Loe Certano, 3D character animator at Illumination Studios Paris

A graduate of the 3D Character Animator course in 2019, Loe Certano is now a 3D Character Animator for studio Illumination. After starting out on "Minions 2", directed by Pierre Coffin (class of 1992), he went on to work on "Sing 2", "Migration" and "Despicable Me 4".

I was lucky enough to be spotted by Julien Soret (one of Illumination studio's historic animation directors ) even before the end of my course, at a speed recruiting event organized by the school. He told me that my level of animation wasn't quite there yet, but that he liked my ideas, and at the end of the event one of Illumination's recruiters offered me an internship.

A few months later I got a call back telling me that my internship wasn't going to happen, I skipped a beat, then they told me that the studio wanted to offer me a job straight away. I finished the course, went to the Annecy Festival and the following week I moved to Paris and started work!

As the training was very professional, I didn't feel out of place. I had an incredible baptism of fire. I started work straight away on "The Minions 2". I arrived at a very intense period of production. There was no lead animator to look after us, so we had to hit the ground running.

Five of us were hired by Illumination that year: two on "Les Minions", two on "Sing 2" and one in marketing.

"Despicable Me 4" - Property of Illumination/Universal Pictures

Animation works a bit like the army, it's very vertical. The director and production are at the very top of the hierarchy. The director places orders with each of the departments, giving them instructions on colors, animation...

Each department then has one or two supervisors who lead a team of leads, i.e.the most experienced artists, who in turn supervise a smaller team of middle and junior seniors. The juniors, the "pioupiou", have less experience and will work on the simpler plans, while the seniors will take care of the more technical plans.

Generally speaking, when you're starting out, you start with the crowd, animating the characters behind the scenes. I was lucky enough to be able to start directly in hand, i.e. animating the main characters or those closer to the camera, which is normally the next stage in a classic progression. I mainly animated short, simple shots.

Today, I'm middle-aged.I worked exclusively for Illumination. I'm feeling very good right now. It's very demanding, but I enjoy it so much that I don't feel like I'm going to work!

"Migration" - Property of Illumination/Universal Pictures

I learned all about "Minions 2", the first time I'd ever done the job I'd dreamed of when I was a kid. I had a minion in front of me, I was animating Gru, it was completely unreal !

More recently, my experience on the film "Migration" was incredible. When I was given the choice between "Mario" and "Migration", I chose the latter without hesitation. I've always been a huge fan of Benjamin Renner and I absolutely wanted to work with him. He completely exceeded my expectations, and to be able to work with him was a dream come true.

My last little highlight was being able to work on " Despicable 4 ", co-directed by Patrick Delage, an alumnus of GOBELINS (class of 1988) and Disney, who notably worked on Tarzan. He also made the transition to 3D at Pixar. It was very enriching to be able to benefit from his knowledge, to listen to his anecdotes.

"Despicable Me 4" - Property of Illumination/Universal Pictures

Yes, we're everywhere! We're trained to target the big studios, and that works out very well. At Illumination, in general, the more senior alumni come from the Paris campus and the 2D training courses, while the younger profiles all come from the 3D character animator training course in Annecy. 3D training is more recent, which explains this distribution.

Surprise surprise!

"Despicable Me 4" - Property of Illumination/Universal Pictures

What I love about Illumination is that we're given the opportunity to present ideas. It's very cool to be able to say once in the cinema "that was my idea" or "I participated in so-and-so's idea...". Illumination leaves a lot of room for collaboration and improvisation, which is not the case at all studios.

What's more, Illumination's priority is the quality of the animation, no matter how long it takes to finish a shot. This allows us to push the animation, to go very far in the detail of the shots.

The team is incredible too. I find it magical to be paid to work with such talented people, who are always ready to pass on and help.

"Migration" - Property of Illumination/Universal Pictures

I love working at Illumination, but I think it's important to see how things are done elsewhere. Getting out of your comfort zone is what allows you to evolve as an artist.

I'd like to go and work abroad and come back stronger.

It's very rare for a freelancer to stay with the same studio for 5 years, and that's allowed me to go further in animation. There's a balance to be found between the two, and that's what I'd like to achieve.

"Despicable Me 4" - Property of Illumination/Universal Pictures

It's a great opportunity. I've always wanted to teach, and talking about animation is my passion!

I have a great sense of debt towards others, and I've been given so much that I want to return the favor. I never thought it would happen so early in my career. When Giusi contacted me, I freaked out, but it reassured me to know that I was going to be involved in the training course I'd taken, so I was on familiar ground.

The year I spent in Annecy was one of the best of my life. At the time, there was only one 3D animation class. There were 30 of us, lost in Haute-Savoie, living a bit like animation hermits.

I loved this immersion. I'd been to an animation school plus a general one before, and being able to devote myself 100% to 3D character animation confirmed that I was on the right track.

I also met some incredible people, both students and lecturers, whom I later met again as a colleague and whom I'm lucky enough to be able to call my friends today.

"Migration" - Property of Illumination/Universal Pictures

I was very lucky to end up where I am, I was in the right place at the right time, but it doesn't always work out that way.

You mustn't take it personally, if it doesn't happen so quickly, sometimes it's just not the right time. You have to persevere, put yourself forward and don't wait for the offers to come to you. Listen to your colleagues and classmates when they talk about a film, go to the Annecy Film Festival.

The quality of your work doesn't necessarily have anything to do with getting hired, and it doesn't reflect your quality as a person.

When you're a student, you're often passionate about your work, and you put your soul into it. You have to know how to separate the two, and not diminish yourself as a person if it doesn't work out right away.