Creature Animator Interview

Creature Animation transforms your imagination into reality through an intersection of Art, Technology and Creativity !
Mrinal Soni, our next pathbreaker, Creature Animator at Hashbane Interactive (Auckland), works remotely (Jaipur) on Dinosaur Animations, be it for gameplay or for cinematics.
Mrinal talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy fromThe Interview Portal about making sketches and drawings from an early age and being a fan of Games, Movies and Anime, which led to a career in animation.
For students, the more you introspect on your natural abilities, the easier it is to develop your career in the right direction !
Mrinal, your background?

I was born and brought up in Jaipur, Rajasthan. From an early age I was fond of drawing and sketching. I had done my 12 th with Commerce / Multimedia. I was into computers a lot and learnt Adobe Photoshop on my own by watching some tutorials online. That's when I knew I wanted to get into a creative field.

What did you do for graduation/post graduation?

After 12 th , I did BSc in Animation and VFX from Asian Academy of Film and Television, Noida.
Can you talk about some of the influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and cool career?

Like I said, I loved making sketches and drawings from an early age and have been quite a fan of Games, Movies and Anime. When I got to know of a degree in Animation, I immediately did some research and enrolled myself into the course.
During my final semester in college, I decided to specialize in character animation as I found that the process was very interesting and fun. You get to breathe life into the characters/creatures using software.
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path

After I finished my degree, I searched for some internships and got selected in a couple of them. But I decided not to join there.
So, I came back home and joined an institute named Frameboxx to do one more specialization course in Character Animation.
But after consulting with others, instead of character animation, I joined the course for Modeling and Texturing. The faculty teaching there had their own Gaming Studio nearby. After doing the course in Modeling for almost a year, I was asked to do an Animation project along with one other faculty. Since I was interested in Animation from the beginning, I immediately said yes and went forward. That's when I got my first break. They asked me to join their Studio as an Animator.
Modeling is basically the process to create 3d models of the assets, environments or characters using software like Autodesk Maya, Zbrush etc. It is like one of the initial processes in the pipeline. Texturing comes just after that. You create the shader (properties of the surface) and create textures like how it's going to look. For example, if you need to create a metallic door with some painting on it, you will be giving properties in the shader which makes it look metallic and then you manually paint the painting which means creating the texture.

In Character Animation, we are just supposed to breathe life into our character. We have the Rig (with bones and controllers for every body part) which we use to animate the character or any other prop.
Below is an example of the rig.
I was the first animator there. So, for a few months, I was training myself and learning from internet/self practice. I did a couple of game animation projects and got to learn Rigging (giving bones and controllers to your character).
I worked there for almost 2 years and trained other animators along the way while I kept improving my skills. Then I felt I needed to learn how things work in bigger studios and also wanted to work in a VFX studio (for Movies and TV Series etc).
That's when I resigned and joined an online workshop named Creature Animation Workshop.
I did the basic workshop there and made a realistic Elephant Walk Cycle shot there. Here is the link to the same :
https://vimeo.com/551350141

How did you get your first break?

During the workshop, I learned a lot, as my Mentor "Dhanu Muddikuppam" was very skilled and had worked for many major studios like ILM, MPC, Framestore etc.
After my workshop, he asked me to join his studio named "Viskefi" which is a UK based studio but has a branch in Hyderabad.
So I said yes and joined there as an Intern. After my internship, I was offered a position of Junior Animator and I was there for almost 2 years. During this time period I was promoted to a Senior Animator position and got to work on a couple of movies, many commercials and many high quality shots.

I did work on a couple of movies there. One was from Netflix named "INumberNumber : Jozi Gold" and the other one is yet to release so cannot name it. Other than this, I worked on several commercials there and one project was done for Changi Airport, Singapore.
https://vimeo.com/568877338


The first challenge was to enroll in an Animation course as I and my family were very skeptical about it. My father is a government servant and had no background of anyone working in the design field. But slowly things started working out.

Upskilling- In the animation industry, you constantly need to upskill yourself with time. After coming home, you need to practice on your own regularly. It's not something you need to do just at the beginning of your career. Till this day, I keep making my own personal shots to see how much I have improved.
Working in a proper production environment was a challenge. Working in a studio is completely different from what you are taught in college. You have deadlines, tight schedules, last minute shot changes from the client etc. So getting used to it took a bit of time.
Where do you work now?

Currently, I work in a New Zealand based gaming studio named "Hashbane Interactive". I am currently working from Jaipur since the job is Remote. We are making a Dinosaur survival game named "Instinction" which will be released in 2025 and I am working as a Creature Animator there.
Tell us about current role I am responsible for the Creatures/ Dinosaur Animations, be it for gameplay or for cinematics.
I was approached by them after they saw one of my personal creature works which I did recently and uploaded on Linkedin. My profile and skills matched their requirement, and so after an interview, I decided to work full time with them.
I am specialized in Character/Creature Animation. The modelers create the models and textures first, and then pass the model to the Rigging department so they could create the bones/controllers for us and then we (Creature Animators) use that rig to animate it manually using the controllers provided and breathe life into the character. Once the animation is done and approved, it is passed for CFX (Muscle, Hair Simulation) and then rendering. After everything is done from 3D department, the renders are passed over to the computer department where they basically merge everything together and create the final piece.
What is a typical day like? I start working around 9 AM and work till 6-6:30 PM. Since I am working remotely, I am very grateful I get to enjoy time with my family and friends too. I love making animations. Animation is not easy. You need to constantly work on your skills and it can be frustrating sometimes. But it's a totally different feeling once you start seeing the results of your shots. The team at Hashbane is very supportive and the work is quite high quality.

How does your work benefit society? Nowadays, games and movies/cartoons are not just about kids anymore. Animation is required almost in every medium be it movies, commercials, tv shows etc. People play games for fun, and use them as a stress buster too. Same goes for movies. Everyone, after a tiring day, turns towards their TV's or some OTT platforms to watch some movie or tv series to relieve themselves from the stress. People love going to theaters and love watching movies like Avatar which is a completely different experience.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you! Last year, I got to work on a Netflix movie named "I Number Number : Jozi Gold". I did a couple of shots which Included a deadly Hyena in them.
Here is the link to those Hyena shots and one other commercial I worked on in my last company which included Talking bears :
I also got to work on a Disney movie and one more Netflix series but I cannot name them as they are yet to release.
Your advice to students based on your experience? You should definitely listen to your heart and do what you want to do.
Nowadays there is a huge scope in different fields which people are not aware of. Same goes with Animation. You can become a very good animator and earn quite well too but you constantly need to upskill yourself and be ahead of others. This goes for every field, not just Animation.
Future Plans?

For now, I am happy working for Hashbane and looking forward to the release of Instinction in 2025. Later, I would definitely love to work for some big VFX studios like ILM and work on amazing movies/tv series.
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