Stanislas Mettra - Lead Animator

Raymanzone: Could you introduce yourself briefly?
Stanislas Mettra: My name is Stanislas Mettra, I'm 27, and I'm lead animator on Rayman 3: in other words, I supervise the game animations. I joined Ubi Soft in June 1997 and began by working on Tonic Trouble. I took part in the Rayman 3 adventure from the first day of the project, in October 1999.

How does one come to be lead animator on a game like Rayman 3?
I'm not particularly young compared to most people who work in the video-game sector! Let's say that my initial training was my knowledge of games. I became obsessed by video games at the age of six! It was something I always wanted to do, without really believing that it would one day be possible in France - but I'd got it wrong there!

When I was desperately trying to program game models on the Atari all by myself, there were people who were not much older than me who'd already gone pro and were marketing their first games, also in France. I gave up on games a little when 3D consoles like PlayStation, Jaguar and 3DO appeared. For quite some time I resisted them, because I found those first 3D games unplayable. They were too slow, and ugly! But when I heard that Ubi Soft was looking for animators to create Tonic Trouble - a small N64 game, a kind of rough draft of Rayman 2, in a way - I realized this was my now-or-never chance to join the business. 3D was still in its infancy at the time, and everything had to be re-learned. Lots of people joined the profession without any particular qualifications - apart from the programmers, of course, for whom good schools already existed. On the other hand, they'd acquired a lot of experience through self-teaching, as players, demo-makers, or graphic designers and animators - as was the case for me ...

In a few words, what does your job involve?
It's about controlling everything concerning animation in a video game. For the most part, you have to create, model and animate characters in accordance with everything they have to achieve in the game.

What made you want to work in the video game sector?
My passion for games, of course, but also the desire to venture into a new and constantly evolving profession. You can never afford to slacken off. You always have to be at the leading-edge of technological developments if you want to create the famous Wow Effect, that special extra something that makes the players feel we're pushing their machines to the limit ... Even though the most important thing is that still to create an enjoyable and exciting game!

What advice would you give to someone wanting to work in animation?
If you're dead keen on animation, there are now lots of professions you can pick from, which wasn't always the case in France. Traditional animated cartoons are quickly losing momentum and giving way to 3D, but, despite everything, being able to draw well is still a vital ingredient in our profession! To create a beautiful 3D image, the minimum requirement is to have a good artist's eye, for want of dexterity. So, to do this, training in graphic art is a good way in. Today, there are also some very good schools for computer artists, and even schools that specialize in video games. There's just one problem: the competition's very stiff. There are more and more young people out there trying to break into these trades, and their level of skill is often really impressive!

After Rayman 3, what are your future plans?
At the moment, I'm creating a few animations for the XIII game. Then I may launch out into a new, top secret project! Otherwise, I'd love to have more free time to carry on playing games...

Thank you Stanislas !