories you can share about those,
Alessandro Briglia: is, Skylander born, at the start? Have, like, a very, incredible,
Alessandro Briglia: Change, because, it was a completely brand new technology.
Alessandro Briglia: a completely brand new idea. So,
Alessandro Briglia: There is so many different, exploration at the time.
Alessandro Briglia: Thinking that the fish toys they were making using dentist tool.
Alessandro Briglia: it was, like, it created, like, the mold and… classically, really, the mold and everything. There was a different exploration, different way, and at the start, the Spiral was added just for touching attention. It was, like, a character that everyone know and loved.
Alessandro Briglia: So, Spyro was added almost at the end of the game.
Alessandro Briglia: Because it was kind of the shiny object that attracts people. Like, oh, Spyro, I remember Spyro. So he introduced to the idea and to these small things.
Alessandro Briglia: And, he was,
Alessandro Briglia: it was fun, because the Skylander changed the…
Alessandro Briglia: they look and shape so many times, at the point that, Activision, thanks God.
Alessandro Briglia: Come and say, okay, we see how the trench is going.
Alessandro Briglia: And something that happened one time in a lifetime.
Alessandro Briglia: you have 6 months more to finish the game. They give more time, because they saw how they're changing constantly, so we have time to…
Alessandro Briglia: Finish to transform the game in the final version.
Alessandro Briglia: But, again, Spyro Kingdom was one of the explorations. There was other things, a lot of other things.
Ethan Wilde: Amazing, amazing. Everybody joining us today, would you like to share any other questions with Alessandro?
Ethan Wilde: he brings so much experience to our group today. Thank you for the amazing reflections you've shared today, Alessandro, and your.
Alessandro Briglia: He's a pleasure, he's a pleasure.
Ethan Wilde: It's really, really wonderful. Other questions, anybody?
Ethan Wilde: Don't be shy.
Alessandro Briglia: There was a red dragon that figure looks like Skylander versus pipe. Again, there was this… one other thing that happened in the production of Skylander is, it was like a moment. Our customers, they were a child.
Alessandro Briglia: True. We were very focused on this.
Alessandro Briglia: And, during the production, one time a year, when we are, like, Probably half in the production.
Alessandro Briglia: We have, like, maybe 20, 40 children that come to the studio, play with the game.
Alessandro Briglia: play with the toys. And they tell us which one is good, which one is bad. So, sometimes we have, like, a completely finished character, ready, like.
Alessandro Briglia: 2-3 months of work, not just from our team, all team, concept, modeling, anime, everything. They come to take the toy.
Alessandro Briglia: This is sucks. Dumb.
Alessandro Briglia: Take all this jaw, do all this work, and throw it in the drain.
Alessandro Briglia: Because they are our customer.
Alessandro Briglia: In the moment we try to tell them, no, no, but this is cool. It's like the joke, like, a very important thing, like, if you need to explain a character.
Alessandro Briglia: It means that it's failing.
Alessandro Briglia: It's like a joke. If you need to explain a joke, it means fake. A character, you take it, the character, in some way, you… it's like a game between, I recognize this, it's familiar, but it's some kind of different, and there is a twist.
Alessandro Briglia: When a child come and think, I don't like it, done. We are dead.
Alessandro Briglia: And we were terrifying. So a lot of characters that were created and discarded. Also at the last moment, because they say, our customer, they say, we don't like it.
Ethan Wilde: Yeah, that's amazing, to share that experience you had with the user testing and the kids coming in. That makes so much sense. So important.
Alessandro Briglia: It was fantastic and rewarding. One of my…
Alessandro Briglia: best memory there. It was one day I was, like, doing my job, and have this, Boy… Probably.
Alessandro Briglia: Mmm… 10 year?
Alessandro Briglia: Maybe less. He went to my desk and looked like, oh, you have Ninjini on your desk. Yes.
Alessandro Briglia: I make an ingenie.
Alessandro Briglia: Oh, you know Ningini? Yes, I know it. He started to tell me about Ninjini, how he have fun, the power, the things, he go inside the bottle, and he was so happy.
Alessandro Briglia: He was, so in… you enjoy so much this… Stupid piece of plastic.
Alessandro Briglia: That it was fantastic. And, at one point, we understand that maybe we don't change the world.
Alessandro Briglia: But we have diff… they,
Alessandro Briglia: The lack to make so many children happy for a moment.
Ethan Wilde: Do you see Patrice's latest comment there? I think.
Alessandro Briglia: Oh my god! You struck a chord.
Ethan Wilde: with him. I think. Maybe, maybe he was the boy.
Alessandro Briglia: It's funny, because still today, sometimes, people say, oh, you know this guy, he's making… he did Skylander, and everybody, oh my god, I have two, two different reactions.
