Marco Iozzi takes us through his journey to becoming an accomplished concept artist and matte painter.

Iozzi is a successful artist and matte painter whose work has been featured in over 100 pieces in the film and entertainment industry. From critically acclaimed movies like "Zero Dark Thirty" to popular shows like "Game of Thrones" to music videos like "Freedom" by Pharrell Williams, Iozzi has become a trusted freelance artist within the community. His work has landed him several awards such as the 6th Visual Effects Society Award in 2008 for his work as a Look Development artist and Shading and Lighting Lead, a BAFTA for TV Craft Achievement in Special Visual Effects, The Royal Television Society Award for Best Visual Effects and a New York Festival Gld Medal for Outstanding Special FX- New York, 2007 "Fight for Life."

Though his career is envied by many, Iozzi will be the first to tell you that it didn't begin that way. In this featured piece he takes us through his journey to becoming a successful concept artist and matte painter.

I did not and do not think of myself as accomplished, every day for me is a struggle and I see so much talent around. There are so many more technical guys out there that able to teach procedures much better than me.

Throughout the years I had to and chose to use many different tools; I spent time learning them, but at the end there's one philosophy that I live by in my life and in my career;

Take what's useful, discard the useless and improve from that.

I came across this studying Bruce Lee's philosophy. This is what I apply every day in my work. Considering how the industry is changing and how big and powerful these tools are I need to be able to jump from one software to the other and pick what I need and what I know is its strength, then combine the result. Quickly, efficiently.

While knowing the tools are important, it's not the software that makes the difference in the final output. There's so much more behind it.

During my years of martial arts and street fighting practice I trained with a master who once told me

"Remember, even the most stupid person can teach you something"

It's funny how the brain works, and how some moments in life perceived as ordinary, get instead magically stored and stick with you forever.

So I decided that it's time I share my journey, my choices, my pain, because if there's even a small chance that something I say sticks and makes you think, then for me, it's a success already.

The Realization

Most of the people I hear talking about their beginnings mentions Star Wars and yes, for sure, it was a movie I loved and got influenced by, but what I remember striking a chord for me was the work of Ray Harryhausen in Clash of Titans. I could not imagine there were jobs, paid jobs, where you could actually do that. Then came Blade Runner and something clicked. Throughout the years what I try to achieve is not telling a story through characters and their struggle and emotions but more "creating moods."

Blade Runner, through the use of cinematography, great design, a great score really brought me inside the story. Then there were the 80s and early 90s, with cult movies (The Goonies, ET, Indiana Jones, Big trouble in Little China etc..) and thanks also to a serene environment around me, I was able to develop the "Art of Awe" throughout my teen age years.

"The Art of Awe" is my funny name to describe something that kids are very common with, which is the incredible power of being emotionally involved in an event or in a story. I was not an avid comic book reader. I was instead very outgoing and loved to be out with friends playing with the simple "analog" tools now so outdated, like a ball on a field of grass. But cinema (and later video games) started to became more and more important, a place where imagination could really run wild, a place that introduced me to characters that influenced me.

Outside of parents and eventually teachers at school, cinema can really become "a source of learning", and when characters are well written, even if they wear costumes or masks, they represents the struggle we go through, the values we live by, our fears, our hopes. We get involved and we share their journey.

I became fascinated with this and wanted to understand how the magic of cinema was created. At that time, as a teenager, I was more interested in special effects and the "movie magic" more than how a script is deep and well written.

On TV at that time there was a show called "Movie Magic" where they talked about movies behind the scenes- that became a fixed appointment for me. Through that I learned what CGI was and how it was becoming more and more popular in film making.

I had no internet, we were far from the technology we have today so access to information was limited. If you really cared about something you had to make efforts to find information.

I remember ordering special edition DVD's from the US because they included special features and little by little something grew and grew, the cornerstone on which everything following was built: passion.

I think I was so lucky to find passion early, to know what I wanted to do that in my life. I believe that to find this you have to be a curious person and choose to surround yourself with various, different and interesting subjects: books, movies, videogames, life.

You have to be open to receive inputs. You have to be eager to grow and to find your place in the world. To find your path. A big help can come from people you're surrounded by but at the end of the day it has to be inside you, a sparkle that fires up and pushes you.

I finally got a chance to put my hands on a copy of 3D Studio Dos, to see for myself what 3D and CGI were. I fell in love with it. The possibilities of seeing and creating objects in wireframe from all the angles made me immediately think about all the creative possibilities. It was like the best toy ever. And that feeling stayed with me, even today.

Ok goal is set- I want to work in the entertainment industry.

Good, but how?

I'm not in LA. I don't know anyone who does this. I'm in Italy. What is the best thing I can do?

Major Decisions

3 years passed in which slowly I realized how I was spending very little time studying for exams and instead learning about 3D and CG. University became more like a distraction in my path.

So I sat down with my parents to express my will to stop my 5 years degree and try to find a way to get into the industry.

I already had a plan- to attend the 4 month Visual FX and Animation Course in a Softimage Authorized Training Center. My father having no idea of what computer graphics really was gave me the best gift ever. He decided to believe in me. He could see that I had a dream and the determination to make something happen. He saw this and valued my commitment.

