If you’ve ever been shooed away by gallery security for standing too close to a painting, you’ll understand the curiosity-quelling need to touch art. It’s as if feeling the work’s contours will enlighten us to what we’re seeing, or, according to Vinicius Costa on his own work, it’s more a desire to forget the limitations of the real world in favor of finding a way inside of the art.

“I’ve had people say different things about my pieces all in relation to how the image touched them in some way, like an environment that is so cute they want to go inside and have a cup of coffee,” says the Rio de Janeiro native of his colorful, surrealist-influenced works. “I believe a lot in this moment where one frame brings an emotion and a story. Colors are essential tools to help me achieve that: it helps me to place the viewer inside these magical worlds.”

Creating “CG that you can actually touch” is an invitation and a challenge that Costa sets for both himself and viewers. Not a single frame is wasted on superfluous design elements, every piece must ignite the desire to delve deeper into the story – an aesthetic that encourages repeat viewing. To immerse viewers in this way is Costa’s reaction against what he perceives to be a trend of “coldness” in motion graphics – pieces that boast complex techniques with little meaning behind them.

Costa leans toward the “warmer” side of things, a preference he picked up in a four-year-long collaboration with MTV Brazil. After studying graphic design in his hometown and then VFX at the Art Institute of Vancouver, he saw the merging of the two techniques as his ideal platform. MTV was more than willing to let him experiment to craft his style while simultaneously being a one-man production outfit. He most recently signed with 1st Avenue Machine’s sister company Special Guest. It was here that he created “The Journey”, a short that amply brings together the most salient parts of his aesthetic: the invitation, the challenge, the warmth and the surreal.

“I was packing my luggage when I realized how funny the different types of luggage arrangements are” explains Costa. “This process could tell a lot about the owner and I started thinking about how to use clothes to challenge the viewer to identify the owner’s personality. I created what I called the 2.5D effect: using stop-motion as a base level with 3D on top to make the CG warmer. After seeing a beautiful exhibition of Dali’s work at MoMA I incorporated a little surrealism. I consider myself a ‘post-surrealist’. I believe that with a post-surrealist image, I can make you think and create a story in your mind in relation to the sequence of facts, colors, elements and technique applied.” Q

> The artist on the art
“I entitled this piece “Cherry Sky”. I like this image because I think it has a story behind it: a sequence of facts that makes you look at it for some time trying to understand the elements. You can read the images as questions: One woman is flying with balloons, the other on the left is trying to fly. Is she going to succeed? Before she flew off was she on the boat arguing with the other person? The liquid inside the vase is the same color as the plant. What is the origin? Is it the woman who is watering the plant on top? Did it come from the mouth? Why is the fish flying inside the vase? Is that related to the ocean made of grass? Characters hold balloons and there is a big hand holding a cherry. Is the cherry a balloon too? What came first in this sequence of events?”

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