Number41: MOCA in the Sights

Artist: number41

David Liebard’s work has been on the radar for a while ever since I noticed the Museum of Crypto’s (MOCA) purchase of “Clear Waves” as well as reading his background and expertise with one of the world’s leading CG and animation companies Illumination Mac Guff. David has worked on a number of blockbuster movies including “Despicable Me” (2010) and the “Minions” (2015), “Secret Life Of Pets” (2016) and “Sing” (2016) as well as 5 movies that are yet to appear in theatres, including the upcoming “Mario Bros” in collaboration with Nintendo. 

David has recently resigned from his role at Illumination Mac Guff and is dedicating his time, efforts and expertise towards producing a limitless horizon of crypto art – exciting times for David are in the pipeline – read his most recent interview below on his upcoming developments which will bring him to the forefront of crypto art.

I have been drawing in my free time since I was 4 years old, doing illustrations and cartoon/comics, making sculptures, building furniture, etc. 

I have always been interested in all forms of creation, and I was feeling that it was my purpose in life very early.  Between the age of  7 and 12, I studied comic drawing within the Louvre Museum courses and kept drawing my own comics until I was 22.

It turned out that I was also very passionate with mathematics and science, so when time came to make a choice for my studies, I went for an engineer degree (Mechanics degree from the Arts & Métiers school in Paris) with the idea of  focusing on an artistic career afterwards.

In 1998, just after my degree, I took a year off, traveled a few months around India and Nepal, and when I came back I started to wonder what path would fit the best for me – that could mix creativity and new technologies.

At that time I saw the “Bugs life” movie from Pixar, and had a revelation –  I just knew right away that it was the road for me to take.

I downloaded a brand new software that was on its first version, “Maya”, and started to learn by myself at home. After a few months of training, my goal was to start new studies and get a degree in computer graphics, but I met someone in that field who told me I should apply anyway for a test in a small CG company he was working for.

I passed the test, and a few weeks later I knew I would not start any studies and that I would just keep learning along the way while working, which I did!

During the first 3 years I worked in many places in Paris, and ended at my favorite one, “Mac Guff”.

A child dream was coming true!

During my career I have participated in numerous projects with an artistic contribution (concepts, modeling, rendering, animation, compositing, special effects, and so on), but I slowly switched to more and more technical approaches, and in particular I learned to code.

Coding is an incredible way to create too, and I was mixing it with visual creativity as much as I could.

When Mac Guff was bought by Illumination in 2008 and we had to deliver the first Despicable Me movie, I used that skill to try to automate fabrication processes in order to be able to make a lot of characters in a shorter time.

Progressively it became a full time job, and for 12 years that’s what my days were made of.

Building tools to automate crucial processes in the movie pipelines, in particular with the character rigging, and tools for animators, to ease the use of the rigs.

I am part of a very small and sharp team called the “core team” – there are four of us working non-stop on 3 to 5 movies at the same time, supervising teams and answering to people needs.

I started to become tired with that pressure in 2016, and since then I have been thinking on alternatives to go back to more direct creativity again. I just wanted to “make images” and move away from mass fabrication and automation to creative bespoke artwork.

Last year I started to do some creations of my own on Instagram in my own free time, and I immediately felt a lot of pleasure doing this. But I had no idea about how to switch from my current employment role with a stable income, to one that would allow me to create solely based on my own ideas, while still keeping a decent income that would allow me to live. I knew I didn’t want to switch companies either, or go back to a regular graphist position.

Six months ago I learned about crypto art and NFTs, I knew nothing about that, it was completely new to me.

I applied to SuperRare and other platforms, got accepted quickly, and started to release a few works during the Summer. I saw that what I was doing was pleasing to people, and I got contacted by SuperRare and Moca founders very quickly, and they all encouraged me to keep on with my work because they thought I could do well in the future.

Last week, after selling 3 pieces in 15 days , and seeing a lot of interest, and demand rising, I just decided that the moment I was waiting for was now. 

My employer, who is also a friend, knew for a long while that this was going to happen at some point, and he supports me with my decision. I can return anytime I want, so I don’t feel anxious at all.I feel super excited to spend all my time creating, based on my ideas, without any limits set by others.

Wow I have been working on so many projects!

Well I guess the most famous ones are all the “Despicable Me” and “Minions” movies, “Secret Life Of Pets”, “Sing”, etc. There are 5 movies I have been working on over the past 2 years that are not even in theaters yet, one of them will be “Mario Bros”, in collaboration with Nintendo.

I am incredibly grateful, proud, and fulfilled for having the opportunity to participate in the success story at Mac Guff. Sometimes it feels like it has not been real!

I have participated in 18 long features in total, numerous short features and experimentations, and I definitely learned a lot while working on those.

The most exciting thing to me is team work. I love that.

