Leadership

Robi Erdélyi

Co-Founder, COO

19+ years at GYAR

I am one of the founders of GYÁR. I started my career as a CGI artist in the good old days, currently I tend to be the lead producer & also responsible for client service, as the COO of our film factory.

How did you get into the industry?

At my primary school in Kecskemét (Hungary), I had a brilliant drawing teacher, graphic designer and animation film director László Hegyi Füstös, who was also an important member of the local branch of Pannonia Studio. I got my first inspirations from him: film graphics and animation would be a good field to work in. At the same time, I started to get acquainted with the world of information technology, the eleven-year-old boy was completely captivated.

In addition, an IT association called Logi-Klub was set up in Kecskemét for young people, where those who were interested in computer science could meet, but also invited professionals from other parts of the country to events. My first trip after school almost always took me here, where I socialised, made friends, played games and programmed. This was followed by a period of three to four years when I became self-taught in 3D animation, practically to the point when I could make animations lasting a few minutes. I was part of a team of young game developers who programmed and made the game itself, and me and my friends made 3D animations for it, which turned into a game trailer. With the knowledge and experience gained, we also put together a book with a friend on how to use 3D Studio software: I proofread it and my friend summarised the information about the software. This became the first book on the subject in Hungarian. So the high school years passed quickly with lots of programming and work. And I realised early on that this was all I wanted to do, nothing else.

Although Kecskemét gave me the perfect foundation, the next step for me was to move to Budapest. Here, at the age of twenty, I got the opportunity to work at Rotoscope Graphic Studio, founded by Gábor Kovács, which was the first 3D computer animation studio in Hungary. I never really had to look for a job, I was always called somewhere, later I worked in almost all the studios in Hungary. I also spent a year in Los Angeles as an application engineer for a software company which created Maya as well. In the meantime, I have been going to professional exhibitions in Hungary and abroad to keep up with the development of the technology, and I even gave presentations (Stuttgart - FMX, Los Angeles, Las Vegas). So I slowly got into the professional circles, without actually having studied anywhere in school.

At the above mentioned studio, I met Gergely Gazsi, my current business partner, who also was working there as an artist, and somewhat later in 2006 we founded our own company, which became GYÁR.

What were your favourite projects so far?

Hard to pick up one or two because GYÁR produces 3-400 commercials a year. Of course, there are many that require less creativity but need the same precision and attention.