Inside the Loop: Lucas Zanotto on Style, Motion and the Joy of Making Things

Italian-born and Helsinki-based artist, Lucas Zanotto, moves playfully between disciplines, from directing and animation to sculpture, inflatables, and painting. Trained in product design in Milan, he began working in graphic design and commercial direction before founding Yatatoy, the award-winning children’s studio behind Drawnimal and its companion books.

What then started as a small blog, Having a Face, featuring painted eyes on plates photographed in nature, soon evolved into kinetic sculptures and looping animations that went viral, leading to large-scale installations exhibited from Taipei to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Bangkok.

His recent collaboration with OK Go, Will Anderson, and Blender Studio explores live motion capture and procedural 3D workflows, continuing his quiet revolution and expanding what’s possible for artists across disciplines.

We’re excited to dive into the creative mind of Lucas Zanotto.

Sitting Down with Lucas Zanotto

We sat down with Lucas to talk about creativity, curiosity, and the process behind his distinct visual world. His perspective is thoughtful, honest, and makes it all feel effortlessly simple.

Greyscalegorilla: Your looping animations are so emotive and tightly crafted, balancing design, color, movement, and sound. Can you walk us through your conceptual thinking and workflow? How does a piece come together, and how do you know when it’s finished?

Lucas Zanotto: With the loops, it’s a lot of thinking involved. I’m constantly focusing on moving or interacting objects: mechanics, kinetic elements, things I see in daily life. Then I think about how to bring those simple shapes into animation form. I add characters, figure out how they interact, do some rough sketching, and then move into Cinema 4D for the animation. Once I’m happy with the motion, I render it out, add sound using a software called Auxy on my iPad, and then put everything into After Effects. It’s finished when it just feels right. When it loops smoothly and feels effortless.

“Everything was real-time, and it turned into this crazy two-month rollercoaster.”‍

‍GSG: Can you talk us through your recent project and collaboration with OK Go? How did the project come about, what was it like working with Will Anderson, and what techniques or tools did you use?

LZ: Basically, I noticed that OK Go, and especially their singer, Damian Kulash, started following me on Instagram. I’ve been a fan of theirs for a decade, always loved their videos and their in-camera creativity, especially since I have a directing background myself. So it was kind of amazing to see them pop up in my followers. I immediately reached out, just saying, “Hey, thanks for following, I’m a huge fan,” and we started chatting. Eventually, we said, “Let’s do something together.” They had a new album coming out and asked if I’d be interested in making a lyric video or something like that.

I was a bit nervous because animating a whole video is a lot of work, so I thought of bringing in Will Anderson, whose work I absolutely love. He does amazing stuff with face capture and lip-sync animation, and I thought it would be fun to combine my visual language with his techniques. We ended up using Blender (he’s the Blender expert) and he built the whole video in geometry nodes with just a few keyframes. Everything was real-time, and it turned into this crazy two-month rollercoaster. Blender Studio even got involved as a sponsor. In the end, it was one of the most ambitious geometry-node projects done so far, and I was really proud of it. Working with Will and OK Go was super inspiring.

GSG: Which project are you most proud of, and why?

LZ: There are quite a few projects I’m proud of, if not to say nearly all of them, because each was done at a time when it was exactly what I wanted to do. I always try to make each project the best I can envision. From a commercial directing point of view, I really enjoyed the cake video with the drones. That was a lot of fun. I’m proud of my kinetic installations, especially the eye-installations. And I think I’m also just proud that I’ve managed to create a sort of aesthetic language or recognizable style. When people see something I’ve done and recognize it as mine, that’s something I’m really proud of. I’m also excited about the larger installations I’ve done recently, especially in places like Hong Kong and Bangkok.

“... keeping that consistent language and feeling across different forms..”

GSG: You’ve made an award-winning app, written and illustrated books, built kinetic sculptures and inflatables, directed commercials with drones making cakes, and collaborated with some of the world’s best artists and brands. What drives your creative curiosity, and how do you approach both the technical and artistic challenges of exploring new mediums?

LZ: I really love new technology and new media and trying to incorporate those into my world. I especially like expanding my overall visual language across different media, whether it’s digital animation, kinetic physical animation, painting, or sculptures. That really drives me. Just keeping that consistent language and feeling across different forms. And I get really into things. I kind of go overboard until I feel like I’ve mastered it and then just play around. It’s all about exploring and having fun while keeping that core artistic thread.

GSG: What advice would you give to artists developing their own visual voice?

LZ: It’s hard to give advice on that because everyone approaches it differently and has to find their own way. But I’d say it’s okay, especially early on, to get inspired by different things or even do a bit of copying as you figure out what you like. Over time, your own world kind of crystallizes out of all your different interests. Not just visually, but maybe from music, lifestyle, and your overall taste. It’s really about elaborating your taste by exploring as much as you can and staying curious. If you keep that interest alive, it’ll drive the world you create and help you make work that resonates with others.

‍GSG: Which Greyscalegorilla tools or products have you enjoyed using in your projects?

LZ: I really enjoyed playing around with Signal. It’s a very nice tool and just comfy to use. And all the great materials are super convenient. Like if you need wood or concrete or whatever, it’s just easy drag-and-drop. I find that really great for a fast workflow.

GSG: So, what’s next? Is there anything you’d like to plug or any dream projects on your radar?

LZ: Yeah, what’s next? Good question. It’s always kind of a daily “what’s next,” I think. I’m always just trying to find new things that inspire me and expand my world. I really want to dive more into sculptural and physical work, explore painting more, and I’m also part of an ambitous AI project, which I find super interesting in terms of different use cases. I’ve got some brand collaborations coming up that I’m excited about, and really, I’ll just keep doing what I do.

Want to see more of Lucas’s work? Follow him on Instagram or check out his website.
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