What started as a simple desire to create short animations for his family quickly became a deep passion for Game Art and Animation. During lockdown, SAE student Alessio downloaded Blender for the first time—unaware that it would spark a creative journey leading him to SAE.
Encouraged by his girlfriend, who secretly submitted his portfolio, Alessio found himself stepping into a world of professional training, industry insights, and a thriving creative community. Now, as a dedicated SAE student, he’s refining his skills and preparing to break into the industry as a 3D artist.
In our interview, Alessio shares his experience of studying at SAE, the tutors who’ve shaped his journey, and why he believes this course has transformed his future…
How did your passion with Game Art & Animation start?
My passion with game art and animation started in 2019 during the lockdown. I bought my first PC and I downloaded Blender, and since then I’ve been passionate about 3D art.
The very first thing that I wanted to do with Blender was having a short animation about my family having something funny, maybe that I can send over to the group chat to make their day and make them laugh. And surely but slowly, that basically started to take over and I started modelling, I started making some of the effects. I helped a friend doing some special effects for a movie and now here I am, trying to learn as much as possible about this.
What was the reason you joined SAE?
The reason why I joined SA is because at the time, I was working as a Catering manager, and my girlfriend – without me knowing – sent my portfolio in. So one day, out of the blue, she actually surprised me by showing me the letter and she told me that I was accepted here.
How did you feel when you found out you got accepted?
It completely change my life. As someone who is trying to get into the industry as a 3D artist, thanks to SAE I definitely- I got more help that I could hope for.
Joining without having any diplomas or any qualification of studying from my country, I simply presented my portfolio and it was good enough to be accepted.
I felt like I won the lottery when I was accepted here and because of it, I’m giving 110% of myself because I truly want to succeed in what I’m doing.
What’s the most important thing you are gaining out of the course?
The most important thing is not really what I’m learning right now, the most important things is the teachers that I have. They are truly passionate, truly care about your performance and they truly wanna help you as much as possible to achieve your goals.
What was a moment of true inspiration you had in the course so far?
A moment of true inspiration in the course was when we start to do the head scalping with the Z Brush which the software that I’ve never used before and it was it was something completely new to me. It took me by storm learning about this new software, it was a revelation.
How are you finding the community at SAE?
Well, it’s full of interesting people for sure. You can make many connections in many different courses. For example, you can link up with the filmmaker or you can link up with the audio engineer and your work can truly come together in a different way.
I’ve actually been looking forward to start a project with a filmmaker who can help me with the composition of the image and maybe can give me some insights on where to position the camera and the lighting and the settings of the scene. It’s quite exciting.
What’s your favourite module so far?
My favourite module so far was definitely 3D modelling. I thought that I knew how this worked but after all the lessons and all the advice from my teachers, I actually understood that what I was doing could have been improved quite a lot.
So now, I feel much more confident to go and seek for jobs in the industry since I know what the correct way of presenting my projects is.
Are there any challenges you are experiencing?
The challenge that I phase is to truly give myself 100% to the course. It’s about truly forgetting about what I was doing before which is working into catering and spending 100% of my time trying to learn as much as possible.
I am trying to get ready for the industry, and whilst it seems something that it’s easy to do, I have been working full-time since I was a kid, so it’s a bit hard to adjust but slowly I’m getting there.
I feel so lucky to actually have the time that I need to spend for for this course that I almost feel guilty about it!
STUDY Game Development at SAE
SAE offers two and three year degree courses in growth creative media industries including Game Design, Game Art and Animation and Games Programming – all aimed at helping the next generation of creative professionals get ahead.
From our expert tutors to our cutting-edge computer labs, SAE’s degree will enable you to master a range of both technical and practical industry-relevant skills.
Explore our animation courses in Leeds, London, Liverpool, Leamington Spa and Glasgow.
