Every March, most people of the world eagerly watch the Oscar Ceremony in Los Angeles, USA. There are even contests to guess who would win the Oscar each year. So far the Oscar has eluded the Indian films but not Indians, especially Indian in the technical field. Unfortunately, the amount of media coverage given to technical people who have won Oscars in the world is almost nil. Therefore, only a small minority of people know that an Indian woman from Trichy has won an Oscar. Only a few know the name of the young woman, Vanitha Rangaraju-Ramanan. She who won it for her technical work in the animation movie, Shrek in 2002. Vanitha has also worked on Shrek sequels and the Madagascar series.

Deepa Kandaswamy spoke with Vanitha Rangaraju about her road to the Oscar – from Trichy to Tinsel town.

Deepa Kandaswamy: Tell us about yourself - your family, place of birth, childhood, etc.

Vanitha Rangaraju: I was born and raised in Trichy. I did my schooling in Holy Cross Girl's School and higher secondary at St. Joseph's Convent. I did B. Arch at Regional Engineering College (REC), Trichy (now National Institute of Technology, Trichy or NIT, Trichy). I have one younger sister, Vinotha, who lives in Dindugal, Tamil Nadu. She's the smart one, a gold medalist in BA economics, after which she got married and settled down. My parents still live in Trichy. I currently live in California, with my husband Ramanan and daughter Ananya. We met when I was working in Bangalore. Got married in Trichy, and came to the US together to do our masters at the University of Texas, Austin.

DK: What was your experience at REC like and do you miss Trichy?

VR: Trichy is my hometown. I was born and brought up there. I only went to Bangalore & USA to work. REC is a fun college. Very large campus with many different departments. Architecture was a smaller department with a much more family-like feel to it. Also had a better balance of male and female students. I definitely miss Trichy, my home, my parents, my sister, and all my friends.

DK: When and how did you become interested in animation? What made you decide to leave for the US?

VR: I always had an inclination toward math and engineering in school. I loved the problem-solving aspect of it and enjoyed programming. All those Tom & Jerry cartoons I watched when I was young inspired me. After I got my B.Arch degree, I was working in Bangalore when I saw this interview on TV just after Toy Story had come out in 1995 - the first full length 3D CG feature film! It was a very fascinating interview and they were talking about how people from many different fields contributed to the movie's creation. I have always loved animation, and that interview got me seriously thinking about entering that field. I knew I had to work very hard to get there, and I was willing to do it. So I left India in 1996 to do my MS in Architectural studies (majoring in computation and simulation) at the University of Texas at Austin.

DK: Architecture to Animation is a huge jump, isn't it? How did you cope?

VR: Yes, it is a huge jump. The people who helped me were the ones who didn't think it was silly for a professional architect to want to become an animator - my parents, my husband Ramanan whom I married just a few months before I started this crazy quest to go to the US to work on 3D animated movies, my friend Vidya, and family friends Babu & Kala.

DK: How did you get into Pacific Data Imaging (PDI)?

VR: The field of feature animation is extremely competitive. Not only do you need the right qualifications, you also need the right attitude, and most of all you need commitment, to pursuing the dream. I was able to get an internship during the last semester (Fall 1998) at Industrial Light & Magic, the leading visual effects studio in Northern California. That was a big break. That gave me a chance to get my "foot in the door". Right after I completed my internship, I was to go back and finish my master's thesis in Austin when I got the job as Lighting TD at PDI (now PDI/DreamWorks) to work on Shrek! They had just released Antz and started production on Shrek, so it was a great time to start my new job. This was in April 1999.

DK: What was your "Shrek" experience like?

VR: Shrek is based on a book. When I say that, everyone immediately thinks it is this big book that has the whole story in there – kind of like a Harry Potter novel. But the book Shrek was based on is about 10 pages long, out of which half the pages are pictures! In fact, the only characters used in the movie that are from the book are Shrek and the donkey. Our own talented story artists developed all the rest. And it's all about the story. It's the story that drives everything; the computer is just a medium that conveys it.

Shrek lives in a fantasy world, so the art directors came up with a multitude of environments that Shrek journeys through, ranging from the lush, green forests to the dark, scary dragon's keep. The richness and detail is achieved through some brilliant work on the part of the lighting department, visually enhancing the whole story. Environments play an integral role in this movie, just as much as the characters that walk through them.

Shrek is visually the most complex film of all time, in my opinion. It has all the natural elements that are so difficult to create in 3D animation - moving trees, water, mud, dust, crowds etc. Moreover, it is a fun story, a bit of a departure from the mainstream animation we have seen so far. It plays at different levels to audiences of all ages. A 3-year-old enjoys the movie just as much as a 30-year-old or even a 70-year-old. Finally, it has a message that touches everyone. To work on such a complex but extremely funny movie was a phenomenal experience. The team we had was great to work with, making it a very memorable two years.

DK: Didn't you also work on Madagascar ? What was that like compared to Shrek?

VR: Yes, I worked on Madagascar as well. It is a very different movie compared to Shrek. It takes place in the world we are familiar with (New York, Madagascar), and is a lot more stylistic visually. It is always a pleasure to work on movies with such refreshing look and feel. Our team size was about the same I would say.

DK: What exactly do you do as a Lighting Technical Director?

VR: As a "Lighting Technical Director", in addition to digitally lighting the film, the Lighting department is responsible for bringing the many different components of a shot together - complex geometry, motion of the characters, textures, the effects such as fire and dust, and the matte paintings. Technical Directors are people who help make this happen, with both their artistic and technical abilities.

In addition to working as a Lighting TD on Shrek, I was also a lighting animator on several shots, and co-developer of the "crowd system" for many sequences in Shrek - like the swamp sequence where all the fairy tale creatures overrun Shrek's swamp, the tournament sequence where Shrek does the WWF-style fighting, and the final big Cathedral sequence. I also worked on the extended scenes for the DVD, and many Shrek commercials.

DK: What exactly does your workload involve and what is the difference between your various designations -- first lighting director, lighting lead and now crowd lead? Can you explain in detail?

VR: As a Lighting Technical Director, I was involved with the technical side of lighting department more than the visual side of lighting shot. As a Lighting Lead, I was setting the visual tone of a sequence that the production lighters would then take and propagate. As the Crowd Lead, I was in charge of all things crowd-related in the movie - animation cycles, crowd fx simulation, surfacing shadier trees and so on - a total departure from my previous roles. I enjoy newer, bigger challenges so I try to do something different on each show.

DK: What was your reaction when you heard Shrek won the Oscar for the technical work?

VR: Shrek actually won the Oscar as the 'Best Animated feature film'. The technical achievement, which translated into making Shrek a visual success, also helped tremendously in getting the award, but the category was best animated film. To answer the question, it felt great. Almost unreal. I am so happy to have been a part of this great team. It is so hard to believe! I still remember watching the Oscars in India, wondering how it would be to touch the statuette, to feel the appreciation of the entire world for your work on a movie. And I actually got to hold the statuette in my hands, when our producer Aron Warner returned with it to PDI. It was a wonderful feeling.

So many people whom I hadn't even kept in touch with wrote to me, congratulating. To me that's what makes it all worthwhile. I agree, it is special to be a part of the Oscar winning team but it is made even more special when that makes your friends and family proud.

DK: How does it feel to be the only Indian woman to have won a technical Oscar?

VR: It's a pretty great feeling. I've to reiterate that this Oscar was given for the entire team that worked on the movie. But I was the only Indian woman on the crew, so that is pretty special.

DK: How long do you think it will take the animation industry in India to make a mark in the global scene? Who do you see in the future as the other major players apart from USA?

VR: Well, we are already seeing some studios doing a lot of animation work in India. What you need is also a sufficient talent pool to support the industry, which is just up and coming. Animation is still an up-and-coming field in India. In my opinion, culturally in India, we haven't come to accept full-length animated movies as a worthy form of entertainment. People require a lot of drama and emotions in the movies they watch, which is why mostly you see Indian movies that deal with complex relationships, traditional beliefs and culture. But there is tremendous scope for animation to become main stream.

France and many other European countries have always had a big animation focus. So have Japan, Korea, etc.

DK: If you watch Rajinikanth movies, be sure to catch his daughter's upcoming flick -- Sultan – modeled on Rajini - a full length animation feature film -- the first Indian one if I'm not mistaken.

VR: Of course, who doesn't watch Rajini movies. I've only seen the trailer promo but it is pretty exciting, with A.R.Rahman scoring the music too. I am very curious to see how it does.

DK: In closing, do you have any words of advice for young people who wish to pursue a career in animation?

VR: To me, watching animated shorts/films is a lot of fun. It is great entertainment. To actually create that piece of entertainment, and on top of that get paid to do it, is the opportunity of a lifetime! I enjoy every minute of my work, and that makes for a rich and full life! It's an unbelievably fun industry I'm so lucky to have found, and I wish everyone would explore this as a serious and viable career.

The field of feature animation is extremely competitive. Not only do you need the right qualifications, you also need the right attitude, and most of all you need commitment, to pursuing the dream. If you aspire to be a motion animator, you need to develop your acting skills. If you want to be a modeler or a character-rigging artist, you need to have a good understanding of anatomy. If your interest is on the lighting side of the pipeline, you need a good eye for colour, form, shadows, etc so photography, cinematography, stage lighting help more. There are many schools offering courses specifically designed towards computer animation now. There are many degree programs as well. A good combination of strong foundation skills with relevant education guarantees a great start in the field of Computer Animation. Of course, nothing is more valuable than having some experience working in a computer graphics company, so I always encourage students to look for internship opportunities there.

© Deepa Kandaswamy