And one of my favorite moments is when we all gather for the premiere screenings, with families and so many kids, and hearing them laugh is the best reward I can have every time.

The very first people to encourage me in doing this have been @money_alotta and a few friends from the “regular” crypto world, starting with @Sly_Jinx.

Then, like I said just before, the earliest and most supportive people are Pablo and Colborn from MOCA, and Zack from SuperRare. In the past 3 months I met so many new people and talented artists!

For an artistic collaboration, there are no plans yet, but as I always put sound on my animations (I believe music and sound takes a huge part in what you feel while watching something), I hope someday I can find a good music artist that can I connect with.

I am in direct contact with MOCA almost every week – we talk on Discord and get along pretty well.

I really want to thank Pablo and Colborn for being so supportive with me – they gave me a lot of advice, they supported me from the very first day. I respect them from a business sense but it goes much further than this  – I think they are incredible human beings.

In August I decided to donate to them my best piece, “The Fountain” –  it was for me a commitment of trust from my side, and I knew they were waiting for me to have more exposure before starting to purchase any of my art. So that decision allowed me to gain exposure too – I’m really proud to be part of the Museum amongst the pieces that are not for sale.

They didn’t warn me that they would buy the “Clear Waves” piece, Colborn just sent me a message post purchase, and I was so happy to make my first sale!!

I believe they want the Dark Waves version of it, as well as many other pieces, and I know we’ll collaborate more and more in the future, but I can’t disclose any more details for now. Things are just starting for me – I’m still very new in this world.

It’s going to be a long-term relationship hopefully!

Those 3 pieces have in common the fact that they express romantic feelings and relationships – this has always been a very inspiring topic to me all my life, so it always comes out in a very natural way when I create. The joys of a new encounter, the pain and deception of a failure or the end of a love story. Not only mine, but in general. I think that love is the most incredible emotion to experience.

This is a good occasion for me to thank in particular @Natural_Warp.

I met him in August 2020 because he was organizing the virtual Burning Man Festival in @SomniumSpace and convinced me to participate and have my own building there!

We decided that I would also showcase my art there as it’s going to bring more and more interest and attract new people.

I am quite new to the VR experience, but I think it’s very exciting and can only grow from here. The possibilities are endless, and even on the creative side, it opens the way to new sorts of art like interactive art or visualizing a sculpture from all sides.

For now there are still some limitations in terms of details that can be displayed, but this will change very quickly.

I think that @muratpak has set first class standards of CG within the NFT world – I love his sense of simplicity and abstraction. I discovered that he was behind @Archillect very late!

I always loved abstraction in art, and I feel like from my perspective, that I want to do more and more abstract pieces – and I don’t see myself doing things like character anymore.

In a very different style I love @money_alotta‘s work – it’s very creative and I like the way he uses classic art and turns it into funny and burlesque scenes.

It’s difficult for me to drop favorite handles, there are so many of them that I find inspiring. Of course I connect in particular with those that have powerful and meaningful visuals (rather than just doing a technical demo of software features).

I am inspired by @Natural_Warp augmented reality pieces, I think I’d love to do that for myself at some point.

Lately, I have been very impressed with @reisingerandres and @RAC‘s collaboration “Elephant Dreams” – I think that it fully deserves its success and that @MaxStealth made an incredible purchase here. I love the simplicity, the aesthetics of the visual combined with the sound. The Deep Inside piece reminds me of a David Lynch movie – I’m a huge fan of those atmospheres.

By the way, I would like to thank MaxStealth for also purchasing “Deep Inside”, it’s a great encouragement for the future. I’d also like to thank @Crypto_Northerner in particular, for the purchase of “A Science Fiction Story”, and for allowing me to participate in this Q&A session.

I hope I can connect with great collectors in the future, I believe that the collector-artist relationship is essential, and I’d also be very happy to make commissioned pieces someday.

I have never been a fanatic of social media, but I’m learning to use them for my marketing.

I find it very rewarding as an artist to have peoples reactions in real time, and their enthusiasm can only motivate me to do better and better and sharpen my style in the future.

I think I will make 1 to 4 pieces a month on average, maybe less for some ideas I have that will require a lot of work. I want to have some variety in terms of complexity and amount of work, to allow collectors with various budget to purchase my work.

I love to swim, I’ve done a lot of hiking and climbing in the past, and currently I’m just trying to stay in good shape, exercising at home as COVID has blocked so many activities for a while. I worked so hard these past years that I have neglected somewhat my physical activities.

I don’t have a favorite football team, I love to watch many sports –  I love competition in general, being chess players or boxing athletes.

About traveling, it’s another very inspiring thing for me, I have traveled a lot in my life all around the world.

My favorite area is South Asia, Thailand and Vietnam in particular.
I think my next destinations will be Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul. I love big cities as much as endless landscapes and deep jungle.