by Travis Bourbeau

GW: How did you end up at ILM, do you remember what pieces sold your skills on your demo reel?

CA: I studied Illustration at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. I was a huge ILM fan growing up and all the way through high school. They came to Art Center to do on campus interviews and I signed up for one. My book had all 2d animation stuff in it: backgrounds, layouts and storyboards because that was the hot industry at the time.

GW: What do you feel sets your work apart, or how did you fit in?

CA: I thought they wouldn’t be interested at all because they do live action effects not 2d animation. It just so happened that they were working on their first go at a digital feature and they thought my work was solid. The timing was a bit lucky for me. It also helped that I knew so much about the company I was able to give a really good interview.

GW: What changed the most or how did you grow as an artist working on some of the projects?

CA: At Art Center everyone was the best at their high school. In the job world everyone was among the top at their art schools. My work had to seriously improve, so I worked my butt off. The first two years at ILM were my best school years ever. As a concept artist I would say I really had to learn to be a designer and not just an artist. Also I had to learn patience, since very often you had to design version after vesion of one particular concept.

GW: What skills are you working on the most: characters, environments, props?

CA: As an art director we work on everything all of the time. So I would say all of the above. Lately I have been trying to work a little more 3d into my design process since film design seems to get tighter and more photorealistic as the years go on.

GW: Moving into a lead position is a lot of pressure, what are some of your responsibilities?

CA: Well now it’s designing for the whole picture. So you have to keep an eye on the production designer’s vision. For every design you have to art direct someone building that asset. Also depending on the size of the production you might have a crew of artists working with you that will need direction and schedules for their time. All of that and you have to produce a bunch of artwork.

GW: What skills are most important for an art director?

CA: Beyond the art, design and film skills, communication skills are super important. It’s really important to be able to talk to clients and other artists.

GW: What are some of your favorite designs from your last few projects? How much freedom do you have to influence the direction?

CA: I had a lot of fun designing the big Harvester robot on Terminator Salvation. The new hunter killer and the exterior of skynet were really fun too. The “freedom” depends on what the project is. If it’s a sequel you have to be able to design in the box that was created from the earlier movie, but there is usually the freedom to throw in good ideas anywhere along the process. Blue sky design doesn’t exist quite as often. A really good designer has to be able to design something great regardless of a lot of constraints.

GW: How do you keep the balance with personal projects and work?

CA: Doing book covers and personal art is nice because the final product is the art. That of course isn’t the case with film. It’s fun working on my own ideas instead of always working on someone else’s and also it’s a way to keep myself fresh as an artist and keep developing my own separate point of view. Balance is a hard thing to keep and sometimes you get burned out. If that happens I’ll take a break from the extra stuff, keep it simple and focus only on film work for a while.

GW: Where do you plan to go in the future with your work?

CA: I don’t have a master plan, but in the next few months I would like to start painting traditionally again and doing some work that way. At some point I would love to develop some of the stories that I have jotted down over the years.

GW: Any advice for students as far as getting a job at a studio like ILM, or reels in general?

CA: I would say work on foundation skills like drawing, sculpting, perspective, anatomy, life drawing and painting. Learning software is great but there will always be new and better software to learn. It will always be changing. The basics will always be the same. Also, look at the world around you for inspiration and ways to set your design sensibilites apart. It’s sad and true, but a lot of great designs can get ovelooked if they are executed poorly. A portfolio or reel always stands out when the foundation in it is strong.

To see more of Christian Alzmann, go to: www.christianalzmann.com