Jakub Jablonski Interview(s)

This one is always the hardest to answer. I’m a mix of director and art director at Platige Image. That means that I combine illustrating, painting, and designing with writing and directing. Sometimes I get the chance to paint complicated colour boards, create concept art and mood boards from scratch, and other times I’m limited to simple production art and collaborating with freelance artists. All this, plus a ton walking, talking, and typing on a couple of instant messaging account, is essentially my day job. After hours I do similar stuff with my own company, Juggler Games, where we’re working on our first game: “My Memory of Us”.

I went into serious concept art work and art direction nearly ten years ago, soon after graduating from the Łódź Film School. One of my first efforts involved working on character design and scenography for Tomek Bagiński’s short animated film, “The Kinematograph”. That was the beginning of my adventure in the field.

Communication is always the hardest. Especially when you work in an environment where you need to coordinate communication with both co-workers and clients. CGI, animation, movie design, and all that other creative stuff Platige does is always a mix of technology, art, and clever/crazy (pick one) management. Using graphical language is much more common for me than using verbal communication. My day job entails drawing my own stuff, overpainting other artists’ work, and drafting visual briefs and visual notes—master visual communication is an absolute necessity in such a position. Obviously, there are areas where you need to use the more traditional directorial skills and tools. Although communication in the fantastic world of film, video games, and advertising may be challenging, it is also undeniably very exciting.

For me, there are always two rewards. The first one is rather small and you receive it (or give it to yourself) quite early on. It will help you believe, in the early stages of the production process, that your work, your direction, and the efforts of all your team members will be worth it. That reward is the preproduction package you’ll create. The script, the director briefs, the concept art, and storyboards should always play an additional, inspirational role. The other, greater reward comes always at the end of the process, as the last person in the production chain adds their final touch to the work. After concluding work on game cinematics and trailers, I always take satisfaction from reading the comments of players’ excited for the release. Their opinion is the ultimate evaluation of our work.

Workload tends to differ from day to day, as every project is different, every clients has different needs, and we start every project with a different set of assets. Sometimes, we follow the precepts of Scrum, Waterfall, Agile, or other methodologies, and other times we do things our way. Though this be madness, yet there’s a method in’t. The project itself determines what the week will look like.

I love projects offering considerable artistic freedom. Creative Assembly, the developers of “Total War: Three Kingdoms” always give me as much artistic space as I may need—before “Three Kingdoms” I worked with them on the trailer for “Total War: Warhammer II” and the experience was incredible. The best jobs give you the opportunity to work closely with the client on something you love. If both you and the client love your jobs—well, that’s just icing on the cake. We have to trust each other and respect our needs, limits, and skills. In 2017, I worked on seven game trailers, directed five, and served as art lead on all of them. Every project was tough, but also very exciting.

Respect your co-workers, respect other artists, and always try to help them show off their skills. Be prepared and be happy to work with people with better skills, and more talent and experience. Listen.

I do very different stuff—from heavily stylized to realistic. A few years ago, I did art and direction for the “Ryse: Son of Rome” cinematic, “The Legend of Damocles.” This one was special and portions of the stylized sequences in the “Three Kingdoms” trailer were inspired by it. So, I’d probably choose both these projects because of it.

The director is only part of a bigger team. There is a this thin line that separates a leader and problem-solver from a burden. Crossing it is very easy and happens often in the course of CGI productions, particularly to directors lacking up-to-date technological knowledge. CGI game trailers aren’t created by a single person, they’re the result of an intense team effort. Every project has a project lead and a producer who work very closely with the director. Every department has its own lead, as well. Platige = artists and I’m just one of them.