Elia Pellegrini
Jesse: How does your creative process begin? Do you start with a story and then begin to manifest the work visually? Does it come to you all at once or in pieces over time?
Elia Pellegrini: Most of the time, inspiration comes from my dreams. I can lucid dream, and I also just have really weird dreams in general. I can extract this information and translate it into images, colors, and new stories. Usually my works begin from a single idea, or something I perceive in nature or classical art, which I really love, as well as ancient art, like Egyptian art. When I want to do something visually complex, with narrative and deep meaning, it can take a long time as I process different inspirations and ideas, which might come from totally different places. With Kairos, for example, this is really connected to the abstract concept of time, higher dimensions, and wondering what was before the Big Bang. So basically it really just depends on the project. Some can involve just one inspiration, one idea, and materialize quickly. Others can be the result of working for a month or more, thinking about a range of different topics that feed into it.
J: What role does sci-fi play in your practice? What do you see as the role of sci-fi in the general public?
EP: I really love science fiction, it’s a big inspiration for my work. I really love the cyberpunk mood. That’s super common to say, but I’m just a superfan of that direction. And of course, properties like Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
All my drawings from 3-4 years ago are inspired by spaceships, planets, aliens, holograms, and other stuff like that. As my practice has grown, I realized that mainstream science fiction from Hollywood, or the stuff you see on social media, felt a bit too normal for my work. I wanted to change things up and make things that were distinctly mine. Kairos, for example, is a mix between the future and the past. I'm trying to mix different concepts from sci-fi with medieval or Egyptian stuff, to create a world that’s futuristic and ancient. And I think that in my art, this is the right use of science fiction, something that feels like it’s from both the past and the super, super far future, where you can’t quite tell if it’s a weird dystopia or utopia. I find that when I work this way I can improve my art, because when you do something out of your comfort zone, something you’re not used to, you open your eyes much more and see different viewpoints.
J: Do you see the Hollywood VFX pipeline becoming more commonplace among 3D artists?
EP: Yeah, I do. This is a tricky question, because thanks to all the new software and plugins and tutorials, people are really learning a lot in a short amount of time—and this is beautiful—but at the same time, this can create a false sense of security that you know how to do types of work that you don’t have the experience with yet. It's not all about, “I watched some YouTube videos and just maybe one simple masterclass or whatever and I'm the master.” No. These tools can be complicated, and it’s important to work with them every day if you want to improve.
And so, talking about huge productions, the pipelines are becoming better understood and simpler, not in terms of the complexity of the techniques and software, but the ability for people to learn by themselves. I can see in artists right now a lot of awareness of this pipeline, especially through the popularity of technical behind the scenes videos, which really help people understand how the work was made and connect to it. So this lets them broaden their skillset and theoretically helps them the chance to work for huge productions, but like I said, in my experience practical experience is still really important.
“These tools can be complicated, and it’s important to work with them every day if you want to improve.”
J: How can a blended 2D and 3D pipeline benefit artists?
EP: I was “born” as a traditional painter and drawer. I started with drawings, especially with portraits and colored pencil drawings. This was the beginning of my career. I love drawing. When you can only use a pencil and paper, you translate the third dimension, but when you can actually use the third dimension, with the freedom of 3D imaging, you have the ability to manage the shades, shadows, perspective—you are on another level. Digital painting also completely changes the experience. With painting in the physical world, you need to care about a lot of a lot of material stuff like the oil and how long drying takes. It's beautiful and satisfying in its way. But with digital tools you can easily switch between brushes, and realize an idea more quickly through faster iterations. So these skills from the 2D world can be translated into 3D, and combining these techniques really opens your mind.
For example, I really love to create my own materials. Sometimes I start from a drawing, and I take the photo of the drawing and that translates into 3D software, and then I apply the textures on, say, a spaceship. The final version might feel very digital, but it started with drawing, from a 3D experience; it’s a really beautiful process. When you can understand this blended practice, you can do basically whatever you want. I also think about matte paintings in film. All the techniques connected to matte paintings, where you overlay different plates on a clip. Artists can use this type of technique to create a unique scenario with 2D, and the result is like 3D. So really, I think the mix between 2D and 3D is essential.
Another really interesting argument for a blended pipeline is digital sculpting is sculpting with virtual reality. A lot of assets I use in my works are from sculpting in Medium. This is really another experience because you don't just sculpt with the Wacom or whatever, you sculpt around you. So I’m often translating work where I’ve created pieces in full 3D immersion into 2D outputs like still images.
J: How does Substance fit into your creative process for work like these series?
EP: I really love Substance Painter and Designer. I started with Painter several years ago, from basic tests, like, you have the untextured object and you need to texture, it's like 3D Photoshop. I was super excited about this different kind of work because I was used to painting and mixing textures on specific software, but not literally painting over three dimensional objects. Now I use Substance Painter and Designer a lot, especially Designer, because again, I really love to create my own materials that I can use in different works. With this specific software, I create a lot of custom and different materials. I take a lot of inspiration from organic materials and my dreams. So this way I can do some sketches, use 2D techniques to get an idea of what I want to do, and then translate these ideas digitally. I used Substance Painter a lot, for example, for the characters from Kairos. With three of the main characters, I sculpted in ZBrush and then fully textured in Substance Painter. I’m continually impressed by the quality and the amount of things you can do; I’m still learning a lot, I don’t know as much about the mathematical parts, for example, the programming side. It’s amazing to compare the initial idea with the final result, and they’re totally different; I really love how the software lets you bring your ideas to life.