Make was created because of one little boy named Teo. Both Rusty and Valerie loved their jobs in the digital visual effects industry but they also wanted to be a big part of Teo's life. They started their company and have been very busy since its inception in 2004. (The make logo artwork was created by Valerie and Rusty's 2-year old son, Teo.)

 

CG Supervisor
All Around Pixel-Pusher

Rusty Ippolito started his own visual effects company make, inc. with his wife Valerie Delahaye at the beginning of 2004, bringing to bear a wealth of experience in the effects trade. He had just finished 2 years at creocollective where he worked on feature projects such as SPIDERMAN, THE CORE, PAYCHECK, and QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, as well as many commercials including Microsoft "Man/Woman" (with director Bruce Dowad), Nissan "Micraspeak" (with director David Lynch) and Nextel "Antennalopes" (with directing team Traktor).

Rusty began his career in Florida as a teacher at Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts, instructing students on mastering the use of Alias Wavefront, the predecessor of Maya. He moved to Los Angeles in 1995 and took a gig at Digital Domain as a render watcher. Not a glamorous assignment, but it was a start. "They called me the render elf," says Ippolito. "I was rollerblading around at night, fixing everybody's machines. I started leaving little elf figurines on their desks so they'd know I'd been there."). Rusty was soon upgraded to digital artist, working on commercials for Duracell, Taco Bell, Nintendo and more. He next joined the Digital Ship team on TITANIC. "I met some of the best artists in the business during that show," he says, "guys like (Riot CG Supervisor) Andy Lesniak, who is one of the best visual effects sups around."

More film and spot work followed, and in 1999 Ippolito co-founded Station X Studios, which the artist describes as "a three-year adventure, where we worked on a million commercials (Chevy, Mazda, Dodge, etc.), the movies DOGMA and DUNGEON'S AND DRAGONS, and did film tests on THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET." In fact, while the producers tested the Jim Carrey project with larger effects houses, Station X's work was used as the benchmark look to match. Script troubles have kept the film from being produced, but Rusty considers the team's work "a technology high point."

Rusty went on to serve as a CG Team Lead on X-MEN, and also contributed to THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS before helping to form creocollective in 2002.

Rusty lives in LA's Hancock Park, with his wife Valerie and son's Teo & Kio.

 

Production Supervisor

Valerie Delahaye came from France 18 years ago with the ambition of becoming a graphic designer. She began working on 3D on BOSCH 2000, which by now probably belongs to a museum! She was then trained at the company Softimage where she was demonstrating new software to clients. She, then, went to CBS and worked on movie openings. Following this experience, she joined the team at R. Greenberg and Associates and worked extensively on films, videos and commercials. After Greenberg closed down its film division, Valerie went to Disney Buena Vista Studios. In 1995, she accepted an offer at Digital Domain as a 3D manager for the film, video and commercial department. There, she worked on films such as: DANTE'S PEAK, THE 5TH ELEMENT, TITANIC and RED CORNER and many awards winning videos and commercials.

More recently Valerie worked for BUF, L.A as a Production Supervisor working on numerous films and commercials, including THE CELL, ONE HOUR PHOTO, SIMONE, HUMAN NATURE, PANIC ROOM, MATRIX RELOADED and REVOLUTION, TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS, UNDERWORLD, SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE, VAN HELSING, FINDING NEVERLAND, and ALEXANDER the released GREAT. Today, Valerie joins an incredible new team, she welcomes the new opportunity to open the visual effects market to her husband's studio make inc.

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