The Reality Architect. Interview With Nikita Vantorin

by Sana Bun

The Reality Architect. Interview With Nikita Vantorin, Vertex CGI

15 Jul 2024

If you have been captivated by surrealistic videos of a giant umbrella opening above Burj Khalifa or an underwater metro going all the way to the top of the highest skyscraper in the world, you might be familiar with the mesmerising works of Vertex CGI. We had a chance to sit down with Nikita Vantorin, a co-founder of a Dubai-based studio, to discuss the journey of the company’s diverse creative ventures and explore their innovative approach to digital artistry.

— Let’s go back in time. Before finding your niche and taking over the CGI market, you and Kirill Gavrilov [another Vertex co-founder] tested your luck in many different fields. You used to do photography, organise rooftop dates in Moscow, create and sell pre-sets for Lightroom... What a journey! How did you come up with the idea of fully switching to CGI?

— Our choices over those years were primarily based on what we liked ourselves, but delivering value to the customers was equally important.

The decision to focus on CGI back then was, on one hand, emotional, as we produced cool digital projects that both our clients and us enjoyed, so we wanted to do more of it. But, on the other hand, rational, as it delivered better results.

Technically, a company’s revenue is a reflection of the business’s value, which is, therefore, the way it contributes to the world. So, CGI, in this case, came as two in one.

— Even though CGI has been present on social media for quite a while, it still works perfectly when virality is needed. Do you believe that at a certain point, all brands, without exception, will have to master this technology to be able to meet the competition? Or, in contrast, will the audience be surfeited with excessive artificial reality, get frustrated with seeing things that are impossible in real life, and turn to real, analogue things?

— Many trends rise and fall every day, but at the same time, some stay with us for years, so things in general may take any direction. However, I believe that any tendency may last long if you extract the core element that makes it popular and work with it.

CGI is definitely emerging right now, and I trust it is just the beginning. Nevertheless, at Vertex we don’t get stuck with certain technologies but focus on our client’s needs. CGI is just a tool.

— What is, in your opinion, the hottest social media trend that matches best with CGI right now?

— I would say that CGI may be applied to any trend, but authenticity dominates the market. If you do something unique, you can use any tool to express your vision and values — in this case, the technologies will work for you. But if you follow trends simply for virality without an idea behind your creations — don’t expect high results, as the audience always feels empty meanings and doesn’t fall for them.

Right now, our main internal goal as a company is to show that CGI is not just enormous bags driving on the streets, but also a cool vehicle for communication. We want to focus on the meanings.

— Today, AI tools are quite accessible, and even the man in the street can easily use them for content creation etc. Don’t you think that technologies like CGI, which still require certain professional skills, can soon fall victim to it?

— It is a catalyst for sure. With growing accessibility companies will get an opportunity to highlight their products and show the narratives behind them in brand-new ways, which I find to be pretty awesome.

Certain technologies, including CGI, may exist for decades and centuries, but the key point is not the tool itself, but how it helps people to tell stories, achieve goals and express their ideas.

— Now, looking back at hundreds of CGI videos that you have already produced, which do you find to be the most important in Vertex's portfolio? Which one has pushed the limits, boosted the company, or just has special emotional value to you?

— My favourite project is always the one still to come because, after every single release, I immediately think of what is going on next.

As for the past works, I would pick out those showing the best results. For instance, one of our recent videos reached over 293 million views on Instagram only, beating our own record, while a campaign for Pepsi, dedicated to the company’s rebranding, was run in ten countries at the same time. That felt amazing.

— What type of videos do your clients request the most? Do they normally already have an idea or give you creative freedom?

— Both situations are possible, but the creative part is frequently on us. We always start with a conversation about the client’s expectations and ask what results they want to achieve. If the client already has an idea, we figure out if it is relevant to the expected outcome and offer ways to show the client’s expertise in their field from our perspective.

— Imagine that a client has a brilliant — in their opinion — idea and wants to bring it to life, but you know that it is not going to work. What do you do in this case? Talk them off or do what you are asked to?

— We openly explain why it is unlikely to pursue the client’s goal, talking not from a personal preferences perspective, but from a result. Somehow, we always manage to understand each other and work on a project as partners, focusing on the payoff.

— Were there any funny stories that happened while working on Vertex projects?

— Within a day before the final match between Argentina and France during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, we decided to make a video featuring Lionel Messi to publish on our Instagram account to celebrate Argentina’s possible victory. We didn’t know who would win the championship and just ventured to set hopes on a chance. If France won, we would lose time and resources spent, but fortune smiled upon us, and we hit the hot topic.

— This ability to catch the trend is clearly Vertex’s hallmark. How do you manage to do it?

— We try a lot of things, make mistakes, analyse them and learn from this experience.

— As far as I know, you even have a special algorithm that predicts content’s success. So, what’s the virality's main ingredient?

— A key emotion is a necessary feature of any piece of information, and when working with content, the emotion should be bundled with a brand. If you show the audience something random that is not related to what you do or stand for, you will not be understood. That is the basic rule.

We also do proper research on our clients, their target audiences and everything that is happening in the world. When these factors are combined, and all the parties get the value, the project works out.

— How do you and Kirill allocate your roles within the company?

— Our responsibility zones are clean-cut. Kirill has no idea what videos we shoot and only sees them when they get published on Instagram.

He’s fully responsible for Vertex’s inner workings, team management, finances, and paperwork, while the product, the client experience, and the creative part is on me. We even made a list of who does what, and when in doubt — turn to it. What is cool — we both do exactly what we enjoy the most, but of course, we always have each other’s back, and give feedback and bits of advice to one another.

If things get outside of our expertise, we hire professionals who burn with enthusiasm.

— So convenient! Talking about the product, what industries do you enjoy working with the most? And in which fields CGI is in the highest demand?

— When it comes to my interests — these are cars, architecture, and sports, and gladly, companies from these industries are present among our clients. Also, we work a lot with fashion and beauty brands, sometimes with travel and technological projects. But we can provide solutions for companies from any industry due to our highly developed visual erudition and analytical abilities.

— Thinking of one of the first viral fashion CGI campaigns, Jacquemus immediately comes to my mind. How did you start working together?

— They needed a series of videos in a short time and reached out to Vertex, giving us complete freedom. We quickly processed all formalities and pulled out what they needed, leaving the client completely satisfied.

What is interesting, Jacquemus started this project in collaboration with a freelance CGI artist, but at that time chose to proceed with us because of Vertex’s big team that can run massive projects in under time. For us this case indicated that we are doing the right thing and our expertise is constantly growing.

— You also collaborate with Middle Eastern companies quite a lot and even created videos for the Crown Prince of Dubai. Are there any specific aspects of work in the MENA region?

— For us, there is none as we feel a huge mental affinity with locals. They always say what they think, in certain spheres can make arrangements very quickly, so it is easy for us to find common ground, and, to be honest, it is one of the reasons why Vertex is based in Dubai.

— What are Vertex’s plans for the near future?

— We definitely want to scale up our team to be able to provide our services to a wider range of clients, while also keeping improving the quality of the product and focusing on achieving long-term KPI’s

— If CGI didn’t exist, what would you do?

— The thing is that neither I nor our CGI designers do CGI. We are more of reality architects creating hyper-realistic visions of the future that are not here yet. If we were given different tools, the outcome would be similar to what we do now. And, this, I guess, is going to be the next step.

— What is your dream?

— I would rather transform dreams into actual actions. Some things go beyond life — for me, it is passing the knowledge and experience to other people so they can also create and share something with the world. Of course, priorities can change at any moment as a person grows, but now, being 26, I can say that one day I want to contribute to education. Now I have a draft of a huge project, partially related to education, so, as they say, stay tuned — you’ll be the first one to hear about it!

by Sana Bun