This article features an interview with a visual effects artist discussing their career and offering advice to aspiring professionals.They reflect on collaborations with prominent Spanish directors like Bayona and Almodóvar, while also expressing admiration for iconic filmmakers like Scorsese and Spielberg. The artist emphasizes the importance of passion and continuous learning in the VFX field, and challenges the notion that one must relocate to major hubs like London or Los Angeles to succeed, highlighting the growing opportunities offered by remote work.
Isaac de la Pompa, a veteran of visual effects, traces his career back to a pivotal moment in his adolescence: a video course that sparked a passion for filmmaking, followed by the arrival of a Sinclair ZX81 computer. This combination of celluloid and computing would fundamentally shape his perspective.
Today, after more than three decades in the industry, de la Pompa is a highly respected figure in Spanish visual effects. Specializing in computer imagery from the early days of 3D, he worked at the pioneering studio Computer Arts Developments, responsible for the iconic graphics of TVE’s Telediario news program and the 3D elements in the film Tierra (1996).
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Since 2010, de la Pompa has been part of El Ranchito, contributing to some of the most ambitious recent audiovisual productions, including Game of Thrones – for which he won a VES Award for Outstanding Global Financial Matters – The Mandalorian, Stranger Things, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Impossible, and A Monster Calls. His career reflects the evolution of 3D technology in Spain.
From early computers with just 20 megabytes of storage to today’s debates surrounding artificial intelligence, hyperrealism, and digital ethics, de la Pompa offers a unique perspective on an industry evolving at the speed of pixels. He’s a key voice in understanding the future of visual effects.
At what point did you decide to study film and specialize in computer imagery?
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in my final years of high school. I had studied pure sciences and was considering Mathematics or Physics. The film industry in Spain was in a bad state at that time, in the mid-80s: the film school, the advertising school, and the journalism school had all closed, but the Faculty of Information Sciences emerged. I still had a passion for cinema, so I enrolled in a private film school for two years and, at the same time, entered the Complutense University to study Image and Sound. Although, initially, my idea was to direct.
I was seduced by the feeling of doing something completely new. At that time in Spain, the concept of “visual effects” didn’t even exist.
What happened that led you to deviate towards a more technical department?
In my third or fourth year of university, walking through the faculty halls, I saw someone using a computer, a Commodore Amiga. A professor, Joaquín Olivares, had brought it after a Commodore presentation, and they had left the machine at the faculty. I found out who was in charge, asked for permission to come in, and started going there every afternoon. It was completely outside the regular curriculum, almost clandestine. I stayed until 9:30 or 10 pm, when the caretaker would kick me out. That’s where I was definitively captivated by computer imagery, infographics, and computer graphics. It wasn’t so much that I chose the discipline as the discipline chose me.
What attracted you to visual effects compared to other departments in filmmaking?
I was seduced by the feeling of doing something completely new. At that time in Spain, the concept of “visual effects” didn’t even exist; we talked about computer imagery, infographics, and 3D. I wanted to work in film, but the landscape was bleak, there was no industry. However, as soon as I started spending hours with those computers, generating images from scratch, mixing art and technology, I felt that there was a possible professional future there.
Isaac de la Pompa, VFX supervisor on ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Game of Thrones’
How did you get to Fundesco, and what did that scholarship mean for your professional future?
Thanks to that professor with the Amiga, I learned about scholarships at Fundesco, the Foundation for Communications Development, linked to Telefónica. It was a very special place: it was where the base of the Red Iris, the seed of the Internet in Spain, was gestated. It was an interdisciplinary team: people from audiovisuals, telecommunications, psychologists, trainers…
It changed your life.
Yes, because it was a real training scholarship: they paid us to learn. There, I started working with very advanced computers for the time, very expensive, and with professional 3D software. We began to produce educational videos, distance learning, inspired by the British Open University. My job was to create the 3D graphics. That experience definitively specialized me in three-dimensional animation when almost no one in Spain knew how to handle those machines.
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After that stage, you joined Computer Arts Developments. What did you do there, and what made it pioneering?
When the scholarship ended, knowing how to use those exclusive systems allowed me to meet the very few people who were dedicated to this in Spain. In Madrid, there would be three or four companies. One of them was Computer Arts Developments (CAD), where I went. It was a small company, run by a young guy younger than me, a real crack. We mainly did television and advertising corporate identity: logos flying, headers, graphics… We did small integrations, but nothing in cinema at first.
What do you fondly remember creating during that time?
For me, one of the milestones was creating the header for TVE’s Telediario news program and the connection and disconnection headers for Telemadrid, when televisions still went to black at night. There were only four of us doing 3D in the entire country. Years later, we started to move into cinema with Tierra, by Julio Médem, which was a dream for me: it was a completely new way of filming and storytelling in the Spanish landscape, and being able to contribute from 3D was incredible.
Now they wanted our data, from now on they will want our thoughts
Are you worried or excited about the advancement of artificial intelligence in the creative processes of cinema?
In my field, I’m excited, because it represents a brutal paradigm shift in how we create images. But, in general, the word that comes to mind is “overwhelming.” I’m respectful because I grew up in a completely analog world. My first experience with computers was at age 14. Suddenly, now we’re talking about systems that will see what we see, hear what we hear, record our movements, our tastes… I read a phrase recently that left me very thoughtful: “Now they wanted our data, from now on they will want our thoughts.” It’s not fear, but a lot of caution. Especially regarding ethical issues and how that data will be used.