So with a big effort for them, they decided to pay for this school.

Like lucid memories I mentioned before, that was a moment of lucid realization that I owed him from that moment on and that I would have worked my ass off to pay him back. Not with money… with results.

I was already dreaming big. Much bigger than I will ever achieve. It's that drive that pushed me every time I received a no and closed doors in front of me. It's that drive that allowed me to pick myself up again and keep running.

This is not a trademark of a winner … but it's a trademark of someone who will never stop.

We all have our reasons and different stories that brought us to this crazy challenging, complex and ever changing industry, but to be able to be here and to grow there is one thing we have in common: talent

Wait what??? … Yes, talent. Talent for me is not that magic, divine, mysterious touch you're born with that easily allows you to create masterpieces.

Talent = passion and hard work

If we don't have true passion we could never stand the steep learning curves, crazy hours, no recognition and constant frustration and self-doubt. And if we don't work hard we'll be soon swept away by other more determined artists.

So when I started to attend that visual effects and animation course I knew the knowledge itself would have been a minimum percentage of what I needed, but it would open the door of the visual effects industry for me with my first job.

This was 19 years ago, I was 22. This was only the beginning.

The Beginning

I took the VFX and Animation course, those short 4 months very seriously.

I was aware that the more time and effort I put in when not attending classes, the more possibilities I could eventually have.

Your portfolio is your business card- the key to the industry.

At the end of the course I was offered a position with a company doing VFX for commercials. This is where I started working as a freelancer, jumping from company, working on a wide range of projects from TV Commercials to small budget feature films.

We're talking about Italy though, no matter the beauty of the country, the food, the wine and La Dolce Vita, Italy is not well known for Visual Effects or for pushing the boundaries in creativity related technology. So the quality low overall, the organization was often lacking, and eventually even getting paid became tough.

The size of the companies were smaller leading me to become a generalist, trying to wear many hats and do what was needed.

Being a Generalist

I believe it's very important to start out as a generalist, because when you begin you don't have a clear idea of what exactly you're strengths and, most of all, what you really love doing. Being a generalist allows you to touch different disciplines and start to see "your path".

Moreover, being a generalist allows you to see the different roles, duties, possibilities and limitations. It is always a team effort so this process will teach you how to interact well with other departments.

Even if you eventually become a "specialist", you won't work in your small little "box", you'll need to interact with departments that come before and after you. This is a very important point. Communication, awareness, knowledge.

The business is changing, tighter budgets, less time to achieve results. The main skill obviously becomes solving problems, finding the quickest solution for the best looking result. This comes from team work and from efficient interaction.

A good project breakdown demands a deep understanding of the pipeline and well designed workflow, which utilizes each departments in the most efficient way.

I started to realize that if I wanted to really achieve my dream to work on movies and high end projects I could not stay in Italy.

Here comes a big decision that a lot of us who are not from a well-known "VFX-friendly" city, will face sooner or later: staying or leaving

It's never easy to make this type of decision. I've met talented people with a lot of potential that are lacking this grit, this determination to make the difficult decisions, to jump into the unknown.

Will these people ever regret not trying?

Will you?

In my case, I had to be very honest and put things on the balance, what do I want to do? Do I really care about this job to eventually find myself alone somewhere else, without my landmarks, without friends, girlfriend and family? How will I cope with feeling alone? Is the drive to learn, grow and work in this field stronger than fear? Was I too afraid of taking this risk?

I was afraid but I didn't let it stand in my way. So I continued creating images and animations at night, to expand and make my showreel better. At that time I had to cut the reel, put it on a VHS tape (NTSC if your favorite studio was in the US) and send them out with a cover letter and resume.

That was the beginning of a new chapter called "REJECTION".

Rejection

We have so much hope after sending a new portfolio, we want to work in a particular studio, but sometimes the answer is silence.

This happened to me several times. At this point you have to be honest with yourself and your work. It's not good enough. It's normal, it's absolutely normal but it's a failure, one of many we have to face. So what do we do? Do we stop at the first closed door? Hopefully not.

Hopefully we can take time to breath, compare our work to what the industry needs, understand where we have to improve and go back to work.

I'm a firm believer that if you keep on raising your own bar and continue working hard your output will improve. Consistent high quality work attracts attention and thus work.

One of the positive sides of social media is the possibility they give us to spread our work, to reach people and potential clients almost instantly. This is incredibly powerful.

If you received a negative answer, no answer at all, or doubt about your work there's only one thing you can do, keep working, keep pushing. Keep an eye out for what's around, be inspired by it but do not become a slave to someone else's style/content and, above all, do not allow the quality you see around bring you down. There will always be someone better to be inspired by, and someone "worse" to inspire.

At the end of the day it's a challenge with no one other than yourself.

If you start copying others it could be good as a learning process, to understand some techniques etc, but you'll never be someone else, so you have to do this while slowly discovering your personal voice and style. Do what you love, what you feel close to. Explore subjects that move you, that got you closer to this world.

Listen to yourself. At the end of the day, this is the most honest thing you can do and it's the only that will allow real success.

Sometimes I was so inspired by a certain kind of work that I wanted to dive into the same "discipline" later realizing it was not me, I did not have the same interests, so my results were pretty poor. Why?

Because I was not true to myself and my personal taste.

Difference and peculiarity stands out, just keep doing it. People will notice.

The Risk

After the realization I wanted to leave my country and after trying to reach out to some professionals who did not reply I finally got my breakthrough. The Mill in London offered me a chance. I was absolutely thrilled, a studio like them liked my work and saw some potential. I loved their job and I could not believe this was happening.

So I packed my bags, bought my plane ticket and went to the interview, which eventually led me move to London.

I will always remember the first day, entering the building and seeing the Oscar statue they just recently won for "The Gladiator".

I was alone in a new country, different language, different people, no security, great enthusiasm. I would not have wasted that occasion. That was my beginning.

A long time has passed, and I had the chance to work with many studios everywhere, but I still remember that feeling. Turned down or ignored by less well known studios I never stopped believing in it and learning on my own, and eventually The Mill call was for me the proof that if you work hard sooner or later good things will happen.

That was the beginning of my career abroad and the beginning of a gypsy adventurous life.

As I said before I've always been a freelancer at heart, so I started working for TV and movies.

Freelancing

Freelancing is an art. You keep learning as you go and often by failing. Freelancing for me means:

- Freedom

- Having the possibility of choosing your projects

- More money

However this comes at a cost:

- Instability and uncertainty for the future

- A constant need to improve yourself and be at the top of your game

- Networking

- Becoming your own agent- dealing with contracts and money

- Organized and strategic choices

- The possibility of over work and burn out.

- Accepting too many jobs lowering your output (big risk)

As a person who strongly believes in meritocracy, in freelancing I saw my place to honestly show who I am and what I can do. If I do well for a client he/she will come back. The better I do the more money I make and more interesting work is offered to me.

More and more importantly these days, if things go well I can work less. I can decide WHEN to work. I can decide that for this week I want to stop with client work and concentrate on studying, or painting, or going to see exhibitions.

If you become a good reliable freelancer you can create your own home studio and do work from wherever your personal life wants you to be.

It took a long time, a lot of efforts, a lot of difficult moments.

Working in TV and Film

Tv and Film each have their own challenges and I love them both.

After the first years as a generalist, I found my specialty and my passion in Shading, Lighting and Rendering, learning compositing techniques as well. In a nutshell, I loved to develop and create the look of CGI elements and this eventually turned into look development for shots.

I did not see myself standing "still", doing the same job over and over, but throughout the years I saw a clear path slowly emerging in front of me.

I spent years using 3D, specifically the rendering aspect, from shot production to pre- production visual development. Then, combining my passion for traditional photography and landscape, I moved into Matte Painting.

Techniques are constantly evolving and the "2D only" set extension matte painting is now evolving into full digital environments. My knowledge in 3D became a valuable asset. I could take care of my own 3D, light and render it how I pleased and use that as a base for my painting work.

Moreover, I could understand when and why to use one technique instead of the other. This is extremely important for my clients, as eventually it means cutting down time/cost.

17 and Still Growing

For the past 4 years I've been working remotely more and more, trying to produce high quality work for my clients no matter where they are.

It's not an easy life style, constantly having to deal with too much or too little work, constantly having to keep up with the latest technology evolutions, constantly having to study and improve the portfolio.

At the same time, I see this as the right evolution for me, after so many years of traveling.

I love both the challenges and the freedom I get from this, but sometimes I miss the team work, the long nights of work to face morning deadlines, shoulder to shoulder, the camaraderie you develop.

You spend so much time together, linked by this passion. You suffer together, you party together, you have hangovers together. I can't not be nostalgic of those days.

No matter if you part ways, this friendship bond will last.

In the past 3 years I've also been starting to work more on concept work.

Often my clients come to me and they do not have a specific clear idea of the look of things, so I end up having to come up with visual solution as well.

Coming from design, 3D and photography, I knew immediately that if I wanted to do things properly, I had to go back, pick up again and refine the fundamentals of traditional art, so I enrolled in a fine art school and I'm studying and working on these skills on a daily basis.

Improvement goes through developing habits and even if it's a busy day I start it by drawing and sketching, sometimes only for 15 minutes.

This opened the door to other frustration, but no matter the failures and the crumbled paper piling up and lying on the floor, I know it's the base for making a difference in the long run.. It's exercise. It's homework.

After 17 years, I feel I still have a long way to go to be comfortable in creating my worlds, from conception to execution and to be able to tell stories, but I'm not afraid of the journey as I was not at the beginning.

Every single day I still wake up with the enthusiasm of creating, knowing another failure might be around the corner, ready to accept it no matter how hard it is, but also sure I'm going learn something new.

I believe success in life is personal and it is finding happiness, whatever it means for each one of us.

I know what makes me happy, I'm blessed I made it my life.

Marco continues to work as a concept artist and matte painter. His works can be found here.