User:Satishknit

i am satish kumar singh my native place is bhupiamau pratapgarh up

I did my postgraduation at Kamla Nehru Institute of technology Sultanpur and then moved on to job. The turning point was a slow process, there was no specific light bulb moment.

I was always a decent student at school, and was sort of expected to follow the usual Tamil Brahmin tradition of engineering, doctor or death.

I guess my first taste of college life made me realise that I’m not cut out for academic excellence. Nevertheless, I went with the flow and ended up in engineering college.

I seriously started considering alternatives. The turning point was losing my jobs in smaal company. It was the last straw, and I finally realised that I should STOP trying to be what others wanted me to be and think about what I wanted to do.

Parents’ reaction...

To say they were fairly happy would be an overstatement. From their perspective, I was just a good boy who gain his way in life and they took it upon themselves to try and “improve” me.

I don’t think they took me seriously until I went and took up a part-time job as freelancing for 10 months to earn enough cash to join an priza technology.

But I was lucky because the job market was such that if you had the right kind of ability and skill, you could do ANY interesting job. Mass media and animation were upcoming fields. It was a gamble and I only managed to convince my parents after they made me promise that I’d complete my engineering degree.

Getting into Hollywood...

I was lucky to find a college mate who was also interested in animation and wanted to get out of the engineering trap. The two of us did quite a bit of research and she found a guy who taught 2d animation, the old schooldisney- style-paper-pencil animation.

Anyone interested in making a career in animation should atleast give 2d animation a try to understand its core basics.

Six months of that got me started with learning the ropes of animation, but that wasn’t enough to get us jobs.

I had to finish my last year of college and learn modern techniques of 3d computer animation simultaneously.

I decided to go with the one short-term course which taught me the most basic of softwares. After completing the course and quickly making a demo reel to showcase my ability I went around applying for jobs.

My college mate who had got a job at Rhythm & Hues, (RnH) India, suggested I give it a try there and I did. In hindsight, it was probably the best decision I took, because till I joined RnH, I was pretty clueless about the industry.

I just figured - Here is a foreign company, they make Hollywood movies and they PAY freshers! Three years on, here I am...

Recent works, current work...

My first project was The Golden Compass. I’ve been working as a matchmover and camera tracker for the last two-and-half years now and all the projects I’ve worked on have been in that capacity. The Golden Compass was a insanely vfx-heavy movie which tested us newbies to the limit. We cribbed and whined and cursed but in the end, to see our names roll out at the end of the credit list was just pure magic! A few months later we won an Oscar for our special effects work on that movie.

RnH has a wonderful development policy which helps freshers join in and learn a skill and then move up and on to different levels and departments to learn new skills. This gave me the opportunity to become Team Lead and Mentor in my first year out there.

After Compass, I’ve worked as the Lead Matchmover on The Incredible Hulk, Aliens in the Attic, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The land of the Lost and The Wolfman. Currently, I’ve moved to a new department and am being trained to become a tech animator and rigger.

Advice for aspiring students of animation...

Be absolutely sure of what you want! The situation now is very different.

The hype that institutes propagate about job opportunities and money in animation lures a lot of youngsters, who just don’t want to endure rigorous academic courses. They aren’t really prepared for the harsh truth - there is hardly any money right now and even fewer jobs.

I usually ask newbies interested in animation to do a good amount of research on what they want to do and also mentally prepare themselves to reach a very high level of skill to catch the eye of potential employers.

On ‘Going for your passion versus taking the trodden path’...

Go for your passion, of course. It’s easier said than done and there will be failures and setbacks but the good thing about it is that you will live through with no regrets! And every achievement will taste just that little extra sweet.

satish.knit@gmail.com