Hello Dilshan, thank you for joining us on Talking With The Pros. Please give us a brief background about where you’re from and how you got started in the industry.
Hi! I’m an Art director and motion designer from Paris. I started in the industry as a freelance Web Designer / Flash Designer for Parisian agencies in 2003 on my first year of study. I was quickly promoted to be a conceptor & Art director on most of the projects.
Tell us a bit about where you work and what you specialize in. Are you working at an agency? Freelance?
I currently work as freelancer in Paris and I share my office with another advertising agency.
I am specialized in motion design and interactive experiences; more than building websites, I try to tell stories trough ground-breaking interactivity. I am very focused on touching people’s hearts with design.
What software do you use for your work?
I mostly use Photoshop and After effects for all kind of animations. Sometimes Illustrator and Cinema 4D for simple 3D work. I was using Flash before but now I leave this software for developers. I am much more focused on after effects.
Can you give us a brief walkthrough of the process you take when working on an animation project?
One of the difficulties when you are motion designer is to convince people about your ideas, which are difficult to imagine with simple words. For that, I create first a script of the concept, some roughs, a moodboard and a list of some cool references. Once validated I create the storyboard, start the design work and make some animations tests on after effects, then finally when everything looks great I finalize the designs and animates all that.
Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring motion/interactive designers looking to get started in the industry?
Be passionate is definitely the key, it helps to understand a lot of thing on its own and develop its own convictions. You must continually look at the work of other designers and try to understand their choice of concept, design or animation. You should also try to achieve personal creative projects.
You have many amazing projects in your portfolio, which ones would you say you are most proud of?
Immersive garden website (www.immersive-garden.com) is probably the the work that I am the most proud of. I had a lot of fun working on it and I received several major awards, including a gold Lovie Award – www.lovieawards.eu
What do you most enjoy about your work in the motion design industry? And what is the least?
What I enjoy the most is when I try to push boundaries, to find the way to making something ground-breaking. What I like least are deadlines 
What is the best advice you have received that you would like to share with our readers?
I would say this quote from Lord Chesterfield “Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well”
Where can we see more of your work?
I currently work on my new portfolio site, for the moment you can see my recent work www.blacknegative.com
Thank you for your time, any final words for our readers?
Thanks for reading.
Dilshan won a Gold Lovie Award in 2011. The Lovie Awards recognises the unique and resonant nature of the European Internet community. Entries for the Lovie Awards 2012 close on 21st September 2012 – please visit www.lovieawards.eu for more information