Directing

Who The Hell 

Is Ilya Nodia?!

ONE FRAME STORIES

Since 2014, I have been shaping my signature visual style based on three key principles — character, story, environment. As a fan of cinema and narrative video games, I sought out projects and advertising campaigns where I could act not only as a photographer, but also as a concept creator, inventing imaginary characters and the stories around them.

This allowed me to quickly move into narrative-driven projects, gain access to film poster shoots and complex agency campaigns, and also lead the art direction of the world’s largest Escape Room franchise Claustrophobia, for several years before transitioning into agency advertising and VR projects.

TRANSITION TO ART DIRECTION AND GRAPHICS

Market recognition allowed me to move even closer to projects in the gaming industry. While creating commercial series for VR games, I became increasingly engaged in communication with developers and grew interested in visualization capabilities. After projects like Claustrophobia, AnvioVR, Another World and VR-Tech, I had the opportunity to work with advertising agencies such as BBDO and Leo Burnett.

Agencies appreciated my distinctive visual style. Later, in partnership with WLA Entertainment (Los Angeles), I began directing and producing narrative content and trailers for escape rooms in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Dallas. I wanted to create narrative video stories while bypassing complex production — and found a solution in learning game engines.

MONDLICHT STUDIOS & NINJA LAMA | Behance

After several years working as an art director and creative lead in a graphics studio, in 2022 I relocated to Germany, where I took on the role of art director and director in the Unreal Engine department at Mondlicht Studios. Together with the team, we created several major advertising projects over the year, including a showcase video for Epic Games at GDC 2023.

In 2024, together with my partner Viktor Leon, we launched our freelance directing duo Ninja Lama, creating game trailers and training directors and cinematographers as part in his Anvil Frame School. At the same time, I continued to create short personal sketches in Unreal Engine.

TOKYO: THE BOX  

Role: Director + Script & Full production UE-artist

One of the most comprehensive examples of how I work and what I’m capable of. In this big behind-the-scenes video, you’ll see how I develop a story (partly inspired by the game Cyberpunk 2077), work with assets, record animation, collaborate with other artists, create the soundtrack, and much more.  

Kernel VR  

Role: Director + Scirpt & Full production UE-artist  

One of the most comprehensive examples of how I work and what I’m capable of. In this big behind-the-scenes video, you’ll see how I develop a story (partly inspired by the game Cyberpunk 2077), work with assets, record animation, collaborate with other artists, create the soundtrack, and much more.  

SWAT — The X Files 

Role: Co-Director + UE-artist  

One of many projects we directed as a duo with Viktor Manin — a creative collaboration with Mondlicht Studios for the CG Bros channel. We created a short mystical cinematic about a missing squad, experimenting with combining a custom-made body with Big Medium Small SWAT models and Metahuman heads.  

THE EXPERIMENT  

Role: Director + Script & Full production UE-artist

Currently, I continue to grow as a cinematic director, also creating numerous animatics for films, series, and games, while teaching cinematographers and directors how to work with Unreal Engine. 

Many of our students work at game studios like Owlcat Games, Mundfish, or build their own small teams. At the same time, I’m developing my own scripts and mini-series. The Experiment is one of the latest pilot projects.

Growth as a Previz Artist & Director  

Right now, my team at Ninja Lama and I are working extensively on animatics for film, with most scenes requiring us to act as co-directors. These animatics range from 3 to 10 minutes and serve not only as a test for stunts or complex live-action scenes, but also as hypothesis testing and pitch-animatics. This provides an incredible boost when working with long-form content — which, in my case, is the top priority for further growth.  

Many of the projects are currently under NDA, but we recorded a 3-hour livestream (in Russian) showing how the process usually works in realtime — from storyboarding and quick environment creation to lighting setup and shot layout.