Jordi Bares is the joint head of 3D and a VFX Supervisor at the Mill in London. Recently the Mill decided to use Houdini on a new Guinness commercial, and Jordi was kind enough to talk to us about the decision and what he thinks of Houdini and it's future at the Mill.
od[force]: Tell us a little about your background and how you arrived at The Mill.
Jordi Bares Dominguez: I am Spanish, born in Barcelona and 38 years old (gosh). My background, like many people that started a long time ago, is very weird. But I did study Architecture and on the way did work as a C programmer for Siemens Nixdorf, did some traditional animation, and specially freelanced a lot when my architectural visualization work at the university started to call the attention of some teachers. From there via a project I was doing at the Image lab in the university I ended up doing advertising for TV and from then I started to work doing this as it was really good fun.
From my last position in Spain as Animation Director in Filmtel I moved to London to do a freelance job for Jim Henson's in London and after another few projects I landed at The Mill, which is the place I really had in mind as I really do love the really dynamic and challenging world of advertising. I basically came from Architecture and moved to London for the fun of the challenge.
od[force]: Please tell us about your position at The Mill.
JBD: I am currently Joint-Head of 3D and act also on production as VFX Supervisor. I basically run certain kind of jobs and assist the director to make sure we can get the most out of the production, supervise the shoot and once back lead the team of artists to make the whole thing happen.
od[force]: Excellent
JBD: Yeah, I love it
od[force]: So being the head of 3D, you are responsible for coordinating the 3D department and choosing the approaches and the tools?
JBD: Together with the R&D team and production we are drawing a plan and steering the ship to accommodate the huge changes that happen from year to year. I am one of the people involved in the recommendation of the tools we are going to need.
This environment is so dynamic that it is really complicated to draw a master plan for the next 5 years as things can really change and we need to be able to respond quickly to the competition and client's desires.
