Daily Inspiration: Meet Nikie Monteleone

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikie Monteleone.

Hi Nikie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up with a paper in one hand and a pencil in the other and was fortunate to have a really encouraging mom who knew I was destined to do something creative. She pushed me to go to Art School to “live out my dream” and that I did! I first went to The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore where I declared ceramics as my major. I quickly moved to fashion for a love of prints and patterns before discovering my love of 3D in little too late. Graduating with a fashion degree and not really wanting to do that anymore, I bounced around in from the Art Gallery world to helping out on set of feature movies & commercials and eventually landed in graphic design. I still had this 3D itch I wanted to scratch so at 27 I went back to school to The School of Visual Arts in NYC where I finally studied animation.

After two semesters of continuing education, I was able to land an internship at a small boutique studio in Connecticut as a CG Generalist. I worked on a few movies and commercials under the guidance of some very patient managers! I learned the skills to then get me into the commercial side of Laika, 3,000 miles away in Portland, OR! I worked as a Senior Texture Artist with clients such as Chipotle, M&Ms, International Delight Coffee Creamer, Fox Sports and many, many more. After 5 years of smaller, shorter projects, I really wanted to get my feet wet with longer form content. I eventually landed at DreamWorks TV here in LA where I worked on shows such as Fast ‘n Furious: Spy Racers, Spirit Riding Free and Jurassic Park-inspired Camp Cretaceous. From there, I gained the experience I needed to be a Lead Artist and was able to join the Animation crew at Nickelodeon in Burbank, CA, working on both the Rugrats Reboot and Star Trek: Prodigy. Being a Trekkie myself, this was certainly a dream come true! Very proud of both shows!

All the work I had done in the past 12 years was such a blast but through all of these experiences, I truly realized I wanted to continue to create work that was my story, my creation, and done with software of my choice. I was given a very unique opportunity to do just this as a Senior 3D Artist at Adobe for the Substance 3D & Immersive team. I have been using their software for many years and kept a relationship going through beta testing and convention talks with my personal work. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, and now I get to call them co-workers. And though I’m not creating entertainment content anymore, I’m doing what I love while helping give back to the community. There’s nothing more rewarding!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Between the Animation/VFX and Tech industries, it’s been very male-dominated. This was definitely a struggle for me early on as I had to rebuild my confidence after changing careers from Graphic Design. I was, however, incredibly fortunate to have had some incredible female mentors along the way that lifted me up and pulled a seat up to the table for me.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve been part of many TV series, commercials and even a few feature-length films but what I’m most known for is my personal work at a 3D Artist. Growing up, I had a series of deaths in the family that highly impacted my creativity. I used to sit in my room quietly with my thoughts while drawing really intricate & detailed patterns. They didn’t have a story or any type of meaning but for me, it was an escape from reality. This has stuck with me through life and to this day, I still absolutely love to sit with my thoughts while sculpting things like intricate Chameleon scales, painting highly stylized skin or creating the very fine fibers of a garment. I’ve never done these for money but because I created something I was truly passionate about, the world noticed. I’ve been able to showcase these pieces on the press floor of an Apple event, conventions like GDC (Game Developers Conference), SIGGRAPH here in a LA, a few 3D magazines, and many online events for companies such as Wacom and NVIDIA.

I have a very small store on ArtStation that showcases a few shaders I’ve made. They are all very cheap in hopes this is a way to help giveback to the creative community rather than a way to make money.
https://www.artstation.com/ilovetexture/store

How do you think about happiness?
I love giving back to the art community by sharing my skills and experiences with young female artists. Showing how to boost one’s confidence can have such an amazing effect on all aspects of your career that it’s such an important skill set to own!

Adventures like hiking and beach vacations with my husband and Boston Terrier, Bentley are also pretty high up on the list 😉

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nikiemonteleone.com/
• Instagram: @NikieMonteleone
• Twitter: @iLoveTexture