My name is Alberto Lara, and I am a self-taught animator.
It all began with a T-Rex...
Back in 1993, I saw Jurassic Park and my life changed. I became obsessed with the film and realized that is what I wanted to do for a living. Exactly what 'that' was didn't become clear for a while, but I surely spent an awful lot of time trying to model dinosaurs out of metaballs (back when they were all the rage), never really getting past the blob-with-some-limb-like-appendages stage, and generally trying my hand with any 3d related application I could get hold of. A few years later I was convinced to go to the cinema to see Disney's Hercules and I fell in love with animation. Suddenly the objective was clear. Only it was painfully obvious that just doing the odd tutorial in 3d Studio Max wasn't going to be enough.
I still remember the amused look on my parents faces when I received my big book with Pinocchio on the cover ("Oh well, he's always been a little childish after all"). 'The Illusion of Life' was the big turning point. I was finally on the right track.
With some experience under my belt I decided to be brave and step into a wider world, so I relocated to England, where I have been working as an animator since 2003, mostly on TV projects.
It all began with a T-Rex...
Back in 1993, I saw Jurassic Park and my life changed. I became obsessed with the film and realized that is what I wanted to do for a living. Exactly what 'that' was didn't become clear for a while, but I surely spent an awful lot of time trying to model dinosaurs out of metaballs (back when they were all the rage), never really getting past the blob-with-some-limb-like-appendages stage, and generally trying my hand with any 3d related application I could get hold of. A few years later I was convinced to go to the cinema to see Disney's Hercules and I fell in love with animation. Suddenly the objective was clear. Only it was painfully obvious that just doing the odd tutorial in 3d Studio Max wasn't going to be enough.
I still remember the amused look on my parents faces when I received my big book with Pinocchio on the cover ("Oh well, he's always been a little childish after all"). 'The Illusion of Life' was the big turning point. I was finally on the right track.
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A little background. I come from Caracas, Venezuela, which is a rather strange place to come from if you want to do animation. The spanish word for animator, "animador", is most commonly used for people like television presenters. As I am rightly regarded as not being particularly photogenic and lacking that raw sex appeal that TV demands of you, I was often the subject of pitying looks and uncomfortable silence. Undeterred I kept to my underground animation endeavours, slowly but surely making progress. Eventually I met with a group of like-minded people, and toiled for the better part of a year to get a short film done. 'Automata', the story of robot who gains conciousness, was the fruit of that labour and got me noticed by a couple of production companies in Caracas, where I ended up working in 3 television commercials and a few promos, late at night after getting back from my "real" job as a programmer. |
With some experience under my belt I decided to be brave and step into a wider world, so I relocated to England, where I have been working as an animator since 2003, mostly on TV projects.