First steps in life – Loïc Lemoine

Meeting with Loïc Lemoine, co-director of the film Pinocchio, graduate of the training CG Animation & FX Master Degree. He tells us about his job at Image Engine in Canada, which he had landed thanks to the 2019 Rookie Awards and then his recruitment at Nobody Studio in Montpellier.

YOU WON THE ROOKIE AWARS 2019 COMPETITION FOR AN INTERNSHIP AT IMAGE ENGINE. DID YOU EXPECT TO WIN THIS AWARD?

It was in 2019, (I feel like I’m telling a children’s story that happened centuries ago ahah) I was then in internship in Paris at Mathematics TV and the Parisian atmosphere was weighing me down a lot. Then one day, I learned that I was accepted at NASA for an astronaut training. It’s not true, but I received an email telling me that I was in the finalists of the Rookie Awards (a contest where a lot of students from all over the world post their projects and have their portfolio evaluated by pros). I posted my work without really believing it. In the end, I received an award that allowed me to get an internship with Image Engine in Vancouver, Canada (on the side where they don’t speak French and where it doesn’t snow).

COVID DELAYED THE START OF YOUR INTERNSHIP. YOU STARTED AFTER YOUR GRADUATION. HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS? WERE YOU AFRAID THAT THE INTERNSHIP WOULD BE CANCELLED? DID YOU NOT WANT TO GO DIRECTLY TO WORK AS AN EMPLOYEE?

At first, (I haven’t used this formula since my baccalaureate in philosophy) I was supposed to start at Image Engine in 2019 but it was obviously incompatible with the start of classes at ESMA. So it was postponed for the first time. Then, in March 2020, I felt that the internship was not going to take place because of a small global pandemic. So we postponed the internship with the company to July 2021. And since they say two is never enough, the production of the fourth year films was slightly delayed. So I only had one month of possible internship left in the summer of 2021. So I had another interview with Image Engine, which turned my internship into a 3-month trial period followed by a 3-month contract, starting in September right after the ESMA jury. But what is really touching is that despite all these doubts and twists and turns, they always kept in touch with me during these 2 years and a bit of waiting (they even sent me by mail some sweets and a hat for Christmas).

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR INTERNSHIP? YOUR MISSIONS, YOUR POSITION, THE ATMOSPHERE, THE PROJECTS YOU WERE ABLE TO WORK ON.

At first, I was supposed to join Image Engine in Matte Painting and Camera Mapping. But two years went by and I developed very different skills. So I joined them as a CG generalist and started in lighting on season 3 of Snowpiercer. It was very rewarding, because we were not many on the show and I had a lot of responsibility on my shots.

I then went on to do the lighting setup for School For Good and Evil, a Netflix adaptation of the Harry Potter-Like children’s novel. I set up the lighting scenes for several sequences with the Lead of the show. It was very instructive and I learned a lot about Gaffer, their in-house lighting software. Then I joined the matte painting department to help create backgrounds of Cairo in the Marvel series Moon Knight.

After that, I did some matte painting on School for Good and Evil (again!) but I can’t say much since the movie is not released yet. And finally, I finished on a week of modeling on Mandalorian season 3, to make some background props.

HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE THE STUDIO?

It was a little hard at first, because of the damn virus. Most of the employees were telecommuting and there were only a few of us (out of 300 employees). But fortunately, everyone was very nice to me. I had some housing issues and the HR people bent over backwards to help me, which was really nice.

The colleagues were also very gracious in their feedback and comments. But I just regret not having been able to meet most of them irl (“in real life” as the young people say).

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THIS INTERNSHIP?

It was very rewarding to discover new tools in a production context : software, VFX pipeline, working with footage, presenting your shots in meetings every day (it’s called “daily” and it’s a good name) etc. I was able to improve my English a bit (I learned all the ways supervisors say “Good job” without it being repetitive in daily) but it’s true that I would have preferred to meet more people. I was all alone in 200 m² of empty offices for several months, the days were a bit lonely. I really liked the first few days, I was really curious to see how it would go and if what I had done suited the supervisor.

TODAY YOU ARE BACK IN FRANCE AT NOBODY STUDIO. WHY DID YOU COME BACK AND NOT CONTINUE IN CANADA ?

