Meet Lautaro Monardo | Visual Effects Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lautaro Monardo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lautaro, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
One of the most important lessons that my career has taught me is to do the simple things right and keep moving forward. I played tennis my whole life and I attribute a great part of my values and work ethic to the sport. It is a sport where size and strength do not matter as much as good technique. Dedicating countless hours to the sport and the technique behind every stroke has taught me the importance of working on my craft. Also to enjoy perfecting my craft. It happens sometimes that we are presented with a very complex and difficult task it can be daunting. At the beginning we might not know how to do something, but I always tried to do the simple things right and move forward from there. The solutions to many problems will start to appear as we move slow and steady, there will also be other people along the way who will guide us and provide us with tools to solve these problems. I always tried to listen and be humble while learning something new. By doing the simple things right and keep moving forward, I believe I’ve found a good formula to embark on a daunting task.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a visual effects artist, more specifically a compositor, and we are in charge of deceiving the human eye into believing that what they see on the screen is as real as possible. I got into this field in college, I went to SCAD where I majored in Visual Effects and was also the captain of the tennis team there. I was only able to attend SCAD because of my athletic scholarship. I believe that being a student athlete taught me a lot about time management and how to adapt to different situations with very different people. Also being the captain of the team was incredibly instructive when it came to leadership skills. I learned to lead and gather a group of different people working towards a common goal. This has been crucial in my interpersonal skills and very formative in the sense that I feel ready to lead or take control of different situations. Something that sets me apart from others is my background. I was born and lived most of my life in Argentina. We are a third world country with a strange philosophy of getting things done in difficult environments. This exposure to not having all the tools, or the best equipment to do something has helped my problem solving skills quite significantly, and for that I am very grateful. I think the key to be where I am today was to stay consistent and disciplined. I found my job during the pandemic, it was a difficult time and I decided to stay in the U.S. away from my family to try and find an internship I was about to graduate. One day I attended one of my online classes, which was the 101 VFX class that for some reason I left for my senior year and I met an alumni that later connected me to the studio I now work for. I am grateful that I made the sacrifice to stay during the pandemic in a pretty adverse job market and was disciplined enough to attend an online 101 class on my senior year. It was not easy, and of course there is always a bit of luck involved, but luck will only find you working. It was also important to have friends or at least connections in school, I always tried to be kind and involved in my classes. I believe that we are all aware of the importance of connections in the industry nowadays. Just as I got recommended by someone else, I have recommended other people that were later hired, and the wheel keeps spinning that way.
The studio that I work for is called Mod Creations and we are based in Atlanta. We are a relatively small studio, but we have worked on quite big projects. We focus mostly on short format media like music videos and commercials. We have done music videos for Drake, Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, and JLo. We have also made commercials for big brands like Acura, Yves Saint Lauren, Reebok, Tumi, Noom, and Zales. Many of the projects we have worked on have been nominated and awarded in the most prestigious ceremonies like the MTV VMAs, Emmys, and BET Awards. I am proud of these achievements, but most proud that we know that we went the extra mile with every project we’ve done. We have always strived for perfection and prioritize our craft over everything else. This includes hours of sleep. I believe that an important lesson I learned at Mod Creations was to not be content with mediocre work. Paying attention to every detail and trying my best in every shot has been an important lesson that I will carry with me and will be a virtue to any studio I work for in the future.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Atlanta is definitely a place people would enjoy with someone who has been here for quite a while. It is not a city with obvious places to visit, it takes a while to getting to know it fully. I believe the city has quite a strong coffee scene, places like East Pole, Chrome Yellow, Bellwood, Brash, Portrait, and Valor Coffee would be a great choice to visit. I believe the essence of Atlanta can be found at Portrait coffee. In terms of restaurants the options are quite varied, I have personally really enjoyed Gigi’s, Cooks & Soldiers, El Tesoro, Del Bar, Hattie b’s, Emerald City, Grindhouse, Victory, and Lloyd’s. For bars I would suggest Burle’s, Ranger Station, Jojo’s Beloved and a bit more of a night out Banshees or Johnnys Hideaway for a bizarre night. Walking around the beltline is quite nice, walking around Inman Park, checking out Ponce City Market, West Midtown and getting an ice cream at Jennys is always a good plan. Those are some of the places I would take a friend that’s visiting town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my family first, who have always supported me in every step of my journey. To my all my tennis coaches, who have shaped the way I work and play, and to my mentors on the visual effects industry that have taught me all I know about this discipline.

Website: https://lautaromonardo.wixsite.com/lautaromonardo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lautimonardo/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lautaro-monardo-396915179/

Image Credits
All screenshots credit to Mod Creations