Nisarg Suthar, a 2015 Animation—3D program graduate, has been immersed in the animation industry for several years. He has worked in various capacities on projects such as WandaVision, Wednesday, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and more, and says, “It wouldn’t have been possible to work on these without the support of an excellent team of artists, producers, and supervisors right here in Toronto.”
As a highly skilled Lighting Supervisor currently working at Folks VFX, Nisarg has been involved in numerous projects, but one of the more recent projects that stands out is his work on the Sci-Fi/Action film The Creator. Nisarg and some of his colleagues recently received a prestigious VES Award in the category “Outstanding Compositing and Lighting in a Feature” from the Visual Effects Society for their outstanding contributions to the film.
“The VES award is jointly shared with my colleagues, Phil Prates, Toshiko Miura, and Min Kim. Phil led the show as a Visual Effects Supervisor, while both Toshiko and Min were involved as Compositing Supervisors. It was their great talent that raised the bar of the entire show,” he shares.
He continues, “Additionally, our gifted team of lighting artists played a massive role in making this happen, and I was happy to accept this award on their behalf. Lastly, I felt a sense of pride because we represented Toronto, which, despite the exceptional quality of work produced by local studios, isn’t as prominent in the visual effects industry as it should be. Looking ahead, I hope for more wins for my peers in Toronto’s visual effects community, as they deserve greater recognition for their outstanding contributions as well.”
An In-Depth Look at Nisarg’s Work on The Creator
Interested in finding out the specifics of this award-winning work involved in this film? Read Nisarg’s professional insights below.
“We first received the shot footage, also known as plates for The Creator early last year. Upon reviewing them, we were all immediately struck by the remarkable cinematography. We were tasked with working on over 100 shots on a compressed deadline. Immediately, the Asset department began developing digital robots and digital replicas of the actors who were going to be replaced as either robots or AI simulants in the movie. For the digital actors, their nasal, maxillary, temporal and occipital bones of the cranium were replaced with mechanical parts to give them the look and feel of AI simulants.
As soon as the digital robots and simulants were ready, they were passed on to the Tracking department, where they were meticulously animated frame-by-frame to match the performance of the original actors captured in the plate. Afterwards, they were handed off to the Lighting department, and that’s where my team and I would come in.
We would take these digital robots and simulants’ performances and then re-create the on-set lighting in Houdini to match it to the shot plate. A shot plate itself doesn’t provide a wide enough perspective about how many or what type of light sources were present at the time of filming the shot. Thus, we have to rely a lot on our judgement and skills. My role as a Lighting Supervisor was to ensure that the lighting matched exactly as seen in the shot plate and stayed true to the Director of Photography’s vision. I would then guide the lighting artists to create lighting for over 100 shots on schedule while also maintaining high production values.
Once we had set up the lighting, we would then render out images for the Compositing department. Before the Compositing department could bring in the rendered images, they would first have to paint out the actor’s cranium in the shot plate to reveal the area behind it. Only then could they proceed to integrate the rendered images from lighting into the shot plate, and then add all the camera effects to it and ensure that the final image looked as realistic as possible and that it didn't distract the viewer from the story of the film.”
How His Initial Spark in the Industry Led Him to Centennial
Watching live-action and animated films like Jurassic Park, The Matrix, and Ratatouille initially sparked Nisarg's interest in this industry. After graduating from high school, he decided to pursue animation and visual effects as a career.
“I had some prior experience with using Digital Content Creation tools, but I was looking to strengthen my art foundations while advancing my knowledge of those tools,” Nisarg explains. “As a result, the Digital Animation program at Centennial College turned out to be the right fit for me because it offered classes that covered traditional art, design, and animation theory. Among them, life drawing, character design, sculpting, and acting classes were some of the best ones. They truly helped bring out my inner artist.”
Reflecting on the Centennial Experience
Nisarg says one of the most important lessons he took away from the program was ensuring there's a motivation and story behind added visual effects rather than creating them solely because they look cool.
Looking back at his time at the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design, he shares, “I would like to thank my teachers at Centennial, Laurence Cymet, Dalibor Dejanovic, Jorge Razon and Bohdan Ruzycky for being among the nicest and most knowledgeable teachers I’ve ever had the opportunity to learn from.”
He continues, “Over the years, many of my colleagues have graduated from Centennial, and I'm pleased to see how the institution has played a vital role in developing the Visual Effects Industry in Toronto. Centennial consistently delivers high-quality education to its students, contributing significantly to the growth and success of the industry in our city.”
Advice to Those Interested in a Similar Career Path
For those who aspire to work in visual effects, Nisarg suggests gaining experience at a smaller studio during the early years of one's career rather than pursuing credits on bigger shows at larger studios.
Why? He explains, “At smaller studios, they would have the opportunity to expand their skill set by taking on more tasks and solving challenges themselves for the most part. In contrast, at larger studios, the pipelines are more streamlined, and artists typically work on a specific task, similar to an automotive production line.” He continues, “Although the benefits may not be apparent at first, it would pay off in the long term as they would have garnered the ability to tackle issues that otherwise would have been outside of their scope.”
Congratulations on this incredible award, Nisarg! Your team-oriented mindset and exceptional talents are truly admirable. We are excited to see what you will achieve in the future!
Article by: Alexandra Few
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