ACCAD is pleased to announce a new Alumni Interview feature for our website and on Facebook, introducing you to our illustrious alumni. ACCAD alumni work all around the world doing amazing creative, scientific and inspiring work. You can check out our full Alumni list here.  We hope you enjoy hearing from our talented alumni.  We thank Sucheta Bhatawadekar, for getting us started!

Current Position / Employer: Lead Lighting & Compositing Artist, Cinesite Studios, Vancouver, B.C. Canada

Degree with Department Affiliation and Graduation Date:  MFA in Design, 2008

Thesis Title: Digital Lighting Design: Process and Application in Storytelling

Tell us what you are doing professionally at the current time.
I started my career as a lighting artist at PDI-Dreamworks in northern California right after finishing my Design MFA. It truly was a dream job. I got to work on a lot of animated feature films while I was at PDI, for example, Kung-Fu-Panda-2, Megamind, Madagascar-3, Rise of the Guardians, Mr. Peabody and Sherman and a many more. After PDI-Dreamworks I moved to Sydney, Australia to join Animal Logic Studios where I worked on a few Lego Movies such as The Lego Batman, Lego Ninjago and also The Lego Movie-2, which was produced at their Vancouver studio. I currently work at Cinesite studios in Vancouver, B.C. in Canada as a Lead Lighting and Compositing artist. I manage a team of lighters and provide them artistic and technical guidance. Together we create virtual lighting setups for animated feature films that support the mood and emotion of the story and bring to life the production designer’s vision for the movie. In the last year that I’ve been at Cinesite I got the opportunity to work on the animated feature film Addams Family-2 and the recently released VFX feature, Spiderman-No Way Home. We are now working on a film called Hitpig which is about a bounty hunter Pig and the adventure he embarks upon in an attempt to bring back an escaped elephant. The film is set to release later this year.  

What inspires your creativity today?
The people I work with are a constant source of inspiration. Every person has a unique journey and a story behind their craft and talent. A genuine connection with another person inspires me the most, especially in today’s world where it is very hard to find.

Tell us one “Aha” moment from your experience of studying, researching or working at ACCAD.
I joined the MFA program in Design and studied at ACCAD with a plan to specialize in Medical Animations that visualize various biological processes. I took classes focused on design and animation as well as in other disciplines like biology and pre-med to study human anatomy in order to support my specialization. In my 3rd quarter, I took a class where the art and design students teamed up with students from the computer science department to make short animations over the course of the quarter. I had a lot of fun in that class but above all I discovered my interest in digital lighting. That was my “Aha” moment, knowing that digital lighting was something I enjoyed and it could become a solid career path. Thanks to the encouragement and guidance of my advisor, Prof. Maria Palazzi (Design), I started taking classes in theater and photography and from then on to focus my studies on digital lighting. Maria, together with my other advisors, Prof. Alan Price (Design), Prof. Mary Tarantino (Theatre) and Prof. Ardine Nelson (Art) really helped me hone in on my specialization. A decade later, I’m still doing Digital Lighting and loving every minute of it.

What advice would you give to current students taking classes at ACCAD?
I’d say to them, be open to and really explore the graduate school experience. It is ok to know what you want when you start the program but take advantage of the immense interdisciplinary research and projects that OSU and ACCAD have to offer. For example, I worked on a research project for the Veterinary School of Medicine where ACCAD and The Ohio Supercomputer Center were testing virtual surgery and training methods using 3D scans of human/animal anatomy. Among many other projects I got to work on at ACCAD, the Forsythe project or the Synchronous Objects project was the best example of interdisciplinary collaboration. We had people from Art and Design, Dance, Architecture, Neuroscience, Geography, Computer Science and many more departments working on this together. We worked closely with the visionary choreographer William Forsythe himself. I never dreamed I’d be involved with such unique research collaborations. As a student at OSU and ACCAD, you have the freedom to explore and experiment with as many interdisciplinary studies as you want and with the help of your advisor you can design your own learning path. This will broaden your perspective and cultivate the spirit of collaboration which is very essential in the animation industry or in any other field, as a matter of fact.

How could Ohio State better prepare people for a career that combines art, design, digital media and new technologies?  
I think Ohio State is already doing a great job to prepare students for a career in art and design but I’d encourage more interdisciplinary explorations. Before and during the program, understand what the students’ interests are besides their main area of focus and encourage them to explore those disciplines along with animation. The animation industry needs more well-rounded individuals than just skilled workers.

What most helps you to balance life and career expectations? How do you relax or de-stress?
I love to travel although the last couple of years have been a bit restrictive. My job takes up a big chunk of my every-day life and my career expectations are constantly at the back of my mind. But over the years I’ve developed a more Zen outlook towards what I do in general. I don’t necessarily separate life and career but instead, look at everything I do as means to better myself as a person. I take pleasure in the small things like cooking and eating an awesome dinner with my husband, watching a really gripping TV series or a movie, listening to good music and having random conversations with family and close friends. I feel like the world today makes us forget how fortunate we are to be able to do those things.

Tell us a fun thing (or something) most people don’t know about you?
I’m a second-degree black belt in Karate and I was a part of the Indian Karate team at the 1999 South Asian Federation Games held in Kathmandu where I won a silver medal in the women’s team kata event. During our visit we got to have dinner with the Prince of Nepal.

What would an alternate career choice be for you if you decided to do something other than art and design or animation?
I would love to do sound mixing and sound editing. I almost started on that path before I got into animation. I did a certificate course in Sound Engineering from the University of Mumbai and enjoyed it a lot.