During the lockdown, ASIFA India was actively organising a series of knowledge-oriented workshops and sessions with top international experts.They organised an eCG meetup, the monthly interactive online session series, on 9 July. With the theme ‘Gebonion shorts’, this month’s session was with Aju Mohan, also known as Gebonions.
The session started with an introduction about Asifa India and its activities by Sanjay Khimesara and was co-moderated by Siva Kumar Kasetty. During the candid conversation, Aju Mohan shared his whole journey of becoming a professional animator. He said that he started as a mechanical engineer, but soon after college he took an animation course, he knew that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He shared his interest in acting and his experience of playing a role in different popular Hollywood blockbusters.
The homegrown animation star earlier worked for DreamWorks India and is now associated with British VFX Company, Framestore, which has played a role in the visual effects of popular Marvel movies, such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, and Avengers: Endgame.
He also shared his different animated personal shorts and reels of his animation journey, explaining the key points that an animator needs to embrace their animation films and shorts.
Towards the end of the super-fun and knowledgeable chat event, he even answered questions asked by the attendees. The attendees actively participated throughout the session from responding to the host and speaker, and praising Aju, to asking their animation-related doubts and queries.
“Sir, what are the job criteria in the 3D animation industry? And does harnessing a single skill helps in joining Studios?” He answered, “You cannot learn everything all at once, so it’s always better to have a general overview of everything, but always concentrate on one thing, if you want a proper job in an industry as such, they are always looking for a professional.”
He also revealed that he developed a good ear and sound effect choice by watching lots of movies and series, “It comes with observation and the way you hear it because you will always have a natural ear to it, you will see something and you know that, okay this thing works perfectly with my shot, and them always the mixing,” he revealed.
The event came to an end with Aju’s golden words for every animator, that they just need patience, determination, and practice to ace their goal of being a professional animator. “It all depends upon how big of the story it is, like what do you want to say, because I remember saying that okay you develop your story and suddenly remember that it has been done before, the thing is almost everything has already been done before, like story wise, there is pretty much something new, which you could do. For example, The Gebonions is actually Tom & Jerry, if you look at it, the heart of it is exactly Tom & Jerry, but what I did is just twist it up and give it a bit of spiciness, I won’t even call it a new one but still it has got new elements to it, that’s it. If it has a slight tinge of your own personality to an old one, I think you are successful,” he said.
ASIFA India organises different online events and eCG meetups to break the distance barriers between aspiring animators and professional animators.