Gaëtan Stoffel – 3D Artist
« This is what I want to do. »
Starting point: the Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard
I understood very soon that I was going to make a career in graphic design and arts: in high school already the discovery of a little 2D animation software had been enough to trigger something in me. My interest in 3D developed with the accumulation of cartoons and special effects movies that made me dream. At that time already a little music kept playing “this is what I want to do” in my head. After high school and a preparatory year in arts in Brussels, I ended up in Namur in the Haute Ecole that had created the Bachelor’s degree in Computer Graphics, which was famous for its 3D training.
The Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard was a real luck for me, the training in computer graphics and more precisely in 3D perfectly corresponded to what I wanted to do: good supervision, enough freedom for creativity, teachers who were specialists in their subject, real professionals active in their field and close to their students. Thanks to all of this, combined with my desire to learn and my dream to work in that field, my three years of bachelor were a really enriching period.
On the road again
After graduation I was certain I was going to work abroad and this meant that I had to speak English fluently so I went to Florida for one year, where I studied English intensively in an international language school in Miami… there are worse places to live in.
After this unforgettable year I ended up travelling, while continuing looking for a job and improving my 3D skills, more precisely in Korea and Australia.
After spending 3 months in Sydney, my cousin, Anthony Guebels, who had already been working in Vietnam for 3 months, invited me to join him to work with him in an advertising production agency as a versatile 3D artist.
That was when I met Mickael Do, talented flame/compositing artist with his head full of dreams…
After one year working in house, Mickael, my cousin and I proudly present you ARTHOUSE, a young production/post production company for advertising, TV, film…
ARTHOUSE
For the moment at ARTHOUSE we are working for American TV films, we have just finished our third project of this kind. We are also producing TV spots for the national Vietnamese market and in the Asia-Pacific region.
The future promises to be exciting, we have to make choices as we have so many opportunities and offers: from a building project for Dubai to kinematics for video games, it looks as if 2007 is going to be exceptional and impressive for a young firm like ours.
As far as my experience in Vietnam is concerned, I only have a single word to say: exceptional!!
Life here is simple, whatever you do, all seems to go well and easily, people are smiling, it is hot all year long and Ho Chi Min is a fantastic, young city which never sleeps.
Working in Vietnam
Regarding the work, I’m very lucky that the audiovisual market is still very young here and there are still a lot of things to do, 3D studios spring up everywhere and people are full of projects. I was also very rapidly confronted to a lot of responsibilities. Indeed here you are very rapidly expected to create more than 3D and even if you only have 3 months of professional experience, you can often end up as a 3D artist, composer, publisher, director of a project, which is a tremendous boost for your work experience.
I want to thank all the people who allowed me to get to this, my teachers at the Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard, my parents, Guy Fairon, Anthony Guebels and Mickael Do and I invite you to visit Vietnam, a country that brings me a lot!
