Roman Liluashvili, our newest Characters intern, succeeded in missing his welcome party at AMC, so we thought of another way to break the ice. Make him interact, meet his colleagues, relax a bit, forget about work. We invited him to a chit chat with the Environment intern, Kiyoshi Annunziata. He’s already snug with his Enviro gang, so with less stage fright and way more chill.
The two made each other’s portraits. Meet them below:
Kiyoshi about Roman
Roman is a self-taught 3D artist from Georgia and a Computer Science university student. He started as a hobbyist and hopes to achieve working in the game industry, currently at AMC as a Character Art Intern making his way to his dream.
Roman portrayed by Kiyoshi
Passionate about video games such as Watch Dogs 2 and The Witcher 3 as well as animation since he watched Toy Story, he finds inspiration in his favourite Georgian 3D artist “Subzero Saba” (Ucxo Moyme) and many others and loves both realistic and stylized designs.
He doesn’t like a specific colour but really enjoys all the colours that have low saturation. His favourite food is Lobiani, a traditional Georgian rustic flatbread stuffed with beans and spices.
Roman at his desk with his colleagues
In his spare time he practises cycling and sometimes builds computers tweaking around with components even for friends while he listens to Georgian alternative music. His favourite musician is Tamada.
Very noticeable is how much he loves his country which he has explained to me from its ancient historic origins to these days.
Roman about Kiyoshi
Kiyoshi is very smart and open minded, he is the type of person that you wanna have long talks with. I think that meeting him was a great opportunity to learn something new. He likes to share his experience and explains everything in depth.
The general knowledge that he has is on point and he can talk about everything and that’s really valuable in my opinion. He’s really passionate about Environment art and CG art in general, he has a really positive energy and good vibe just like everyone at AMC and I’m feeling gifted that I have the opportunity to work and interact with such lovely people.
Kiyoshi portrayed by Roman
Also Kiyoshi is a big fan of video games, his favourite ones are: Cyberpunk 2077, Metal Gear saga and Fallout saga. He also likes the old school console games.
And the most amazing part is that these games motivated him to explore and research many different things, so we can see that video games are not only for entertainment purposes, they can possibly become a source of education or motivation too.
Kiyoshi showing off some Jenga moves
Kiyoshi has a big dream of becoming an art director and creating his own video games with his team and I believe that with his positive attitude and dedication he will succeed in no time.
His favourite artist is Hideo Kojima, the third person portrayed in this post as a bonus as Kiyoshi just couldn’t help himself.
Although it’s freezing in Bucharest where our two interns courageously decided to spend their expat times, the ice was officially broken.
Bonus: Kiyoshi about Hideo Kojima
The first approach I had to Kojima’s world was with the Metal Gear saga of course, I clearly remember when I was 6 years old playing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and just don’t really understand it but I was so pleased and hooked by its designs, mechanics and atmosphere.
Few years later I seriously got into Metal Gear and basically played over and over every chapter I could get my hands on as new video games were coming out.
Since I was little I also had a huge love for movies and art in general which made my path of understanding Hideo Kojima‘s vision much deeper than I thought it would be.
Growing up, his contribution to the gaming industry clearly influenced my taste about video games since I prefer sci-fi and post-apocalyptic genres preferably open-world. And I found out recently that probably also influenced indirectly my choices about movies, as I discovered that we share a huge knowledge about cinema and we like pretty much the same movies with specific elements, such as actors, scene lighting, storytelling and camera movements.
For example, when Death Stranding was announced, I freaked out since it includes so many subjects I like and admire, from characters to matters of different aspects such as things related to the genre, locations, art direction, actors and so on.
I am really happy that I realised my dream of working in the game industry and I truly believe that we are experiencing the golden age of gaming and I am running through a future where I will also have the chance to realise my vision transposed as a videogame as I think is the greatest form of art of our times.
Having said this I can suggest playing his video games for sure, but also to listen to his podcast “Hideo Kojima presents Brain Structure” and read his book “The Creative Gene” as his experiences and knowledge are worth hearing/listening from artist to artist.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/16bw2WaRofqq7Vk6A88wLy?si=3cbd48d8c6b3486e
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Gene-inspired-creator-Stranding/dp/197472591X