Vaseem Ashar – VFX Supervisor at ThinkingHands

Vaseem Ashar is Visual Effects Supervisor at Thinking Hands in Bengaluru Area, India. Before joining Thinking Hands, Vaseem was Lead Compositor at Synergy Images and Compositor at Auriga Multimedia. Mr. Ashar was educated at Auriga Multimedia, St. Mary’s, and CMRHSS.

CG Today : Vaseem, it is our pleasure to speak with you. Thank you for taking time out of what we know is a busy schedule to connect with our readers.

Vaseem : I am honored for this opportunity to share my experience with CG today.

CG Today : We just watched your Vimeo show reel. Great work! Can you suggest our student readers on how to create a show reel?

Vaseem : The name itself says "show" what you have done. Always people make the mistake of doing quick cuts and at the end of the video we do not find anything registered in our mind. Always we have to keep in mind that we require to "show crisp and short" at the same time give "enough time" for the shot so that the viewer can understand the purpose of it.

CG Today : The Visual Effects Supervisor is fast becoming the pivotal person in the film and television context. What are the most important skills that a VFX artist/technician should possess?

Vaseem : When a shot is not possible to shoot on a real world, VFX comes in help. A VFX artist should able to understand live shoot and be an expert in blending CG to it. Should be able to clearly understand the film director's requirement; should suggest, guide and coordinate with cinematographer and work along with the CG team to pull off the director's vision. To be simple, he should possess strong knowledge on cinematography, hands on skills on modeling, animation and compositing software's.

CG Today : How does an effects professional keep up with the ever-changing and improving technical side of the film-making industry?

Vaseem : Again it leads to the marketing aspects of the tools. Let us put it other way - Film is purely director’s art. If the directors are imaginative, possibilities are unlimited for a VFX artist.

Tools do not lead imagination, director’s imagination leads creating tools. For example James Cameroon influenced to create certain tools to bring live his visualization and the industry took the tool to the mass. So we search for the certain tools or create some that can resolve the issue.

CG Today : Would you fill us in on the studio at which you work, Thinking Hands?

Vaseem : Thinking Hands is a small team of artists creating ripple in Indian film industry under the guidance of Mr. Venugopal, the Director. His experience and dedication are admirable and I am sure we are moving forward with his vision and passion. I am proud to be a part of this team.

CG Today : Synergy Images, where you were employed as Lead Compositor, is a large, multi-faceted company. Which of your Synergy Images project are you most proud?

Vaseem : King of the road. A short animation film which selected AACC 2007.

CG Today : You were a compositor instructor at your alma mater, Auriga Mutimedia. Compositors are required to work closely with many other artists in all areas of the production pipeline. How do you teach team work?

Vaseem : VFX work itself as a team work. It’s not a one man army. If someone goes wrong it will affect the whole process. Each department of VFX should deliver their part accordingly. So if someone lags I will show them what happened to the rest of the team so he can understand the mistake and will try to be prompt. Each person is a team leader. When you are creating a team, keep this in mind and try to create an environment where people can learn how to communicate and trust one another.

Continued on Page - 2