Filippo Costanzo received his Architectural Design degree from the University of Rome, “La Sapienza” in 1984 (110/110). He began his career as a 3D visualization consultant for Architectural and Industrial Design firms in Italy and in Brazil. From 1988, he also provided design and creative services for major television networks in Italy and South America. In United States, since 1994 Filippo Costanzo participated to a broad range of projects including: Feature Films, Commercials, Music Videos, Television, Videogames and Location Based Entertainment. With Simple Pictures (2001-05) he produced and directed several commercial campaigns in 3D Character Animation for the Italian and European advertising market. From Oct 2005 to Jan. 2008, Filippo Costanzo has been employed as Art Director of Central Technology at Activision Publishing in Santa Monica.

Skills Etc…
Art Direction, Producing & Directing, Digital Matte Painting, Virtual Sets, Color & Lighting, Compositing, Architectural Design and Illustration. Maya, Photoshop, Shake, Point Cloud data processing, Movimento; notions of Virtools, Zbrush, Image Modeler, SketchUp. Entertainment Technologies analysis and implementation; hardware research and applications’ design.
Notions of programming and Computer Vision. Fluent in: English, Portuguese and Italian.

Professional Experience

Activision, Santa Monica, CA Oct. 2005 – Jan. 2008
Central Technology Art Director
Director of the R&D program, responsible for the research, experimentation and implementation of advanced technologies and production pipelines for next-generation games and interactive entertainment. Designed and established the Digital Assets Acquisition Pipeline creating the Activision’s in house 3D Scan Studio. Performed broad research into 3D scanning technologies and data manipulation to combine and extend the existing capabilities with the techniques targeted at the realization of game ready assets. Managed the Central Technology Art Team for the design and realization of the animation pipeline and face rigging tool underlying the Facial Performance Capture system. Oversaw the hardware/software customization and testing of the Realviz - Norpix "Movimento" solution. Supervised the research of animation driven run-time wrinkles integrated with proprietary muscle and shader tools. Oversaw the automation of normal maps capture and blending via real-time 3D capture. Collaborated to the design, the technical specifications and the realization of the fast (2ms) full body scanning system (by 3DMD) for the capture of dynamic poses. Conducted the research on the implementation of computer vision techniques (stereo / photogrammetry / feature-recognition) and grammar based description, for the acquisition and the interactive semantic description of large complex environment and their representation at run-time. Initiated the research on Real Time 3D Capture of large static environments and large volume 3D Capture of dynamic body and clothing motion performances.

Director / Producer

"KRUTT" 3D Character Animation Short Film - Cinecittà / Bruno Bozzetto.

"DANITO" Dannon Yogurt (3D Animation commercial spot – 2x20").

"FORMICHE – 2" Soffass (3D Animation commercial spot – 1x30"+1x15").

"FORMICHE" Soffass (3D Animation commercial spot – 1x30"+2x15").

"SODIO - C'E' NESSUNO?" Acqua Lete (3D Animation commercial spot – 4x30").

VFX Supervisor

"RALLY DELLE MERAVIGLIE" Q8 Petroleum Commercial Spot - Harold / Motion Pictures.
"P.B.S. STONEHENGE" Commercial Spot - Digital Domain.

Art Director

"KING COCOA" Post cereals (2D/3D Animation commercial spot – 1x30") Allen Yamashita - CAAT Studios, Los Angeles
"LEGO 4D RACERS" 12’ 3D CGI animated short film (LEGOLAND park ride) Simex Digital Studios, Los Angeles
"BJORK – HUNTER" (music video) Compositing Art Director, Digital Domain
"VARIETY CLUB" Art Director and Digital Matte Painting, Digital Domain
"DANTE’S PEAK" 3D Art Director, Digital Domain
"TRIAD" Game Art Director Seismic Entertainment, San Francisco

Digital Matte Painter
  
Features:
"MATRIX REVOLUTIONS" Giant Killer Robots, San Francisco.
"O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU" Digital Domain.
"TITANIC" Digital Domain.

Commercials:
FORD     CafeFx
US Marines     Hydraulx
LINCOLN     Hydraulx
TOBY KEITH (music video)  Moving Pixels
HOME DEPOT     Digital Domain
LEXUS     Digital Domain
MERCURY COUGAR     Digital Domain
HALLMARK     Digital Domain
ROLLING STONES (music video)     Digital Domain

Compositor
THE GRINCH       Digital Domain
X-MEN      Digital Domain
RED PLANET        Digital Domain

Color and Lighting, Set Extension
THE FIFTH ELEMENT     Digital Domain
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME     Digital Domain
CBS CGI animated logo FX Animation - Metrolight Studios, Los Angeles:  08/1994
  
Art Director and independent consultant
EPICA   Animation and Multimedia. 1994
RAI (National Italian TV Network) 1993
ExActa Immagine di sintesi,Rome 1992/94

Creative Director and Design Consultant:
TV GLOBO - GLOBOGRAPH, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 1992 – 1994
DIGITAL GROUP, Sao Paulo - Art Direction and animation for Broadcast Television       LUCIANO DEVIA' DESIGN, Sao Paulo - 3D CGI visualization for industrial Design projects