To what extent are you already using AI, real-time engines, or procedural tools in your daily work?
Right now, we can’t use the large generative AIs for two reasons. One, legal: we work with Disney, HBO, Netflix… and we sign very strict confidentiality agreements. We can’t take material off our servers to the cloud. We are also audited for security. Then there’s the creative reason: we don’t want to lose control of the result. You know how AI works: you ask for something, it gives you a result, and if you want to change a detail, it changes things you liked. That’s unviable for our work.
Image from the fifth season of ‘Stranger Things’.
Are you using any artificial intelligence at all?
Yes, yes. Some tools based on machine learning integrated into our programs, always locally: to extract masks faster, to create animation rigs, to rejuvenate faces, to facilitate very heavy tasks like painting frame by frame…
Can you give an example?
In The Mandalorian, for example, you can see the evolution: in the beginning, some faces were made with more “classic” techniques and the uncanny valley was clear; in later seasons, more advanced face replacement systems were used and the result is much more credible. Those types of tools are part of our day-to-day work.
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You’ve also participated in other large productions such as Stranger Things or Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. What lessons have these experiences taught you?
Working with the Americans is a great learning experience because they are much further ahead in the industry. When we started collaborating with them, we realized that they worked differently: larger, more specialized teams, very tight schedules but better organized. In Game of Thrones, in an episode of the fifth season, that’s where we started working in a more industrial way: we hired a lot of people, set up a kind of production line with specialized departments – modeling, animation, lighting, compositing – and the shot went from hand to hand until it was finished. That changed our way of understanding work. And then there’s the visibility: if the series is successful, your work is successful. With The Mandalorian, we didn’t know in the first season what a bomb it was going to be. When you see it exploding all over the world, it’s very exciting.
What differences do you find between working on large Hollywood productions and Spanish shoots like The Impossible or A Monster Calls?
The most obvious difference is the budget and resources. In American productions, you have a little more time and resources, although deadlines are still very tight. In Spanish cinema, however, you have something that I find very valuable: direct contact with the creative departments. You’re on set, you talk to the director, with photography, you attack the shots from the script, you propose solutions. Creatively, you have more input. In American productions, there is usually a general VFX supervisor and you work for that supervisor. You receive very defined concept art, the material is already shot, and your margin is different.
I don’t think they’re going to stop making movies with actors, cameras, and sets. A director will always want a certain control over what they shoot and what appears on screen.
If you had to choose one sequence or shot from your entire career to show what you do, what would it be?
Ugh… that’s difficult. I’m especially proud of the cochineal in Tierra, by Julio Médem, because I did it alone from beginning to end: modeling, animation, lighting, compositing… and for the time, it was a huge challenge. From the Game of Thrones episode, there are shots that I really like, very transparent, very credible. Also, the Tesla accident sequence in Leave the World Behind, with several chained collisions, I think it turned out very well. And then I’m very proud of Invisible, the series based on the novel by Eloy Moreno, in which we designed, modeled, and animated a dragon for a Spanish production in which we were involved from the script. That combination of design, narrative, and VFX is something I really enjoy.
Where do you see the future of VFX heading? Towards hyperrealism, invisible integration, or something more stylized?
I think all three things will coexist. It’s already happening: there are very realistic projects, others with more artistic bets, others where the effect has to be totally invisible. The emergence of AI is a big question we’re all asking ourselves. At the moment, in our day-to-day work, it hasn’t radically changed the way we work: we’re still working in a similar way to the last 10, 15, 20 years, with better tools, yes, but the basic model is the same. I don’t think they’re going to stop making movies with actors, cameras, and sets. A director will always want a certain control over what they shoot and what appears on screen, and in our industry, it’s fundamental not to violate the rights of actors. The big problem with many AI models is that we don’t know what they were trained on. And that, ethically, is a huge issue.
‘The Mandalorian’.
Is there a director you’d love to work with?
I’ve been lucky enough to work with many important Spanish directors: Bayona, Álex de la Iglesia, Pedro Almodóvar, Paco Cabezas… I even had the experience of spending a couple of days on a Berlanga shoot, which was exciting for me. More than the “myths,” I’m interested in the people. I find it fascinating how Julio Medem directs actors, or how easy Paco Cabezas makes shoots. I would like to work with directors like Scorsese or Spielberg, of course, but almost more to meet the person, see how they have a coffee, how they talk to the actors, how they plan a shot with effects, than the aura of myth. Sometimes getting too close to the myth can be disappointing.
What would you say to a young person who dreams of working in a visual effects department and thinks they can only do so in London or Los Angeles?
I would tell them, first, that they have to really like this. You’re not going to get rich, and it won’t be easy. You have to be very resilient: technology is constantly advancing and you have to be constantly learning. Second, don’t be afraid of AI: it’s not going to automatically replace VFX artists. It will change the way we work, for sure, but it won’t make the profession disappear. And third, you no longer necessarily have to go abroad. 20 years ago, going to London or Los Angeles was a huge leap: better salaries, better movies, better resources. Now, with remote work, you can be in Spain and work on productions from all over the world. It’s more important that they are in love with what they do than where they are. That, in the end, is what sustains you.
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