Who is Carlos Escárrega?

I’m a Graphic Designer from Guerrero Negro, México. I graduated from Design School about two years ago, and now I’m taking a course of Art Direction in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I like to play Basketball, Ping Pong and video games (specially the Zelda ones) although I haven’t do it for a while. I like to work from home, mostly because I work faster in nights, and recently discovered that I can work faster drinking a beer (I’m doing it right now). Besides Motion Graphics I like Illustration and I’m starting to learn Web Programation. If I weren’t a Graphic Designer I think I would be an Engineer or something related to Physics.

What is Motion Design for you? (Is there a definition for you?)

It’s for Design what movies are for photos. Basically it’s “design on wheels”. Maybe it’s a little cliché but I think is like take a few poster designs and then animate from one to the next. By now I had the opportunity to work in many types of design projects (Logo, web, print, etc) but Motion Design it’s the one I like the most.

How did you become a motion design artist? Did you switch from an other design sector? Do you still do other things like Illustration and Webdesign?

I was in design school and in the 6th quarter in the audiovisual class i had to make a Documental. That was my first time using After Effects and doing something in video. From the moment I started the project that was it for me. All the next projects I tried to make it in motion. Now I watch the documental and well is crappy but I like it because it was my first one.

From where do you get your daily dose of inspiration for your work?

Mostly from design blogs and tv. I like to see every tv spot because the good ones inspire me and the crappy ones let me know where not to go. Video games are very inspiring to me too as you can se in some parts of my reel.

* Can you tell us your 5 most beloved design / motion design websites.

Motionographer.- I  assume everyone in Motion Design have visited by now.
Smashing Magazine.- is great for everything in design. Doesn’t matter the “side” of Design you are, there is something usefull in there.
Motionworks.- I like the Business of Design and the Unplugged section, beacuse it’s a litte different aproach of everything of Motion that is out there (wich are mostly Tutorials).
Greyscale Gorilla.- I love the 5 second projects in here and It’s fun to watch Nick Campbell.
Mograph.net.-  I think this is one of the best Motion graphics community out there.

* How do you organize your projects and which tools or software do you usually use?

My projects are like my room, I start to clean things up when I can’t move around easily. When I star to organize my projects I usually use the same structure : A folder for the Final Comps, one for the PreComps, one for Psd’s, one for Ai’s,one for Jpg’s or Tiff’s, another for video or Image Sequences and one for audio and Sfx. I do the same thing in my project folder as in my After Effects Project. In Cinema 4D I’m pretty unorganized.

I ussualy work with The Adobe Suite and Cinema 4D and if I need to do some 3D Tracking I use Boujou.

* Is there a style of Motion Design which you  prefere?

I really like a well composited 2D/3D project and the handmade looking ones. Stop motion it’s pretty cool, but I’m pretty bad doing stuff manually and every time I try to cut something I cut my fingers, but I love stopmotion stuff combined with some match moved graphic elements.

* Do you have a favourite Motion Design which you really like or admire and why?

I like Stardust stuff a lot, I like the style and rhythm of their designs, also they were the “main act” in the first Design Meeting I attend. There is alse the guys of Psyop and the Digital Kitchen ones among others.

* At last, can you tell us something about your worst client?

My worst client was ironically the one with I work the most (about a year). I had to make for them 2 to 3 tv spots per week but the deadlines where ridiculous, they called around 5:30pm to ask for a new spot and it has to be done for the next day at 8 am. Although that make me work a lot faster it’s not a good way to work.

* Thank you for the interview

* Check out his Showreel here

Reel ‘09 from Carlos Escárrega on Vimeo.

* Here are some works by Carlos

Toolkit:
After Effects.
Cinema 4D.

Música:
Does it Offend You? Yeah. – Attack Of The 60 ft Lesbian Octopus

Video para “5 Second Projects : Old Video Games” de Greyscale Gorilla.

Para hacerlo primero busqué imagenes de los personajes y elementos que iba a utilizar y los tracé en vectores en Illustrator (hice a Megaman y a Link pero no encajaban en la animación).
Luego esos vectores los pasé a Cinema 4D y con ellos hice los personajes y el escenario en 3D.
Después apliqué luces y renderié (no se si se diga asi) y lo pasé a After Effects donde arreglé los colores y agregué otros detalles como las chispas de la estrella y el audio.

Toolkit: Illustrator. Photoshop. Cinema 4D. After Effects.

Render: 3 hrs. aprox.

* Check out his Homepage here: