Valentin Dornel

The start of a professional career that recently took him to Vancouver to work for Sony Pictures Imageworks. The fact that the ESMA curriculum is so closely aligned with the professional world has opened many doors for him.

A rich and varied career

Valentin Dornel recently visited Montpellier and shared his experiences with the new intake of Montpellier students. “ESMA is a comprehensive, high-quality course. Without the multidisciplinary nature of the training, I wouldn’t be as comfortable in my work and in my personal artistic projects. My advice to current students is to get as much knowledge as possible
Valentin, for his part, has travelled a lot in his five years at the school and gained a lot of experience!
“When I left school, I worked on The Minions. Sixteen intense months in Paris, before joining Team TO and working on the Skylanders series (season 1). Then came the videogame trailer for Endless Space 2 (SupamonkS Studio) and the trailer for Mario et les lapins crétins. Then I moved on to Arthur de Pins ‘ film Zombillenium, doing a bit of freelance work from home, including a Vietnamese advert for In The Box. Finally, in November 2017 I joined Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver to work on Smallfoot (Yeti et Compagnie in French) and then a few months as back-up on Spiderman Into the Spider Verse.”

The soul of a teacher and an innovator

“In January 2019, I’ll start work on the end sequence of Spiderman Homecoming 2 (Spiderman Far from Home), again in FX, an area I’ve now specialised in. In the near future, I’d also like to teach special effects and Houdini at school.”

Two fields in which he has a particular interest that have also given him a pioneering spirit.

In parallel with his work, Valentin Dornel is trying to develop an innovative technique of digital tracings on paper.

“I use my knowledge of Houdini and programming to create these lines. How does it work? In Houdini, I generate vector plots using algorithms that I design and then export them to a machine called a plotter. It’s the ancestor of the printer! Two motors move a pen across the paper on the sheet and a small servomotor raises and lowers the pen. The aim is to develop algorithms that will be able to paint and draw. I’m more comfortable programming and creating algorithms than using my hand to draw, so I’m teaching a machine to do it for me. I’m still at the experimental stage and am starting to use this technique with watercolours

The more curious among you can discover these works on instagram.