Meet Santhosh Koneru

Today we’d like to introduce you to Santhosh Koneru.

Santhosh, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started drawing from a very young age and was in love with it since as long as I could remember. My sisters were a huge inspiration when I first started drawing. I was always told it was the story that you narrate with your lines on a paper that makes it beautiful and valuable.

As I grew older, I was infatuated by the most popular form of storytelling (Movies). I always fantasized about making movies but I didn’t realize my passion for it, let alone making it my profession until I was in college.

But the moment I realized that passion, everything seemed very clear about what to do with my life moving forward. Because until then, I was just going with what the society deemed normal, which was to become a doctor or an engineer.

I then enrolled in a 2D animation diploma course at GreenGold Academy of Arts (India). During my time there, I met some like-minded people who introduced me to digital art. I then self-thought how to use programs like Photoshop, After Effects and a bunch of other programs. I was young and excited so ended up jumping into different programs. But then I realized what I was doing wrong so I focused on creating environments.

I took up photoshop as my primary program and started creating Digital matte paintings. After a short while, I started writing tutorials on photoshop and matte paintings on almost all major tutorials back in 2010-2012. That helped me establish my existence as an artist. I was hired by BBC Worldwide as a matte painter for a program.

I pretty much accepted all the opportunities that came my way and that led me into an unexpected path website/App UI designer and also into Branding. It was fun doing that and the pay was good, but two years later, I realized I got distracted from my goal. Which is to make narrate stories through movies.

So, I left behind everything I established as a UI and Branding designer and moved to Hollywood with hope and a dream. I wanted to learn all the tools required to bring my stories to life on the screen. I attended the best VFX school in the world (Gnomon School of Visual Effects) and was fortunate enough to be trained by the best of Hollywood and got to meet some amazing artists and form lasting friendships during my time there. The exposure I received there was invaluable.

For my graduation reel, I made my very first CG cinematic with the help of a few friends. I was later hired by my dream studio. Which felt kinda surreal because I still remember watching the justice league CG Cinematic trailer back in 2011 and being amazed at the visuals done by the very studio. Working there was everything I thought it would be like. Learning something new every day.

But this time I didn’t let the attractions let me distract from my goal. So, I started making CG cinematic mini-series based on a story I’m writing. I was lucky enough to have my friends jump into the project to help make this project a reality to entertain as many people as possible around the world. Hoping to release our first episode mid next year.

Has it been a smooth road?
As they say, the bigger your goal the bigger are the challenges. I believe its life’s way of preparing you for who you want to be in the future.

Being an international VISA process is always a stressful thing. But that lets you appreciate the opportunity you have in hand and makes you realize the value of every minute spent.

Producing a feature quality project is not an easy task, especially when the project is completely done in CG and aimed at photo-realism. I’m funding the first episode myself, so working a full-time job and on freelance projects on the side leaves me only weekends to spend time on my project. But my friends are helping me out by sharing some of the work, for which ill always be thankful for. Because they are spending their free time in helping me bring this project to life.

I’m sure as a team we can get through all the challenges easily that come our way and learn from them and move forward stronger.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I’m really excited about the future of the VFX industry. With the implementation of AI and real-time processing, the possibilities are endless in narrating a story. We are currently using a combination of both AR / VR while shooting the Mo-Cap data.

VR helps the actors interact with the CG environment while they are acting at the stage with their Mo-Cap suits on and the AR helps turn my iPad into a virtual camera to record and shoot the CG footage just like a regular camera does.

Considering how fast the software and hardware technology has been developing, the coming years are gonna be very exciting not just for the creators but also for the audience, who get to experience spectacular imagery and entertaining stories.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.santhoshkoneru.com

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