The sun. No, even if it was raining a lot in Vancouver (21 days of rain per month in winter), I decided to come back to France to have a new experience, in a different environment. Nobody’s projects interest me a lot and I had met Sebastien Chort at the ESMA Jobfair and the presentation of the studio had really delighted me. I also wanted to get closer to my relatives and my family (plane tickets are expensive and not very ecological). And I especially needed a professional experience with a whole team on site. I had missed the atmosphere of the fourth year groups a lot these last months and being alone abroad without much knowledge was sometimes hard.

CAN YOU PRESENT US YOUR JOB, YOUR MISSIONS AND YOUR PROJECTS ?

I’m a lighting and compositing artist at Nobody, so I’m responsible for the lighting and rendering in 3D scenes, as well as the compositing of the rendered images. I manage the final look of the image, taking into account the different feedbacks from supervisors, clients and colleagues. At Nobody, we also sometimes make slight adjustments to the set dressing and camera projections in compositing for matte painting in the background. After this definition worthy of a dictionary, I would say that light/comp artist is above all meetings, people who have reached out to me, perhaps at a time when I could not, when I was alone at home. And it’s quite curious to think that chance meetings forge a destiny…

More seriously, we work on projects in full CG, so we really have freedom on the look of the image. We can really experiment and then present our proposals in review to the CG supervisor. At the moment we are working on a cinematic project in partnership with BLUR (Nobody has often collaborated with them, especially on the last season of Love Death and Robots), but it’s secret I can’t say more.

UNTIL NOW YOU WERE RATHER ON A GENERAL CG POSITION, WHY DID YOU CHANGE TO A LIGHTING POSITION ?

I happen to be currently in lighting/Comp but Nobody is open enough to move his artists. I will always define myself as a generalist (I did 3 months of lighting at Image Engine to start which is very similar to my first months at Nobody). I already told the studio that I had rig and FX desires and that I would be happy to help in any department actually (except animation!). When we had compositing issues on our current project, I was able to bring my matte painting / camera mapping knowledge to find solutions. I really like the DIY aspect of having a generalist background. We talk a lot with the other employees about software and new techniques. There is also a big R&D part at Nobody.

HOW DID YOU EXPERIENCE THESE DIFFERENT STAGES IN THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD? DID IT CORRESPOND TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS?

It’s very rewarding technically, but above all, I didn’t expect that people would be so benevolent, whether it was in helping each other or in the feedback from supervisors. I didn’t really see a difference between my probationary period and my assignments as an employee. No matter what level we are, we are all here to make beautiful images and with our academic and personal background. We can have tips on some shots, stay stuck on others, but finally it’s very important to communicate with others to share our solutions and problems.

WORKING ON PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS, WHAT DOES IT DO?

In the end, it doesn’t change much in terms of the quality and requirements that we can set for ourselves at ESMA. The only change is that you are often just an artist who is going to do his discipline and you often say to yourself that you would not have done things the same way in the following or previous departments. We must also force ourselves to take a step back on what we do and not get too attached to the shots, since it is the art directors/clients who decide in the end. You have to invest yourself but not get stuck when the direction taken doesn’t suit you and always find something positive or challenging in what is asked of you, like the little fish that braves the stream (not sure about this proverb).

AFTER THESE FEW MONTHS POST-SCHOOL, HOW DO YOU LOOK BACK ON YOUR TRAINING AT ESMA?

The training at ESMA is very formative, I always felt very comfortable in my missions and I always had the impression that I had already experienced a similar situation in previous years. The atmosphere of the final year film teams is a good introduction to team communication. I also realize in retrospect how much artistic freedom we had on the final year film compared to the different assignments I had. Finally, the difficulty and stress of studying allows me to enjoy the calmer rhythm of studio productions, as rush situations occur very sporadically.

HOW DO YOU PROJECT YOURSELF FOR THE FUTURE ?

With a trampoline, I guess. Or a cannon, but that’s for stuntmen, I don’t feel like I can do that. Otherwise I would love to evolve as a generalist and be able to continue working at Nobody for the moment! The status of SCOP, the projects, the atmosphere and the working environment in Montpellier please me a lot! I really have the impression to have arrived in a working environment that suits me. Nobody also plans to develop internal projects and I would love to be part of the adventure. And on a more personal side, I intend to finish the tons of personal projects started during ESMA and, finally, to realize some very short films in solo full 3D!

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I worked on Star Wars but I’m cutting my spaghetti. (sorry)