agenda Game on

Gilles Albaredes has, arguably, one of the most exciting jobs in the world right now. He’s spending the next year preparing animations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and you are sure to have seen his company’s work already. Remember when London 2012 tickets

went on sale earlier this year? The animation of athletes running, jumping and throwing? This is more than making short movies or cartoons. Albaredes runs the European and Middle East (EMEA) operations for the Chinese animation powerhouse Crystal CG and you just have to take a look at the group’s website, www.crystalcg.co.uk, to see some of the incredible representations he and his team of young and enthusiastic London staff have developed. Following on from their successes

during the Beijing 2008 Games, where Crystal CG also produced the Olympic animations, Albaredes is confi dent the fi rm can outdo what it achieved in China. Despite being French, he is actually

delighted London beat Paris to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games back in the summer of 2005. “London is the most international of cities in the world,” he says. “I was delighted when London won the bid and it’s right that it did.” Albaredes became managing director

of Crystal CG International in 2007, having previously held senior managerial positions in leading software fi rms. Most recently, he was chief marketing offi cer at Lectra, and undertook various general management positions from 1997-2007 within both SAS and Autodesk, where he

Crystal CG is crafting animations to support the 2012 Olympics. David Parsley meets its managing director, Gilles Albaredes

was vice president of the EMEA sales division. The Olympics has really focused the

mind at Crystal CG’s London EC1 offi ces, right in the heart of the new creative hub of the UK capital. Since winning the contract in 2009, it’s been full on and, while Albaredes cannot divulge too much detail due to the “surprise factor” the London 2012 organisers are understandably attempting to achieve, he does have some fantastic insights into how the Games will look and feel, and, especially, Crystal CG’s role in making them a huge success.

GLOBAL PARTY “Beijing was one Games, and they went really well, as did our role in them,” he explains. “But London 2012 is going to be something even bigger and better. It will be a truly international celebration, run, albeit from London, by a huge range of people from different nations, adding to what will be an enormous international mix. “London 2012 will be more of a big

party than Beijing was. They will be fun, exciting and compelling, and our remit has been to ensure that not only do we inform everyone involved, but also entertain them and be a part of that fun mix.” This is already being achieved, with the

London 2012 mascot animations now up on the Crystal CG website to marvel at. The second animated mascot fi lm, Adventures on a Rainbow, for London 2012 is the latest installment of mascots >

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Photograph: Mark Johnson