Alceu Baptistao was born in 1960 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His father was a portrait painter and from an early age Alceu followed in his father's footsteps. At the age of 18, after a very short period studying engineering, he was admitted to the Visual Arts course at The University of Sao Paulo. During college, Alceu worked in Visual Arts, Theater, Cinema and Television. He experimented with several areas such as set design, masks, costumes, opening titles and special effects. While still at college, and holding a strong preference for "fantastic realism", he started to work professionally as an illustrator using traditional techniques for magazines, book covers and advertising.

Alceu had his first contact with computer graphics in 1985 during a course set up by Objetivo, a large educational company, and TV Globo, the largest Brazilian TV network. Later that year, Alceu met Sergio Salles and they founded Vetor Zero, a small company producing digital animation and special effects for TV commercials. Starting with a simple Amiga computer, Vetor Zero grew year by year, to become one of the largest Latin American special effects houses.

Since then, Alceu has been directing and supervising a wide range of projects, from flying logos to character animation to digital scenery, as well as compositing and special effects. Once in a while he still models and does animation, but he prefers shading and lighting–perhaps an echo of his childhood exposure to portrait painting.

Alceu is married and father of a son named "Caio", from whom he borrowed the name for his 3D CG character.

Q. How did you get involved in the 3D computer graphics industry?
A. Back in the early 80's, when I still worked as an illustrator, I saw the first program intros and vignettes done in CG by TV Globo, the largest Brazilian TV network. They were pioneers in this area, working along with PDI. I was instantly hooked! Right then I decided that this was what I wanted to do. But, back then, CG was available only to the computer elite because the computer systems one needed cost in the 'six digits' or more.

In 1985, Globotec, a production house connected to Globo, offered a one-year course on digital video resources I promptly attended although they were primtive back then. By the end of 1985, I met my partner Sergio Salles, a videomaker, and we decided to take the risk and buy a novelty: the Amiga 1000. With that state-of-the art technology, we founded Vetor Zero Videographics. In the studio, I pushed my inks and brushes and got to work. My first animations were done in Basic!

Q. How do you use Maya software?
A. We're like many other small studios around the world. We do everything 3D in Maya, and sometimes in 2D too. We work under tight schedules and Maya–being very powerful–provides a work flow we can depend on. Its flexibility provides excellent resources for modelling in NURBS or polygons. Maya's texture maps, very comprehensive animation, shading and lighting tools really help when time is tight. As I'm not a programming oriented guy, what I like most is the ability to create solutions with MEL [Maya Embedded Language] for tricky problems within the interactive interface, with little or no writing. We render everything on Maya's native renderer, too. I can't complain about the results at all.

Q. What projects have you worked on?
A. Mostly TV commercials, since the very beginning. Many of them won important international prizes–as in Cannes–for example, but I don't think they are known in USA. Honestly, I've never found time for a personal work. Kaya, my synthespian, is the only exception, and even then, it's just a study. Unfortunately, I never got involved with feature film productions, and I don't even know if I could adapt myself to that compartmentalized work environment.

Q. What makes this industry so exciting to you?
A. The first thing I missed when I worked in illustration was the lack of the fourth dimension–time. I always wanted to be able to make my paintings move, so CG was a natural evolution for me. Besides that, the nature of the work is very exciting, you can almost recreate reality according your own vision, and it's the closest you can get to cinema without having to deal with arrogant actors. The community is friendly worldwide, and the exchange of information is amazing. People usually have fun in the work, so most of the times the work environment is pretty enjoyable.

Q. Where do you see the industry going in the next five years?
A. After a short time of resistance, I feel that the industry now accepts CGI in every form. We are now capable of mimicking almost any aspect of live action, and then go on to twist this reality at will. Certainly within this time range we'll also have perfectly believable synthespians. What are we going to do with that? I believe that the replacement of many aspects of live action is inevitable. More and more, many complex or dangerous shots will be done in CG. We have to start to think about the professional issues that arise through the use of digital stuntmen and women. Although I don't believe in the replacement of lead actors for CG ones; we'll probably see them for a while yet. As a novelty, maybe we'll see the resurrection of passed classic actors? What about a film starring Gary Cooper and Nicole Kidman?

...and of course, we'll also be doing the same we do today, but better and faster!

Q. What words of wisdom do you have for anyone interested in entering the world of 3D computer graphics?
A. First rule: love your job. If you don't have fun doing CG, do something else. Second rule: be persistent and persevere because there are dozens of different ways to do something. If you persevere, as I do, you'll find a way that looks better and makes you worry less. Obviously, any further correction will be done easily. Spend more time thinking, and less time working (that doesn't necessarily mean free weekends!) Take a break if you can. Difficult late night problems are usually easily solved in the morning. Finally— and this is very important—observe everything, films, cartoons, the real world. Watch the way nature deals with light. Try to get a mental, intuitive image of how things look, not how things are. Try to pick-out what is important and what is a waste of effort. Look at things, and then copy from your mind. Usually it works better than copying directly from pictures.