At 13, Adrien Lambert learned how to create lightsabers in After Effects. Excited by his success, he started to explore the world of VFX and was inspired to pursue a career as an environment artist. Today, he can officially add “Star Wars” to his resume.
Currently on sabbatical after wrapping up work on “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker” and “Aladdin” at ILM, Lambert isn’t taking much time off. He is spending his free time creating tutorials, compiling reference photos, and working on an ambitious sci-fi film with his brother. While working on his many side hustles, Lambert took the time to talk to us about his recent project, “Thrive in Silence,” his inspirations, how SpeedTree fits into his workflow, and what comes next.
About “Thrive in Silence:” It was a nice opportunity to put some things I learned in past years into something more personal. Sometimes growth is hidden, patiently doing its work in silence, waiting to shine in the light.”
About SpeedTree: “…as an environmental generalist, it’s always a great software to have in your arsenal because you can generate so many cool looking trees and vegetation detail very quickly…
How did you get started in CGI and VFX?
When I was 13 years old, I got way too excited when I found out it was possible to make a lightsaber with After Effects. I soon realized you could make much more! I had a lot of fun playing with VFX software for the goofy short films I was making with my brother. That got me really passionate about VFX and CGI, so I decided to make them my studies and start a career in this field.
Lambert’s design in SpeedTree
What were some of your early inspirations and what is inspiring you right now?
Science fiction movies, anime, and literature have always inspired me: “Star Wars,” “Alien,” “Evangelion,” “1984,” “Cowboy Bebop,” “Stargate.” Not just for the cool spaceships, but also the idea of examining our evolution as humans, sometimes on a dystopian Earth or in the entire universe, and the possibility of other intelligent life in the galaxy is a very intriguing thing that can captivate the imagination of anyone.
Nature is still a constant source of inspiration. I must say, I have a weird fascination for rocks and minerals, my Pinterest is full of those and landscapes from all over the world.
Can you elaborate on how you find SpeedTree useful and some of your favorite features/tools?
Creating a full CG environment can take quite a long time if you wanna go photorealistic, because there are so many features and variations to take into account! Having a software like SpeedTree, able to generate different iterations of various types of vegetation, is always welcome in an environment workflow. I got model variants “for free” (free in terms of time, which lets you focus on different aspects of the shots). Also, the ability to visualize the final look with textures really helps me be creative and experiment in a flexible way.
I would say I really enjoy the node graph and procedural workflow, in general, but having the ability to manually drive the shapes of trunks and branches with the hand drawn tool is the key feature that allows me to match a tree to a concept or photo. I show this process at the beginning of my tutorial, “Stylized Tree Modeling.”
I must say, I am also very fond of the mesh force. I like it quite a lot to create intricate interaction with other elements. In my demonstration, “SpeedTree QuickTip: Generate Vines,” I show how I use it to generate vines on my tree, but it would work with any model and would be the perfect feature to make an interactive tree growing on or next to a building, like the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It can make the difference to blend your models together and it’s the kind of detail that I am always looking for in my work.
What have you been working on in the last year and what do you have coming up?
On one hand, I have been pretty busy with my job at ILM this past year. I had a lot of fun making environments for “Aladdin” and “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker” as part of the generalist team. We had some very interesting challenges to face and we always managed to deliver some great shots in time. I couldn’t be more proud to work with this team!
On the other hand, I still try to find time for my personal projects and experiments. I have been working on the pre-production of “Exile Chronicles,” an ambitious live-action sci-fi short film I am directing with my brother. This time in a more “professional” way than what we used to make when we were teenagers, haha! But we still want to find the fun we had back then. We are confident we could start the big part of production this year and maybe release a small teaser.
floor and vegetation lookdev
Another part of my time has been creating educational content for my YouTube channel and various resources for artists (photo/video pack reference, tutorial, scripts, etc.) for my online store. This is actually linked with my short film as the money I am earning with these products is fully invested into the budget of my film project. Even if it’s not much, that may still help to get material for costumes, props, makeup, etc., and at some point maybe get more people involved to help on the show.
I am planning to release a CG course based on my illustration “Thrive in Silence” sometime this year. Should be mostly about procedural modelling, texturing, shading, and lighting: fun stuff! I am on sabbatical right now and fully working on “Exile Chronicles.” I am starting to think I’ll have to go back to real work soon. Not sure where I am going to land in the coming months, so we’ll see!
See more of Lambert’s work:
adrienlambert.artstation.com
YouTube | @AdrienLambert
Instagram | @Adrienlambertvfx
Facebook | @Adrienlambertvfx
