Interview with Yousef Ikhreis
Could you tell us a bit about yourself (age, location, country, and education in CG) and your background in CG?
My name is Yousef Ikhreis, I’m 30 years old, and I live and work in Amman, Jordan. I’ve been involved in the graphic design and animation industry for 10 years; I now work as an Art Director in JAID Productions with 70 employees and this is a subsidiary of ITG Solutions, one of the leading companies in design, animation and e-learning in the region.
I am self-taught artist, and this is my story of how I got involved in this business:
Going back to the beginnings of the eighties, when I was a child (around 4 years old) I was afraid to go to the bathroom alone and always looking for my mom or waking her up to be around with me, because I used to see strange faces and creatures in the corners, and was always very upset when my mother and brothers would not believe me and stare at me with strange faces with a hectic smile, sometimes I would run naked to get them to watch them, pointing with my little fingers, but no one see….so they couldn’t believe.(it’s funny, I still remember).
Later in 1995, when I was watching TV programs with boredom feeling, moving from one channel to another I watched the last minutes of behind the scenes program, and they were talking about the making of “Alien” character (H.R. Geiger) and while watching it with great enthusiasm I kept telling myself (ha, you can do that!! it’s easy, you are a grown up now to watch such things, you always see these creatures, but don’t tell anyone…they will start joking on you again), I waited for the next episode, and it was about “ Jurassic Park” where they mentioned “Softimage”, a word which was like Big Ben in my ears, I spent the later days like a fugitive with this word “Softimage”, it was like the holy sword that will empower me to create my creatures and will enforce the disbelievers to bow to that little child visions. By Softimage I will recreate my worlds.
At the time Softimage was unknown and not available in Jordan, I started investigating about computer graphics and someone told me that there is a good software called Photoshop, with flicker speed I purchased a book about Photoshop, I read it three times (it was hard at the beginning), then I started learning Illustrator, CorelDraw, Macromedia Flash, Premier to help me in my presentations, After Effects, 3Ds Max, Maya, Digital Fusion, ZBrush, Softimage XSI ….etc, also learned script writing, screen play, storyboard, layout ….etc.
Until now I spend a lot of time, effort and money (most of my income) buying tutorials, books, Software’s, searching for articles and extra knowledge and experience… Talent alone is not enough to flicker in this dazzling industry.
Can you tell our readers what’s the actual work of the Art Director and what qualification is necessary for this job?
Actually, There are different Art Directing types, the actual work of the Art Director is depending on the nature of the type; Printing Art Director, Multimedia Art Director, Life Shot Art Director, e-learning Art Director, Architectural Art Director, games Art Director, Cartoon Art Director….etc. so every Art Directing type has its own consistent workflow that is built to guarantee, achieve and reach the highest levels, and each workflow has its own specialty such as; the targets, the production pipeline, the Soft tools, the Hard tools, the resources…
My responsibilities in JAID Productions are:
• Direct the design and production of graphics and animations.
• Formulating concepts and supervise workers engaged in executing layout designs for art work and copy to be presented by visual communications media.
• Review illustrative material and confers with client regarding background information, objectives, presentation approaches, styles, techniques, and related production factors.
• Formulate basic layout design concept and conduct research to select and secure suitable illustrative material.
• Assign and direct staff members to develop design concepts into art.
• Review, approve, and present final layouts for approval.
• Mentoring, training, career directing and performing evaluations for the Art teams.
For the Art Director qualifications, I will consider his philosophy, personality, vision, cremostativity, educated and cultivated as the most important qualifications. Those simple descriptions will lead him to present the unique and innovative results, those are spiritual resources for the real talent, which will give him the ability to visualize the ideas and visions by words or images.I have always repeating this word ” Yesterday we had philosophers. Today we have directors”
What are the tools in your arsenal and what’s the reason of choosing those?
As I mentioned before, I spent a lot of time and effort to educate myself, to use and understand the software’s, preproduction, production, postproduction, pipelines… which are the tools to create my own worlds and to be a winning director (prizes are not my target they are my massages).
And there is the software’s selection that I am able to work with, while my choice of selection is based on the software consistency and strength features that each has, and the most important, the project nature. This knowledge is helping me very much as Art Director.
- Graphic Design: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.
- Motion Animation: Flash, After Effects, 3D Software, Photoshop, Illustrator.
- 3D works: Softimage XSI, Maya, Max.
* I have basic to intermediate knowledge using MotionBuilder, Lightwave 3D, Modo. Recently I am concentrating to enhance 
my knowledge and skills in Houdini.
- Digital Sculpting: ZBrush, Mudbox.
- 3D Painting: Bodypaint 3D, ZBrush, Mudbox, Photoshop.
- Rendering: Mental ray, V Ray, Render Man for Maya.
- 2.5D Tracking: Boujou, Syntheyes.
- Landscapes: Vue, Teragen, Photoshop, Source images.
- Editing: Premiere * I have basic knowledge using Avid.
- Compositing: After Effects, Fusion, Combustion, Nuke, Shake.
- Other: Painter, Deep paint, HDR Shop…
And there is my favorite software with comments:
- Softimage XSI: the elegant innovative style.
- Maya: strong enough to fight the world.
- Houdini: the big deal.
- 3ds Max: the lucky man.
- Pixologic Zbrush: actually they should rename it to Digital Cure or Yoga. And use it in the sanitarium for curing and relaxation, no... they should use it as enjoyment and happy tool for children…or… I love it.
- Fusion: if Fusion turns to a man, I will try to be his friend; he is honest, strait forward, confident and reliable.
- Vue: great potentials, and bright future.
- Photoshop (The King) no one dares to compare, critic, or judge it, any person who hates Photoshop should be sent to hell.
