Feature Articles

Buck in the Stacks #8:

Inspiration for Dreamers
The Story of a Computer Graphics Artist
by N. Shoban Babu

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Shoban most recently served as a CG (Computer Graphics) Supervisor on I am Legend where he was responsible for the digital pipeline development and supervision shots in Imageworks India. In addition, Shoban worked on Spiderman 3, Click and Ghost Rider as digital effects supervisor with Imageworks India. Shoban, always interested in promoting young talents, is starting a new forum based website called GFYS: Guidance for Your Skill set, a session for discovering life-styles that complements individuals’ talents and interests. The site is set to launch at the end of 2008. His credits can be found at Yahoo Movies: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1809718271 and the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3057889/

One fine morning I got a call from Mr. John Jacob (my professor and guru) who said, "today we are going to a Hollywood visualfx seminar in the Taj group of hotels." I was so excited to see for the first time in my life about the Hollywood visualfx making of the movie True Lies which was done by Silicon Graphics System using Alias Wave front and Softimage for Jurassic Park. As an enthusiastic and passionate artist, it was unbelievable for me to realise the possibilities of visualfx in both the films. From that day I couldn’t sleep well and I started doing research about what I needed to learn to achieve those kinds of effects. In the initial stage of my career, I hardly slept because the stunning visualfx were always running through my mind and questions were popping up every day like how did they create the dinosaur, which software did they use, and how did they do digital lighting? And of course as usual I was asking friends if they were all camera tricks (which is a common term used by laymen in India).

I started my career in 1995 as a title designer for television and feature film works in a company called Edit Point. I came to be identified with my creative skills and knowledge to continue my destiny as a visualfx supervisor and to work for Hollywood visualfx films.  My dream was realized in 2003.  In the span of eight years, I worked and executed more than 7 films as a visualfx supervisor in domestic and 30 films as a compositor and 5 films as a digital effects supervisor / CG Supervisor.  My credits are included in music videos, commercials, and corporate films, working in top level companies in south India.

One fine evening I got a call from one of my friends, Mr. Krishnakant Mishra, stating "would you be interested working for a Hollywood film in India?" I couldn't believe the voice which offered me the post of Senior Compositor for that prestigious project away from my home town.  I landed a day after that in the studio and was shocked hearing of the project name, which was my "dream."  My friend played a couple of QuickTime's before he revealed the project name.

I was stunned in front of the monitor and realized that I was going to work for Lord of the Rings part III.  It was a wonderful experience for me because of the need to turnaround (deliver) a few shots in 10 days time.  The challenges included wire removal, rig removal, and couple of paint jobs.  The best part was the total team strength of 6 people who came from different places.  Every one was highly skilled in their profession; out of six there were three juniors in that project.  It was very interesting because for the first time in the Indian visualfx industry, Indians were working for a Hollywood project.  Every day required eighteen to twenty hours of work, and a few days became sleepless nights.  As per the client we delivered what they were really looking for.

After completing that prestigious project, I joined with small studios in Chennai for domestic projects which included feature films, commercials, and corporate and music videos.  One more turning point I had was in June of 2004: the same friend called me and said they were planning to tie up with the studio called Frameflow for Hollywood projects.  They offered me as a visualfx supervisor to execute the international projects.  In 2005 Frameflow got the Adam Sandler – Click movie project for compositing remote sequences.

Click was a wonderful project because initially the client, Sony Imageworks, asked for a few shots to turnaround and finally they ended up with 137 shots for that movie.  I played the role of digital effects supervisor for that project.  I handled shots like rotoscope, matchmove and composite sequences with a 25 member team in India.

Currently I am working for four Hollywood projects and my dream still aligns with this new destiny. My credits are included in the following films:

Click (2006), Stormbreakar (2006), Mimzy (2007), Pulse (2007), Mist (2007), Ghost Rider (2006), Spiderman 3 (2007), I am Legend (2007)