Pavithra Ramamurthy works as a Trainee 3D Animator and Rigger for Studio Eeksaurus Productions Pvt. Ltd. She completed her graduation in 3D Animation & Visual Effects program education from Vancouver Film School and has worked as a visual artist and freelance animator for some time. She has also interned at Raj TV, a South Indian television channel and also at Ogilvy and Mather, an internationally acclaimed advertising agency.


CG Today : Welcome to CG Today and thanks for accepting our invitation.

Pavithra : Thank you! It is a pleasure.

CG Today : You have been working with Studio Eeksaurus founded by Mr. Suresh Eriyat, for 3 months now. Studio Eeksaurus serves on design, creative content development for TV and manages pre-production and production of ads, short films and feature films. How has your experience been so far?CG Today - Pavithra Ramamurthy

Pavithra : Its been pretty great when it comes down to being involved in a studio project. Till now I have been pretty much freelancing in Visual effects and animation while otherwise working on my own concepts and ideas for short films. It is a nice and different experience to have a certain amount of supervision and insight from superiors and its been great to work among a team of members where each play an important and intricate role. Eeksaurus is a very challenging studio with a small team working towards achieving a very particular image. An image that could probably represent them in the most creative and perfect way possible.

CG Today : What is the kind of work you have been involved in over the past 3 months as a Trainee 3D Animator at Studio Eeksaurus Productions?

Pavithra : I have worked on a couple of projects till now, a logo animation for a very prominent product and also on an animated ad for another prominent product. The second project involved a bigger team and but lot less demanding work than the first one. I learnt immensely in these past few months than I have in the past year as a freelancer. My speed in animating has improved along with, I dare say the quality of my output. I am animating doubly faster than I used to and for industry standards it is completely necessary to animate very quickly(the deadlines always seem impossible), as it is to give a production quality output. The more you keep your ears and eyes open along with your thirst for criticism(may it be good or bad), the faster you grow as an animator.

CG Today - Pavithra Ramamurthy

CG Today : While working with Ardent Group Media, you had an opportunity to work on a trailer of a movie ‘Nature of the Beast’, which got screened at Cannes Film Festival. Can you tell us about this project and your role in it?

Pavithra :
Nature of the Beast is an upcoming movie by the Vancouver based production house Ardent Group media. When the director Pat Bermel got in touch with me through my Program Manager at Vancouver Film School, he told me that he needed freelancing artists to work on a trailer for a movie that he was going to direct. He also mentioned that it could be a stepping stone to various other projects. When he explained the concept of the movie to me, it sounded very intriguing and true to his word I felt it would provide me with a great amount of exposure. Along with a few of my school mates from VFS, I started working on the project as an animator. I also helped along the way as a matte painter when the project began to take shape.

My main work involved animating a point of view camera in an under ground tunnel sequence and followed by animating a dialogue on a priest’s face while it morphed into a monster’s face. It involved a lot of research and reference work since the morphing was the tricky part. We replaced the skin textures with hard grained, bulging veined textures moving on the priest’s face for further implications. The animation had to look completely believable as a human facial deformation and at the same time it had to justify the change of the general shape in the facial structure. I had to work closely with the visual effects supervisor who provided me with the main footage that I had to match. Once the animation on the face was completed, he could then go ahead with the texturing and color correction of the rendered images in after effects.

 

 

CG Today : You interned at Ogilvy and Mather, an international advertising, marketing and public relations agency with a great legacy and history of over 60 years. Interning with Ogilvy and Mather would have given you a very good exposure to the marketing and advertising industry. Tell us about your experience working for advertising, marketing and public relations?

Pavithra : I interned at Ogilvy and Mather when I was still studying at MOP Vaishnav college for women. I was doing my bachelor’s degree in Bsc. Electronic Media at the time and the college gave extra credits for internships during the end of the 2nd and the 4th semesters. I was completely fresh minded and looking forward to learning and experiencing what the advertising agency could offer. Ogilvy & Mather expected us interns to actively participate in all the workings of the creative team. We never felt left out or under equipped. Any theory or idea was encouraged. We were asked for our opinions at different levels and stages of work. This built up a lot of confidence in us and helped us in forming a great working team.

CG Today : You had pitched several advertisement concepts for hoardings, Television commercials, PSAs, Posters, etc during your internship with Ogilvy and Mather; tell us about the most interesting project you gave a pitch for...

Pavithra : We were asked to pitch in ideas for print advertising for ROCA. The team head held a brainstorming session in which we were encouraged to throw in whatever idea struck us. In fact, more bizarre, the better and at the same time we were being trained to think along the lines of what kind of publicity would capture a regular person’s attention.

CG Today : During your internship, you had a fair opportunity to witness the whole process of ad making. You were in fact, on the research team for Fortune and Suguna chicken conducting surveys and comparing process to find out what the product represents. What is the correlation of these tasks with the final branding of the product and how exactly do you use the statistics and survey results?

Pavithra : On Fortune oil we acted as the research team and were asked to conduct surveys at hotels, compare prices in market, find out what the demography gave prime importance to when consuming oil in their food. On Suguna chicken, it was a similar process but we were asked to visit poultry farms to conduct our research and surveys. We shot footage's of the process involved right from rearing to final packaging of chicken. All these methods were primarily to understand our product thoroughly.

When you are selling a product it is a must to understand what exactly you are trying to sell. When a brand sells a product it also sells along a certain image that it represents. An image that people can identify the product with. To make that point in an advertisement it is very important to understand the history, science and the nature involved in the creation of the product. With this knowledge you can easily create ideas that would best help sell the product. An advertisement always focuses on bringing forth the best points of using a product. A thorough knowledge of your product makes your work ten times easier and more productive.

 

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