Interview with Art Director & Concept Artist Cyril Corallo

I'm Marcin Migdal and today I'm chatting with Cyril Corallo - Art Director, Concept Artist and C.E.O. at Ocellus Studio.

Marcin: Hi Corallo, thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to talk to us. Can you tell me about yourself and what you’re currently doing.

Cyril: Hi, I’m a little french artist working in the Videogames and the Animation Industry.

Marcin: As a kid, was animation something you always wanted to do.

Cyril: No, when I was a child I wanted to be a Physician. lol

Marcin: Tell me about RHEO.fr and how it came to be.

Cyril: The idea was: gather a group of talented people with different skills from different studios, and focus their efforts on creating something that was bigger than any one of them could do on their own.

Marcin: You have a passion for light and color, but everything you do turns out amazing, would you say it’s your attention to these 2 elements that makes your work stand out?

Cyril: Thanks for saying that, but i`m not sure that all my work turns out amazing. After a lot of practice drawing, painting, sculpting, creating 3d and 2d CG-art, I’ve found the part where I take the most pleasure is in the light and color aspect; making mood and composition etc.

Marcin: Do you remember your first paid project as an artist or animator and how you felt?

Cyril: Yes, it was for “EdenStudio”, on a videogame project, witch is “Alone in the dark 5”. I was 3d Background artist and 3d real time lighter. I was in charge of the lighting on some sequences of the game, and it was a really good experience. I met lot of intersting people. I discovered working in the games industry is full of constraint but constraint for me is the begining of creativity.

Marcin: Do you have one portfolio piece or project you are most proud of?

Cyril: I don’t think so, but i can tell you that the project we are curently working on could be the one .

Marcin: Tell me about your workflow, do you start on the computer or paper?

Cyril: It depend on what I`m doing.But for example, with a background I start the composition on paper. I rough out basic design and when i’m happy with the rough idea I’ll start coloring it on my CPU.

Marcin: In your opinion what is the most important and vital element of an image?

Cyril: In my opinion the composition,the color, the subject and what the image wants to say are the most important things.

Marcin: Do you have any mentors or favourite animators or artists?

Cyril: My first mentors were Pascal Casolari and Vincent joubert from EdenStudio. After that, I was at Ankama Studio and had the pleasure to work with Arnaud Dewaele, who is one of the most impressive and original 2d artists i’ve ever worked with.

Marcin: What’s one piece of advise you can give to any artist or animator

Cyril: First, Work hard. Second, work very hard....

Marcin: Are you working on anything special right now, what’s next for Corallo?

Cyril: Yes I am! I’m actually working as Art Director for a brand new games studio called MoonSpider Studio in Miami Florida on an upcoming 2d/3d video game project. It’s a great experience! Rheo did the original design of the principal characters and backgrounds of this game.

Marcin: What are the top 3 websites you visit?

Cyril: Cgsociety, vimeo, google.

Marcin: Thank you Corallo for allowing everyone to get to know you.

Cyril: Thanks Marcin, you can find me at www.cyrilcorallo.com and ww.rheo.fr. and http://www.moonspiderstudio.com