Following A Dream to DreamWorks

Matteo Aldon

Matteo Aldon joined the Story Xperiential program in 2021, his senior year of high school. He later became an Xperiential Student Advisor and hosted and moderated several Story Xperiential livestreams. He is now at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the Animation Department, in his senior year. Over the summer and fall, he interned with DreamWorks Animation as a Visual Development intern, and has, now, been hired full time as a Visual Development Artist.

What was your Story Xperiential project about?

My project was titled “Ray”. The story follows a sunflower who prioritizes the love of another sunflower over the love of the sun and ends up wilting in pursuit of the other sunflower's attention. It was a really fun story to develop.

I wouldn't consider myself a story-focused person, but it was really nice to have the prompts and the initial couple of weeks of the program to really get my gears turning. At its core, I just wanted to tell a story about self-love, and having confidence and assurance in yourself, and watering your plant before watering others, and it just blossomed from there.

What challenges did you face during the program and how did you overcome it?

I was doing it when everyone was reintegrating back into normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic and I was going back into school in-person. The socializing and giving feedback aspects were interesting, just because I was so used to being on a Zoom screen, and turning off my camera, not raising my hand and being passive. The program was very much about feedback and being constructive. 

It was definitely awkward at first, but during the program it was a balance of being constructive, but also giving my “flowers” where I could, and, really just sandwiching the critique between two things that are working, because feedback can go both ways.

Meet Ray - the main character of Matteo's Story Xperiential project

Ray sings and plays a guitar to gain the attention of his love interest. She doesn't notice.

Filled with sadness, Ray pulls his wilted petals out as he cries.

I also had to learn what feedback to take and what feedback to keep in the back of my mind, as a consideration going forward. It is really up to you to determine which of the two boxes you're sorting feedback into, and that was probably the main thing that I had to overcome, deciding which feedback was valuable, and which feedback was relevant but not actionable at the moment. As I continued going forward, I began to notice patterns in what the feedback was telling me. It went into how I storyboarded, and how I paced certain parts of my animatic.

What unexpected benefits did you experience when you participated in the Story Xperiential Program?

Coming in and seeing all the weekly guest speakers was so eye opening. It helped me on my journey to realize what I wanted to do in animation, and I would find them on LinkedIn or Instagram, afterwards, and send them a quick DM. The most surprising part was a lot of them would answer and now I'm working with some of them or we keep in touch on the regular. So, you never know where the program will lead you as long as you put in what you want to get out of it.

Still from UTANG - Matteo's Senior Thesis Animated Film

When I took part in Story Xperiential, it was really nice to see that everyone found a different way into animation.

Yeah, the path is so nonlinear and hearing people’s stories is so crazy and very inspiring, for sure.

And how has the program impacted you in your educational or career pursuits?

I did the program in my senior year of high school, smack dab in the middle of when I was sending out my applications and portfolios, and I included my animatic where I could. I landed at the University of Southern California (USC) and I want to believe adding my animatic to that application had a part in me getting into the program. 

Having something like a Story Xperiential story animatic in any professional or educational portfolio, shows that you're a storyteller at your heart, you're multifaceted, and that you can think like an artist one day or a storyboarder the next.

That's the great part of doing this kind of course; you learn every single part of the animation process. If you can show that in your story reel, then you can definitely apply that to your concept pieces, your environment designs, or moment paintings. All the skills are transferable, it's just whether or not you want to pursue it in storyboarding, design or animation.

What advice would you give to someone considering joining the Story Xperiential program?

You will get out what you put in. If you put in a lot of effort, you will get so much reward from it, and it's really up to the story you have in your mind and the passion you have for that story. Choose something that speaks to you, and that will help you get up in the morning and make you feel excited and invigorated to work on this project. You never want to sacrifice that passion in pursuit of what you think the industry is chasing or where you think the trends are forecasted to be in the next year or two. You never want to lose the spark that you have for something so creative and personal like this.

Character Art from Matteo's animated short The Last Whale Shark

What projects are you busy with now and what have you been doing since completing your Story Xperiential project?

Since completing my Story Xperiential project, I was admitted to USC to study in their animation program, and had an awesome 4 years in that program. I'm currently working on my thesis film, which is a 2D-animated short film, so it's definitely pulling from some important story and composition rules that I learned from Story Xperiential.

I interned at DreamWorks for a while, and I'm now working as a Vis Dev Artist on a new project that's coming out soon. Other than that, I’ll continue to hone my craft, develop my portfolio website, and just prepare for what postgrad life entails.

So what is Vis Dev exactly? What do you do?

Vis Dev is short for visual development, and we do exactly that. We develop the visuals for animated projects. I think most people refer to it as concept design, but in the industry, we just refer to it as visual development. It encompasses character design, environment design, props, backgrounds, lighting keys, color keys, so it's a very general umbrella term, but within Vis Dev there are areas that you can specialize in.

Concept art of trees from Matteo's project, Sunkeepers. Set in a mythical Cambodian rainforest.

And do you have a specialization yet or are you still feeling your way around?

I would say I was feeling my way around just a little bit, but I've come to land on environmental design, and color design. Landscapes are definitely my favorite thing to paint and draw. I'm definitely more of an environment person, and I love playing with color, light and composition, and also experimental styles. I think that's something that all the big studios are trying to do nowadays.

Experimental styles, meaning the actual artwork is different?

Yeah! It's interesting how visual development pieces end up trickling down the pipeline. As Vis Dev Artists we're the first people, apart from story, who really have a go at what a final frame might look like for the film. A lot of studios are trying to experiment with what the final frame looks like. Ever since Spider-Verse came out, everyone's trying to look for opportunities to be a bit more stylized, and I think that's something very valuable to have in a Vis Dev portfolio; opportunities to showcase innovative styles and break down how it can be achieved in the final frame.

A lot of animations have come out now that mix different styles as well, like K-pop Demon Hunters. I think that's such a fun way to play with animation.

Oh, definitely. I hope that the industry takes note that audiences really like that, and hopefully just push for more stylization, more experimentation, and just breaking the rules of what a traditional CG animated feature can look like.

Concept art for Sunkeepers.

Is there any animation or film that you're looking forward to that's coming out soon?

I'll plug the one I'm working on now since it was announced. Forgotten Island is coming out from DreamWorks in September, and that one's really fun.

I know Sony is cooking up some cool stuff, GOAT is coming out soon, which is very exciting, and I'm sure there's K-pop Demon Hunter stuff to look forward to after how successful it was, but I would say, I'm most excited for the one I'm working on.

So what's the story? Can you tell us?

I can't reveal anything, just the name for now.

Well, it's very exciting, and I wish you all the best of luck with your future at DreamWorks and I think you're going to do great things.

View Matteo's portfolio: https://matteoaldon.com/ View Matteo's Story Xperiential Animatic Ray: https://www.s1.storyxperiential.com/video-submissions-week-8/093fa448-ce9b-4bc2-b0d3-818b1a02dd37 Matteo Aldon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteoaldon/