Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1378252
12 KEYFRAME O N T H E J O B LORIN Z. PILLAI LEAD SURFACING ARTIST, JURASSIC WORLD CAMP CRETACEOUS WHAT DREW YOU TO A JOB AS A SURFACING ARTIST? I spent several years as a muralist, and I love color theory and color application. I wanted to have a position where I was part of a team that was creating something bigger than I could create on my own. The collaborative process of creating animation—it's really incredible the way it unfolds. We have a lot of assets to get through in order to create these final shots, and sometimes it can be a seemingly insurmountable amount of work. Working with other artists to figure out how to approach that is really exciting for me. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR JOB TO A LAYPERSON? If [someone was] looking at what a shot would look like without my job, they would see gray scale models moving around. My job is to apply not only color to the surfaces, but also [to figure out] how bumpy are they, how shiny are they, how dull and matte. But it's not just paint. It's developing the shaders. It's how those shaders, which are applied to the gray models, react to light. It's equal parts artistic and technical. That was very hard for me at first. I spent two years [at Gnoman School of Visual Effects] learning and pushing my mind to wrap around this crazy CG process. Now I've been in the industry for over 12 years, worked at various studios and on games as well, and surfacing has been the aspect I've gravitated toward the most because I get to paint. DESCRIBE A CHALLENGE YOU'VE ENCOUNTERED IN THIS JOB. I was incredibly challenged to do the raptors for Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous. What are they going to look like? What's going to make the most sense? They had to feel of the same world from the films, and yet they had to have their own flavor and flair. We used real life references: different lizards and birds' legs. But also, it was supposed to be pseudo-real life, because at the end of the day these raptors are in the same shots with these very stylized characters. If you had a realistic-looking dinosaur right next to these human characters, but they're clearly cartoons, it would feel off. MORE AND MORE TALENTED WOMEN ARE PURSUING CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN CG AND EXCELLING IN THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF THE INDUSTRY. HERE, THREE OF THEM SHARE THEIR CAREER PATHS AND WHAT THEY LOVE ABOUT THE JOBS THEY'VE CHOSEN. LEFT BRAIN, RIGHT BRAIN Pillai worked with Surfacing Supervisor Roberto Jauregui to add realistic but unique texture to the raptors in Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous.