Saravanan Govindaraj: senior lighting & compositing artist interview

Saravanan Govindaraj
Senior Lighting and Compositing Artist
Senior lighting and compositing artist Saravanan Govindaraj shares his workflow and artwork from his portfolio in this interview…
3dtotal
Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you, what do you do, and where are you located?
Saravanan
Hi everyone, my name is Saravanan, and I’m a senior lighting and compositing artist who loves cartoons and animated films, ever since childhood. I do lighting for a 3D scene to convey the story, mood, emotions, and so on. I do shading, lighting, rendering, and compositing as a profession. Modeling and texturing are my spare time works. My home country is India and I’m doing my job here in Malaysia.

3dtotal
What was the workflow behind your latest gallery image? Where did the idea come from?
Saravanan
It was an amazing experience. I was inspired by the blue umbrella animation short from pixar. The mood and the colorscripts of that reference was just awesome. The workflow for that artwork was quite interesting and a little complicated for me. I used ACEScg colorspace and it took some time to understand the workflow.

3dtotal
What challenges did the image present? Did you learn something new?
Saravanan
The idea of the artwork was to choose one simple snapshot, but I faced problems while set dressing the shot. It wasn’t just the shot of the asset. I got those assets from various sources and I set dressed it myself to make a scene. Many times I was disappointed when I saw the imperfect composition. It took a lot of time to make it good. I learned the ACES CG workflow through this. I learned the importance of colors, contrast, and composition to impress the audience.
3dtotal
Do you use any other software, either for work or personal projects?
Saravanan
I prefer Maya for most of my artworks. Recently I’ve started learning Katana, which has become the industry’s most used tool, and I like learning new tech and skills. I made the perfect artwork by using Arnold renderer which more and more professional and live action industries are using widely. Another recent addition is Redshift, which I started learning a month ago. I completed my Hope artwork by using Redshift.
3dtotal
How do you keep your portfolio up-to-date? Any tips?
Saravanan
I used to do my personal works frequently. Whenever I start, I begin with the simple tasks. But once it reaches a point, I try to do more and more to polish it. This is how i keep my work simple, also to be added as my portfolio. Generally, my portfolio contains the best of all my works. So I always push myself every time to do a better work, so that it will also be part of my portfolio. Just grab an idea and work out the details!

3dtotal
Are you a member of any social media groups? Any favorite hashtags you check on a daily basis?
Saravanan
So far I have been a member of the Acadamy of Animated Arts group. I really love that group. I want to thank them. I learned a lot through them and group members. I practice most of the time with their amazing assets. My favourite hastags are lighting, shading, compositing, and concept art.
3dtotal
What are your artistic ambitions?
Saravanan
I want to keep learning and studying the new artistc opportunites and experiments to get a good result. I want to achieve something bigger in this animated world. I just want to reach the position where I can show to everyone how I see art.

3dtotal
Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?
Saravanan
Jeremy Vickery. I love his color scripts, ideas, execution in lighting. I am just addicted to his works. So far, he is my first inspiration when I start my animation studies.

3dtotal
What can we expect to see from you next?
Saravanan
I have a list of plans to improve my skills and workflow. So I plan to focus on steps individually. My next big goal is to learn Katana and do some nice artwork or animated shot. I’m still doing a concept for that artwork. Hope i show it soon!
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