Gianluca Fratellini

Welcome and thanks for visiting my website...

My name is Gianluca Fratellini. I was born in 1980 in Modugno, a little village near Bari in Puglia, Italy. My career in 3D animation actually started at the early age of 14 during high school years and without privileged access to a personal computer.

My intrigue began through self-study of the first books ever published on 3D software such as Autocad and Lightwave. The learning momentum picked up with me frequenting my father’s office giving me access to Autocad primarily used for industrial design in construction. During breaks I helped myself to their powerful computers... :) thereby giving me more practical insight to the workings of 3D software.
 

After receiving my diploma I started studying computer science at university, hoping, with no purpose, to meet people who cultivated the same passion and with which to share information.

Quite some time passed before I finally obtained my very first (and very slow) AMD-K6 personal computer and throughout the following years I was just exploring various software as a generalist carrying out different tests in animation and also I started my first short-film "A Bug's Story" (5 minutes), inspired by the characters from Pixar's movie "A Bug's Life".

 

I started to focus my attention more on animation so while I was studying to take my first test in mathematical analysis, I decided to work on a small short-film "A Bug's Story" and at the same time a small company in Luxembourg, Oniria Pictures, interested in the skills listed on my Curriculum Vitae, sent me an email asking for a "demo-reel", and querying if I would been interested in working on the animated 3D film "Tristan & Isolde". Initially, scared by the news (I thought it was a bad joke made by friends), especially as I didn't even know what a demo-reel was, I went on to send all my tests and materials I worked on during that time which also included my first short-film that was still a work in progress.

I decided to leave university and soon took a flight to Luxembourg where I then did 3 months with Oniria Pictures, then was able to later sign my first contract for 3 years, initially as 3D Junior Animator on the TV American Series "Bob' s Beach" - 52 episodes of 11 minutes. I then became Senior 3D Animator on the first film "Tristan & Isolde" then followed on afterwards on the second feature film "Renart the Fox", with a 2D flat render and background.

 

During those three years at Oniria Pictures, I was actually the only one that was autodidact and my other animator colleagues were from prestigious international animation schools such as Gobelins and Supinfocom.  I decided to create during that same time another short-film "Life in Smoke - Una Vita in Fumo" about 8 minutes long, working nearly all nights after work, including weekends. Thanks to the constant engagement and the emotional support from people close to me, I successfully completed my short-film, still giving me great satisfaction and awards, earning numerous important prizes in Italian and European film festivals until today.

 

I later worked at Ubisoft at Montrèal, in Canada, as 3D Senior Animator and Layout Supervisor in the Cinematic’s department of big games such as Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, Far Cry, AND 1, Surf’s Up, etc. At the same time I was also a 3D animations teacher for university programs Level 2 at the Ubisoft's Campus organized by Cegep of Matane in Quebec and at the same time I tried to improve my French and English skills but decided to still keep my Italian accent.

Later I was contacted by Animal Logic in Sydney - Australia where I worked on the movie "Happy Feet" by Warner Bros as 3D Character Animator on the main character "Mumble". I had a great experience working with director George Miller.  “Happy Feet” was a really nice movie that allowed us to go on to win the Academy Award Oscar for "Best Animated Motion picture" in 2006.
 

Then I moved to Spain where I worked at Ilion Animation Studios in Madrid, as 3D Character Animator on the movie "Planet 51". 
I got the chance to learn Spanish as it was a bit difficult for the director to speak in English so we were given Spanish lessons during lunch. After that I worked on a commercial for "Actimel Danone" and a TV series "Glumpers" as 3D Lead Animator.