Alessandro Briglia: Fathers, they say, oh, damn you, you know how much money I spend for these stupid toys.
Alessandro Briglia: And people, they say, I grew up with them, and I have a bunch of fun.
Ethan Wilde: Yeah, wonderful. It's, it must be,
Ethan Wilde: Quite a powerful feeling when you hear from children, from… from people that…
Ethan Wilde: found so much, pleasure in the work that you've done with your teams,
Ethan Wilde: It's a special kind of reward to work in this kind of field, isn't it?
Alessandro Briglia: Yes, mistake. Always. Mistakes are the cornerstone of the career.
Alessandro Briglia: One of the things that today is look like sometimes a little bit problematic, is say, oh, I make a mistake, this is my fault.
Alessandro Briglia: Never stop this.
Alessandro Briglia: Always be, you need to own your mistake like your success, always. But then when you say, it's my fault, let me fix this.
Alessandro Briglia: One big mistake…
Alessandro Briglia: I was tasked to, find a pipeline to make the… to find a solution to transform the, digital, character in Imagineette, or at the end, in the last calendar, you combine your character, and you can 3D print the character.
Alessandro Briglia: to find a way to easily transform the 3D,
Alessandro Briglia: in a model. In a 3D… in a printable model.
Alessandro Briglia: And they're thinking, I can do it.
Alessandro Briglia: I have all the things. So, I started to create this pipeline. I think it was, very, solid.
Alessandro Briglia: And then I… didn't work.
Alessandro Briglia: Because I didn't know some things. I'm not an engineer.
Alessandro Briglia: I'm thinking that my experience in modifying pipeline 3D, I think, was enough.
Alessandro Briglia: I didn't know that I needed experience in engineering.
Alessandro Briglia: So, I fail.
Alessandro Briglia: And then… I find the solution. I don't know.
Alessandro Briglia: I need an engineer to work with me. They teach me all the problems, everything that they know, because every time you make something.
Alessandro Briglia: You always don't know something else.
Alessandro Briglia: So, I went to an engineer.
Alessandro Briglia: And we worked together for a month.
Alessandro Briglia: And he showed me all the things that I was thinking. I was very proud, also, how I make this pipeline. I was like, this is solid, this is…
Alessandro Briglia: I understand, like, a… yeah.
Alessandro Briglia: I didn't know.
Alessandro Briglia: And teach me next time, Before start everything, sit down.
Alessandro Briglia: And listen to the old part. Listen also to the people that, are…
Alessandro Briglia: Not directly impacted by this, because sometimes they have a point that they… you don't know, and it's crucial.
Alessandro Briglia: Where you decided on a field and need to focus on? Is,
Alessandro Briglia: sometimes, again, it's kind of a… I would decide to move from a different niche to another.
Alessandro Briglia: One thing is, again, it's challenge, and when I start to understand that I know so well something, it starts to be kind of boring. I want to be… I like to be challenged. I like to find solutions. I like to…
Alessandro Briglia: to find a trick that, and sometimes, for example, for VR,
Alessandro Briglia: doing Skylander, doing the game, it was like, I know exactly everything about.
Alessandro Briglia: I can work, I try different things. I'm a little bit more a producer, I work with outsourcing.
Alessandro Briglia: But it wasn't challenging enough. Then come VR, and it was extremely challenging.
Alessandro Briglia: And I was like, yeah.
Alessandro Briglia: I want to see if I can find a job that, again, I can pay my bill, but in the same time.
Alessandro Briglia: I can apply my experience here, I learn, and make something completely new.
Ethan Wilde: Wonderful stories, Alessandro. Do we have time maybe for one more question, if anybody's got another question? Anybody?
Ethan Wilde: Are you still living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alessandro?
Alessandro Briglia: Yes, he's still living in Petaluma.
Ethan Wilde: Petaluma, wonderful.
Alessandro Briglia: I love it. I love it.
Alessandro Briglia: Beautiful small city. Beautiful small city.
Ethan Wilde: I agree, I agree, it's a jewel in Sonoma County.
Ethan Wilde: It really is.
Ethan Wilde: Well…
Ethan Wilde: I hope that we'll have a chance to invite you again. Maybe we can share some of our student projects with you in the future, and .
Alessandro Briglia: It would be fantastic.
Ethan Wilde: Wonderful. It's so, so good.
Ethan Wilde: So grateful to you for taking time to share your experiences and your wisdom.
Ethan Wilde: In this field, which is so, so challenging and so enriching, too.
Alessandro Briglia: I want to leave a… one thing is very important, especially for students.
Ethan Wilde: Yes, please.
Alessandro Briglia: That is different, especially when you start to work and you leave the school for work.
Alessandro Briglia: on the work, again, the focus is on the product. So, one of the first things that I saw immediately, it was, like, when,
Alessandro Briglia: on, on production.
