10 Quick With David Chiapperino

So I know you got up this morning and rolled out of bed, rubbed your tired little eyes and then suddenly thought, "What in the heck is an Animation Technical Director?"

I know I did.

Well today's 10 Quick happens to be with an Animation Technical Director, by the name of David Chiapperino, and aside from being on of "those," he happens to also be an extremely talented artist.

Take it away, David!

1. Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you break into the business?

For as long as I can remember, I have been creating stories and drawing. I went to college in Philadelphia and was very determined. While in college, I met my good friend Chris Cherubini. We started up a little freelance business and snatched up every job we could. We would often take 3D jobs without any clue as to how we would do them. These freelance experiences were invaluable and I earned enough to pay for supplies and an occasional Nachos Bell Grande. Though mostly I lived off spaghetti and butter. And often we'd run out of butter!

When I graduated, I must have sent out at least 30 reels only to be followed by letters of rejection. Come to think of it, I have never gotten a job from a blind submission. There is always a friend who says "I know this guy..." My first full-time job in the animation field was for a startup 3D animation company in Philly creating flying logos and industrial animations for tradeshows. One day out of the blue, one of my college roommates called me and told me that there was artist/animator opening at Funnybone Interactive ( in Canton Connecticut). When I started, the studio was almost all 2D. I started as a digital clean-up artist. At the time, game sprites were not anti-aliased, so it was my job to go through all of the artwork and clean up the pixels on the edges of the digital artwork. In about a month I moved from clean-up artist to a traditional animator. After work I would stay late and recreate the characters and environments in 3D. I would stay until they would kick me out of the building. Eventually the extra work paid off and the Funnybone 3D department was born. First thing I did was get Chris hired. Over the next few years we grew the department and it was a starting point for quite a few very successful artists and animators.

Over those years, Funnybone was absorbed several times. Eventually it became a division of Vivendi-Universal. This was great because I was able to help manage a team on quite a range of titles including: Jurassic Park games, a couple of direct to video movies, Jumpstart, Rescue Heroes and even one called (don't laugh) Kelly's Pet Parade. When VU Games decided to close down the studio it was time to move to Los Angeles. The amount of opportunity in LA was quite an eye-opener. Here I have worked on a variety of projects that were more realistic and for older audiences. While on these projects, I really started to become interested in production pipelines and how things were being built. I joined Disney's VR Studio in spring of 2005 as the Animation Technical Director.



2. Which of your work are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the work that has come out of my own head. You can see one these ideas here: www.wishcommandos.com

3. What are the main tools and/or programs you use to create your work?

At work I use Maya, Photoshop, a sketchbook, a text editor, and a bunch of scribbled on scrap paper.

4. What's a typical day in your life like?

Here is my typical weekday breaks down:
Work, gym, personal animation projects, salsa dancing. Thats right! Though, the order changes from day to day.

5. Who or what are some of your artistic influences?

I am inspired by artists such as Tim Burton, Bruce Timm, Rodin, The Brothers Chaps, Bill Waterson. I'm inspired by games too. Halflife2, The Mark of Kri, Black and White, and the old Sierra adventure games (Kings Quest, Police Quest,and Space Quest). My favorite games artistically are: Neverhood, Skull Monkeys, and everything created by Oddworld. The most meaningful artistic influences in my life have been from the artsists/musicians/techies that I have known, worked with, and have helped me personally. Guys like: Chris Cherubini, Phil Straub, Mark Covell, Dominic Massaro and Jason Taylor (who I see you've already interviewed).



6. Would you say that you're a 3D artist who dabbles in 2D from time to time, or a 2D artist who happens to work in 3D?

I love the technology. I do draw quite a bit, but most of my work time is spent in virtual space.

7. What are 3 of the best things about your job, and what are 3 of the worst?

Best:
A. Working with talented diverse group. They are a crew with experience in games, features (animated and live action) and imagineers all working together.
B. I like that I get to be involved on so many aspects of the project. I never know what new challenges will spring up from day to day.
C. I enjoy the content.

Worst:

I really have no major complaints to report. This is a good gig for sure. Here is what I could come up with:

A. I wish the games industry as a whole would take more risks and produce more original lP's.
B. I’m not a big fan of cubicles.

8. What exactly is a Technical Director and what can you tell us about Disney's Virtual Reality Studio?

Disney's VR Studio has its roots with Imagineering. Their focus was to research and develop virtual reality simulations and 3D software. Some of these projects can still be seen at Disney World today. More recently they have created the award winning massive multi-player online game, Toontown Online. Toontown is continually expanding and we are currently working on a new MMO, Pirates of the Caribbean Online.

A Technical Director's role is very different depending on the studio your working for. Often larger studios have a small army of TD's. At the VR Studio, I am the only Technical Director. I work with modelers, animators, programmers, and game designers to find the best way possible to integrate characters and animation into a game. I rig all of the creatures, humans, trees, and almost everything that moves. These rigs have to be intuitive for the artists and clean and precisely built for the programming team. Rigging is only a part of my job. While in production, TD's work on a multitude of miscellaneous artistic and technical obstacles. It’s a very dynamic job.



9. You've worked on a variety of projects, from Barbie to Socom. Do you prefer working more on cartoon style characters or more realistic characters?

I enjoy working on projects that aren't too serious in their content. I also prefer more illustrative styles.

10. You have a really good set of "art chops" on you, but you also seem very technical. Would you say you're more of a right brain person or a left brain person?

Thanks! I really attack projects with both sides of my brain at the same time. I am middle-brained. There really is something satisfying to me about the tech and artistic vision coming together.


Thanks to David Chiapperino for answering this weeks "10 Quick" with us!

Everyone should take a moment to swing on by his site and check out all of his exceptional work!

Thanks again, David!