Ortego is a graduate of Spain’s Complutense College and also earned advanced post production degrees from Madrid’s Cemtav and Inves Schools. He began his career as a Inferno/Flame demo artist for Discreet Logic (now Autodesk) in Spain, before joining Madrid-based Telson in 1997 as senior Inferno/Flame artist. He began freelancing in Spain in 2003, with the goal of eventually becoming a part of A52’s staff.
“In Europe, when we think about great post-production companies in The States, A52 is one of the best,” Ortego says. “They represent the type of work that I have always aspired to do. For example, in 2001, when I was still with Telson, I watched their Mick Jagger God Gave Me Everything music video dozens of times. That is still one of my favorite music videos of all time. In watching that project and so many others in which they have mixed photorealistic animation in post production, I think that A52 is always consistently pushing the edge of what is possible.”