Alessandro Briglia: you have critic back. Like, oh, I don't like this. This don't work.
Alessandro Briglia: When you are in school, it's different. When you are in production, it's a little bit more impactful.
Alessandro Briglia: Don't be scared about critic. Don't be scared about feedback.
Alessandro Briglia: This is a very important thing. As a, for example, what do you learn by your mistake?
Alessandro Briglia: It's the same thing that you learn from the critic.
Alessandro Briglia: This is good, this is bad, why? Don't always ask why.
Alessandro Briglia: Take the critic is very important, and transform this in knowledge.
Alessandro Briglia: Oh, I don't like this. Okay. Why don't like this. You see, the character has the head too big in relation to the body, so it looks like younger, that's the feeling that we want.
Alessandro Briglia: Thank you. I go to fix it.
Alessandro Briglia: Fixing is worth the knowledge.
Alessandro Briglia: So, in this way, Don't be pushed back, like, oh.
Alessandro Briglia: Damn you. Damn you are director that you want to change everything. Yes!
Alessandro Briglia: Sometimes, yes. Also, you work with the stupid art director, but…
Alessandro Briglia: It's very important that you transform this into something for you.
Alessandro Briglia: You don't like it, tell me why. Oh, make the head smaller.
Alessandro Briglia: Why… sorry, why you want to have a smolder?
Alessandro Briglia: Because the head is smaller, looks like a more adult, the feeling, the perception… thank you.
Alessandro Briglia: And you apply this the next time.
Alessandro Briglia: So, it's very important, especially when you move from school to production.
Alessandro Briglia: Don't just pull back, or just take, like, a… become, like, a…
Alessandro Briglia: a meat machine, like a, oh, you want this? Whatever.
Alessandro Briglia: Done. You don't learn nothing. The next time, it will be always like this. Instead, like, Okay, why?
Alessandro Briglia: In this way, you drain the people that you have, you take from the people that know they have more experience from you, you take this experience.
Alessandro Briglia: And you're thinking, oh, these mean this. For example, in Skylander, why we make the ice always bigger, over bigger?
Alessandro Briglia: Oh, because manga… no.
Alessandro Briglia: Because bigger eyes make the character. Also, if you are… the looker is adult.
Alessandro Briglia: Like, more, like, easier. It's, like, more like a big children.
Alessandro Briglia: So, for our audience, it was more easy to understand.
Alessandro Briglia: small change that you understand changed everything. In Skylander, one big change, it was like, you have the toy. And then we started talking, yeah.
Alessandro Briglia: You know what? These toys are cool, but…
Alessandro Briglia: What is the difference of a receptor for Disney Infinity?
Alessandro Briglia: They're looking sometimes better. We make a little change.
Alessandro Briglia: We take the toys on the hand, and we tilt the eye a little bit up.
Alessandro Briglia: So, when you have the toy in your hand, the toy look at you.
Alessandro Briglia: You create connection.
Alessandro Briglia: And this was, people smarter than me that teach me this.
Alessandro Briglia: And it's like… Oh… now I understand why this is work, because they create connection.
Alessandro Briglia: I learn from this, and then I apply. When I make a portfolio, for example, you make a portfolio.
Alessandro Briglia: I tell you a trick.
Alessandro Briglia: And you make a character.
Alessandro Briglia: You have the character look up like this. Okay, it's cool, but if you look at you.
Alessandro Briglia: you create connection. If I'm an art director and need to hire somebody and look at a portfolio, see a character that look at me.
Alessandro Briglia: Take my attention.
Alessandro Briglia: So, you see, you learn something, and you apply, it becomes your knowledge.
Alessandro Briglia: So, if sometimes, You fail, you don't make exactly what they want. Don't be just… Whatever.
Alessandro Briglia: I do whatever you want, I know that it's not right. No, no, no!
Alessandro Briglia: ask why. So you can… yes, I pay to do my time and effort to make what you want, but in exchange, I take your knowledge.
Ethan Wilde: Brilliant advice.
Ethan Wilde: Explaining how… To receive criticism as a learning experience.
Ethan Wilde: That's a wonderful closing sentiment to share with everybody.
Ethan Wilde: Thank you again, Alessandro. I will follow.
Alessandro Briglia: He's up late.
Alessandro Briglia: It's a pleasure.
Ethan Wilde: And, great to know that you live so close to us all in Petalumo. We'll be sure to see if we can get some more, of your time for our students.
Alessandro Briglia: It will be a pleasure, absolutely. Thank you, everyone, and yes, it was fun.
Ethan Wilde: Grazia Migille.
Alessandro Briglia: Rego.
Ethan Wilde: Bonaccio nata.
Alessandro Briglia: Bye.
Ethan Wilde: Bye-bye.