We were lucky to catch up with Emmanuel Rodriguez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Emmanuel, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I always loved monsters and creatures. Before I knew more about creatures and such, I had a giant collection of dinosaur toys as a kid, especially the carnivores. Later, finding out I loved them because they looked like monsters. Years later, strangely enough, I wanted to be a ventriloquist. But as I made my puppet characters, they always ended up taking a more grotesque look to them. It’s kind of hard to be funny, at least back then, when your puppet looks like a horror from hell, haha. But once I saw the remake of “The Wolfman” with Benicio del Toro, I was blown away by how the wolfman looked. I searched how it was made, and pretty much then and there, I decided to change paths, wanting to make monsters and creatures for films. Later, adapting digital techniques for game work.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
With 14 years of experience as a creature/character sculptor, I’ve crafted props and creatures for indie films and developed video game characters for smaller studios. Alongside, I’ve delved into concept art and honed my skills in art direction, ensuring a strong vision for every project. My journey began at age 15, when I plunged into the indie film scene, working on my first short film in 2013, fashioning creatures even on shoestring budgets. Over time, I’ve established my presence in local film circles, expanding my reach and delivering the nightmares the clients desire. Whatever your needs may be, whether it’s sculpting and fabricating your creatures or bringing them to life digitally or developing concept design, I’ve got you
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
think the amount of mental work it can take is often underestimated. You can have inspiration and be super clear with your vision, but inspiration runs out. It doesn’t last, and after just days of doing art, it’s easy to burn yourself out. But the thing is, you can’t just stop and wait for inspiration to hit you, especially when you have deadlines. Clients won’t care if you ‘aren’t feeling it’; they paid for your service under an agreed time frame, and it’s your duty to honor it. So, digging yourself out with brute force or changing the way you work, or in my case, when I’m sculpting creatures and not feeling inspired, I rely on my knowledge of anatomy to carry me through. This way, I can be more technical than creative until my creativity comes back, and that can be very taxing on your mind.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Seeing the client happy with my work and fulfilling their needs is incredibly rewarding. For my personal work, I really enjoy people’s reactions and confusion as they try to figure out how I got to the point of making something cursed. Human confusion is extremely humorous to me, as you can see people’s brains working at 100% trying to figure something out, especially with strange characters and concepts.
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