Gods and Monsters
Sony's Raf Grassetti leads more than 700 graphic artists in the God of War franchise. Now Grassetti enters the world of contemporary art NFTs with six-figure auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's.
BY Mac Elmore
Can you tell us about your early years and art influences?
I grew up in Brazil. My family is actually from Italy. I’ve always been influenced by art. My grandfather used to do a lot of art himself and I started doing traditional sculpting very early, working with clay. I’m from the 1980s, when computers were a new thing that got me into creating art for websites, and then that quickly transitioned into making 3D art for websites. A lot of websites were starting to look into that because of Flash and some of the tools that became available. My career started there, learning 3D art, and that got me into the advertising industry.
I started to specialize myself into character creation and animation and that quickly turned into toy development. Then I got into character development. I did a lot of toys and statues and characters for video games.
I was still in Brazil working remotely for companies in the US. Then I got an offer from EA to go to Canada. I spent a few years working for BioWare. Then I got a chance to come to Sony as a character art supervisor and work for video games. I worked for games for the past fifteen years for Sony creating a lot of successful franchises. Then this NFT thing started, so now I have been doing that on the side.
For young artists and gamers who are living in this hyper-visual age, do you have any advice as they begin their lives and careers?
I think if you especially have a passion for the craft and the arts, you should get into it. It’s very easy to jump in and just start making something because the tools are so accessible these days, but you have to study the basics of drawing, and anatomy. You have to try to learn art history and the fundamentals.
Do you have a favorite artist or a favorite painting?
Favorite artist is a very tough question because I can go back and talk about the masters from the past, but I feel that I get most of my inspiration from artists that are doing it now. I look at a lot of artists like Pak and Fausto De Martini—who is one of the pioneers of digital art. I’m not super into painting, but the digital wave to me is what influenced me the most.
How does it feel to see your art in games such as God of War?
It’s funny because I almost got detached from the achievement because I’ve been working for so long in the industry. I’m so heavily involved now with God of War specifically and Sony, art directing the project and art directing a team of almost 700 people.
I get more satisfaction of working with people and seeing them succeed in the project and the project being well received by the public and all that more than my art being in the project at this point.
There’s that balance of working with people, seeing them work as a team, and creating something that’s bigger than myself. These projects are so big and, you know, so expensive that you almost get a little detached. I don’t see it as my art. I see it as more of a group endeavor that we create, like a universe.
How much time do you dedicate to your art outside of your day job?
The Sony job takes a lot of my time, especially where the project is in waves. We go through development waves. Right now we’re ramping up again and things get busy. I love what I do, so I do work on the weekends and create things that are outside of the job. It’s more of a hobby at this point. When I’m not working, I’m still making art and enjoying myself.
What’s been your experience with NFTs so far?
It’s been a great learning experience more than anything because it is new for everyone, and to me it’s no different.
When I got in, it was more to understand what was happening than to create art myself. I got in more as a collector trying to understand the people and friends that I had that were having success in the market, and then it all clicked. More than just the art itself, but the behind the scenes of trading and understanding value and how people are adding value to their work. So it’s more about understanding a collectors’ community and how to build upon that.
I had to find my space with my style and how I could pivot some of the things that I’m doing because I was focused mostly on the entertainment industry, and now I’m more into traditional galleries, and showing the work. It is a different mindset.
For me it’s been an amazing learning exercise in kind of finding my voice. It’s all happening so fast. I did Christie’s this year. So it’s been a very interesting journey and how fast the space moves is mind blowing.