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About me

Working in computer graphics since 1996.

Graduated in Film Direction (Animation) at the prestigious National Film and Television School (U.K.) and nominee by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  to the Oscar  for graduation films, I belong to the generation of filmmakers whom in the 90s began interested in 3D software and ending directing films, series and short films. Some of my credits include film director in “Ozzy” distributed by Buena Vista (Disney) the first commercial feature film created in Blender.  Co-director in episodes of the TV series "Pocoyo" , or animation director in the sequel of the feature film "Ooops! Noah Is Gone..." 
Before directing, I've been involved in some of the most innovating projects at the moment, lighter in "The Living Forest"  the first 3D film produced in Europe (2001) CG supervisor on stereoscopic films for Warner Bros Theme Parks,  or animator in the pioneering project Amusement, about researching virtual worlds and characters at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (1998) I have two short films created and directed by myself, and a book published about workflows in 3D animation projects.



Awards and nominations (Feature films and short films)

What I do

Director, but also...

Directing is what I like the most, either if it's my project or if it's a commissioned one. My background like CG supervisor makes me comfortable working in studio environments since I'm familiar with each process, the involved departments, and the boundaries respect to budget and resources. Like director I like the whole process of creation and be involved as soon as possible since the scripting process, developing the characters, building their arcs, etc. Casting voice actors and work until achieving the desired performance for the characters and situations. Edit the storyboards and voices in the timeline, finding the right pacing. Later, previs and layout are processes where I bring more input to the projects, setting the framing, composing the elements and moving the camera (or not) accordingly with the moment in the story is one of my strongest skills, and when it's possible I get involved personally in this task. If the production requires, especially in small projects or studios, I don't hesitate to use the tools to help in modeling, rigging, lighting or something else, not for supersede the team experience and knowledge, but just to give them and the production team the most precise information about what the project needs, and achieve the desired quality into the schedule boundaries. After more than twenty years in the industry, I do still enjoin all those steeps.

The experience of directing a fully 3D animated movie.

Direct a full length animated movie is always a great challenge and experience, but also a huge responsibility. A lot of different parts are implicated; producers, co-producers, investors, distributors, broadcasters, third parts and of course, the whole team directly involved in make the movie; art directors, voices director, storyboarders, the whole 3D team, editors, musician, line producers, etc. Like director sometimes you have more than one hundred people looking at you, making questions through emails, video calls, notes in the shoots, reviews, meetings... and waiting for answers since yesterday. I recall most of those days struggling to keep somewhere my input like director since most of the occasions, those meetings, emails, calls, etc. were about having to solve problems, overcome technical limitations, face unsuspected issues, or redo some parts of the story because the production was running out of time and/or budget. Besides that "Ozzy" was a very complicated project for a lot of reasons, we were using new software in production (Blender) As consequence was extremely complicated to find enough experienced people in the software, and when eventually we found someone, not always was possible hire them because the bureaucracy, or another of the supporting elements of the production like tax credits, didn't allow hire people from outside the region or country supporting that financing part. So, on top of my bunch of tasks like director, we had to find and spend time training very junior or even not at all experienced people (which I love it, but in other circumstances) to keep the production running. It's not easy to keep the team happy, the production workflow, satisfy producers' expectations, and still motivated yourself. After three extremely exhausting years, I recall the premiere day, after the projection one of the investors said to me: "Thanks Alberto for staying in the project until the end." At that moment I understood the fact that sometimes, even if you are the film director, your main goal is finishing the project, even if the circumstances are not the ones which you would desire like a creative person. After that Ozzy was worldwide premiered, achieving very good results in the box office.





However, besides those hard moments, I had the chance to meet very good and professional people around the world, especially in Toronto, where I spent one year during production. Ozzy was the first animated film using Dolby Atmos surround sound technology. The picture below belongs to one of the last mixing sessions working with Sergio Teston in Best Digital Studios facilities. (Madrid)





The images below belong to some different processes in production. Notes from the art director feeding back some earliest render tests, designs, expression references for some characters, etc.

mybook

Back in 2010, I wrote 3D Animation Projects (Proyectos de Animación 3D) This book is based on the 3D animated short film, The Wrong Glasses which I did create. The book discusses how to design and follow a workflow to produce 3D animated content like this short film, the text is not focused in any software in particular, but it's more about the order of the different processes and their relationship. Using the short film like a real example, each chapter is focused on one process, explaining what is necessary to have ready before the current process, and how it should be finished ready to go into the next one. For instance how to prepare and work the layout once the storyboard and animatic are ready, then how the layout files have to be delivered before starting animation. How the modeling and the geometry have to be done to go into the rigging, how rigging has to work for animation, etc.

Companies

Some of the companies for which I've been work.

contact / reel

Demo reel: Contact me please if you are interested in watch my demo reel.

My emails:    alber.mails@gmail.com    alber@alberworld.com

My linkedin profile:   linkedin.com/in/albertorodriguez73

My skype user:   alberto.ro.rodriguez