Conversations with Muhammad Bin Tahir Mir

Today we’d like to introduce you to Muhammad Bin Tahir Mir.

Hi Muhammad Bin Tahir, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve drawn my whole life. I remember my siblings and I would watch The Lion King literally several times a day as children. After we’d draw the characters, we’d act out entire scenes, we’d read the illustrated storybook as a family too. The film solidified a love for animation and story in me. In high school, I remember, I’d get together with friends to make live-action shorts. We’d come up with ideas, write scripts, plan shots, record, edit, the whole deal! I also consumed a lot of digital content: films, video games, tv shows, everything. But despite my constant involvement, I never considered entertainment or animation viable career paths. I majored in Computer Science in undergrad but around the time I was in junior year, a traditional animation studio had popped up in Pakistan. They were working on the country’s first hand-drawn feature film and I just knew I had to be part.

This was unprecedented in the country, never before had I seen a Pakistani animator. This event definitely broke several mental barriers for me. So I emailed them all the drawings I could gather, asking for an internship. They interviewed me, loved my enthusiasm and the rest is history. During the year I spent at the studio, I grew immensely as an artist. I had incredible mentors and a healthy, collaborative work environment. I thrived. But I also found myself missing programming a tiny bit. In my search to perhaps combine both the technical and artistic aspects of my personality, I stumbled upon the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon. I got accepted for a graduate degree and moved to the US soon after.

To CMU, I brought my understanding of animation fundamentals and applied it to the 3D pipeline. I honed in on technical art, started understanding what skillset was required of me to break into the industry. With the support of my peers and instructors, I landed my first job as a Technical Animator at Oxide Games working on ‘Ara: History Untold’. I helped establish a giant chunk of the character pipeline at the studio, something I’m immensely proud of. I then joined Naughty Dog as an Animation Technical Director and helped ship ‘The Last of Us: Part I’, the franchise that got me engaging with games as more than just a consumer back in 2013. Low-key crazy how everything came back full circle, haha!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Yeah, so plunging into animation straight out of school wasn’t exactly the “safest”. I didn’t know where it would lead, what sort of opportunities existed, I just knew the role being offered at the time would be deeply fulfilling and it was. And I must note, a lot of class and gender privilege allowed me to pursue the “flamboyant” day job of drawing cartoons over something more “stable” such as a software engineering role. But yeah, it was still pretty scary. My family was super supportive throughout and I couldn’t have done anything without them but there were so many nay-sayers and it took me some time to build the confidence to mute those negative voices. Also, the immigrant experience in the US has not been the smoothest. Your only student loan options are limited to ones with exorbitantly high-interest rates, you’re always bogged down by some sort of paper work and the process to get a work visa is… not straightforward, to say the least. But yeah, we march on still.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Right now, as an Animation TD, I help build the pipeline and tools required for Animators to, well.. animate. My role requires understanding the current asset production pipeline at the studio and building better infrastructure to remove any bottlenecks. Previously, at Oxide, my responsibilities were more aligned towards building the character pipeline for the studio: understanding requirements coming in from Art Direction for character deformation, designing and setting standards for character rigs, building run-time assets and tools to automate these processes. It’s honestly just been several fun, challenging problems one after the other. I’ve been lucky to have always worked alongside driven, motivated teams to create experiences and stories I’m proud to have contributed to. As long as I’m learning, as long as I’m working on things at least a tiny, small bit outside my comfort zone, I’m a happy man.

Also, drawing is something that’s stayed with me since forever and I draw and paint for myself. I’d like to put in more time to strengthen my fundamentals though, hone my knowledge of anatomy.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I learnt how important community is. I’d just moved to Baltimore around the time Covid hit, it was my first full-time role in the US as an immigrant and I wanted to do nothing but prove myself. I was working remotely, I didn’t know anybody in the city and just worked away for several months before realizing I needed to speak with human beings through not-a-screen. I think the pandemic just helped me recognize the hyper-individualization that’s plagued society today. It can be difficult to nurture relationships when work more often than not dictates too much of our lives. It’s important to reorient priorities, set boundaries, and to love all people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mbintahir.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_muhammadmir/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmir/